Rossendale, Lancashire · Lancashire
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School
The current school has never been inspected by Ofsted — a widely-circulated 'Inadequate' rating found online belongs to a predecessor legal entity that closed in 2023, not the school as it exists today.
Traces its origins to Newchurch Grammar School, founded in 1701, taking its current name on relocating to Waterfoot in 1913. The school has an unusually consequential legal history: after its predecessor academy was rated Inadequate by Ofsted in June 2022 following serious safeguarding failures — a sharp fall from Outstanding in 2016 — it was rebrokered to Star Academies under a DfE 'Fresh Start' in September 2023, becoming a new legal entity with a new URN. That new entity has never been inspected, so it currently carries no Ofsted rating at all, even though search results and some aggregator sites still attach the old 'Inadequate' judgement to the school's name. Runs its own GL Assessment entrance exam independently of Lancashire's other three grammar schools, with places allocated through two tiers of named priority primary schools rather than pure score rank.
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- North West
- Local authority
- Lancashire
- Established
- 1913
- DfE URN
- 150261
- Website
- https://www.brgs.org.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, confirmed directly on the school's own admissions page.
- Test format
- A single on-site entrance exam, not shared with any consortium, comprising three papers: Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, and English, set and standardised by the school's service provider.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not numerically published in any official document — both current admission arrangements documents state only that applicants must 'achieve the qualifying score,' with no percentile or standardised figure disclosed. The most recent cycle saw 381 preferences for 180 places, roughly 2.1 applicants per place.verify with school
No official document discloses the actual pass mark or standardised score for any cycle.
- Superselective?
- No
The school's own policy never uses the term 'superselective' and doesn't state a target admission percentile. Structurally it's a hybrid: after looked-after children and EHC Plan pupils, places go first to two geographically defined priority areas of named primary schools (an inner area of six local towns, then a wider area further out), each ranked internally by entrance-exam mark, then staff children, then all other children ranked purely by mark. In the most recent published allocation, the majority of places (96 of 180) went to the open 'all other children' pool ranked by score, but a meaningful share went to the two priority areas — where a lower-scoring local child can be admitted ahead of a higher-scoring non-local one — which is the feature distinguishing this from a classic superselective.
Catchment & priority criteria
No simple radius or distance catchment. Instead, two tiers of named-primary-school priority areas (an inner area covering Bacup, Rawtenstall, Crawshawbooth, Stacksteads, Newchurch and Waterfoot; a wider area covering Haslingden, Helmshore, Whitworth, Edenfield, Stubbins and part of Accrington), each ranked internally by exam mark, followed by an open, uncapped pool available to any child nationally who sits and passes the exam.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school, admitted before oversubscription criteria apply
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Children attending inner-area primary schools, ranked by entrance-exam mark
- Children attending wider-area primary schools, ranked by entrance-exam mark
- Children of staff employed 2+ years, or recruited to a skill-shortage post
- All other children, ranked by entrance-exam mark
- Tie-break: nearest home-to-school distance, then random allocation administered by Lancashire County Council
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 72 | verify with school — couldn't be reliably extracted from DfE's service during this research despite a sustained effort | +0.36 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.15 to +0.58) — this was the first GCSE cohort reported under the school's current legal entity, following the September 2023 restructuring | — | — |
| A-level (153 students — notably larger than the following year's cohort, worth a direct check with the school): average grade B (38.87 points per entry, Lancashire LA average B-/35.66, England average C+/34.38). | |||||
| 2025 | 73.3 | 96.6% | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (94 students): average grade B (39.55 points per entry, Lancashire LA average B-/36.46, England average B-/36.1), value-added progress score +0.08 ('Average', confidence interval -0.04 to +0.21). EBacc entry 96.0%. DfE's current service doesn't publish an A*-A/A*-B percentage breakdown for this school. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Not yet inspected under the school's current legal entity, which opened in September 2023 when Star Academies took over following a 'Fresh Start' restructuring — Ofsted's own provider page states plainly 'No report yet' for this URN. The predecessor academy at the same site was rated Outstanding in January 2016, then Inadequate in June 2022 following serious safeguarding failures around harmful sexual behaviour, bullying and discrimination, placing it in special measures — almost certainly what triggered the September 2023 restructuring. That Inadequate rating belongs to a closed legal entity and doesn't reflect the school as it has operated for the last three years, though it still circulates on some search results and aggregator sites without that context.
- Date
- Not yet inspected under this URN
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA (current entity) — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/150261
- 2. GIAS — predecessor academy record (2012-2023, closed) — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/138835
- 3. School's own Admissions page — https://www.brgs.org.uk/information/admission-to-academy/
- 4. School's own Entrance Exam information page — https://www.brgs.org.uk/information/entrance-exam/
- 5. School/Star Academies — Determined Admission Arrangements 2027/28 — https://www.brgs.org.uk/download/determined-admission-arrangements-2027/?wpdmdl=14987
- 6. Ofsted report, predecessor entity, inspected 14-15 June 2022 (Inadequate) — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50194531
- 7. Ofsted provider page, current entity ('No report yet') — https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/150261
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/150261/bacup-and-rawtenstall-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.