Bexleyheath, Greater London · Bexley
Townley Grammar School
Distance from school, not raw test score, is what actually decides most places here — the opposite of the borough's own cross-school 'top 180' band, which does rank by score alone.
Opened in 1937 as Bexley Technical High School for Girls, Townley shares the borough-run 'Bexley Selection Test' (administered by Quest Assessments) with the other three Bexley grammar schools, but became its own admissions authority on academy conversion in 2012. The council's role is limited to coordinating applications and, jointly with the four grammar heads, setting the annual pass/fail selective threshold — each school then decides independently who fills its own seats. A cross-school 'top 180' band admits the very highest scorers borough-wide to their preferred Bexley grammar regardless of distance, but for the bulk of Townley's places, distance from home to school — not raw test score — is what actually ranks applicants among everyone who cleared the pass bar, which is why this school isn't classed as superselective despite being highly selective.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- London
- Local authority
- Bexley
- Established
- 1937
- DfE URN
- 137769
- Website
- https://www.townleygrammar.org.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Quest Assessments, procured centrally by Bexley Council on behalf of all four Bexley grammar schools rather than set independently by Townley.
- Test format
- The shared 'Bexley Selection Test': two test booklets covering verbal ability/English comprehension (50% weighting), numerical reasoning (25%), and non-verbal reasoning (25%), around 50 minutes per paper across a 2.5-3 hour session including a break. Scored as an age-standardised score (mean around 200).
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No single fixed or published numeric pass mark. Bexley Council decides jointly with the four grammar heads each year how many children are 'deemed selective,' and most families are only told a binary selective/non-selective outcome rather than the raw score. One illustrative figure from secondary tutoring sources (not Bexley's own page): for the 2024 test, the borough-wide 'top 180' guaranteed-place threshold was reported as 252 — this is the elevated cross-school fast-track threshold, not the general qualifying score, and is only partly-verified.verify with school
Bexley doesn't publish a standing numeric pass mark; it's reset annually by the council jointly with the four grammar heads, and most families only receive a pass/fail outcome. The 252 figure found describes the elevated cross-school top-180 threshold, not the general qualifying score, and comes only from secondary tutoring sources.
- Superselective?
- No
The school's own policy never uses the term. Structurally, of the roughly 224 Year 7 places, only a cross-school, borough-wide 'top 180' band (girls with one of the highest scores across the whole Bexley Selection Test cohort) are admitted by pure score rank irrespective of where they live. The bulk of remaining places go to any applicant who merely clears the pass/fail qualifying threshold, then ranked chiefly by distance from home to school 'irrespective of selective score' (excluding the top-180 group) — because distance, not raw score, is the binding constraint for most seats, this is a qualifying-threshold-plus-distance model rather than a rank-all-by-score superselective model.
Catchment & priority criteria
No defined catchment or designated area. Distance from home to school is used only as a ranked ordering criterion among applicants who already passed the shared test, not as an eligibility boundary — applicants from any local authority may apply provided they sit the test and are deemed selective.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school who are deemed selective
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Up to 20 places for children attracting Pupil Premium who achieve the qualifying selective score
- If fewer than 20 filled above, further Pupil Premium places ranked by descending score then distance, up to 2% below the qualifying score
- Girls identified as achieving one of the highest 180 scores in the borough-wide, cross-school selection test
- Siblings already attending Townley
- Children of staff (2+ years' service, or a skill-shortage recruit)
- Distance from home to school, irrespective of selective score, excluding the top-180 group
- Tie-break: highest aggregate test score, then random allocation
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 76.2 (Bexley LA average 50.4, England average 45.9) | 96.8% (Bexley LA 55.0%, England 45.9%) | +0.66 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.46 to +0.85) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. The prior cohort (2023) scored +0.69, also well above average, a consistent trend. | — | — |
| A-level (209 students): average grade B (40.81 points per entry, Bexley LA C+/34.99, England C+/34.38). | |||||
| 2025 | 75.0 (Bexley LA average 50.6, England average 46.1) | 96.9% (Bexley LA 53.8%, England 45.4%) | Not calculated — confirmed directly on DfE's own page as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (274 students): average grade B (40.64 points per entry, Bexley LA average B-/35.75, England average B-/36.1), value-added progress score -0.17 ('Below average', confidence interval -0.24 to -0.09, England average -0.03) — a genuine divergence from the school's otherwise well-above-average raw attainment and GCSE progress history, likely reflecting a statistical ceiling effect from a very high-attaining GCSE intake, worth surfacing to families rather than smoothing over. 21.9% achieved AAB+ with 2 facilitating subjects (Bexley LA 16.5%, England 17.5%). EBacc entry 71.0%. | |||||
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. The previous inspection (2015) was also Outstanding.
- Date
- 28 February - 1 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/137769
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy 2026/2027 — https://www.townleygrammar.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Admissions-Policy-26-27.pdf
- 3. School's own Year 7 Admissions page — https://www.townleygrammar.org.uk/admissions/year-7-admissions/
- 4. Bexley Council — About the Bexley Selection Test — https://bexley.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/selection-tests/about-test
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 28 February - 1 March 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50215293
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137769/townley-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/137769/townley-grammar-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.