Newport, Shropshire · Telford and Wrekin
Newport Girls' High School Academy
The published qualifying score (192) is a pass/fail bar set by a five-person local panel reviewing sample schoolwork — the real out-of-area cutoff has run as high as 215.
Opened in 1919, sharing its Newport, Shropshire town with Haberdashers' Adams — the two register through the same shared West Midlands Grammar Schools test portal but run entirely independent admissions authorities, PANs, and criteria. Uniquely among the schools researched in this batch, its qualifying score isn't calculated purely from the test: a panel of the school's own head, a neighbouring non-selective school's head, a local authority representative, and two primary heads review samples of pupils' schoolwork and a piece of free-writing each year to help decide where to draw the line. In-area girls who merely clear that score get priority ahead of higher-scoring out-of-area candidates, which is why this isn't classed as superselective despite real competition for places.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- West Midlands
- Local authority
- Telford and Wrekin
- Established
- 1919
- DfE URN
- 136516
- Website
- https://www.nghs.org.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, confirmed via a direct link to GL Assessment's own sample-papers site from the school's own entrance-test page (which itself uses the informal name 'GL Learning').
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice papers of around 50 minutes each, sat once in September of Year 6 as part of the West Midlands Grammar Schools shared entrance test, covering English, verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal reasoning. Results are age-standardised around a mean of 200. A specific 50/25/25 subject weighting appears only on tutoring sites and isn't confirmed by a primary source.partly verified
The commonly-quoted 50/25/25 subject weighting appears only on tutoring/aggregator sites, not on any school or consortium primary source.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- 192 (minimum qualifying score) for September 2026 entry, with 183 as the threshold for looked-after and Pupil Premium children — set annually by a selection panel (the school's own head, the head of a neighbouring non-selective school, a local authority representative, and two primary heads) who review samples of pupils' schoolwork and a piece of free-writing to help decide where to draw the line, rather than deriving it purely from the test score. This is a pass/fail bar, not the real competitive cutoff: the lowest score actually securing an out-of-area place has run higher in recent cycles — 215 for 2026, 211 for 2025, 213 for 2024.partly verified
192 is the published pass/fail bar for 2026 entry, but presenting it alone would understate real selectivity — the actual lowest score securing an out-of-area offer has run to 215 in the same cycle, a gap worth surfacing to families rather than omitting.
- Superselective?
- No
The school's own policy never uses the term. The qualifying score isn't a fixed top-percentile target — it's set annually by a local selection panel reviewing sample schoolwork, not derived purely from the test. Crucially, in-area ('Newport boundary') girls who merely clear that score get priority ahead of higher-scoring out-of-area candidates, the opposite of a true superselective, which ranks all applicants by score with no geographic priority. The school also reserves 15 of 120 places for local Pupil Premium pupils, a widening-access mechanism atypical of superselective schools.
Catchment & priority criteria
A defined 'Newport boundary area' covering Newport town and surrounding rural parishes including Edgmond, Chetwynd, Chetwynd Aston, Church Aston, Forton, Lilleshall, Tibberton, Cherrington and Sheriffhales, extending northwest toward Sambrook/Hinstock and south to the edge of the Telford urban area.
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children scoring at least 95% of the qualifying score
- Up to 15 places for Pupil Premium pupils at a listed Telford and Wrekin primary school, scoring at least 95% of the qualifying score, ranked by score if oversubscribed
- Girls resident within the Newport boundary area achieving the qualifying score, ranked by score if oversubscribed
- All other (out-of-area) candidates, ranked purely by descending standardised test score, tie-break by distance
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 73.2 | 98.9% (the school's own site rounds this to 99%) | +0.49 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.18 to +0.79) — this is the last cohort before the COVID-era Progress 8 gap begins | sources-conflict — see note | sources-conflict — see note |
| A-level data has a genuine, well-evidenced conflict for this year: DfE's official figures show 95 students, average grade B+, 44.15 points per entry. The school's own 'School Performance 2024' page instead shows 102 students, average grade B, 41.41 points — figures that exactly match DfE's 2023 data rather than 2024, suggesting a stale, uncorrected section on the school's own site. DfE's figures are treated as authoritative here; a specific A*-A/A*-B percentage for 2024 isn't reported given this conflict. | |||||
| 2025 | 75.3 (England average 46.1, Telford and Wrekin LA average 44.2) | 96.6% | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 46.8% | 73.4% |
| A-level (120 students): average grade B+ (41.84 points per entry), value-added progress score -0.06 ('Average', confidence interval -0.17 to +0.04). A*-A 46.8%, A*-B 73.4% (school's own published figures, matching the DfE-confirmed cohort size). | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding, in every category including sixth form. This was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since, so this remains the school's current, standing rating.
- Date
- 1 November 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/136516
- 2. School's own Determined Admissions Policy, Entry 2026 — https://www.nghs.org.uk/assets/Managed/FilesPages/289-admissions-policy/NGHS-Determined-Admissions-Policy-2026.pdf
- 3. School's own Year 7 Admissions page — https://www.nghs.org.uk/admissions/y7-admissions
- 4. School's own Entrance Test page — https://www.nghs.org.uk/admissions/entrance-test
- 5. School's own Catchment Area map — https://www.nghs.org.uk/assets/Managed/FilesPages/286-y7-admissions/78019403eb/newport-girls-high-catchment.pdf
- 6. Ofsted report, inspected 1 November 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50201613
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136516/newport-girls--high-school-academy/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — A-level qualifications — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136516/newport-girls--high-school-academy/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.