Colchester, Essex · Essex

Colchester County High School for Girls

Introduced a 25-mile priority area from September 2025 entry that didn't exist before — and its own 2025 results directly contradict DfE on whether Progress 8 exists for that year at all.

CCHSG shares the ten-school CSSE consortium test with Colchester Royal Grammar and others. Unlike CRGS, which CSSE's own records confirm has no priority area at all, CCHSG introduced one of its own from September 2025 entry — a 25-mile radius covering 80% of its places — where none existed the cycle before. Its most striking finding, though, is a direct contradiction in its own paperwork: the school's 2025 results document states a Progress 8 score of +1.37, while DfE's official performance tables state explicitly that Progress 8 cannot be calculated at all for that cohort nationally. Both are reported here rather than one being quietly picked.

Key facts

Gender: girls
Age range: 11-18
Region: East of England
Local authority: Essex
Established: 1909
DfE URN: 137515
Website: https://www.cchsg.com

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE), a ten-school consortium formed in 1993 — CSSE administers the shared test as the school's agent, but the school itself owns its admissions arrangements.
Test format: Two papers, same day: English (60 minutes plus 10 minutes' extra reading time) and Mathematics (60 minutes), each weighted 50%. The school's own admissions policy describes 'applied reasoning' content embedded within both subject papers, rather than a fully separate verbal/non-verbal reasoning test.
Qualifying / pass mark: No single fixed pass mark. The CSSE-wide floor is 303. The school's own published threshold of 320 applies only to its reserved-place categories (looked-after children, Pupil Premium, Service Pupil Premium places). The actual competitive cutoff moves each year: 330 for September 2024 entry (before the priority area existed); 322 inside / 333 outside the area for September 2025 entry; 326-327 inside / 332-333 outside for September 2026 entry. The Published Admission Number is 192.
Superselective?: Nopartly verified
Figure comparisons come from confirmed CSSE/FOI primary sources; the true/false classification itself has no official definition to verify against.

Catchment & priority criteria

A 25-mile straight-line priority area introduced from September 2025 entry — CSSE's own records confirm the school had none before that cycle. About 80% of places (154 of 192) go to priority-area residents first; the remaining places are open to the highest-scoring remaining applicants regardless of address, at a meaningfully higher effective score.partly verified

The 25-mile priority area and its introduction date (September 2025 entry) are confirmed directly from CSSE's own historical guidance sheets and the school's current admissions policy.

Children with an EHCP naming the school who scored 320+
Looked-after and previously looked-after children who scored 320+
Up to 20 places for Pupil Premium-eligible applicants scoring 320+
Up to 10 places for Service Pupil Premium-eligible applicants in the priority area scoring 320+
Priority-area residents, by rank order of score, until 154 places (combined with the categories above) are filled
Remaining 38 places to the highest-scoring remaining applicants regardless of address

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2025	80.38 per the school's own results document; DfE's own tables state 80.6 for the same cohort — both reported	100%	The school's own 2025 results document states +1.37. DfE's own performance tables state explicitly that Progress 8 cannot be calculated at all for this cohort nationally, due to the COVID-era KS2 baseline gap. This is a direct, unresolved contradiction between the school's own figure and DfE's stated position, reported as such.	58% (23% grade A* only)	83%
191 GCSE candidates, 125 A-level candidates.
2024	80.61	99%	+0.99 (school's own figure; DfE does calculate a score for this cohort, described by aggregators as 'well above average' in banding, but the exact DfE decimal wasn't independently confirmed)	36% (13% grade A* only)	60%
159 GCSE candidates, 127 A-level candidates.

Ofsted

Rating: Outstanding
Date: 28-29 November 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/137515
2. Admissions Policy 2026-2027 — PAN, 320 threshold, 25-mile priority area — https://www.cchsg.com/wp-content/uploads/policydocs/A1_Admissions_Policy_26-27.pdf
3. CSSE historical guidance sheet — 2024 entry (no priority area that year) — https://csse.org.uk/storage/2024/10/CSSE-Historical-Guidance-sheet-2025-Entry.pdf
4. CSSE historical guidance sheet — 2025 entry (new priority area introduced) — https://csse.org.uk/storage/2025/10/FOR-PUBLICATION-HISTORICAL-GUIDANCE-SHEET-FOR-2026-ENTRY.pdf
5. CSSE FOI response — 2026 entry last-place-offered scores, all ten schools — https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/scores_of_last_selective_place_o_2
6. Ofsted report, inspected 28-29 November 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50238534
7. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results, explicit Progress 8 non-calculation statement — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137515/colchester-county-high-school-for-girls/secondary
8. School's own 2025 GCSE results document — https://www.cchsg.com/wp-content/uploads/exams/GCSE_Results_2025.pdf
9. School's own history page — founded 1909 — https://www.cchsg.com/home-store/history-of-cchsg/

Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.