West Kirby Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About West Kirby Grammar School

West Kirby Grammar School is a state grammar school on Graham Road in West Kirby. Year 7 entry is for girls, and the sixth form is co-educational. The Published Admission Number for Year 7 is 180 under the school’s current published admission arrangements. It was judged Good at its Ofsted inspection on 2 and 3 November 2022.

Entry into Year 7 is by the Wirral Admissions Test, the shared test sat by all four Wirral grammar schools. The test is sat in September of Year 6 and the papers are provided by Quest Assessments.

Key information for 2027 entry to West Kirby Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: girls’ state grammar school with a mixed sixth form
• Test provider: Wirral Admissions Test, papers provided by Quest Assessments, administered by Wirral Council
• Registration: form available from 1 May 2026. Register by 31 May 2026. Wirral Council’s own admissions pages give a closing time of noon on 1 June 2026, so 31 May keeps you inside either date
• Special access arrangements deadline: 7 June 2026, confirmed by 17 July 2026
• Test date: Tuesday 15 September 2026
• Test venue: one of the four Wirral grammar schools, not your child’s own primary school
• Results date: the second half of October 2026. The council’s timetable gives 21 October 2026, while the schools and the test information pack say mid-October, so watch for the confirmed date
• Secondary application deadline: 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
• Year 7 places available: 180 under the current published admission arrangements
• Contact details: wkgs.org, 0151 632 3449

Admissions information for 2027 entry to West Kirby Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

Girls become eligible for a place at West Kirby Grammar School by reaching the required standard in the Wirral Admissions Test, run by Wirral Council for all four of its grammar schools. The standard is a standardised age score built from the two test papers, and no numeric threshold is published.

West Kirby allocates its places differently from the other three Wirral grammar schools, so this is worth reading carefully. Priority runs in this order: looked after and previously looked after children; girls with a valid medical reason supported by a doctor’s letter; up to 18 places for girls eligible for free school meals, ranked by distance; girls with a sibling already at the school; daughters of staff employed for at least two years or recruited to a shortage post. The remaining places are then split: 60% are allocated by distance, and the rest are allocated by standardised score, ranked from highest downwards.

That final split means a high test score can still win a place from further away, which is not the case at the other three schools, where distance is the last word. Make sure you check the school’s current admission arrangements for the full ordered list, as they are reviewed each year and the 2027-28 document was not yet published on the school’s website at the time of writing.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at West Kirby Grammar School?

You do not register with West Kirby Grammar School for the Wirral Admissions Test. Registration is completed with Wirral Council, which runs the test on behalf of all four Wirral grammar schools.

The registration form is normally available from 1 May 2026. Two closing dates are published: Wirral Council’s own secondary admissions pages give noon on 1 June 2026, while the consortium’s candidate pack and West Kirby’s own page give 31 May 2026. Register by 31 May and you are inside either deadline.

If your daughter needs special access arrangements, such as extra time, the request must be in by 7 June 2026, and the council confirms approved arrangements by 17 July 2026.

Registering for the test and applying for a school place are two separate steps, and you need to do both. Make sure you check the Wirral Council admissions pages for the current registration link, as the process is confirmed each year.

The application process is:

• Register your daughter for the Wirral Admissions Test with Wirral Council by 31 May 2026
• Request any special access arrangements by 7 June 2026
• Sit the test on Tuesday 15 September 2026 at one of the four Wirral grammar schools
• Receive the result in the second half of October 2026
• Complete your secondary school application, naming West Kirby Grammar 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 West Kirby Grammar School?

The Wirral Admissions Test is made up of two multiple-choice papers, sat in the same session with a short break between them. The papers are provided by Quest Assessments, which took over from GL Assessment.

• Paper 1 – verbal reasoning, around 50 minutes
• Paper 2 – mathematics and non-verbal reasoning, around 50 minutes

There is no English paper in the Wirral Admissions Test. This is unusual, and it is the single most important thing to know when you are planning your child’s preparation, because most 11+ practice material leads with English comprehension. A total weighted score is calculated from the verbal, mathematics and non-verbal components.

Answers are recorded on a separate machine-marked answer sheet rather than in the question booklet, so practising that transfer is worth doing. Scores are standardised for age, so a summer-born child is not judged against the raw marks of older classmates. For more on how Quest tests work across the country, see our Quest Assessments guide.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Verbal reasoning – letter and number sequences, codes, word relationships, hidden words, logic puzzles and vocabulary
• Mathematics – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, algebra, geometry, statistics and word problems, drawn from the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum
• Non-verbal reasoning – sequences, rotations, reflections, analogies and odd-one-out questions with shapes

Wirral Council publishes familiarisation material containing sample questions, normally available by the end of June before the test. It is worth downloading as soon as it appears so your child sees the layout early.

West Kirby Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Give verbal and non-verbal reasoning proper time. There is no English paper in the Wirral test, so reasoning is where most of your marks come from.
• 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!
• Keep reading widely anyway. Verbal reasoning is full of vocabulary, so the more words you know, the faster those questions become.
• Learn the common non-verbal reasoning patterns. Rotations, reflections and sequences come up again and again, and they get much quicker with practice.
• Keep your times tables and quick calculations sharp. The maths questions are tightly timed, so fluent arithmetic saves you seconds on every question.
• 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+) West Kirby Grammar School exam

Preparing for West Kirby Grammar School means preparing for the Wirral Admissions Test, so the ground to cover is verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal reasoning. There is no English comprehension paper, so a general 11+ bundle built around English and maths will leave your daughter short on exactly the reasoning work that carries most of the marks here.

That said, verbal reasoning leans heavily on vocabulary, so wide reading still helps a great deal even though there is no comprehension paper to sit.

The most useful way to prepare is to use practice tests that match this format, so your daughter gets used to multiple-choice questions in all three areas, 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.

The same test is used by Wirral Grammar School for Boys, Wirral Grammar School for Girls and Calday Grange Grammar School, so material bought for one of the four Wirral grammar schools works for all of them. It is worth knowing that St Anselm’s College, also on the Wirral, sets its own written entrance examination instead, including an English paper with a creative writing task. You can compare the schools side by side in our complete guide to the Liverpool and Wirral grammar schools.

For West Kirby Grammar School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: