Apply to Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, in plain English.
Bishop Vesey's is a heavily oversubscribed selective boys' grammar in Sutton Coldfield, with a co-educational sixth form — around 1,130 families applied for 192 Year 7 places in 2025. Boys sit the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools Consortium 11+ and must reach the qualifying score (205 for 2027 entry); places are then filled in rank order of score, but by distance zone — boys living within 12 miles (Zone 1) are offered places before those further out. Register your son for the test via the West Midlands Grammar Schools website by 4pm on 26 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 26 June 2026 — long before the CAF.
Bishop Vesey's uses the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools Consortium 11+ — one registration and one test sitting covers the Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield grammar schools. Registration is online via the West Midlands Grammar Schools website and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026 — months before, and completely separate from, the October Common Application Form. Miss the registration deadline and, apart from exceptional circumstances, there is no route to a place for 2027 entry.
This is a score-led school — but distance decides the order.
Every applicant must reach the qualifying score of 205; below it, a boy is not eligible. Above it, places are filled by distance zone: qualifying boys living within 12 miles of the school (Zone 1) are offered places — in rank order of score — before any boy further out. So a high score matters, but where you live decides which queue you join.
The zones are straight-line distance — check yours.
Zone 1 is a straight-line measurement of up to 12 miles from your home to the school steps; Zone 2 is 12–20 miles; Zone 3 is beyond 20 miles. Distance is measured by Birmingham's computerised system using Ordnance Survey co-ordinates — not by road. Your son must live at the qualifying address by the CAF deadline, 31 October 2026, and the council can ask for evidence of where you live.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the consortium 11+ test (step 1) closes at 4pm on 26 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 boys reach the standard than there are places, these criteria decide.
A boy with an EHCP naming the school, who meets the qualifying score, is admitted first, within the 192 (the Admission Number reduces accordingly). Everyone else who reaches the qualifying score is then placed in the order below — looked-after children, then Pupil Premium boys, then zone by zone, each ranked by test score. Straight-line distance breaks ties. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Boys in council care, or who were in care before being adopted (including from state care outside England), come first — provided they reached the qualifying score in the 11+ test. Tell the council about looked-after status when you apply.
What the document says: Looked After Children / Previously Looked After Children / Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Children who achieve the qualifying score by rank order of standardised score.
In plain English: Boys eligible for the Pupil Premium who reach the qualifying score and live in Zone 1 (within 12 miles) are placed next, ranked by test score — up to a maximum of 38 boys. If fewer than 38 Zone 1 Pupil Premium boys qualify, the school tops the band up with Pupil Premium boys from Zone 2, then Zone 3. You must submit a completed Pupil Premium eligibility form before the day of the test, and tick the Pupil Premium box when you register by 26 June 2026.
What the document says: Children, living in Zone 1, attracting the Pupil Premium who achieve the qualifying score by rank order of standardised score but limited to no more than 38 children in this category. If we do not fill all 38 Pupil Premium places from Zone 1, we will offer places by rank order to Pupil Premium children from Zone 2, then Zone 3.
In plain English: This is how most boys get in. After looked-after and Pupil Premium boys, the remaining places go to all the other qualifying boys living within 12 miles of the school (Zone 1), strictly in rank order of test score. A high score wins a Zone 1 place; distance only settles a tie.
What the document says: Other children who achieve the qualifying score by rank order of standardised score living within Zone 1, which is a straight-line measurement of up to 12 miles from where the child is resident to the foot of the steps leading to the main school entrance.
In plain English: If Zone 1 boys don't fill all 192 places, the school then offers places to qualifying boys living between 12 and 20 miles away (Zone 2), in rank order of test score. In a heavily oversubscribed year, places rarely reach this far out.
What the document says: If we have not allocated all places to children resident in Zone 1, we will offer places to children resident in Zone 2, who attain the qualifying score, by rank order of standardised score. Zone 2 is a straight-line measurement of between 12 and 20 miles from the home to the school entrance.
In plain English: Any places still left after Zones 1 and 2 go to qualifying boys living beyond 20 miles (Zone 3), in rank order of test score. Where two boys anywhere have exactly the same score, the place goes to the one living nearer the school, measured straight-line by the council's Cartology system.
What the document says: If we have not allocated all places to children resident in Zone 1 or 2, we will offer places to children resident in Zone 3 by rank order of standardised score. Where children are equal on standardised score, places will be offered to those who live nearest the school by straight-line measurement (Birmingham LA's Cartology system, Ordnance Survey co-ordinates).
Three distance zones — and Zone 1 is 12 miles.
Bishop Vesey's has no ward or parish catchment. Instead, the determined policy splits applicants into three distance zones, measured straight-line from your home to the foot of the school steps: Zone 1 is up to 12 miles, Zone 2 is 12–20 miles, and Zone 3 is beyond 20 miles. Qualifying boys in Zone 1 are offered places — in rank order of score — before any Zone 2 boy, and Zone 2 before Zone 3. The boundary GrammarBound draws is the 12-mile Zone 1 circle: live inside it and you join the priority queue.
Distance is straight-line, measured by Birmingham's computerised Cartology system from your home to the school's main entrance using Ordnance Survey co-ordinates — not by road. There is no single published distance cut-off: within each zone, places are decided by test score, with distance only the tie-break between equal scores.
See the Zone 1 priority area on the GrammarBound mapInside 12 miles: priority. Beyond: only if places remain.
Boy A lives 5 miles away — inside Zone 1 — so once he reaches the qualifying score he is ranked (by score) ahead of every boy in Zones 2 and 3. Boy B lives 22 miles away in Zone 3, so he is only offered a place if Zones 1 and 2 don't fill all 192. Both must reach the qualifying score of 205; the zone decides which queue they join.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your son isn't offered a place, he goes onto a Local Authority waiting list of boys who sat the test for 2027 entry but didn't receive an offer from Bishop Vesey's or a more-preferred school. It is held in strict oversubscription-criteria order until the end of the first term of Year 7 — and re-ranked each time a boy is added, so a later application can move ahead of an earlier one. When a place comes free it goes to the highest-ranked boy, not the longest waiter. From January of Year 7 onwards, Zone 1 parents may apply in-year directly to the school, with a test appropriate to the year of entry.
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 Governing Body's decision not to offer a place. Appeals for Bishop Vesey's are administered by Birmingham's School Admissions and Pupil Placements Service; an appeal is heard by an independent panel. A refusal does not stop you joining the waiting list — you can do both at once. The school does not admit pupils into Year 11 (and only Zone 1 in-year applications from January of Year 7).
Joining Year 12 at Bishop Vesey's.
The sixth form is co-educational — it admits girls as well as boys at 16. Internal Year 11 pupils who meet the academic benchmark move up; for September 2027 there are 80 external places for students from other schools, who apply directly to the school.
The grade floor.
You need a 'Best 8' score of at least 52 points — the best 6 GCSE subjects plus English Language and Mathematics, scored 9 points for a grade 9 down to 1 for a grade 1 — and a minimum of grade 5 in both English Language and Mathematics. To take a subject at A-level you must meet its prerequisite, usually a grade 7 in that subject at GCSE; A-level Maths needs grade 8 in GCSE Maths and Further Maths needs grade 9. To take four A-levels you need at least 66 Best 8 points.
Apply direct to the school.
External applications go directly to Bishop Vesey's — not through the CAF. Internal BVGS pupils achieving 52 Best 8 points are prioritised. If the 80 external places are oversubscribed, students are ranked first by looked-after status, then by Pupil Premium eligibility (up to 20 places), then by highest Best 8 GCSE score, with A-level subject grades and distance breaking any remaining ties.