Apply to St Anselm's College, in plain English.
St Anselm's College is a selective Roman Catholic grammar school for boys in Birkenhead, Wirral, in the Diocese of Shrewsbury. Boys sit the school's own entrance examination — register online by 31 July 2026 — and must reach the required standard to be considered; places are then ranked by Roman Catholic faith, baptised Catholics first, with no catchment area. Around 332 boys apply for 156 places, so reaching the standard does not guarantee an offer.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
Your son sits St Anselm's own entrance exam — register by 31 July 2026.
St Anselm's runs its own entrance examination, separate from the shared Wirral 11+. It is three tests — English, Mathematics and verbal reasoning — sat at the College on 18 September 2026 (with a special-access sitting on 19 September). You register online directly with the school by 31 July 2026, submitting a Baptism certificate at the same time if you want your son ranked as a Catholic. Your son must reach the College's required standard to be considered; you are told the result in October 2026, before the council deadline.
Faith comes first — and you must produce a Baptism certificate to be ranked on it.
Among boys who reach the standard, places are allocated by faith category: baptised Roman Catholics first, then baptised Christians of other denominations, then boys (of any faith or none) whose parents want them to have a Catholic education. To be ranked as a baptised Catholic or Christian you must produce a Baptism or Holy Communion certificate during the application process. Without it your son is treated as seeking a Catholic education and ranks in the lower categories.
There is no catchment — free school meals lift you within a band, distance only breaks ties.
St Anselm's has no designated catchment area and accepts applications from outside Wirral. Boys eligible for free school meals are given priority within every faith category. Once the categories are set, places are filled in rank order of exam performance, and distance from home to the College is used only to separate two boys with the same ranking. The policy's "relevant area" — Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, and anywhere within 10 miles — only orders boys within the Catholic and Christian bands; it is not a hard boundary.
Five steps — starting now.
If more qualifying boys apply than there are places, these criteria decide.
First, a boy with an EHC plan naming St Anselm's who has reached the standard is admitted automatically. Then, among boys who reached the standard, the 156 places are allocated by the categories below. Boys in receipt of free school meals are given priority within every category. Within each category, places are filled in rank order of exam performance, with distance from home to the College only the final tie-break. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: A baptised Roman Catholic boy who has reached the standard and is currently in council care, or who left care through adoption, a child arrangements order or special guardianship, has the very first priority. A Baptism certificate is required to be ranked here.
What the document says: Baptised Catholic Looked After and Previously Looked After Boys.
In plain English: A baptised Roman Catholic boy who has reached the standard and lives in the relevant area — Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, or anywhere within 10 miles of the College. This includes a boy baptised a Christian who was later received into the Roman Catholic Church. Boys eligible for free school meals come first within this category. This is where most successful applicants sit; a Baptism certificate is required.
What the document says: Baptised Catholic Boys, living in the relevant area (defined as Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester and any other areas within 10 miles of the College).
In plain English: A boy who has reached the standard and is in council care, or who left care through adoption, a child arrangements order or special guardianship, but who is not a baptised Catholic. This statutory category sits below the baptised-Catholic categories at this school.
What the document says: All other Looked After and Previously Looked After Boys.
In plain English: A boy who has reached the standard, has been baptised into a Christian denomination other than Roman Catholic, and lives in the relevant area (Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, or within 10 miles). Boys eligible for free school meals come first within this category, which ranks below the Catholic categories.
What the document says: Baptised Christian, non-Catholic boys, living in the relevant area.
In plain English: Any other boy who has reached the standard and whose parents want him to have a Catholic education — the broadest category, covering boys of other faiths or none, and Catholic or Christian boys living outside the relevant area. Boys eligible for free school meals come first within it. A boy does not have to be Catholic to apply, but ranks below all the categories above.
What the document says: Non-baptised boys whose parents wish them to have a Catholic education.
Within each category: boys in receipt of free school meals at the time of application are placed first (documentary proof required); the rest are ranked in order of performance in the assessment, and where two boys are equally ranked the one living nearest the College is placed first. Reaching the standard does not guarantee a place, and an offer can be withdrawn if false evidence is given on baptism or place of residence.
No boundary — faith decides, and distance only breaks ties.
St Anselm's has no designated catchment that determines an offer, so a boy who reaches the standard can be considered from anywhere — applications from outside Wirral are accepted. What orders the list is faith: baptised Roman Catholics first, then baptised Christians of other denominations, then boys seeking a Catholic education, with free-school-meals boys lifted within each band. The policy's "relevant area" (Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, and anywhere within 10 miles) only separates applicants inside the Catholic and Christian bands — it is not a hard boundary, and out-of-area boys still rank in the lower category. Within each group, exam performance decides the rank, and distance is only the final tie-breaker.
Distance is measured from your home to the College, those living nearest having priority — but only to separate two equally-ranked boys. The displayed circle on our map is illustrative only; it is not a real boundary, and no fixed cutoff distance is published.
See St Anselm's location on the GrammarBound mapFaith ranks ahead of a closer home from another group.
Both boys reach the standard. Boy A is a baptised Catholic in the relevant area, placing him in the Catholic categories; Boy B lives closer but is in the lower Catholic-education category. Because faith sets the order before distance, Boy A is ranked ahead. Distance would only separate two boys inside the same category with the same ranking.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
Boys who reached the standard but were not offered a place are held on a waiting list, ranked by the same oversubscription criteria — not by the order you joined. The list is kept until the end of the Autumn Term. Ask St Anselm's to keep your son on the list.
Request a waiting-list place via St Anselm's directly.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent panel, which follows the statutory School Admission Appeals Code. Submit your appeal in writing to the Clerk to the Admissions' Appeals Panel at the College within 20 school days of the refusal letter. Appealing does not remove your son from the waiting list — you can do both.
Joining Year 12.
In addition to its own boys moving up, St Anselm's makes around 20 external Year 12 places available to students from other schools.
The grade floor.
The normal requirement is five GCSEs at grade 5 or above, including English and Mathematics, with a grade 6 expected in most subjects to be studied in Year 12. Mathematics and Physics each need a grade 7 at GCSE to be taken at A level.
Apply direct to the school.
External applicants apply directly to St Anselm's — sixth-form entry is not co-ordinated by the local authority, and the closing date for external Year 12 applications is 1 September 2027. Where the external places are oversubscribed, the same criteria used for Year 7 entry are applied to decide admission. Students choosing a Catholic sixth form are expected to take part in the ethos and spiritual life of the College.