Best Grammar Schools in Warwickshire: GCSE and A Level Results Ranked

Among the best grammar schools in Warwickshire on average Attainment 8 score, King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon ranks first on 83.3, followed by Stratford Girls' Grammar School on 80.6, Lawrence Sheriff School on 75.1 and Rugby High School on 74.9. Alcester Grammar School completes the table on 73.7.

Five schools are ranked on a single measure, the average Attainment 8 score from the DfE's key stage 4 performance tables, which sums each pupil's grades across eight GCSE-level qualifications with English and maths double-weighted and a maximum of 90. Ashlawn School in Rugby, the sixth grammar in the county, runs one selective class alongside its comprehensive intake and is not among the five ranked here.

Which grammar schools in Warwickshire have the best GCSE results?

The figures run from 83.3 at King Edward VI School down to 73.7 at Alcester Grammar School, and the two Stratford-upon-Avon schools sit clearly above the other three, with Stratford Girls' Grammar School on 80.6 at rank 2. Lawrence Sheriff School (75.1), Rugby High School (74.9) and Alcester Grammar School (73.7) form a tight group at ranks 3 to 5, so the order within it depends on very small differences.

Boys' and girls' schools alternate through the table: King Edward VI School (boys) at rank 1, Stratford Girls' Grammar School (girls) at rank 2, Lawrence Sheriff School (boys) at rank 3 and Rugby High School (girls) at rank 4, with the co-educational Alcester Grammar School at rank 5. In both Stratford-upon-Avon and Rugby, the boys' school sits one place above the girls' school.

The share of pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths is 100 at King Edward VI School, Stratford Girls' Grammar School and Alcester Grammar School, 99.2 at Rugby High School and 96 at Lawrence Sheriff School, so Alcester Grammar School matches the top two on that measure despite ranking fifth on Attainment 8. The average A level grade follows the GCSE order, from A- at King Edward VI School and B+ at Stratford Girls' Grammar School to B at each of the three remaining schools.

How does entry to Warwickshire's grammar schools work?

Warwickshire's grammar schools fill Year 7 places using the West Midlands Grammar Schools' Entrance Test, a single sitting shared with Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire so that a child registering across more than one of those authorities sits it once. Warwickshire County Council coordinates registration, the test and the resulting score, whilst each grammar school remains its own admission authority and sets its own qualifying score, priority area and oversubscription criteria.

The county has six grammar schools across three towns: King Edward VI School and Stratford Girls' Grammar School in Stratford-upon-Avon, Lawrence Sheriff School and Rugby High School in Rugby (distinct from the fee-paying Rugby School), and Alcester Grammar School in Alcester. Ashlawn School in Rugby selects only one class each year, with a slightly different curriculum in Years 7 and 8 for that class. Registration closes well before the national secondary application deadline, so families usually need to act early in the autumn term of the test year.

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What does the West Midlands Grammar Schools' Entrance Test cover?

The test covers English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Maths across two multiple-choice papers of around 60 minutes each, including spoken instructions and practice items. GL Assessment sets it after the contract moved from CEM, and Warwickshire's guidance notes that questions relate to the primary curriculum but can go beyond what children are expected to have covered by the end of Key Stage 2.

Warwickshire standardises and weights each child's raw scores into a single total before releasing a result, and raw scores are not published or released even on request. Children do not need to live in Warwickshire to register, though a score from an 11+ test sat outside the shared West Midlands arrangement cannot transfer, so the child would sit the Warwickshire test instead.

What do the GCSE and A level figures show about these schools?

The figures compare five selective schools with one another, since every school in the table admits pupils through the entrance test, so the Attainment 8 scores from 73.7 to 83.3 describe results from an already selected intake. The maximum possible Attainment 8 score is 90, and the grade 5 percentage in English and maths shows how many pupils reached that threshold in both subjects.

Where published, the DfE's average A level grade is shown alongside the GCSE figures, and it has no effect on the ranking. Because each grammar school sets its own qualifying score and priority area, a higher position in the table does not tell a family whether their child would qualify for a place, and the one selective class at Ashlawn School is not captured here.

How the schools are ranked

The ranking covers every state grammar school in Warwickshire with a published Attainment 8 score in the Department for Education's key stage 4 performance data, ordered from highest to lowest, with schools on the same figure sharing a rank. Every school in the table selects by ability at eleven, so the figures reflect a selective intake as well as the teaching; Progress 8 was not calculated for this cohort.

The data is the Department for Education's own download from Compare school and college performance, so anyone can reproduce the order from the same file; the data year and source are listed in the key facts above.

Admissions guides for the ranked schools

• King Edward VI School (ranked 1)
• Stratford Girls' Grammar School (ranked 2)
• Lawrence Sheriff School (ranked 3)
• Rugby High School (ranked 4)
• Alcester Grammar School (ranked 5)

Related guides

• Warwickshire Grammar School Qualifying Scores and 11+ Entry
• Best grammar schools in the UK by GCSE results
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory
• The 11+ entrance exam explained

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