Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire · Warwickshire
King Edward VI School
GCSE progress here is well above average, but the A-level value-added score is below average for the same pupils — a genuine divergence, not a data error, typical of highly selective intakes.
Traditionally known as Shakespeare's School, tracing informal origins to a 1295 chantry school and formally re-founded by King Edward VI's royal charter in 1553, nine days before his death. A separate institution from the many similarly-named King Edward VI schools in Birmingham, and from neighbouring Stratford Girls' Grammar School — the two share the same test infrastructure and 'South Warwickshire' Committee of Reference for setting standards, but each is independently governed with its own admission number and catchment. Up to 70 of its 87 places are reserved for an inner 13-mile priority circle before wider candidates are considered, and its qualifying score is never published centrally — it's set fresh each year and sent to applicant families individually rather than announced in advance.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- West Midlands
- Local authority
- Warwickshire
- Established
- 1553
- DfE URN
- 137302
- Website
- https://www.kes.net
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Not explicitly named in any primary source found — the school's own policy and Warwickshire County Council both describe it only as 'the 11+ test' or the 'West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Tests.' Multiple tutoring sites claim GL Assessment, but this couldn't be independently confirmed.verify with school
No primary source (school or council) names a specific commercial test provider; only tutoring/tuition sites make this claim.
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice papers of around 60 minutes each, covering English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics, sat in September of Year 6. Raw scores are standardised and weighted, with weightings determined by each school for its own entry year. The school's own policy describes the test as shared with the other five Warwickshire grammar schools and the eight Birmingham grammar schools; Warwickshire County Council's own page separately describes a wider sharing arrangement extending to Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire — both are primary sources describing the consortium's scope somewhat differently.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published in the general admissions policy. The school's own policy confirms an 'Automatic Qualifying Score' and separate 'Required Minimum Academic Standard' are set annually, after the test, by a Committee of Reference calibrated to that year's cohort and the school's 87-place admission number — the resulting number is sent to individual applicant families by letter, not published centrally. Secondary tutoring sites claim figures of 205 (qualifying) and 224 (a 'priority score') for 2026 entry, but this terminology doesn't match the school's own and wasn't independently verified.verify with school
No specific numeric qualifying score could be verified from a primary source for any year — the school confirms the mechanism but not the resulting figure, which is sent to individual families rather than published. Secondary tutoring-site figures use different terminology from the school's own and are treated as unverified.
- Superselective?
- No
The qualifying score is not a fixed high bar — it moves each year to fill the school's specific 87 places rather than skimming a fixed top percentile regardless of intake size. Geography also plays a major role: up to 70 of the 87 places are reserved for an inner 13-mile priority circle before any place is guaranteed to a qualifying child from further away. This catchment-anchored, place-calibrated model is characteristic of an ordinary selective county grammar school rather than the catchment-irrelevant, fixed-percentile model that defines classic superselectives.
Catchment & priority criteria
Two-tier priority circles centred on the Fountain, Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, redetermined each year: for the 2027 cycle, an inner circle of 13 miles and an outer circle of 16.936 miles reaching the county boundary south of Long Compton.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school, achieving above the minimum academic standard
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children reaching the qualifying score, or up to 20 marks below it
- Children living in the outer priority circle attracting Pupil Premium via Free School Meals eligibility, reaching the qualifying score or up to 20 marks below, capped at 13 places
- Up to 70 places for children living within the inner priority circle reaching the qualifying score or above
- Children living within the outer priority circle (including inner) reaching the qualifying score or above
- Children living outside the outer priority circle reaching the qualifying score or above
- Waiting-list only: children scoring below the qualifying score but above the minimum academic standard
- Tie-break: nearest straight-line distance, then a witnessed computerised random number generator
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 81.7 | 100.0% | +1.21 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.88 to +1.53) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap | — | — |
| A-level (571 entries): average grade A- (48.08 points per entry, Warwickshire average B-/35.53, England average C+/34.38). Calculated from the school's own published grade-count table: 67.8% A*-A, 90.2% A*-B. | |||||
| 2025 | 83.3 | 100.0% | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 58.3% (calculated from school data) | 86% |
| A-level (674 entries): average grade A- (46.35 points per entry, England average B-/36.1), value-added progress score -0.22 ('Below average', confidence interval -0.31 to -0.14) — a genuine divergence from the same school's well-above-average GCSE Progress 8 history, and a common statistical pattern at highly selective schools with a very high-attaining intake (a ceiling effect) rather than evidence of weaker teaching. Calculated from the school's own published grade-count table: 58.3% A*-A, 86% A*-B (school's own figure). | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding, in all five categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. This was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since.
- Date
- 30 November - 1 December 2021
- 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/137302
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy 2027 (determined) — https://www.kes.net/files/cms/3485_M%20-%20Admissions%20Policy%202027%20-%20Determined.pdf
- 3. School's own Admissions overview page — https://www.kes.net/admissions/
- 4. School's own GCSE Results 2025 (PDF) — https://www.kes.net/files/cms/3345_2025%20GCSE%20Results%20(PDF).pdf
- 5. School's own A Level Results 2025 (PDF) — https://www.kes.net/files/cms/3346_2025%20A%20Level%20Results%20(PDF).pdf
- 6. Ofsted report, inspected 30 November - 1 December 2021 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50176291
- 7. Warwickshire County Council — Grammar schools in Warwickshire — https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grammar-schools-11-test/grammar-schools-warwickshire/1
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137302/king-edward-vi-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 9. DfE Compare School Performance — A-level qualifications — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137302/king-edward-vi-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.