Louth, Lincolnshire · Lincolnshire

King Edward VI Grammar School

GCSE results keep improving, but its A-level value-added score just fell to statistically below average — a genuine, DfE-confirmed reversal worth knowing before assuming 'grammar school' means uniformly excellent at every stage.

This Louth school confirms how the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools actually works: a single shared GL Assessment test, one countywide qualifying score set at the top 25% of the ability range, with each member school layering its own catchment and feeder-school priorities on top — no per-school elevated bar. Worth a specific correction: several tutoring sites repeat a set of results figures (Attainment 8 61.8, 78% grade 5+) as if current, but these are genuinely last year's — the real 2025 figures are both different and, on GCSE measures, better. Its A-level trend deserves equal attention: DfE's own data shows a genuine decline into 'below average' value-added territory for the most recent leaving cohort, a real reversal worth surfacing rather than smoothing into generic grammar-school framing.

Key facts

Gender: co-ed
Age range: 11-18
Region: East Midlands
Local authority: Lincolnshire
Established: 1551
DfE URN: 142262
Website: https://www.kevigs.org

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools' shared 11+ test, commissioned from GL Assessment and administered on behalf of member schools including this one.
Test format: Two multiple-choice papers — Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — sat at the school itself on the third and fourth Saturdays of September in Year 6, with results published in October.
Qualifying / pass mark: A combined standardised score of 220 or higher, for September 2027 entry — the same countywide threshold used across the Lincolnshire Consortium, representing the top 25% of the ability range. Reaching 220 makes a child eligible but doesn't guarantee a place; the Year 7 admission number is 145 and the school is oversubscribed most years.
Superselective?: No

Catchment & priority criteria

A dual route: a traditional catchment area (Lincolnshire County Council's designated free-bus zone covering the Wolds, east of Louth, and north to Holton le Clay), plus 25 named feeder primary schools across Louth, Market Rasen and surrounding villages. Roughly a third of places each year go to qualifying children from outside both the catchment and feeder schools, mainly from North East Lincolnshire.

Children with an EHCP naming the school
Looked-after and previously looked-after children
Siblings who will still be attending when the child starts
Twins or multiple births who both passed the test
Qualifying children in the traditional catchment or at a named feeder primary, ranked by score if oversubscribed
All remaining qualifying candidates, ranked by score
Tie-break: nearest home address, then independent lottery

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2024	61.8 (England average 45.9, Lincolnshire average 45.2)	77.6% (England 45.9%, Lincolnshire 42.8%)	+0.33 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.09 to +0.56) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap	—	—
A-level: average grade C+ (33.79 points per entry, Lincolnshire average 34.08, England 34.38). Several secondary sites currently repeat this year's figures as if they were the most recent — they aren't.
2025	61.3 (England average 46.1, Lincolnshire average 45.1)	81.2% (England 45.4%, Lincolnshire 41.9%) — genuinely higher than the widely-repeated stale 78% figure some sites attribute to this year	Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally	verify with school	verify with school
A-level (80-81 students): average grade C (29.76 points per entry, down from 33.79 the year before), against Lincolnshire's C+ (34.44) and England's B- (35.0). The A-level progress (value-added) score was -0.53, banded 'below average' with a confidence interval (-0.67 to -0.4) entirely below the England benchmark of -0.03 — a statistically significant decline, in real tension with the school's improving GCSE results. AAB+ with 2 facilitating subjects 11.3% (Lincolnshire/England both 17.5%). EBacc entry 85.2%.

Ofsted

Rating: Good, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision.
Date: 8-9 May 2024
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/142262
2. School's own Admissions Policy for September 2027 entry — https://www.kevigs.org/media/goahk4ce/kevigs-admissions-policy-2027.pdf
3. Ofsted report, inspected 8-9 May 2024 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50249197
4. Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools — What are Grammar Schools? — https://grammarschools.lincs.sch.uk/what-are-grammar-schools/
5. DfE Compare School Performance — results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/142262/king-edward-vi-grammar-school/secondary/results-over-time
6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/142262/king-edward-vi-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
7. DfE Compare School Performance — Advanced level qualifications, 2025 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/142262/king-edward-vi-grammar-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications

Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.