Kingston upon Thames, Greater London · Kingston upon Thames
Tiffin School
Even living inside the priority area doesn't secure a place ahead of a higher-scoring child from further away — every applicant, near or far, is ranked against the same 450th-place score threshold.
Traces its founding to a 1638 charitable bequest from Thomas Tiffin, though the school as an institution first opened its doors in 1880. Kingston has no borough-wide 11+ system — Tiffin School is an academy and its own admissions authority, running a bespoke two-stage test entirely independent of the council, which handles only the standard common application form and distance measurement for tie-breaks. Places are allocated in strict rank order against the score of the 450th-ranked candidate, applied even to applicants living inside the school's 10km priority area — living close by doesn't itself secure a place, making this a genuinely superselective school by mechanism, not just reputation.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- London
- Local authority
- Kingston upon Thames
- Established
- 1880
- DfE URN
- 136910
- Website
- https://www.tiffinschool.co.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Quest (the Quest Assessment Partnership), per the school's own admissions webpage — not named in the statutory admissions policy document itself, so this rests on the webpage alone.partly verified
Named consistently on the school's own admissions webpage but not in the statutory admissions policy document itself.
- Test format
- A bespoke two-stage test covering English and Maths only, with no verbal or non-verbal reasoning and no interview. Stage One (computer-marked English and Maths, sat around early October) narrows the field to those invited to Stage Two. Stage Two (written English and Maths, mid-November) produces the final Combined Score, weighted 50% English (Stage Two only) and 50% Maths (a 2:3 blend of Stage One and Stage Two). Separate optional sporting and musical aptitude assessments feed up to 18 reserved places.sources conflict
The school's own current statutory admissions policy states the Stage One test for the 2027-28 cycle will be held 'on or around Friday 1st October 2027,' but every surrounding date in the same document implies Stage One should fall in autumn 2026, and the school's own separate admissions webpage independently states 2 October 2026 — this looks like a genuine typo in the school's live policy document, not a transcription error here, and is worth a check closer to publication.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No fixed numeric pass mark is published in advance. The school's own policy defines the operative threshold as the Combined Score of the 450th-ranked candidate among all Stage Two sitters — only candidates at or above that rank are eligible for any of the roughly 198 places, whether inside or outside the priority area. A specific historical numeric score for a past cycle wasn't located during this research.verify with school
The mechanism (450th-ranked Combined Score, determined only after allocation) is confirmed from the statutory policy, but no specific historical numeric cut-off for any past cycle was found.
- Superselective?
- Yes
Confirmed directly from the school's own admissions policy: places are allocated in strict rank order of Combined Score against the 450th-ranked-candidate threshold, applied even to candidates living inside the 10km priority area — living close by doesn't itself secure a place, score rank does. This is the defining mechanic distinguishing a superselective school from an ordinary selective school that sets a qualifying threshold and then prioritises by catchment or distance.
Catchment & priority criteria
No hard catchment or designated area — any boy in England may apply. A 10km straight-line 'priority area' from the school, introduced in September 2019, is used only to order priority within the score-ranked list; applicants outside it may still apply and test but rank lowest, and in practice places rarely reach them.
- A boy with an EHC Plan naming the school who has demonstrated ability through testing
- Boys at or above the 450th-ranked Combined Score who are looked-after or previously looked-after children living in the priority area, then Pupil Premium-funded boys living in the priority area
- Remaining places (minus up to 18 reserved for sport/music), ranked by Combined Score: boys living within the 10km priority area
- Then boys living outside the priority area, ranked by Combined Score
- Up to 18 reserved places (max 9 sport, 9 music) for boys at or above the 450th-ranked threshold not already offered a place, ranked by sporting/musical aptitude assessment, living in the priority area
- Tie-break: nearest straight-line distance to school, then random selection by an independent person
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 79.2 (Kingston LA average 59.2, England average 45.9) | 98.9% | +0.86 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.64 to +1.07, Kingston LA average +0.65) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. A secondary aggregator was found quoting this figure without a year label, an example of the stale-figure mis-attachment this project watches for — it belongs to 2024, not the current cohort. | — | — |
| A-level (250 students): average grade A (49.21 points per entry). EBacc entry 93.0%. | |||||
| 2025 | 79.1 (Kingston LA average 59.2, England average 46.1) | 98.3% | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (276 students): average grade A (49.36 points per entry). DfE reports average grade/points rather than an A*-A/A*-B percentage for this cohort, and states it cannot yet publish a value-added trend, citing fewer than three years of post-COVID progress data. EBacc entry 85.0%. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good overall (this was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since, so this remains current). Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and sixth-form provision were all Outstanding; quality of education and leadership and management were Good.
- Date
- 24-25 May 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/136910
- 2. School's own Determined Admissions Policy, entry 2027-28 — https://www.tiffinschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Admissions-Policy-2027-28-Adopted-February-2026.docx.pdf
- 3. School's own Year 7 Admissions page — https://www.tiffinschool.co.uk/admissions/year-7-admissions/
- 4. School's own History Timeline — https://www.tiffinschool.co.uk/about-us/timeline/
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 24-25 May 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50193089
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136910/tiffin-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136910/tiffin-school/secondary/results-over-time
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.