Birmingham secondary schools

[Wordchild]

Hi all. I know there’s been many threads on this already and I think I’ve read most of them but I wanted some specific and up to date info on schools in Birmingham. Moving back after some time away in next year ideally and we want to live in harborne or Moseley. Ideally would like to apply for a grammar (girls) and so would you suggest KE camp hill for Moseley and maybe queensbridge back-up? And which grammar for harborne and which back up - lordswood? Work wise my husband is likely to have to get into town and I also wanted to know about new train stations in Moseley and harborne. I’ve seen where the Moseley station will be but can’t find any info on harborne? Am feeling like better to go to Moseley for commuting point of view? My line of work is not likely to be in city centre and I’ll be driving (look forward to that 😆) so not as specific location needed. I don’t want to live in Sutton Coldfield Solihull or kings norton Halesowen Bromsgrove. Budget around £5-600k. We will be needing primary for a few years before secondary but I feel like we need to make sure we are in right place for secondary as a priority now. What would you good people advise? Also do people tend to apply for lots of grammars or would there only be one option in catchment for with the new catchment system?

I can't help with schools but I think the closest railway stations for Harborne will be University.

Harborne is in the catchment for Five Ways. You wouldn't get Camp Hill or Five Ways from outside the catchment areas. However if she scores quite high but below the priority score, you've got a god chance of Handsworth girls and Harborne is on the number 11 route to Handsworth - Moseley is much further from Handsworth by public transport. On the other hand, Sutton girls doesn't have a catchment and also usually has a slightly lower entry score - it's very easy to get to on the cross city line from either University, or the new Moseley/Camp Hill stations, when they're open.

Lordswood Girls is the best comprehensive round there - you'd need to make sure you're in catchment. Is there a particular reason why you've ruled out Bournville, as Kings Norton Girls is probably your best bet in terms of comprehensives for girls on that side of the city? I don't know much about Queensbridge.

Thanks for your replies. Does that mean there isn’t going to be a new station in harborne? I thought I read there was but maybe not. Makes sense as I couldn’t find anything online!
I have thought about kings norton and realise it would tick a lot of boxes for train line, house prices and a good girls school but I just don’t want to live in kings norton. I feel like harborne / Moseley is trickier to work out but we would ideally be closer into town and somewhere which feels like it has a centre with stuff going on. I’m hoping there might be a solution. I need to research the grammar school application process but that’s really useful to know about the priority scores. So, say we lived in harborne we could apply for five ways, Handsworth and Sutton and lordswood as long as in catchment and that would give us some good options? Is that how it works? Sounds like more options than I thought for that side. Shame there’s not the new station that I imagined! But Sutton would also work from Moseley?

I’ve not heard of a station in Harborne. Obviously entry scores may change if your daughter is still primary school age but you should have a few grammar options. There’s also a green bus to Queen Mary’s in Walsall from Edgbaston I believe.

@Wordchild: have you looked at Bearwood- cheaper than Harborne/ you get more for your money. Very close to Lordswood girls and in the catchment for Fiveways.
Good transport links and talk of a tram sometime in the future