St Anselm's College 11+ guide

Atom Learning is partnered with St Anselm's College. You can read more about our partnership here.

Thinking about applying to St Anselm's College? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus entrance exam.

Key information for St Anselm's College

• Address: St Anselm's College, Manor Hill, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH43 1UQ
• Number of pupils: approx. 1,000
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 156
• 11+ exam: School’s own
• Catchment area: yes

Dates for your diary

• January 2025: St Anselm's College 11+ registration opens
• Thursday 31st July 2025: St Anselm’s College exam registration closes
• Friday 19th September 2025: St Anselm's College 11+ exam
• Mid-October 2025: parents receive 11+ results
• Friday 31st October 2025: secondary school common application deadline
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national school offers day

About St Anselm's College

St Anselm's College is a Catholic boys' grammar school in Wirral. Ofsted rated the school 'good' in 2019, praising a culture where "pupils feel valued and are aspirational".

St Anselm's College seeks to educate the 'whole person'. The school provides excellent opportunities in music, the arts, technology and leadership development. St Anselm's also has a notably strong sporting tradition, with famous sportsmen among the school's alumni. Cross country, athletics, and rugby teams have all reached finals in national competitions.

How to apply to St Anselm's College

St Anselm's College is a selective state school. This means that your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place in Year 7.

Registration for the 2025 entrance exam opens in January 2025 and closes on Thursday 31st July 2025. If your son is baptised Catholic, make sure to upload his baptismal certificate to this form. Baptised Catholic children are prioritised for places in the school’s oversubscription criteria.

The exam will take place on Friday 19th September 2025 and you’ll be informed of the outcome of the tests in mid-October. The school will let you know if your child is eligible for a place based on his exam performance. If you would then like to apply to the school, you’ll need to name it as one of your preferred schools on the secondary school common application form. This will be available on your home council website from early September and must be submitted by Friday 31st October 2025.

St Anselm’s College is not a member of the Wirral grammar schools’ consortium. If you are considering other grammar schools in Wirral, you will need to register your child for these tests separately.

Remember – passing the 11 plus doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for St Anselm's College below.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

The St Anselm’s College entrance exam consists of three one-hour papers. These papers are produced by the school.

1. English

The English paper has a reading section and a writing section. Children are advised to spend about 25 minutes on each section. Any remaining time can be used to check their work.

The reading section consists of a reading comprehension exercise. Your child will need to read an extract of text and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding of what they have read. They will need to provide written answers. Some questions just need one word answers, while others require a few sentences.

The second half of the paper is a creative writing task. Your child will have a choice of prompts to write their piece. They should spend around 5–10 minutes planning their piece, and 20 minutes writing it.

2. Maths

The maths paper is based on the Key Stage 2 maths national curriculum. This includes the key topics of number, measurement, geometry and statistics.

The answer options vary. Your child may need to complete a table or grid, tick a box, plot on a graph, or write a number.

3. Verbal reasoning

The verbal reasoning paper will test your child’s ability to solve problems with written information. This could be letters, symbols, words and numbers. Some of the skills assessed in verbal reasoning include reading fluency, vocabulary, logic and attention to detail.

Verbal reasoning isn’t taught on the national curriculum, so the questions might be unfamiliar to your child. Schools use verbal reasoning in 11 plus exams to get an idea of a child’s potential, rather than knowledge learned at school.

How does place allocation work at St Anselm's College?

Your child’s test papers will be passed to external examiners for marking. After all the papers are marked, children’s scores are put in rank order from highest to lowest. St Anselm’s College will then decide on a ‘required standard’. Children who meet the required standard are eligible for a place at the school.

If more than 156 children met the required standard, places are allocated to children in this order:

1. Baptised looked after and previously looked after children, baptised Catholic boys who have an Education, Health and Care Plan, and baptised Catholic boys who live in the catchment area
2. Baptised Christian, non-Catholic looked after and previously looked after children, baptised Christian boys who have an Education, Health and Care Plan, and baptised Christian boys who live in the catchment area
3. Looked after and previously looked after children who are not baptised Christian, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan, and non-Catholic boys whose parents wish for them to have a Catholic education

Does St Anselm's College have a catchment area?

St Anselm’s College does have a catchment area. This is defined as Wirral, Cheshire West and Chester, and any other area within 10 miles of the school.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

The 11 plus is designed to select the most academically able children in the area. Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day!

Bitesize learning

It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.

Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.

Read widely

Verbal reasoning tests your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.

Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.

Refine exam technique

When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.

Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.

With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers for 11 plus entrance exams. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.

Celebrate progress

Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.

Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.