High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire · Buckinghamshire

John Hampden Grammar School

Its own 2025 exam data shows an Attainment 8 of 75.3 — DfE's official figure for the identical cohort is 72.3, an unexplained gap between two primary sources.

John Hampden sets no score above Buckinghamshire's flat county-wide threshold, and its own admissions policy confirms places are allocated by catchment and priority category, never by ranking test scores. A genuine nuance on gender: while the sixth form is officially boys-only, the school's own policy allows a small number of external girls — typically from the nearby Wycombe High School — to join specific A-level classes only, not general sixth-form entry, and the two schools give each other's siblings admissions priority. A government procurement record confirms exactly who runs the county's 11+: GL Assessment produces and marks the test county-wide, Buckinghamshire Council administers it, under a contract running from June 2024.

Key facts

Gender: boys
Age range: 11-18
Region: South East
Local authority: Buckinghamshire
DfE URN: 136771
Website: https://www.jhgs.bucks.sch.uk

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT). Confirmed via a UK government Find a Tender contract-award notice (June 2024): GL Education Group Ltd (GL Assessment) holds the 5-year contract to produce and mark the test county-wide, commissioned jointly by all 13 Buckinghamshire grammar schools through their shared company, The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS); Buckinghamshire Council separately handles registration, administration and results.
Test format: Two multiple-choice papers sat on the same day in autumn of Year 6, each about an hour, assessing verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills. The three areas are age-standardised then summed into a single Secondary Transfer Test Score (STTS); no maximum score is stated in any primary source.partly verified
Some tutoring sites describe a 4-subject test structure and a maximum score of 180, neither of which could be confirmed in the school's own policy, Buckinghamshire Council's pages, or the underlying government procurement notice — all of which describe 3 age-standardised skill areas with no stated ceiling.
Qualifying / pass mark: An STTS of 121, confirmed for both the September 2026 and September 2027 intakes and written into the underlying test-provision contract as a fixed requirement — the same flat threshold used identically across all Buckinghamshire grammar schools.
Superselective?: No

Catchment & priority criteria

A two-tier catchment: Priority Area A (High Wycombe, part of South Buckinghamshire, and outlying villages) and Priority Area B (part of South Buckinghamshire and Maidenhead), published as a map dated September 2022.

Children with an EHCP naming the school
Looked-after and previously looked-after boys
Up to 12 places for looked-after or Pupil-Premium-eligible catchment boys scoring 113-120
Other Pupil-Premium-eligible catchment boys scoring 121+
Brothers of pupils on roll at this school
Boys with a sister on roll at Wycombe High School, residing in the catchment area
Sons of staff (2+ years' service, or a skill-shortage recruit)
Boys living in Priority Area A
Boys living in Priority Area B
Exceptional medical or social needs met only by this school
All other boys, by distance

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2024	73.2	94.5%	+0.84 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.62 to +1.05) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. DfE's figure and the school's own published exam data agree exactly for this year.	42.4%	73.3%
A-level: 42.4% grades A-A, 73.3% grades A-B (school-reported).
2025	72.3 (DfE-confirmed; the school's own published exam data states 75.3 for the identical cohort — an unresolved discrepancy)	97.8% (both DfE and the school's own site agree)	Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally. A figure of +0.84 circulates for 'current' results but genuinely belongs to 2024, not 2025.	43.3%	75.1%
A-level (school-reported): 43.3% grades A-A, 75.1% grades A-B. DfE's own current measure: average grade B+, average point score 42.23.

Ofsted

Rating: Outstanding, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision.
Date: 14-15 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/136771
2. School's own Admissions Policy 2026 — https://johnhampden.reactfiles.co.uk/uploads/key_information/Admissions-Policy-2026.pdf
3. UK Find a Tender — TBGS contract-award notice, June 2024 (confirms GL Assessment and Buckinghamshire Council roles) — https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/018646-2024
4. Ofsted report, inspected 14-15 September 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50196667
5. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136771/john-hampden-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
6. School's own exam data 2024-25 — https://johnhampden.reactfiles.co.uk/uploads/document/Exam-Data-for-Website-and-Prospectus-2025.pdf
7. School's own catchment area map — https://johnhampden.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/Catchment-Map-Sept-2022.pdf

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