Ripon, North Yorkshire · North Yorkshire
Ripon Grammar School
The local council, not the school, is the admissions authority here — a genuine structural difference from most other grammar schools in this project, and confirmed directly in the council's own legal determination notice.
Chartered by Queen Mary and King Philip in 1555, Ripon Grammar is a Community school, meaning North Yorkshire Council itself sets and applies the admissions criteria, not the school's own governors — a meaningful difference from the academy and voluntary-aided grammar schools that dominate this project. The council organises its own separate entrance test here, explicitly confirming it plays no role in Ermysted's or Skipton Girls' High's independent tests. Its qualifying score is recalculated every year to admit the highest-scoring 28% of the Year 6 cohort living in a defined local catchment — a comparatively generous share that's why this school isn't classed as superselective. Unusually among grammar schools in this project, it also runs its own state boarding provision, with entirely separate admissions criteria that favour distant applicants rather than local ones.
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- Local authority
- North Yorkshire
- Established
- 1555
- DfE URN
- 121694
- Website
- https://www.ripongrammar.co.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- Local-authority coordinated test
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, produced and marked by the provider but organised and administered directly by North Yorkshire Council, not the school — and not shared with Ermysted's or Skipton Girls' High, North Yorkshire's other two grammar schools, which run their own separate tests independently.
- Test format
- For the current cycle: two papers, both multiple-choice. Verbal Skills (English comprehension/spelling/grammar, plus verbal reasoning) and Non-Verbal Reasoning with Mathematics. This replaced an earlier pure verbal-reasoning-and-non-verbal-reasoning format with no curriculum content, changed to incorporate Key Stage 2 curriculum elements starting with the test sat September 2026.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not a fixed pass mark — recalculated every year to admit the highest-scoring 28% (or as close as possible) of the Year 6 cohort living in the school's defined catchment area. Recent cutoff scores: 195 (2024 entry), 196 (2025 entry), 203 (2026 entry) — though the format change means these aren't directly comparable across the boundary.
- Superselective?
- No
The qualifying threshold is calibrated to admit the highest-scoring roughly 28% — more than one in four — of a defined local catchment cohort, not a small elite percentage skimmed from a much wider competitive pool. This is structurally different from schools typically labelled superselective, which usually admit a low single-digit-to-low-teens percentage from a wide catchment. Neither the school's own policy nor North Yorkshire Council's admissions pages use the term.
Catchment & priority criteria
A defined catchment area ('the Ripon area') set by North Yorkshire Council, used both to define the pool from which the top 28% qualify and as a day-place priority tier. The exact postcode boundary requires the council's interactive map tool and wasn't retrieved as text during this research.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school, admitted per statutory duty
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Children with special social or medical reasons for admission, evidenced professionally
- Children living within the school's catchment area
- Children of staff employed 2+ years, or recruited to fill a skill-shortage post
- Children living outside the catchment area
- Tie-break: sibling at the school at time of admission, then nearest distance, then random allocation
- A separate boarding admissions process exists for 14 of the 117 Year 7 places, with its own distinct priority order (looked-after children, Armed Forces families, defined boarding need, then termly then weekly applications) and an inverted tiebreak favouring the furthest distance, since boarding is intended for those who live far away.
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 69.1 (England average 45.9, North Yorkshire average 46.8) | 91.5% (England 45.9%, North Yorkshire 47.7%) | +0.72 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.45 to +0.99) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap | — | — |
| A-level: average grade B (40.76 points per entry) — a dip compared with 2023 (B+/44.78) and 2025 (B+/44.51). A*-A 43.1%, A*-B 70.2% (school's own results page, using a different per-grade-entry methodology from DfE's per-student measure, so not directly comparable). | |||||
| 2025 | 70.9 (England average 46.1, North Yorkshire average 46.5) | 93.7% (England 45.4%, North Yorkshire 47.0%) | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (152 students): average grade B+ (44.51 points per entry), value-added progress score +0.35 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.25 to +0.45, England average -0.03). 35.5% achieved AAB+ with 2 facilitating subjects (England 17.5%, North Yorkshire 19.9%). DfE's current service doesn't publish an A*-A/A*-B percentage breakdown for this school. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good overall (this was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since). Personal development and sixth-form provision were both Outstanding; quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management were all Good. The school's separate boarding provision is inspected on a different regulatory track and was most recently rated Good in all three categories in May 2024.
- Date
- 25-26 January and 3 March 2023
- 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/121694
- 2. North Yorkshire Council — Determined Admission Arrangements 2026-27 Notice — https://www.ripongrammar.co.uk/documents/NorthYorkshire%20Council%20-%20%20Determined%20Arrangements%202026-27%20Notice.pdf
- 3. North Yorkshire Council — Selective schools page (cut-off score table) — https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/education-and-learning/school-admissions/selective-schools
- 4. North Yorkshire Council — Ripon Grammar School Boarding Admissions Policy 2027/28 — https://edemocracy.northyorks.gov.uk/documents/s62019/20260106%20Appendix%205%20-%20Proposed%20Admissions%20Policy%20for%20Ripon%20Grammar%20School%20Boarding%202027-28.pdf
- 5. Ofsted report, main education inspection 25-26 January 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50215206
- 6. Ofsted report, boarding welfare inspection 20-21 May 2024 — https://www.ripongrammar.co.uk/documents/Ripon%20Grammar%2010331448%20-%20Final.pdf
- 7. School's own History page — https://www.ripongrammar.co.uk/about/school-history/
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/121694/ripon-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.