Gloucestershire grammar schools filled by out-of-county children

Many pupils attending Gloucestershire grammar schools do not live in the county

More than 1,400 children are filling Gloucestershire's grammar school places from out of the county - up by 700 from before the pandemic.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the BBC found that pupils from as far away as Chester and Wolverhampton are being accepted into the county's seven grammar schools.

Pate's, in Cheltenham, has the highest intake of out-of-county pupils.

One tutor has called for schools to change their criteria for places.

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire County Council said: "All grammar schools in Gloucestershire are academies and therefore are responsible for setting their own admissions policies.

"No Gloucestershire grammar school has a catchment area in its admissions criteria and places are offered following the applicant undertaking the common grammar school entrance exam."

Marling School in Stroud was founded in 1887 and is one of seven grammar schools in the county that educates pupils aged from 11-16

Grammar Schools are selective state schools whose pupils are chosen according to their score in verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests known as the 11-plus.

In Gloucestershire, pupils who sit the exam are ranked based on their score and parents are able to select their preference for which grammar school they want their child to attend.

The schools then take the highest ranking pupils from their preferences. Some children are given extra consideration such as those in receipt of free school meals.

What does the data say?

The BBC sent FOI requests to Gloucestershire's seven grammar schools - Pate's, Sir Thomas Rich's, Stroud High, Ribston, Crypt, Marling and Denmark Road - asking for the first half of the postcodes for all pupils.

In total, 1,409 pupils have enrolled from non-Gloucestershire postcodes, which is up from 751 in 2019.

The majority of children travelling into Gloucestershire come from Swindon and Stroud High has the highest intake of pupils from Swindon, which is currently 230 pupils.

Students are also travelling from Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Oxford and Worcester.

But they are also being accepted from postcodes in areas many hours away from the county, such as in Slough in Berkshire, Leicester in Leicestershire and Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

Denmark Road High School is carrying out a consultation on its admission arrangements for 2025

Some of them then change their postcodes to GL - meaning Gloucestershire - and others are "dual-registered students" with a reduced timetable for attending school in person.

Pate's has the highest intake of out-of-county pupils, with one in four pupils classed as non-local.

Denmark Road High School said it had been carrying out a consultation into admissions arrangements for September 2025, with proposed changes including priority being given to pupils who live in Gloucester, when the number of places are oversubscribed.

Its figures showed that less than half of year seven pupils lived in Gloucestershire, with 16 out of 31 coming from outside the county.

However, the proportion of county pupils was higher in all other year groups, the highest being in year 12 (69%) followed by years 11 and 13 (68%).

'Problems are compounding'

Frustrated Gloucestershire parents anonymously told the BBC they felt they were up against a "catchment area of the whole country" and were competing with the children of people who could afford private tutoring.

Dorothy Gladwell, who has been tutoring children in Gloucester for 20 years, told the BBC places should be "limited primarily for people in Gloucester and the surrounding Cheltenham and Stroud" areas.

Frustrated parents in Gloucestershire said families who could afford it were investing in private coaching for the 11 plus

"It is not good for the children because little 11 and 12-year-olds are leaving home at 7am," she said.

"They are getting back very late, falling asleep sometimes in afternoon lessons because they are absolutely exhausted.

"There are the environmental issues of having to have transport. For example a coach travelling from Swindon to Sir Thomas Rich's everyday is a lot of fuel to add to pollution levels.

"The more people who are applying means that there are fewer children in Gloucester getting into the grammar schools, which means they have to travel further to other schools. It has compounded the problem," she added.

'Parents want the best'

Dr Ian Todd, founder of Cotswold Education Tutoring, said people invested in their children because "they want the best for their future".

"Really it is in hands of the grammar schools to make the decision," he said.

"All parents want the best for their children understandably.

Stroud's Conservative MP Siobhan Baillie said she would be happy to look into the issue of school admissions criteria with schools and policymakers

"They will do what they feel is right for their child to get them the best education, because education is one thing that is not affected very much by recession and financial difficulties," he said.

Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie, (Cons) said: "Perhaps we do need to think more widely about whether there should be an expansion of grammar schools or other grammar schools in Wiltshire and surrounds.

"I will always want to be selfish about Stroud district children over children from outside of our area and county.

"I think allowing schools to set their own admissions criteria, and allowing parents and children to put their best foot forward to make those applications is important.

"I am very happy to look at this with schools and wider policymakers."