Apply to Queen Mary's Grammar School, in plain English.
Queen Mary's Grammar School is a selective boys' grammar in Walsall that fills all 180 Year 7 places in rank order of the West Midlands Grammar Schools Consortium 11+ score — its admission arrangements state plainly that it has no defined catchment area. You register your son directly with the school by 26 June 2026, he sits the test on 12 September 2026, then you name the school on your council's Common Application Form by 31 October 2026.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
Register directly with the school for the West Midlands 11+ — by 26 June 2026.
Queen Mary's selects on the West Midlands Grammar Schools Consortium 11+ — standardised papers in verbal, non-verbal and numerical reasoning, shared by the grammar schools across Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Warwickshire and Shropshire. Registration is directly with the school (the online form opens in early May 2026) and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026 — there is no late entry. Your son sits the test once and the standardised score is considered by each consortium school you apply to.
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
The arrangements state plainly that "the School has no defined catchment area" and that "all parents living both within and beyond the Borough of Walsall may apply". Your son must first reach the minimum qualifying score (set by the Governors each November after the test), then — after looked-after children and the reserved Pupil Premium places — every remaining place is offered to the highest-scoring boys in rank order, wherever they live.
Pupil Premium gives priority — up to 54 places — so flag it before the test.
Up to 54 places (no more than 30% of the intake) are reserved for boys who reach the qualifying score and attract the Pupil Premium, ranked by score — and within that group, boys at a Walsall state-funded primary rank first. You must submit the completed Pupil Premium form before the day of the entrance test; evidence received later is treated as late. For the normal Year 7 round there is no sibling, staff, faith or distance priority.
Five steps — starting now.
If more boys qualify than there are places, these 3 criteria decide.
Only boys who reach the minimum qualifying score are considered. They are then placed in these priority groups; within each group, the highest test score comes first. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Boys who are or were in council care (including those adopted from care or under a special guardianship / child arrangements order, and children who were in state care outside England) get the highest priority, provided they reach the qualifying score. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after … who achieve the minimum qualifying score by rank order of standardised score.
In plain English: Up to 54 places (no more than 30% of the intake) are reserved for boys who reach the qualifying score and attract the Pupil Premium, ranked by score. Within this group, boys who attend a Walsall state-funded primary school (listed in the policy appendix) are placed ahead of those who do not. You must submit the completed Pupil Premium form before the day of the entrance test; evidence received later is treated as late and considered only after the main allocation.
What the document says: Children in receipt of Pupil Premium at the time of the Test who achieve the minimum qualifying score by rank order of standardised score but limited to no more than 30% of students in this category (currently 54 places); priority is then given to students attending a State-funded Primary School in Walsall.
In plain English: Every remaining place goes to the highest-scoring qualifying boys in rank order, regardless of where they live. There is no catchment area and no residence requirement. Distance is not used at any stage — see the worked example below.
What the document says: Other children who have achieved the minimum qualifying score by rank order of standardised score until the Published Admissions Number is reached.
Tie-breaker: if two boys have identical standardised scores, the positions they achieved in the three skill areas (verbal, non-verbal and numerical) are added together, and the boy with the higher combined total is offered the place. If that still cannot separate them, a supervised, independently-verified random allocation decides. Distance from home to school is never used.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Queen Mary's Grammar School has no catchment area and no residence requirement — the arrangements say "the School has no defined catchment area. All parents living both within and beyond the Borough of Walsall may apply." After looked-after children and the reserved Pupil Premium places are filled, every remaining place goes to the highest-ranking qualifying boys by standardised test score — regardless of where they live. A boy in Walsall, Birmingham, Wolverhampton or Lichfield competes on exactly the same terms. The circle drawn on our map is illustrative only — it is not a real boundary.
Unusually, distance is not even used as a tie-breaker: two boys with identical scores are separated by their combined position across the three skill areas, then by a supervised random draw. Home address has no bearing on the outcome at any stage.
See the school's location on the GrammarBound mapTwo boys ranked by score — not by where they live.
Both boys qualified and are in criterion 3. Child A scored higher and lives far from school; Child B scored lower and lives close by. Child A ranks above Child B because score — not proximity — decides. Living nearer would not help Child B even in a tie: distance is never part of the decision.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
Boys who sat the test, reached the qualifying score and were not offered a place are held on a waiting list, ranked in strict oversubscription-criteria order — not by when you applied. The list runs until 31 December 2027; when a vacancy arises it goes to the next boy on the list, and the list is re-ranked each time a child is added.
From 1 January 2028 a fresh waiting list is maintained; you must re-apply to join it.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel. For a selective school the panel must be satisfied your son reached the required standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. The appeals timetable is published on the school's website by 28 February 2027, and appeals are sent to the Clerk to the Governors. Appealing does not remove your son from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Queen Mary's admits external students into Year 12, and the sixth form is co-educational — it takes both boys and girls. Entry is by GCSE grades, not the Year 7 test, so the selective 11+ criteria do not apply.
The grade floor.
You need a total of 54 points across your best 8 GCSEs, which must include English and Maths at grade 6 or above. You must also achieve at least grade 7 in each subject you wish to study at A-level (or an equivalent subject where it was not taken at GCSE). Offers are conditional on results, and equivalent qualifications are considered only where the equivalence can be independently verified.
Apply direct to the school.
The school admits at least 70 external students into Year 12 each September, and the sixth form is open to boys and girls. Apply directly to the school (not the local authority) and nominate your A-level subjects; the Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply. Where places are over-subscribed, they go to looked-after children first, then to students with the highest best-8 GCSE score, then by the average of the three chosen A-level subject scores — with a right of appeal if a place is not offered.