King Edward VI Handsworth School

About King Edward VI Handsworth School

King Edward VI Handsworth School is a girls' state secondary in Birmingham that currently holds a Good Ofsted rating, but the detail tells a more interesting story. In its most recent inspection in December 2024, inspectors judged the school's overall effectiveness as 'Not judged' because it was a section 8 inspection, but they awarded Outstanding grades for behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. The only area rated Good was quality of education. That's a significant shift from its previous inspection in 2014, when the school was rated Outstanding across the board. The most telling academic metric is Progress 8, which measures how much pupils improve between Key Stage 2 and GCSEs compared with the national average. Handsworth's Progress 8 score is 0.8, which is classified as 'Well above average' and places the school 9th out of 83 secondary schools in Birmingham, putting it in the top 11% locally and the top 6% nationally.

At GCSE, the school's Attainment 8 score is 77.3, and every single pupil achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths. The EBacc average point score is 7.32, with 84.2% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects and 79.1% achieving a grade 5 or above in it. That's a strong showing, especially when you consider the local authority average Progress 8 score is just 0.09. At A-level, the picture is more mixed. The school's value-added score is -0.19, which is rated 'Below average', and the average points per entry is 39.88, equivalent to a B grade. Just over 31% of A-level entries achieved AAB or higher. The sixth form is rated Outstanding by Ofsted, so the dip in value-added may reflect a cohort effect rather than a systemic issue, but it's worth noting for parents considering the full 11-18 route.

The school is significantly oversubscribed: for 192 places in the 2025/26 academic year, there were 1,069 applications, a ratio of 5.57 applicants per place, with 163 first-preference applications and only 79 first-preference offers. That means competition is fierce, and parents will need to be strategic about their application. The school has a wide range of facilities including a swimming pool, theatre, sports hall, and sixth-form centre, and offers clubs from coding to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. SEND provision covers eight categories including dyslexia, autism, and hearing impairment, though the Parent View data shows no responses from SEND parents, so it's hard to gauge how well that support works in practice. Among the 125 parents who did respond, 86% would recommend the school, and strong majorities agreed that their child is happy, feels safe, and that the school has high expectations. This is a high-achieving, academically demanding school that suits girls who thrive in a structured, ambitious environment.

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