Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire · Buckinghamshire

Dr Challoner's High School

Entirely separate from the similarly-named Dr Challoner's Grammar School — different founding, different governance, different admissions authority, and single-sex throughout unlike its near-namesake's mixed sixth form.

Despite sharing a founder's name with Dr Challoner's Grammar School (boys), this is a fully separate institution: split off in 1962 as a dedicated girls' school when demand outgrew the original grammar school, with its own governing body, its own admissions authority, and no shared governance today beyond informal joint music and debating events. Its own admissions policy confirms it isn't superselective — once a girl clears Buckinghamshire's flat qualifying score, places go by catchment, priority category, and distance, with the policy explicitly restricting score-ranking to in-year entry only, never the main Year 7 round. Unlike its near-namesake, this school is single-sex all the way through, including the sixth form.

Key facts

Gender: girls
Age range: 11-18
Region: South East
Local authority: Buckinghamshire
Established: 1962
DfE URN: 137219
Website: https://www.challonershigh.com

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT). GL Assessment marks the papers — confirmed directly on Buckinghamshire Council's own page. Buckinghamshire Council administers the test county-wide for all 13 Buckinghamshire grammar schools, but each school, including this one, sets its own admission number and oversubscription criteria.
Test format: Two multiple-choice papers sat on the same day in Year 6, each about an hour, assessing verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills. The three age-standardised scores combine as a weighted average — 50% verbal, 25% mathematical, 25% non-verbal — into a single Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS).partly verified
The specific paper-by-paper composition (Paper 1 = English + verbal reasoning, Paper 2 = maths + non-verbal) comes from a tutoring site, not confirmed directly on Buckinghamshire Council's own pages — the aggregate description (two papers, three skill areas, 50/25/25 weighting) is primary-confirmed.
Qualifying / pass mark: An STTS of 121 for September 2027 entry, stable across recent cycles and identical to the flat county-wide threshold used by every Buckinghamshire grammar school. Within the school's 180-place Year 7 intake, up to 12 places are reserved for catchment-area Pupil Premium or care-experienced girls scoring 115 or above, with up to 6 of those extended to girls scoring 110-114 if unfilled.
Superselective?: No

Catchment & priority criteria

A defined catchment area exists, published only as a council-produced boundary map, not a text description — visually centred on Little Chalfont, Amersham and Chesham, extending across a large part of the Chiltern area of Buckinghamshire.partly verified

Confirmed to exist on an official council-produced map, but only approximate town-level landmarks could be read from the map image, not precise street-level boundaries.

Children with an EHCP naming the school
Looked-after, previously looked-after, and internationally-adopted previously-looked-after girls
Pupil Premium-eligible girls (including Service Pupil Premium) within the catchment area
Up to 12 catchment Pupil Premium/care-experienced places for girls scoring 115+ (extending to 6 more at 110-114 if unfilled)
Daughters of staff (2+ years' service, or a skill-shortage recruit)
Girls living in the catchment area
Sisters of girls already on roll
Girls with exceptional medical or social needs met only by this school
Remaining places by straight-line distance; random ballot for exact ties

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2024	78.2	99.4%	Not calculated — confirmed absent from DfE's own results page for both 2024 and 2025, consistent with the nationwide COVID-era gap affecting these cohorts	—	—
A reliably-dated 2024 A-level breakdown couldn't be confirmed during this research.
2025	79.1 (Buckinghamshire LA average 53.4, England state-funded average 46.1 — roughly the top 1-3% of schools nationally)	99.5%	Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally. A Progress 8 figure of approximately +1.11 circulates on some aggregator sites for this year, but couldn't be traced to any DfE source and shouldn't be treated as real.	56%	83%
A-level (school-reported, described as 'the highest in the school's history'): 56% grades A-A, 83% grades A-B.

Ofsted

Rating: Outstanding, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. The previous inspection (2012) also rated the school Outstanding.
Date: 21 November 2023
Report: Read the full report

Sources

1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/137219
2. School's own 2027 Admissions Policy — https://www.challonershigh.com/userfiles/dchsmvc/Policies/Dr%20Challoner's%20High%20School%202027%20Admissions%20Policy.pdf
3. Buckinghamshire Council — Marking the Secondary Transfer Test (confirms GL Assessment) — https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools-index/school-admissions/school-admissions-guides-policies-and-statistics/guide-to-grammar-schools-and-the-secondary-school-transfer-test-11-plus/marking-the-secondary-transfer-test/
4. Ofsted report, inspected 21 November 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50238342
5. School's own history page — founded 1962 — https://www.challonershigh.com/school-life/school-history
6. DfE Compare School Performance — results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137219/dr-challoner's-high-school/secondary/results-over-time
7. School's own exam results page — https://www.challonershigh.com/about-us/exam-results-exam-information

Last updated 2026-08-31. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.