Kingston upon Thames, Greater London · Kingston upon Thames
The Tiffin Girls' School
A third of its places are reserved for disadvantaged local girls who clear a deliberately lower bar than the general applicant pool — a genuine access mechanism built into the ranking system itself, not just a tiebreaker.
Both Tiffin schools trace their roots to Thomas Tiffin's 1630s bequest and shared one building until 1899, but today are fully independent single-academy trusts with separate governance, separate bespoke entrance tests, and no shared admissions arrangement. Around 1,500 girls sit the first stage each year for 180 places — roughly a 12% success rate — with the school itself, not an external provider, setting and marking both stages of its own test. Unusually, up to 60 of those 180 places (a full third) are reserved for local disadvantaged girls who only need to clear a lower threshold than the general rank-order cutoff, a genuine equity mechanism built into the admissions structure itself.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- London
- Local authority
- Kingston upon Thames
- Established
- 1880
- DfE URN
- 136615
- Website
- https://www.tiffingirls.org
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- None — both stages are set and marked in-house by the school itself, confirmed directly in its own admissions FAQ. Some secondary tutoring sites incorrectly describe the test as GL Assessment.
- Test format
- Two-stage test, English and Maths only. Stage One (October, computer-marked): English multiple-choice, Maths mixed multiple-choice/numerical entry, under 60 minutes each — only the highest-scoring girls are invited to Stage Two. Stage Two (November, written): English (reading comprehension and creative writing) and Maths (no marks for working shown). Scores are standardised and age-weighted, then candidates ranked by combined mark.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published as a fixed number — admission is by rank order of a standardised combined mark that varies each year. For September 2025 entry: 1,498 girls sat Stage One, 475 (32%) were invited to Stage Two, and 180 places were offered — around 12% of Stage One sitters and 38% of Stage Two sitters.verify with school
No fixed pass mark is published anywhere — confirmed by reading the full admissions policy, FAQ, and admissions statistics documents. Only rank-order mechanics and applicant/offer counts are published.
- Superselective?
- Yes
Confirmed by evidence rather than self-description: admission is by rank order on the school's own demanding two-stage test, not a pass/fail threshold; the success rate is extremely low (around 12% of Stage One sitters offered a place); and Attainment 8 sits far above the England state-funded average. Not the school's own term, but consistent with how independent commentary and tutoring guides classify it alongside other well-known London superselectives.
Catchment & priority criteria
A defined two-tier catchment: an 'Inner Area' of 13 electoral wards across Kingston and Richmond, nested inside a wider 'Designated Area' of postal districts spanning Kingston, Richmond, parts of Wandsworth, Merton, Ealing and Sutton. The school's own FAQ states that since the policy was introduced in September 2014, offers have gone only to residents of the Designated Area — living outside it makes admission extremely unlikely regardless of test score.
- Girls with an EHC Plan naming the school, who must still sit the test to demonstrate ability
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children whose combined mark meets or exceeds the '350th-ranked mark' — a lower bar than the main cutoff
- Up to 60 of the 180 places reserved for girls also meeting that 350th-ranked-mark threshold: Designated/Inner Area residents eligible for Pupil Premium first, then other Inner Area residents
- All remaining places filled strictly by rank order of combined mark: Designated Area residents first, then — only if places remain — girls outside the Designated Area
- Tie-break: looked-after children, then Pupil Premium-eligible girls, then nearest distance to school, then independently verified random allocation
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 84.8 | 100.0% | +1.06 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.83 to +1.28) — this is the last cohort with a calculable Progress 8 figure before the nationwide COVID-era gap | — | — |
| A-level (165 students): average grade A (49.94 points per entry), retention 98.8%. | |||||
| 2025 | 85.3 | 99.4% | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (177 students): average grade A (49.58 points per entry, Kingston LA average B/40.06, England average B-/36.1), retention 99.4%, value-added progress score -0.05 ('Average', confidence interval -0.14 to +0.05) — this is available because A-level value-added uses a GCSE, not a KS2, baseline, so it isn't affected by the same COVID-era gap as Progress 8. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Under Ofsted's new report-card framework: 'Exceptional' in Achievement, Attendance and Behaviour, Curriculum and Teaching, Leadership and Governance, Personal Development and Wellbeing, and Post-16 Provision; 'Strong standard' in Inclusion. Safeguarding met. The previous inspection (2021) rated the school Outstanding under the old framework — not directly comparable to the new scale, so this shouldn't be read as a decline.
- Date
- 6 January 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/136615
- 2. School's own Determined Admissions Arrangements, entry September 2027-28 — https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/tiffingirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/11120006/Determined-Admissions-Arrangements-for-entry-September-2027.pdf
- 3. School's own Patterns of Admission 2023-25 (applicant and offer statistics) — https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/tiffingirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/02141654/Patterns-of-Admission-2023-25.pdf
- 4. School's own Year 7 Admissions FAQs — https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/tiffingirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/13141601/FAQ-Sep27-%40-100226.pdf
- 5. Ofsted report card, inspected 6 January 2026 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50296465
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136615/the-tiffin-girls--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/136615/the-tiffin-girls--school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.