Queen Mary’s High School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About Queen Mary’s High School

Queen Mary’s High School is a girls’ state grammar school on Upper Forster Street in Walsall. The headteacher is Mrs N Daniel. The school admits 150 girls into Year 7.

Entry into Year 7 is by the entrance test shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership, sat in September of Year 6 and set by GL Assessment. The school describes the test as covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics, with reading comprehension sitting inside the verbal questions rather than forming a paper of its own.

Queen Mary’s High School was inspected in March 2026, with the report published that June. That inspection used Ofsted’s current report card format rather than a single overall word: the school received five judgements at the Strong Standard and two at Exceptional across the seven areas inspected. Because the framework changed, this is not directly comparable with the older single-word ratings still held by some neighbouring schools.

Key information for 2027 entry to Queen Mary’s High School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: girls’ state grammar school
• Test provider: GL Assessment, for the test shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership
• Registration: on the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, opening 5 May 2026 and closing at 4pm on 26 June 2026
• Test dates: within a window of 12 to 14 September 2026. check your registration confirmation for the assigned day
• Results date: 16 October 2026
• Application deadline to your local authority: 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
• Year 7 places available: 150
• Contact details: qmhs.org.uk, [email protected], 01922 721013

Admissions information for 2027 entry to Queen Mary’s High School at 11 Plus (11+)

No pass mark is published in advance. The qualifying score is set each year after the papers have been marked and the order of merit is known, so there is no target number to aim at and no figure from a previous year that you should treat as the bar.

The qualifying score for September 2027 entry is confirmed by the governors in November 2026, after the papers have been marked.

The school’s full ordered oversubscription criteria are set out in its determined admission arrangements, which are published on its website after the annual consultation. Because those arrangements are reviewed and re-determined each year, read the current document rather than relying on a summary, and pay particular attention to any reserved categories before you decide the order of your application.

There is no additional or separate assessment beyond the shared partnership test.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at Queen Mary’s High School?

You do not register with Queen Mary’s High School directly, and you do not register with the council either. Registration for the entrance test is done through the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, which covers every school in the partnership.

The registration portal opens on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026. Registering for the test and applying for a school place are two separate steps, and you need to do both: the application for a place goes to your home local authority on the Common Application Form.

At registration you choose which schools your child’s result is shared with, so it is worth deciding your list before you start. Make sure you check the partnership’s own pages for the current registration link and closing time, as these are confirmed each year.

The application process is:

• Register your daughter for the entrance test on the West Midlands Grammar Schools website between 5 May and 4pm on 26 June 2026, naming the schools you want the result shared with
• Sit the test in the testing window of 12 to 14 September 2026. Check your registration confirmation for the day your child is assigned.
• Receive the result on 16 October 2026
• Apply to your home local authority for a school place, naming Queen Mary’s High School, by 31 October 2026
• Receive your offer on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027

What is the 11 Plus (11+) entrance exam format for Queen Mary’s High School?

The entrance test is shared across the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership, a group of grammar schools spanning Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Warwickshire and Wolverhampton. One test, one set of papers, one result. It is set by GL Assessment and is made up of two multiple-choice papers.

• Paper 1 and Paper 2 – around 50 to 60 minutes each, including time for instructions and practice questions
• Verbal ability, which includes reading comprehension, together with verbal reasoning – 50% of the marks
• Non-verbal and spatial reasoning – 25% of the marks
• Mathematics – 25% of the marks

It is important to note that the subjects are not split one per paper. Each paper mixes the three skill areas, so your child needs to be comfortable switching between question types inside a single paper. English is not a separate paper here: comprehension and vocabulary sit inside the verbal ability questions.

Answers are marked on a separate machine-read answer sheet rather than in the booklet, and are marked at least twice. Scores are standardised for age, so a summer-born child is not judged against the raw marks of older classmates. For more on this provider, see our GL Assessment guide.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Verbal ability and verbal reasoning – reading comprehension, inference, vocabulary in context, synonyms and antonyms, word relationships, letter and number sequences, codes and logic puzzles
• Mathematics – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, algebra, geometry, statistics and word problems
• Non-verbal and spatial reasoning – sequences, rotations, reflections, nets and odd-one-out questions with shapes

Familiarisation material is published by GL Assessment and linked from the partnership’s own pages. Because one result covers every school in the partnership you consent to share it with, a single set of practice material serves all of your child’s applications.

Queen Mary’s High School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Practise switching between question types. Each paper mixes verbal, non-verbal and maths questions, so you need to change gear quickly rather than settle into one subject.
• Read widely and keep a vocabulary notebook. Verbal ability and verbal reasoning are worth half of all the marks, and comprehension sits inside them, so this is where your effort pays off most.
• Practise marking answers on a separate answer sheet. The papers are marked by machine, so a clear mark in the right box matters as much as knowing the answer!
• Learn the common non-verbal reasoning patterns. Rotations, reflections, nets and sequences come up again and again, and they get much quicker with practice.
• Keep your times tables and quick calculations sharp. Maths is a quarter of the marks and the questions are tightly timed.
• Remember you only sit the test once. The same result goes to every school you have chosen, so there is no need to panic about doing it again for each one.
• Don’t panic about one difficult question! Move on, keep a steady pace, and come back to anything you skipped if there is time left.

How to prepare your child for the 11 Plus (11+) Queen Mary’s High School exam

Preparing for Queen Mary’s High School means preparing for the shared West Midlands partnership test, so the ground to cover is verbal ability and verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal and spatial reasoning. Verbal work carries half the marks, and reading comprehension sits inside it rather than in a paper of its own, so reading widely and building vocabulary is the single highest-value thing your daughter can do over the year before the test.

The most useful way to prepare is to use practice tests that match this format, so your daughter gets used to multiple-choice questions across all three skill areas, to moving between them inside one paper, to transferring answers accurately onto a separate answer sheet, and to keeping to time. That familiarity is what stops the format itself being a surprise on the day.

One test result covers every school in the partnership you choose to share it with, including Haberdashers’ Adams Grammar School, Newport Girls’ High School, Queen Mary’s Grammar School and Wolverhampton Girls’ High School, so a single set of material serves all of your applications.

For Queen Mary’s High School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: