Alford, Lincolnshire · Lincolnshire

Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford

Currently under a DfE Notice to Improve for financial management — a real, active governance concern separate from (and not reflected in) its educational Ofsted judgement.

One of roughly 15 schools in the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, sharing a single county-wide 11+ test with a qualifying score set to capture the top 25% of the ability range — a broad quartile threshold, not a narrow superselective band. Worth flagging directly: the trust's own signed 2024/25 accounts confirm the school is currently subject to a Department for Education Notice to Improve over financial management, after running a genuine deficit and breaching the Academy Trust Handbook on cash management — a live, substantive concern for families to know about, separate from and not reflected in its Ofsted educational rating, which was unaffected.

Key facts

Gender: co-ed
Age range: 11-18
Region: East Midlands
Local authority: Lincolnshire
Established: 1566
DfE URN: 136315
Website: https://www.queenelizabeths.co.uk

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools' shared 11+ test. GL Assessment is reported by secondary/tutoring sources as the provider, though not named directly in the school's own admissions policy, which describes testing only as being 'in line with the Lincolnshire Grammar Schools' Consortium.'partly verified
GL Assessment as provider comes only from the Lincolnshire Consortium's own site content and secondary tutoring sources, not the school's own admissions policy.
Test format: Two papers — Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — both multiple-choice with OMR answer sheets, sat in September of the child's final primary year (Year 6), with registration the preceding year (Year 5). Usually taken at the child's own primary school.
Qualifying / pass mark: A combined standardised score of at least 220 across both papers, for the 2025/26 admissions cycle (September 2026 entry) — set to represent approximately the top 25% of the ability range of the relevant Lincolnshire age group, the same threshold used consortium-wide.
Superselective?: No

Catchment & priority criteria

A defined 'designated free transport area' (the school's traditional catchment), plus named feeder primary schools whether inside or outside that area: Alford, Huttoft, Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Theddlethorpe, Willoughby and Withern. Catchment and feeder status affect priority ranking, not eligibility — qualifying pupils from anywhere can still be admitted if places remain; historically roughly half of each cohort lives outside the designated area.

Children with an EHCP naming the school who reached the qualifying score
Qualifying pupils currently or previously in public care
Qualifying pupils in the catchment area with a sibling at the school
Qualifying pupils in the catchment area
Qualifying pupils at a named feeder primary (outside catchment) with a sibling at the school
Qualifying pupils at a named feeder primary (outside catchment)
Any other qualifying pupil
Tie-break within any category: 11+ score first, then straight-line distance, then independent random allocation

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2024	59.1	76.3%	+0.28 ('Above average', England average -0.03) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap	—	—
A-level: DfE's own value-added progress score for this cohort was +0.23 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.07 to +0.39).
2025	60.5 (England average 46.1)	72.2% (grade 4+ 95.8%; England grade5+ average 45.4%)	Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally	—	—
EBacc entry 94.4% (England average 40.5%). DfE's current A-level format doesn't publish an A-A/A-B breakdown for this school; only an average point score and value-added banding are available, and the specific year attribution for the average point score (36.2) couldn't be confirmed during this research.

Ofsted

Rating: Under Ofsted's new report-card framework: 'Expected standard' in all seven evaluated areas — Achievement, Attendance and Behaviour, Curriculum and Teaching, Inclusion, Leadership and Governance, Personal Development and Wellbeing, and Post-16 Provision. Safeguarding met. The previous inspection (November 2021) rated the school Good under the old single-word framework — many secondary sources may still show that now-superseded rating.
Date: 6 May 2026
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/136315
2. School's own Admissions Arrangements for September 2025 — https://www.queenelizabeths.co.uk/files/admissions/2025%20Admissions%20Arragements.pdf
3. Ofsted report, inspected 6 May 2026 (new report-card framework) — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50307499
4. Prior Ofsted report, Good, November 2021 (now superseded) — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50175852
5. DfE — Notice to Improve publication page — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-improve-queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy
6. Trust's audited Annual Report & Financial Statements, year ended 31 August 2025 — https://www.queenelizabeths.co.uk/files/Governor/Accounts%202025.pdf
7. School's own Academic Results 2025 — https://www.queenelizabeths.co.uk/files/Results/2025Results.pdf
8. Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools — the 11+ — https://grammarschools.lincs.sch.uk/the-11-plus/

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