Apply to Haberdashers' Adams, in plain English.
Haberdashers' Adams (formerly Adams' Grammar School) is a selective grammar in Newport, Shropshire — co-educational at Year 7 since 2024, with 135 day places plus up to 15 boys boarders. It runs its own entrance test: every applicant must reach the academic standard the school sets each year, and places then fill by test-score rank after a few priority groups, with no catchment area to live inside. Register for the test online through the West Midlands Grammar Schools consortium by 4pm on 26 June 2026 — months before, and separately from, 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 entrance test by 26 June 2026 — long before the CAF.
Haberdashers' Adams runs its own entrance test. Registration is online through the West Midlands Grammar Schools consortium portal (the Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton group) — and you must tick SWW to have your child's data shared with Adams. It opens on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on Friday 26 June 2026 — months before, and separate from, the October Common Application Form. Miss it and, apart from evidenced exceptional circumstances, there is no route to a 2027 place.
It's score-led — there is no catchment area to live inside.
Every applicant must reach the required academic standard Adams sets each year. Above it, after looked-after children, a Pupil/Service Premium group and children at a list of designated primaries, the remaining places go to the highest test scores in rank order — wherever you live. Distance only ever settles a tie between two equal scores. So a strong score is what counts, not your postcode.
Co-ed day places — but boarding is boys only.
Adams went co-educational at Year 7 in 2024, so 135 day places are open to boys and girls (Years 9–11 stay boys-only until each co-ed cohort moves up). The up-to-15 Year 7 boarding places are for boys only and are allocated by a separate order after a suitability interview. Indicate a boarding preference on the same online registration form.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the entrance 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 children reach the standard than there are day places, these criteria decide.
Every child must first reach the required academic standard in the test. The 135 day places are then allocated in the order below — looked-after children, then Pupil/Service Premium children, then children at a designated primary school, then everyone else by test-score rank, with straight-line distance the only tie-break. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording. (Boarding places use a separate order — see the FAQ.)
In plain English: Children currently in council care, or who left care through adoption, a child-arrangements or special-guardianship order (including children adopted from state care outside England), get the highest priority once they reach the academic standard. Tell the council about looked-after status when you apply.
What the document says: A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order, including those who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted (Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).
In plain English: Children recorded in the October 2025 school census as eligible for the Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumBroadly covers children eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked-after children and some others. Your child's current school holds this record. or the Service Premium (Armed Forces families) come next — and they only need a qualifying score no more than 5% below the general standard. You must submit the Pupil Premium Form by the registration deadline; it can't be added later.
What the document says: Children who are included and recorded as a child in receipt of either the pupil premium or service premium funding in the October 2025 school census … The Pupil Premium Form must be submitted by the final deadline by which the registration form must be submitted. These pupils will need to achieve a qualifying score no lower than 5% below the general qualifying score.
In plain English: Children on roll at one of 36 designated primary schools (a named list of feeder primaries, mostly across Telford & Wrekin — Newport CE Juniors, Muxton, Lilleshall, Tibberton CE, St Peter's CofE and many in central Telford) by the registration deadline take priority next. This is a feeder-school priority, not a catchment area — it's about which primary your child attends, not where you live. If more eligible children apply than there are places, they are ranked by test score.
What the document says: Children who are on roll at one of the primary schools on the designated list … by the final deadline for which the registration form must be submitted. (In the unlikely event of there being more children eligible than places available they will be allocated on the basis of their test scores.)
In plain English: This is how most children get in. Once the earlier groups are placed, the remaining day places go to the highest-scoring children in strict rank order — regardless of where they live or which primary they attend. The only tie-break, if two children have exactly the same score for the last place, is straight-line ("as the crow flies") distance to the school, closest first.
What the document says: Rank order according to the result of the entrance test (assuming the applicant has reached the required academic standard). In the event of a tie-break, to decide which of two equally scoring children are admitted the school will use distance from the school in a 'as the crow flies' straight line.
No geographic boundary. Test-score rank decides.
Haberdashers' Adams has no catchment area and no residence requirement. After looked-after, Pupil/Service Premium and designated-primary children are placed, every remaining day place goes to the highest-ranking children by test score — wherever they live. A child in Telford, Stafford, Wolverhampton or anywhere else competes on exactly the same terms. The 15-mile circle GrammarBound draws around the school is purely illustrative — it shows roughly where families travel from, not a boundary that gives anyone priority.
There is no published distance cut-off: places fill by score, and straight-line distance is used only as a tie-break between two children with exactly equal scores for the final place. Living closer to the school gives no advantage unless scores are tied. One exception sits outside the day process: the designated-primary list (criterion 3) is a feeder-school priority based on which primary your child attends, not on home address.
See Haberdashers' Adams on the GrammarBound mapTwo children ranked by score — not by where they live.
Neither child is looked-after, Premium, nor at a designated primary, so both fall into criterion 4 (everyone else, by rank). Child A scored higher and lives far from school; Child B lives much closer but scored lower. Child A is offered the place — rank, not proximity, decides. Distance would only matter if their scores were exactly equal.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
Any child who reached the required standard but isn't offered a place goes onto a waiting list the school keeps until 31 December 2027 for the Year 7 intake. The list is held in strict oversubscription-criteria order — not by the date you applied — and is re-ordered each time a child is added or leaves, so a later applicant can move ahead. When a place comes free it goes to the highest-ranked child. Boarding has its own separate list.
A change to a designated primary after the deadline is considered from the new school with immediate effect.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place. Appeals are heard by an independent appeal panel and cannot be lodged until after National Offer Day. For a selective school, the panel considers whether your child reached the required academic standard and the school's case on class sizes. A refusal does not stop you joining the waiting list — you can do both at once.
Joining Year 12 at Haberdashers' Adams.
The sixth form is co-educational and takes a minimum of 50 external day students alongside the school's own Year 11, with some boarding places too. There is no catchment area for sixth-form entry. Offers are confirmed after GCSE Results Day in August 2027.
The grade floor.
You normally need five GCSEs at grade 7 or above in any subjects, at least a grade 7 in each A-level subject you'll study (or its most relevant GCSE), and a minimum of grade 4 in English and Maths. The school treats applications individually and may still offer a place to a student who narrowly misses — for instance after a GCSE re-mark or because of ill health.
Apply direct to the school.
External applications go directly to Adams (not through the CAF), online once you have your mock GCSE results, with a deadline of mid-March 2027; offers follow in late March and are confirmed against GCSE Results Day on 20 August 2027. Looked-after children who meet the academic criteria take priority; where a subject is oversubscribed, set sizes are capped at about 30 and a lottery settles the final places. Boarding applicants are also assessed for suitability to board.