Birmingham-area private schools: build a family shortlist

Five names, but five different family propositions

KES and KEHS share the Edgbaston site and the King Edward VI history, but they are different fee-paying schools with different admissions tasks, timetables and classroom cultures. They are also distinct from the state grammar schools carrying King Edward VI names. One Foundation does not mean one form or one offer process.

Edgbaston High is a girls’ day school with Prep and early-years entry. Solihull is a coeducational day school spanning Nursery to sixth form. Bromsgrove is coeducational and offers day, weekly and full boarding. At Bromsgrove, Year 7 belongs to Prep; the Senior fee and Senior routine begin later. That small structural fact matters when comparing both cost and the feel of transition.

How the three schools with our guides assess at 11+

Our school guides cover three of the five schools on this page in detail. Their Year 7 processes differ in timing as well as content: the two King Edward’s schools test early in the autumn of Year 6.

Neither King Edward’s school is a state grammar school, despite the shared foundation name. Solihull’s external 11+ adds verbal and non-verbal reasoning, an interview and a school reference, and its Prep progression is conditional rather than automatic.

Dates and formats are taken from our three school guides; confirm them with each school before planning around them.

For a girl, KEHS and Edgbaston High are not interchangeable

KEHS begins at 11. Its 2027 process centres on separate English and maths work, with interviews used selectively. Edgbaston High offers an earlier girls’ school route, but its live guidance says Prep pupils follow the same Senior entrance procedure as external applicants. Roughly half of Prep girls, usually around 30, move into Senior School. That is a transfer proportion—not a pass rate and not evidence that an external applicant has a particular chance.

Edgbaston High’s current Year 7 process uses a 50-minute computer assessment covering verbal, numerical and non-verbal ability, followed by a 10-minute interview for every girl and a school report. KEHS uses written English and maths and does not promise every applicant an interview. A child’s preparation should reflect those real differences rather than a generic “Birmingham 11+” course.

Which unfamiliar format needs gentle familiarisation: longer written work or a short computer assessment? Assessment preference may shape preparation, but it does not by itself reveal which school’s ordinary lessons will suit her. Ask how friendship groups change at Year 7, how form groups are assembled and how many pupils are genuinely new—not which school is the easier version of the other.

For boys—and for families who want mixed education

KES is the only boys’ school in this five-school comparison. It begins at 11 and is a day school. A boy who thrives in a single-sex classroom, wants the particular academic range KES offers and can manage the Edgbaston journey may find that combination compelling. A family wanting mixed lessons should not expect shared geography with KEHS to create a coeducational school day.

Solihull and Bromsgrove provide the coeducational alternatives, but they do so differently. Solihull is a day-school decision. Bromsgrove asks families to consider a Prep-to-Senior transition, a longer possible journey and genuine boarding choices. A Year 7 day pupil at Bromsgrove is not simply attending a conventional city day school on a larger campus.

For either sex, look beyond the label. “Coed” and “single sex” describe an arrangement; they do not tell you how confidently your particular child will participate.

Test the return journey, not just the morning promise

Edgbaston, Solihull and Bromsgrove create very different commutes. Try the route on an ordinary school day: doorstep to stop, waiting time, traffic, walk into school and the journey home. Then repeat it for an activity day. A bus map proves a route exists; it does not prove a seat, an affordable fare or a return after your child’s club.

Bromsgrove’s current transport overview makes the trade-off unusually concrete. Main return buses are shown leaving at 5.40pm. Sample Edgbaston and Solihull routes begin around 7am and return around 6.40pm. These are bus times, not universal lesson hours, but they reveal the possible length of a day.

Edgbaston High publishes dedicated routes from areas including Solihull, Sutton Coldfield and Stourbridge, but routes change and the accessible page does not establish current prices or a late bus. Solihull, KES and KEHS have their own transport realities. Make one weekly timetable for the child and another for the adults; a route that depends on daily rescue by car is a family commitment, not a transport solution.

Edgbaston High describes nine-period days Monday to Wednesday and eight periods on Thursday and Friday, but its accessible page does not give dependable clock times. Its published wraparound care is for Nursery to Year 6, so Senior families should confirm early-arrival and after-activity supervision separately.

Bromsgrove belongs on both the local and boarding lists

Bromsgrove offers day, weekly and full boarding; weekly places are described as limited. That makes it relevant to a Birmingham family even when full boarding was not the original plan. A difficult daily route may lead to a weekly-boarding conversation, but the decision changes more than transport: it changes evenings, friendships, family time and cost.

Current Year 7/8 termly prices are £10,866 for weekly boarding and £15,174 for full boarding, including VAT. Senior rates rise to £12,546 and £18,930. Ask what “weekly” includes, when pupils arrive and leave, how weekends work and whether a particular house has space. Occasional boarding is published for Prep; do not assume an equivalent Senior flexi entitlement.

Use our boarding-school guide to compare residential life, travel, weekends, guardianship and the full bill. A school can be a sensible day choice for one family and a sensible boarding choice for another without one route being the “real” experience.

Compare the bill for the same child, in the same year

These are the latest Year 7 termly figures we could verify on 4 September 2026. They are current illustrations, not quotes for September 2027. Lunch treatment differs, as do books, devices, trips, transport and activities. A smaller tuition figure can produce a larger family bill once the required extras are added.

Edgbaston High requires particular care: its page labels £7,098 as the Spring and Summer 2026–27 rate, and lunch is compulsory up to £320 a term. That makes £7,418 a useful maximum tuition-and-lunch illustration for one of those terms, not an all-in bill. Do not multiply it by three to estimate a year’s bill. Ask for the complete 2027 joining schedule before comparing annual totals.

Bromsgrove’s £7,650 Year 7/8 Prep day fee includes VAT and lunch. Its current Senior day fee is £8,466 per term—a £2,448 three-term step-up at today’s rates before any later fee changes. A family planning through GCSE should model that higher stage rather than extending the Year 7 figure indefinitely.

Build a five-year budget with a sensible annual increase, then add travel, uniform, music, trips, devices and care that your child would realistically use. Read our fees and bursaries guide before treating an award as the missing line in an otherwise unaffordable plan.

At sixth form, subjects and programme shape matter more

KES and KEHS teach A levels, with subject-specific entry requirements explained in their full guides. Edgbaston High normally starts pupils on three A levels and publishes 26 choices, with optional AS, EPQ and—in a small number of cases—a fourth. Its general threshold is six GCSEs at grades 6–9 including English and maths, plus each subject’s own requirement.

Bromsgrove provides the broadest programme distinction in this group: A levels, the IB Diploma and limited BTEC routes in Sport and Business. Solihull’s subject thresholds and programme details should be checked against the current prospectus. Do not choose a sixth form from its average result before confirming that the desired subjects can be taken together and will run.

A fictional example: Maya wants politics, textiles and maths and would value an EPQ; Leo wants an IB programme and weekly boarding. Their sensible lists diverge before either family debates a ranking. Build the list from the actual combination, teaching style and travel week, then consider the offer conditions.

Our sixth-form guide covers references, predicted grades, interviews and subject choices in more depth.

The 2027 independent-school calendar does not move as one

At Edgbaston High, Year 7 applications and bursary requests are due 21 September 2026. External assessments, interviews and tasters run from 5–14 October, excluding 9 October; offers are posted 4 December and acceptance is due 8 March 2027.

Bromsgrove’s current 2027 booklet gives a 1 November 2026 registration deadline and 26–27 November assessments for 11+ and 13+. But the booklet assigns the wrong weekday to 1 November and contains another conflicting Prep deadline. Keep the numeric dates as a planning alert, then get written confirmation from admissions. Do not silently “correct” a school’s document and risk choosing the wrong deadline.

KES, KEHS and Solihull each have their own sequence too. Use the detailed KES, KEHS and Solihull guides to build separate rows for registration, assessment, interview, scholarship, bursary, offer and acceptance. An open-day booking or exam registration does not complete the other steps.