Colyton, Devon · Devon
Colyton Grammar School
Devon's only fully selective state school — which makes 'superselective' genuinely unanswerable here: there's no in-county peer or published score table to compare it against.
Founded in 1546, Colyton is the only fully selective, LA-area state secondary in Devon (the county's other grammar schools sit in the separate Plymouth and Torbay unitary authorities), and it contracts its own entrance test directly from a private provider rather than using a council or consortium test. That isolation cuts both ways: it has genuine editorial independence over its admissions process, but it also means there's no comparable in-county school or published scoring data to check reputational claims about how selective it really is — so we're reporting that gap rather than guessing at it.
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South West
- Local authority
- Devon
- Established
- 1546
- DfE URN
- 136366
- Website
- https://www.colytongrammar.com
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Quest Assessments, a commercial provider commissioned directly by the school — not Devon County Council and not a regional consortium. Devon's role is limited to coordinating the Common Application Form, holding the waiting list, and running independent appeals.
- Test format
- English and maths papers based on the KS2 National Curriculum, OMR-marked and age-standardised, approximately two and a half hours total including breaks, plus a separate extended/creative writing component. The school states explicitly the test will NOT include verbal or non-verbal reasoning. Whether the writing task sits inside or outside the 2.5-hour window isn't spelled out in the school's own materials.partly verified
The school's own admissions page and FAQ confirm English + maths (via Quest Assessments) plus a separate writing component, but neither document states whether the writing task is timed within the 2.5-hour session or sat separately.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No fixed published cut-off exists. The Published Admission Number is 160; each year an Admissions Committee sets a floating age-standardised 'eligible score' after the tests are sat, then ranks all children who reach it — if more than 160 qualify, places go strictly by rank order of test score. The school publishes anonymised scores retrospectively after National Offer Day, but never a cut-off in advance.
- Superselective?
- Not establishedverify with school
No valid comparator school, published qualifying-score table, or reliable oversubscription-ratio source could be found, given Devon has only this one LA-area grammar school.
Genuinely unresolved rather than unresearched: Colyton is Devon's only fully selective LA-area school, so there's no comparable in-system school or LA-published table of average qualifying scores to benchmark against, and the school sets no fixed prospective pass mark to compare either. Unsourced tutoring-site claims about applicant ratios exist but don't meet this site's citation bar.
Catchment & priority criteria
No geographic catchment area or distance-based priority applies to the initial ranking — applicants may live anywhere in the country. After children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school, places go in order to looked-after and previously looked-after children, then Pupil-Premium-eligible children who reached the eligible score, then everyone else by rank order of test score.
- Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Pupil Premium-eligible children (including Service Premium) who reached the eligible score
- All remaining eligible children, by rank order of total test score
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 78.8 (Devon average 45.4, England average 46.1) | 98.7% (Devon average 46.1%, England average 45.4%) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort (COVID-era disruption to primary assessment) | — | — |
| EBacc entry 88.2% (Devon average 37.2%). | |||||
| 2026 | — | — | — | ~66% (2026, local press) | 87% (2026, local press) |
| Local newspaper-reported summer 2026 results (not yet in DfE's validated tables): GCSE — 79% grades 9-7, average grade 8, 28% of all grades were grade 9, 20 students achieved eight or more grade 9s. A-level — 87% grades A*-B, ~66% A*-A, 26 students (18% of cohort) secured Oxbridge places, 88% of confirmed university places at Sutton Trust Top 30 universities. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding
- Date
- 22 November 2022
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, capacity, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136366
- 2. School's own Year 7 admissions page — test content, key dates — https://www.colytongrammar.com/95/joining-our-school-3
- 3. Determined Year 7 Admissions Policy 2027-28 — https://colytongrammar.reactfiles.co.uk/uploads/key_information/Year-7-Admissions-Policy-2027-28-1.pdf
- 4. School's official Admissions FAQ — Quest Assessments, test length, allocation mechanics — https://colytongrammar.reactfiles.co.uk/uploads/document/Admission-FAQs-2026.pdf
- 5. School's own history page — founded 1546 — https://www.colytongrammar.com/67/our-history
- 6. Ofsted report, inspected 22 November 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50206608
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — 2024/25 results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136366/colyton-grammar-school/secondary
- 8. Local news — 2026 GCSE results — https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/26481527.colyton-grammar-school-students-celebrate-gcse-results/
- 9. Local news — 2026 A-level results — https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/26462701.colyton-grammar-school-students-celebrating-a-level-success/
Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.