Apply to Alcester Grammar School, in plain English.
Alcester Grammar is an oversubscribed co-educational selective grammar in Warwickshire — around 797 families applied for 150 Year 7 places in 2025. Children sit the Warwickshire 11+ and must reach the qualifying score set each year; places then fill in rank order of score, but children living inside the school's priority area are offered places ahead of equally-qualifying children outside it. Register for the test via Warwickshire's online portal by 4pm on 30 June 2026 — separately from, and months before, the October Common Application Form.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
You register for the 11+ test by 30 June 2026 — long before the CAF.
Alcester uses the Warwickshire 11+ Selection Test, run by Warwickshire Admissions on the school's behalf. Registration opens on 7 May 2026 through Warwickshire's online parent portal and closes at 4pm on Tuesday 30 June 2026 — months before, and completely separate from, the October Common Application Form. Miss the registration deadline and, apart from evidenced exceptional circumstances, there is no route to a place for 2027 entry.
This is a score-led school — but the priority area decides the order.
Every applicant must reach the Automatic Qualifying Score set each year; below it, a child is not eligible. Above it, qualifying children who live inside the priority area are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying child living outside it. So a high score matters, but where you live decides which queue you join.
The priority area is a circle drawn from Stratford-upon-Avon — not from the school.
The priority area is a circle of radius 16.936 miles measured from the Fountain in Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon — not from the school gate in Alcester. Your child must live inside that circle, at the address you give, by 31 December 2026, and Warwickshire can ask for evidence of where you live. Check the GrammarBound map to see whether your home falls inside.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the Warwickshire 11+ (step 1) closes at 4pm on 30 June 2026 — months before the CAF deadline that catches most families out. Registering for the test is not the same as applying for the school.
If more children reach the standard than there are places, these criteria decide.
A child with an EHCP naming the school, who meets the minimum academic standard, is admitted first, within the 150 (the Admission Number reduces accordingly). Everyone else who reaches the qualifying score is then placed in the order below — children in care, then Pupil Premium children inside the priority area, then everyone else inside the area, then those outside it, each ranked by test score. Straight-line distance breaks ties. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Children in council care, or who were in care before being adopted (including from state care outside England), come first — provided they reached the Automatic Qualifying Score, or scored within 20 marks of it. Tell the council about looked-after status when you apply.
What the document says: Category 1 — Looked-After or Previously Looked-After Children who either achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above, or who score up to 20 marks below it (extending to the Required Minimum Academic Standard where the gap is more than 20 marks).
In plain English: Children eligible for the Pupil Premium through Free School Meals who live inside the priority circle and reach the qualifying score (or score within 20 marks of it) are placed next, ranked by test score. No more than 20 places in total across categories 1 and 2 go to children who scored below the qualifying mark. Warwickshire will ask for evidence of Pupil Premium eligibility.
What the document says: Category 2 — Children who live within the priority circle who attract the Pupil Premium via eligibility for Free School Meals who achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above, or who score up to 20 marks below it. Up to twenty places only will be offered in categories 1 and 2 to students not meeting the Automatic Qualifying Score.
In plain English: This is how most children get in. After looked-after and Pupil Premium children, the remaining places go to all the other children who reached the qualifying score and live inside the priority area, strictly in rank order of test score. A high score wins an in-area place; distance only settles a tie.
What the document says: Category 3 — Children who live in the priority area who achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above for this school, for this particular year of entry.
In plain English: If children inside the priority area don't fill all 150 places, the school then offers places to qualifying children living outside the circle, in rank order of test score. The policy says out-of-area children are normally only offered places in the first round if there aren't enough qualifying children inside the area.
What the document says: Category 4 — Children living outside of the priority area who achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above for this school, for this particular year of entry. Children living outside the priority area will normally only be offered places in the first round if there are insufficient children of the required level of ability living within the priority area.
In plain English: Children who didn't reach the qualifying score but did reach the lower Required Minimum Academic Standard go onto the waiting list for this school. Where two children have exactly the same score, the place goes to the one living nearer the school, measured straight-line to the school centroid; a computerised random draw settles a complete tie.
What the document says: Category 5 — Children who score below the Automatic Qualifying Score, but above the required Minimum Academic Standard for the waiting list for this school, for this particular year of entry. Those who live nearest the school in a straight-line distance will be given highest priority to differentiate equal scores.
A 16.9-mile priority circle — drawn from Stratford, not the school.
Alcester Grammar has no ward or parish catchment. Instead the determined policy defines a single priority area: a circle of radius 16.936 miles measured from the Fountain in Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon (reaching south to the county boundary below Long Compton). The centre is the Stratford fountain — not the school gate in Alcester — so the circle sits a few miles south-east of the town. Qualifying children who live inside the circle are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying child outside it. The boundary GrammarBound draws is that 16.9-mile priority circle: live inside it and you join the priority queue.
There is no single published distance cut-off: within each category, places are decided by test score, with straight-line distance only the tie-break between equal scores. That distance is measured from your home address point (Ordnance Survey co-ordinates) to the school centroid — not by road.
See the priority circle on the GrammarBound mapInside the circle: priority. Outside: only if places remain.
Child A lives inside the priority circle, so once they reach the qualifying score they are ranked (by score) ahead of every qualifying child living outside it. Child B lives outside, so they are normally only offered a place if there aren't enough qualifying children inside the area to fill the 150. Both must reach the Automatic Qualifying Score; the priority area decides which queue they join.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your child isn't offered a place, they go onto a waiting list held by Warwickshire Admissions of children who reached the Required Minimum Academic Standard but didn't receive an offer. It is kept in strict oversubscription-criteria order until the end of the first term of Year 7 (31 December 2027) — and re-ranked each time a child is added, so a later application can move ahead of an earlier one. When a place comes free it goes to the highest-ranked child, not the longest waiter. A child who hasn't yet sat the test can be tested and ranked before the list is dissolved.
Priority on the waiting list is not based on the date you applied or asked to join.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place. Appeals are heard by an independent appeal panel; for children who didn't qualify, the panel takes account of the child's position in the test process, and prejudice to the school is only considered once the year group is full. A refusal does not stop you joining the waiting list — you can do both at once.
Joining Year 12 at Alcester Grammar.
The sixth form is co-educational and admits students from other schools as well as Alcester's own Year 11. The priority circle does not apply to sixth-form entry — students may be admitted irrespective of where they live. Entry is on GCSE results, confirmed after Results Day in August 2027.
The grade floor.
You need at least 48 points from your best eight GCSE results — scored 9 points for a grade 9 down to 1 for a grade 1, with at least 6 of the 8 being GCSEs and the other 2 GCSEs or vocational equivalents — and you must pass both Mathematics and English Language GCSE (grade 4). Applicants with an EHCP, a Child in Care or Previous Child in Care, or those attracting the Pupil Premium in Year 11 need a reduced best-8 score of 46 points. You must also meet the subject-specific GCSE grades published on the school website for at least three A-level subjects.
Apply direct to the school.
External applications go directly to Alcester Grammar — not through the CAF — and confirmed places follow GCSE Results Day in August 2027. Internal Alcester Year 11 students who meet the criteria are admitted automatically. If external places are oversubscribed, students are ranked first by Child in Care status, then by Pupil Premium eligibility, then by total best-eight GCSE points, subject to A-level set sizes not being exceeded.