Skipton, North Yorkshire · North Yorkshire
Ermysted's Grammar School
Shares its entrance test provider with Skipton Girls' High School just as that school's own research found — but the widely-repeated 'pass mark is the 140th-ranked candidate' claim is a stale, slightly-wrong echo of a rule the school has since dropped entirely.
Tracing its origins to a 1492 bequest (with even older roots the school itself acknowledges may go back to 1468), Ermysted's is a boys' school for Years 7-11 that runs a genuinely co-educational sixth form in longstanding partnership with Skipton Girls' High School, broadening A-level subject choice at both. It recently switched its entrance test provider from GL Assessment to FSCE, and its own admissions policy quietly dropped a specific ranking formula in the process: the previous policy defined the pass mark as the score of the 150th-ranked candidate, a detail several tutoring sites still misquote as the 140th; the current policy states no formula at all, leaving the standard to the Admissions Committee's judgement each year. Also confirmed here for the first time in this project: Ermysted's belongs to a 10-school 'Northern Grammar Schools' Alliance' spanning Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria, alongside several other schools already documented on this site — explicitly a best-practice network, not a shared governance or admissions structure.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- Local authority
- North Yorkshire
- Established
- 1492
- DfE URN
- 121716
- Website
- https://ermysteds.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd), current from the test sat September 2026 for 2027-28 entry. GL Assessment was the confirmed provider through the test sat for September 2025 entry; the exact provider for the single transitional cohort in between wasn't directly confirmed either way.
- Test format
- Two papers combining English and mathematics, no separate verbal or non-verbal reasoning and no creative-writing component: Paper 1 multiple-choice, Paper 2 short written-answer, both age-standardised before being combined into an overall score.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published as a fixed number in the current policy — the required standard is 'determined by the Admissions Committee based on the performance of candidates in the main Entrance Test cohort,' with scores not released even to families who pass, 'to ensure all potential pupils start at the School on an equal footing.' The prior GL Assessment-era policy (governing Sept 2025 entry, now superseded) did define a formula: the score of the 150th-ranked candidate — not the 140th as several tutoring sites still claim.sources conflict
Several tutoring sites state the required standard is 'the score of the 140th-ranked candidate.' The school's own 2025-26 Admissions Policy (last GL Assessment cycle) explicitly defines it as the 150th-ranked candidate, not 140th. More importantly, this ranking formula is absent entirely from the current policy, which only says the standard is determined by the Admissions Committee based on cohort performance — treat '140th candidate' as stale and slightly wrong, not as current fact.
- Superselective?
- No
The school's own admissions policy sets a single pass/fail 'required standard' threshold, not a higher score band or a pure score-ranking system. Once a candidate clears that threshold, oversubscription is resolved primarily by catchment-area residency — in-catchment applicants prioritised ahead of out-of-catchment — then by Pupil Premium status, sibling links, and distance. This threshold-plus-catchment model is explicit, structural evidence against superselective status.
Catchment & priority criteria
A defined catchment area covering the areas served by primary schools in Beamsley, Bradley, Burnsall, Carleton, Cracoe, Embsay, Gargrave, Grassington, Kettlewell, Kirkby-in-Malhamdale, Skipton, Thornton-in-Craven and Threshfield, published alongside the admissions policy as a map.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school, admitted first
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children who achieved the required standard
- Children who achieved the required standard whose home address is within the catchment area
- Children who achieved the required standard whose home address is outside the catchment area
- Tie-break applied within the two catchment groups, in order: Pupil Premium recipients, then siblings of current pupils, then shortest straight-line distance to school
- Final tie-break: random allocation, conducted in the presence of an independent witness
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 65.9 (England average 45.9, North Yorkshire LA average 46.8) | 85.8% (England 45.9%, North Yorkshire LA 47.7%) | +0.59 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.34 to +0.85) — this is the most recent year DfE was able to calculate Progress 8 for this school; the following cohort falls into the nationwide COVID-era gap | — | — |
| A-level (112 students): average grade B (41.09 points per entry). DfE's current service doesn't publish an A*-A/A*-B percentage breakdown for this school, nor a historic A-level progress/value-added score for this specific year. | |||||
| 2025 | 67.3 (England average 46.1, North Yorkshire LA average 46.5) | 86.7% (England 45.4%, North Yorkshire LA 47.0%) | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (91 of 93 enrolled students): average grade B- (37.44 points per entry, North Yorkshire LA average B-/35.74, England average B-/36.1), value-added progress score +0.25 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.12 to +0.37). DfE's current service doesn't publish an A*-A/A*-B percentage breakdown for this school. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good overall (this was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since, so no ungraded 'report card' exists yet for this school). Quality of education was Good; behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision were all Outstanding. The prior inspection (2008, also Outstanding) was under an older framework, and the school was legally exempt from routine inspection between 2008 and November 2020, explaining the 14-year gap.
- Date
- 28-29 September 2022
- 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/121716
- 2. Ermysted's Admissions Policy 2027-28 (current, FSCE era) — https://ermysteds.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2027-28-Admissions-Policy.pdf
- 3. Ermysted's Admissions Policy 2025-26 (GL Assessment era, contains the 150th-candidate rule) — https://ermysteds.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2025-26-Admissions-Policy.pdf
- 4. Ermysted's — 'Northern Grammar Schools working together' notice — https://ermysteds.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Northern-Grammar-Schools-working-together.pdf
- 5. Ermysted's — History page — https://ermysteds.uk/our-school/history/
- 6. Ofsted full report PDF, inspected 28-29 September 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50199630
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/121716/ermysted-s-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — Results over time (2023-2025) — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/121716/ermysted-s-grammar-school/secondary/results-over-time
- 9. DfE Compare School Performance — A-level results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/121716/ermysted-s-grammar-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications-results-over-time
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.