Solihull School

Founded in 1560 and settled on its Warwick Road site since 1882, Solihull School has spent more than four and a half centuries turning a Tudor free school into one of the West Midlands' most academically selective independents. Today it is a mixed, 3-18 Church of England day school of about 1,564 pupils across all phases, led since January 2023 by Executive Headmaster Charles Fillingham, an Oxford and King's College London graduate. There is no boarding; this is a day school through and through, now spread across two sites after its 2020 merger with Saint Martin's School. Entry is competitive, results place it first in Solihull at both GCSE and A-level, and the co-curricular offer runs from a 450-seat theatre to a mountain cottage in Snowdonia. For families weighing selective independents in the Solihull and south Birmingham area, it is a serious contender.

Solihull runs on a dual-campus model that most families come to know quickly. The Preparatory School sits on the former Saint Martin's site, brought into the fold by the 2020 merger; the Senior School occupies the historic Warwick Road buildings a short distance away in the town centre. School House, the original 1882 building, still stands on the senior site and now houses the art department. That continuity of place matters here: the school traces an unbroken line back to the chantry chapels of the parish church of St Alphege, and the sense of a long institution carrying on its work is part of the daily texture.

The youngest children start in a self-contained world. Early years and infant pupils are based in Alice House on the Preparatory campus, a deliberately separate setting that lets three- and four-year-olds settle before the wider school opens up to them. The early years foundation stage is a happy and safe environment that supports children's needs and interests and helps them make good progress from their starting points, which is the reassurance most nursery-age families are looking for first.

The prevailing mood higher up is purposeful rather than pressured. The environment is characterised by mutual respect and inclusivity, and pupils grow in self-confidence and self-esteem. That reads on the ground as a school confident enough in its selective intake to prioritise how pupils treat one another, not just how they perform. The school sums up its aims as Ambition, Opportunity and Community, and the three pull in the same direction: high expectations, a wide menu of things to try, and a strong house and pastoral structure, complete with an annual House Drama competition and inter-house sport, to hold it together.

Co-education arrived in stages. The sixth form opened to girls in 1973, and the whole school followed in 2005, so the mixed identity is now well established rather than newly minted. The Church of England foundation is genuine but worn lightly, a point the admissions arrangements bear out below.

At GCSE, the senior school performs at a level that separates it clearly from the field. In the most recent results, 56% of grades were awarded at grade 9 or 8 (the old A*), and 77% came in at grade 7 and above. That places Solihull 120th of 3,895 schools in England for GCSE results, a top 3.1% standing (ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). On the FindMySchool overall measure, which blends those results with inspection quality, it sits 95th of 3,887, and it is the top-ranked school of any kind in Solihull. These are proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data.

The sixth form holds a similar position. More than a quarter of A-level entries (27%) reached A*, and 84% landed at grade B or above, against an England average of roughly 47% for A* to B. The A*-A rate of about 59% is more than double the England figure of around 24%, a gap that speaks to depth across the ability range rather than a handful of star performers. Translated into a ranking, the school stands 120th of 2,562 in England for A-level results, again inside the top 4.7%, with an overall position of 101st of 2,561 and, once more, first place in Solihull. The consistency across both exam phases is the headline: this is not a school that peaks at 16 and drifts, or vice versa.

The primary phase does not carry an England ranking in the same way, since independent junior schools sit outside the Key Stage 2 tables. What the evidence does show is a prep school achieving above the England average, feeding a senior school that then extends that lead. Parents choosing at age three or four are, in effect, buying into a single academic trajectory rather than a strong senior school bolted onto an ordinary junior one. That is a meaningful part of the value here: the pathway is designed to be continuous, and the academic bar is set high at every stage.

Teaching here is built around challenge. Inspectors found pupils with positive attitudes who thrive on being stretched, and teachers who draw on a range of strategies to move them forward from their individual starting points. The detailed tracking of progress, where pastoral, academic and safeguarding staff compare notes on every pupil, is a significant strength of the school, and it is what allows a large selective cohort to be taught as individuals rather than as an undifferentiated top set.

That approach starts in the early years. Practitioners in Alice House build learning around children's interests and needs, and the same monitoring culture that tracks a sixth-form student's progress is applied, in age-appropriate form, to a Reception child. It is a coherent system rather than three separate schools sharing a name.

Learning support is properly resourced rather than an afterthought. In the senior school it operates from a suite of rooms in the Mark Hopton Building, a former junior-school space repurposed after the 2020 merger; the Preparatory School runs its own provision from the Acorns Room, equipped for younger children. The point is that selectivity at the front door does not mean pupils are left to sink or swim once inside, and that pupils with specific needs are supported to progress alongside their peers.

One honest limitation remains. Digital teaching is stronger higher up the school than at the bottom, and the prep and lower school could make fuller use of the technological resources available to them. It is a targeted point rather than a systemic worry, but a fair signal of where the next improvement lies.

The sixth form is essentially a university launchpad. Of the most recent leaving cohort of 139, around 72% progressed directly to university, with a further slice moving into apprenticeships and employment; the school also sends candidates to medical school each year. Oxbridge remains a live route rather than a rarity: from 20 applications in the year recorded, the school secured three offers, all of which converted to places, with the Cambridge side accounting for that success from 14 applications. Numbers at this level move year to year, and a single cohort should not be over-read, but the pipeline is real and the acceptance rate on offers held is total.

Careers guidance sits behind all of this. Pupils are well prepared for life after school by high quality and personalised careers advice, which matters as much for the student weighing a degree apprenticeship as for the one targeting a Russell Group medicine place. The breadth of the A-level menu, taking in Latin and Classical Civilisation as readily as Economics and Further Mathematics, keeps competitive routes such as medicine, law and engineering open without forcing early narrowing. Families who want to see how a school's destinations compare with others locally can line them up side by side using the FindMySchool hub comparison tool.

Solihull is academically selective, and demand is high. At 11+, the main entry point, roughly 500 candidates are assessed for about 144 Year 7 places through examinations in English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, supported by a report from the current school. Entry is also available lower down, from age three into the Preparatory School and its early years at Alice House, and into Reception and the infant years, with progression carrying pupils through toward the senior school.

Sixth-form entry sets a clear bar. External applicants, of whom the school typically admits between 35 and 50 each year, and internal students alike are expected to hold at least two grade 7s and four grade 6s at GCSE, including a grade 6 in Mathematics and English; several A-level subjects ask for a grade 7 or 8 in the relevant subject. Internal progression from Year 11 is therefore conditional on meeting those requirements rather than automatic, though the great majority of the school's own students continue into Year 12.

On faith, the Church of England foundation shapes the ethos but not the gate. There is no requirement to be Christian, or of any faith, to gain a place; admission turns on the entrance assessment, not on worship or a minister's reference. The chapel and chaplaincy are woven into school life, but the community is a broad one, and multi-faith prayer rooms on both campuses reflect that. Because this is an independent school, there is no catchment distance to satisfy and no local-authority coordination; applications go directly to the school. Open events are typically held in September and June, and families should confirm current dates with the school before planning a visit.

The most recent ISI inspection identified pupil wellbeing and the monitoring of progress as significant strengths of the school, and judged safeguarding effective. Leaders understand pupils' needs deeply and listen to their views as part of ongoing self-evaluation, running a well-planned programme of wellbeing and personal development. Pupils report feeling safe, with many trusted adults to turn to, and the collaborative monitoring that strengthens teaching does the same work pastorally: a pupil struggling in one area is unlikely to slip through unnoticed.

Safeguarding follows current statutory guidance, with a designated lead and deputies holding up-to-date advanced training and appropriate liaison with external agencies. A separate unannounced inspection requested by the Department for Education, carried out shortly after the current head took up his post, confirmed that the senior school met the focused safeguarding, staff-suitability and governance standards with no further action required. The full-time Chaplain, who leads assemblies and provides pastoral care across the school, adds a further layer of support for pupils who want it, and the chapel remains a genuine point of stillness in a busy week rather than a piece of heritage decoration.

The co-curricular programme is broad and, unusually, backed by dedicated buildings rather than borrowed corridors. Four pillars stand out.

Sport is organised around four core team games, rugby, hockey, netball and cricket, run in depth from A teams down through age-group sides so that ability is met at its own level. The facilities carry the load: a 25m swimming pool and a full-sized floodlit artificial turf pitch on the Saint Martin's campus, the Alan Lee Pavilion for PE, and the Coton rugby and Clovelly hockey pitches added in 2017. Beyond the mainstream games, pupils can take up squash, sailing, rowing, fencing and clay pigeon shooting, so the sporty child and the reluctant one both find a route in.

Music has its own home in the David Turnbull Music School, completed in 2009, with a dozen teaching and practice rooms, a recording studio and the Jill Godsall Recital Room and its Steinway grand. The Chapel Choir is the flagship, of a standard high enough that its singers and organists have won choral and organ scholarships to leading universities, and it sits alongside a chamber choir and orchestra. Performance is not a niche pursuit here; ensembles rehearse and perform through the week, and the music school gives them somewhere purpose-built to do it.

Drama and the wider performing arts draw on Bushell Hall, a 450-seat venue completed in 2001 that stages large-scale productions and concerts, and the SMArt performing arts centre on the Saint Martin's site. Ambitious pupils can pursue the RADA Shakespeare Award through one-to-one tuition, while a weekly Drama Club and an annual House Drama competition keep the base broad and give younger pupils an early stage.

Outdoor education is the school's distinctive fourth pillar. The Terriers programme introduces Year 8 pupils to first aid, climbing, abseiling and orienteering; Year 9 undertakes a mandatory week of Snowdonia School at the school's own David Fricke Mountain Cottage in the national park. Older pupils progress to the Combined Cadet Force, run in Army and RAF sections from the Martyn Garner Building for Outdoor Education, and to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award across its Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. Add a lively intellectual scene, Olympiad preparation for the mathematically gifted, chess, the Marginal Gains politics magazine, and a debating squad that has reached national finals at Oxford and Cambridge, and the picture is of a school where the timetable is only half the offer.

Fees are set per term and, for 2026-27, run from £5,820 in the infant years to £6,606 and £6,858 across the junior stages and £7,828 in the senior school, inclusive of VAT. On an annual basis that works out at roughly £17,460 in the youngest classes rising to about £23,484 in the senior school. A one-off registration deposit of £480 secures a place and is returned at the end of a pupil's final term. Families with three or more children benefit from a 25% discount on the third and subsequent child, outside the nursery.

Cost is met, in part, by a structured financial aid programme. Scholarships are offered at both 11+ and sixth-form (16+) entry across Academic, Art, Music, Performing Arts and Sport, awarded on merit and carrying fee remission at the Headmaster's discretion. Means-tested bursaries run alongside them for families who need help with fees, and a pupil may hold both a scholarship and a bursary at once, which can bring the school within reach of households that would not otherwise consider it. Specific award values are not published, so families should approach the school directly to understand what any given child might attract.

Post-16 life is centred on the Cooper Building, a four-floor sixth-form centre with A-level classrooms, study and IT rooms, and a common room complete with coffee shop and roof-top garden, a deliberate step up in independence from the main school. The curriculum is genuinely broad, with 23 A-level subjects on offer including Latin, Classical Civilisation, Further Mathematics, Politics and Design and Technology alongside the sciences, humanities and modern languages, so students can build combinations well beyond the standard three-facilitating-subjects template. Enrichment runs from the Marginal Gains politics magazine to subject societies and the debating circuit, and the emphasis throughout is on preparing students to work independently before university does the same. The entry bar, two grade 7s and four grade 6s including Mathematics and English, keeps the cohort academically serious while leaving room for the 35 to 50 students who typically join from outside each year.

Solihull operates across two nearby sites, the Preparatory School on the former Saint Martin's campus and the Senior School on Warwick Road in the town centre, which sits within easy reach of Solihull rail and bus links and the wider south Birmingham road network. Specific daily start and finish times, and the details of any before- and after-school wraparound care for younger pupils, are not published in a form we can confirm here, so families should check current arrangements with the school. For nursery and early-years fee details, see the school website; government-funded early-education hours are available to eligible families, and our guide to nursery funding explains how the entitlement works. Prospective families comparing travel can use the FindMySchool map search to gauge journey times from home to each campus.

Entry is genuinely competitive. With around 500 candidates sitting for about 144 Year 7 places, the assessment is the real hurdle; the education that follows is the reward. Families should prepare children realistically for the 11+ examinations and have a back-up plan.

Fees have moved with VAT. All figures now include VAT at 20%, pushing senior day fees toward £23,000 a year before extras. Scholarships and means-tested bursaries soften this for some, but the headline cost is significant and worth planning around early.

Digital teaching is stronger at the top than the bottom. The prep and lower school could make fuller use of available technology, an area singled out for development. It is a targeted point rather than a broad weakness, but younger-year families may want to ask how it is being addressed.

The faith foundation is real but inclusive. The Church of England ethos, chapel and chaplaincy are woven through school life. Admission carries no faith test, and multi-faith prayer rooms serve a mixed community, but families who would prefer no religious framing at all should go in with eyes open.

Solihull School is a strong, all-round selective independent that delivers at both exam stages, ranking first in its town at GCSE and A-level and inside the top few per cent in England on results, while backing that academic core with genuinely serious sport, music, drama and outdoor education housed in purpose-built facilities. It suits ambitious, all-round families in Solihull and south Birmingham who want a single 3-18 pathway, value co-curricular breadth as much as grades, and are comfortable with a light-touch Christian ethos. The main caveats are the competitive 11+ entry and the post-VAT fees; families who clear both will find a school with the depth and continuity to carry a child from nursery to a Russell Group or Oxbridge destination.