Rugby, Warwickshire · Warwickshire
Lawrence Sheriff School
The only English grammar school found in this project so far with no sibling priority at all — the policy states it explicitly, ruling out what most similar schools grant automatically.
Founded in 1878 to keep alive the free grammar-school bequest of Elizabethan benefactor Lawrence Sheriff after his original foundation pivoted to become the fee-paying Rugby School — the two remain entirely separate institutions sharing only a name and a founder, over 140 years apart in structure. Like its Warwickshire neighbours, it sits inside the wider West Midlands Grammar Schools test consortium while Warwickshire Admissions handles registration on the school's own Trustees' behalf. A Schools Adjudicator ruling in October 2025 confirmed the school's catchment-tiered system is lawful even though, in the adjudicator's own words, it 'could in theory award every place' to its nearer catchment 'at the cost of excluding higher-scoring' applicants from further away — a genuine trade-off worth understanding rather than assuming pure merit-ranking. Unusually among grammar schools, it grants no sibling priority whatsoever.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- West Midlands
- Local authority
- Warwickshire
- Established
- 1878
- DfE URN
- 141277
- Website
- https://www.lawrencesheriffschool.net
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment — reported consistently by tutoring sites as the provider for the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership test, though not named explicitly in the school's own admissions policy or a Schools Adjudicator determination, both of which were read directly for this research.partly verified
GL Assessment is asserted only by tutoring sites; not named in the school's own policy or the Schools Adjudicator determination.
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice papers of around 60 minutes each (including instructions/practice), sat once in September of Year 6: verbal ability (English comprehension and verbal reasoning), numerical ability, and non-verbal ability, weighted and combined into a standardised total score. Shared with Warwickshire's other selective schools and the wider Birmingham and Shropshire/Wolverhampton/Walsall consortiums.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Automatic Qualifying Score (AQS) of 212 for September 2026 entry (test sat September 2025), confirmed via a Schools Adjudicator determination. Held essentially flat at 211-212 across four consecutive cycles even as applications rose from 407 (2023) to 563 (2025, provisional) — a roughly 3.75:1 ratio against 150 places. The maximum possible score wasn't stated in any source found.partly verified
212 for September 2026 entry is confirmed via a Schools Adjudicator determination, a strong primary source, but the maximum possible score on the scale (i.e. what 212 is out of) wasn't found anywhere.
- Superselective?
- No
Confirmed via both the school's own admissions policy and a Schools Adjudicator determination (ADA4479, October 2025): places are filled by a catchment-tiered hierarchy — the 'Eastern Area of Warwickshire' first, then a wider 10.004-mile 'Priority Circle,' then Pupil/Service Premium applicants outside catchment, then everyone else — so a lower-scoring child from the Eastern Area is admitted ahead of a higher-scoring child from further away. The adjudicator explicitly noted this could in theory fill every place from the nearer catchment alone, and ruled it lawful without disputing that this can happen. This catchment-first structure is the defining difference from a true superselective school, though demand within the oversubscribed Eastern Area tier itself is intense enough that the effective bar there likely sits well above the nominal AQS.
Catchment & priority criteria
Two-tier: the 'Eastern Area of Warwickshire' (the combined catchments of Bilton, Ashlawn and Avon Valley Schools — Rugby town plus numerous named surrounding parishes), and a wider 'Priority Circle' defined as a 10.004-mile radius from Rugby Water Tower, which wholly contains the Eastern Area. Out-of-catchment applicants can still be admitted if places remain.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children achieving the qualifying score (or a lower threshold)
- Up to 30 places: Pupil Premium-eligible children in catchment meeting a lower qualifying threshold
- Up to 5 places: Service Premium-eligible children in catchment meeting a lower qualifying threshold
- Children living in the Eastern Area of Warwickshire achieving the qualifying score or above
- Children living in the wider Priority Circle achieving the qualifying score or above
- Any unfilled Pupil/Service Premium places extended to those groups outside catchment
- Children living outside both catchment areas achieving the qualifying score or above
- Any remaining children meeting a lower waiting-list minimum standard
- Tie-break: highest test score, then Pupil/Service Premium eligibility, then shortest distance, then random allocation. Notably, there is no sibling priority anywhere in the Year 7 arrangements — the policy states explicitly that no special consideration is given for siblings.
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 77.1 (secondary source, not independently confirmed against DfE directly) | 99.2% (secondary source) | +0.89 (corroborated independently by two separate secondary aggregators) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap, so a genuine figure is expected | — | — |
| EBacc entry reported at 79.7% by a secondary source (down from 98.0% the prior year), unreconciled. No A-level breakdown for this specific year was located. | |||||
| 2025 | 75.1 (Warwickshire LA average 48.0, England average 46.1) | 96.0% (England 45.4%); a secondary aggregator states 98.0% for the same year, likely conflating this with the separate grade 4+ measure — DfE's figure is treated as authoritative | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| EBacc entry 86.0% (England 40.5%), 98% of pupils continued into education, apprenticeships or employment (England average 92%). A-level: average grade B, around 40.5 points per entry (corroborated by two secondary sources), around 220 entries. A*-A/A*-B percentages (roughly 40%/70%) come from tutoring sites only — the 70% figure is suspiciously identical to a different source's figure for this school's 2023 results, so is treated with low confidence rather than reported as current. | |||||
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
- 29 March 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/141277
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy 2025-2026 — https://www.lawrencesheriffschool.net/component/phocadownload/category/2-school-policies/56-admissions-policies?download=1881:admissions-policy-2025-2026&Itemid=101
- 3. Office of the Schools Adjudicator — Determination ADA4479 (31 October 2025) — https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6904b68214e0c1d9784174ad/ADA4479_Lawrence_Sheriff_School_Determination_31_October_2025.pdf
- 4. Warwickshire County Council — Grammar Schools in Warwickshire — https://warwickshire.gov.uk/grammar-schools-11-test/grammar-schools-warwickshire/1
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 29 March 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50184384
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — secondary results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/141277/lawrence-sheriff-school/secondary
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.