North Finchley, Greater London · Barnet
St Michael's Catholic Grammar School
In a normal year, only girls from practising Catholic families are even invited to sit the entrance test at all — faith is the gate, and the test only ranks candidates within that already-filtered pool.
Founded in 1909 by the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus and a Voluntary Aided grammar school since 1958, this is the only Catholic grammar school researched in this project so far, and its admissions mechanism is genuinely different from a standard academically selective school. In a normal year, only baptised girls from practising Catholic families — evidenced by a parish priest's Certificate of Catholic Practice — are invited to sit the test at all, because that pool alone has consistently exceeded the roughly 200-candidate ceiling for 128 places. The test then ranks candidates purely within that faith-qualified group; there's no published numeric pass mark, and no catchment area at all — distance is used only as a final tiebreaker.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- London
- Local authority
- Barnet
- Established
- 1909
- DfE URN
- 101361
- Website
- https://www.st-michaels.barnet.sch.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Not named in the school's own published materials. Multiple independent tutoring sources consistently report GL Assessment for verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and maths, with an in-house English creative-writing task, but this isn't confirmed by the school itself.partly verified
Neither the admissions policy nor the school's exam-familiarisation page names a provider; GL Assessment is reported consistently across several independent tutoring sites but not confirmed by the school in writing.
- Test format
- Four written components: verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English, and mathematics. All invited candidates are ranked by total score, highest first.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No published fixed pass mark. Selection is by rank order of test score within a pool structurally capped at around 200 tested candidates — in a normal year, that pool consists entirely of practising Catholic applicants, since this group alone has historically exceeded 200 for 128 places.verify with school
No numeric threshold is stated anywhere in the school's own current admissions policy — admission is genuinely by rank order within a capped, faith-gated pool rather than a threshold system.
- Superselective?
- No
The school's own admissions policy confirms that, in a normal year, only baptised Catholic girls from practising Catholic families are even invited to sit the test, because this pool alone has 'within living memory' exceeded around 200 applicants for 128 places. The test then ranks candidates within that faith-gated pool by score — there's no published minimum standardised score benchmarked against a general, open ability range, which is the defining feature of a superselective school. The selection mechanism here is faith-first, then rank-within-pool, a genuinely different structure from the conventional superselective pattern, even though academic outcomes are exceptionally strong.
Catchment & priority criteria
None. Home address is used only as the final tiebreaker, after faith category, looked-after/Pupil Premium status, and a four-subject score tiebreak (verbal reasoning, then non-verbal reasoning, then English, then maths) are exhausted.
- Eligibility gate (normal year): only baptised Catholic girls from practising Catholic families, evidenced by a parish priest's Certificate of Catholic Practice, are invited to sit the entrance test at all
- Within that pool: practising-Catholic looked-after and previously looked-after girls ranked in the test's top 200
- Practising-Catholic Pupil Premium-eligible girls ranked in the top 200, capped at 32 places (25% of the admission number)
- All other practising-Catholic girls, remaining places in strict rank order of test score
- Contingency, only if practising-Catholic applicants fall below 200 in a given year: the pool widens in order to baptised Catholics without a Certificate of Catholic Practice, then Catechumens/Eastern Christian Church members, then other Christian denominations, then other looked-after girls, then other Pupil Premium girls, then any other girls
- Tie-break, in order: higher verbal reasoning score, then non-verbal reasoning, then English, then maths, then nearest home address, then lots drawn
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 79.3 (Barnet LA average 56.7, England average 45.9) | 98.4% | +0.98 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.73 to +1.22) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. At least one secondary aggregator was found presenting this figure without a clear year label, an example of the stale-figure mis-attachment this project watches for. | — | — |
| A-level (101 students): average grade A- (46.84 points per entry). A*-A 62%, A*-B 88% (school's own self-reported figures). | |||||
| 2025 | 77.8 (Barnet LA average 56.7, England average 46.1) | 96.1% | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | 61% | 87% |
| A-level (102 students): average grade A- (46.94 points per entry, Barnet LA average B/39.61), value-added progress score +0.11 ('Average'). A*-A 61%, A*-B 87% (school's own self-reported figures — DfE's current service reports average grade/points and a value-added score instead of this breakdown). | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding, in every category: 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. A separate Catholic Schools Inspectorate (Section 48) report, covering only Catholic life and mission, Religious Education, and Collective Worship, also rated the school Outstanding overall in October 2024 — a different inspectorate on a different cycle, not to be merged with the Ofsted rating.
- Date
- 9 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/101361
- 2. School's own Year 7 and Sixth Form Admissions Policy 2026-27 — https://www.st-michaels.barnet.sch.uk/assets/Documents/Attachments/St-Michaels-Admissions-Policy-for-2026-27-v3.pdf
- 3. School's own History page — https://www.st-michaels.barnet.sch.uk/home/school/history/
- 4. Ofsted report, inspected 9 November 2022 — https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/101361
- 5. Catholic Schools Inspectorate report, October 2024 — https://www.st-michaels.barnet.sch.uk/assets/Catholic-School-Inspection-Report-October-2024.pdf
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/101361/st-michael-s-catholic-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — A-level qualifications — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/101361/st-michael-s-catholic-grammar-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.