Hampstead Garden Suburb, Greater London · Barnet

The Henrietta Barnett School

No catchment, no fixed pass mark — just a two-round test and a rank order, for one of England's most oversubscribed state schools.

Founded in 1911 by the social reformer Dame Henrietta Barnett, this is a girls' grammar school with no geographic catchment at all — any girl in the country can apply. In practice, thousands do: the school's own determined admissions policy records 3,121 applications for 2025 entry against a Published Admission Number of 120 (the same document elsewhere describes '104 places' for that cohort — an inconsistency in the school's own paperwork that we're reporting rather than quietly resolving). Entry runs on a two-round test rather than a single 11+ exam, and places are decided by rank order rather than a fixed pass mark.

Key facts

Gender: girls
Age range: 11-18
Region: London
Local authority: Barnet
Established: 1911
DfE URN: 138051
Website: https://www.hbschool.org.uk

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: Round One (verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English) is set by an external body the school's determined policy describes only as 'a nationally recognised body' — strongly implied to be GL Assessment (the school points candidates to GL familiarisation booklets and says papers are marked by 'GL statisticians'), though never named verbatim in the legal policy document. Round Two (English and maths) is set, sat and marked entirely in-house by the school.partly verified
The school's determined admissions policy names Round One's setter only as 'a nationally recognised body' — GL Assessment is strongly implied by the school's own admissions materials but never stated verbatim in the legally determined policy itself.
Test format: Two rounds, each sittable once. Round One — verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and English — sat at the school in one session in early September; scores are age-standardised and combined, and the top 300 candidates (plus ties) go through to Round Two. Round Two — English and maths at a Key Stage 2 level — is sat in early October; combined with Round One into one final rank order.partly verified
Paper subjects, order and test dates come from the school's own policy/FAQ. Reported per-paper durations (~60-70 minutes total for Round One) come only from third-party tutoring sites, not the school itself.
Qualifying / pass mark: No fixed numeric pass mark is published or exists. Admission is by rank order across the combined two-round score: the top 300 of roughly 3,100+ applicants proceed past Round One, and the Published Admission Number is 120. The school will privately disclose a candidate's own score/rank after National Offer Day, but does not publish a standing cut-off.
Superselective?: Yespartly verified
Well supported by primary-sourced demand data and consistent independent description as 'super-selective', but no single published statistical source assigns HBS a precise national admission percentile against the 'top 2-3%' benchmark sometimes used to define the term.

Catchment & priority criteria

There is no catchment area or designated geographic priority zone — the school's own admissions FAQ states plainly that any girl can apply and sit the Round One test. Oversubscription among qualifying candidates is resolved by rank order, with a small number of places reserved ahead of that for disadvantaged and local candidates (see priority order).

Looked-after and previously looked-after children who also rank in the Round One top 300
Pupil Premium-eligible candidates who also rank in the Round One top 300
Candidates living within 3 miles of the school who sat Round Two, allocated by rank score if this group is oversubscribed
All remaining candidates, by combined rank order alone

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2025	87.2 (local authority average 56.5, England average 45.9)	—	—	72%	86%
97% of GCSE grades were 7-9. Progress 8 could not be calculated by DfE for this cohort — see 2024 note.
2024	—	—	+1.09	—	—
Most recent year with a published Progress 8 score — DfE states it could not calculate Progress 8 for the 2025 or 2026 cohorts due to missing KS2 baseline data from COVID-era primary assessment disruption.

Ofsted

Rating: Good
Date: 4 May 2022
Report: Read the full report

Sources

1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, age range, local authority — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/138051
2. School's own admissions page — PAN, test overview, current-cycle dates — https://www.hbschool.org.uk/admissions/
3. Determined Admissions Policy for entry 2027-2028 (governing body approved 3 Dec 2025) — https://henrietta-barnett.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/10095733/Admissions-Policy-2027-2028.pdf
4. Admissions FAQs 2026 — confirms no catchment area, GL familiarisation materials — https://henrietta-barnett.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/29122129/Admission-FAQs-2026.pdf
5. Ofsted provider page — inspection history — https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/138051
6. Full Ofsted report, inspected 4 May 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50193529
7. School's own history page — founded 1911 by Dame Henrietta Barnett — https://www.hbschool.org.uk/about-us/history-of-the-school/
8. School's own exam results page — 2025 GCSE/A-level results, Attainment 8, Progress 8 — https://www.hbschool.org.uk/about-us/exam-results/
9. DfE Compare School Performance — cross-check of school profile — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/138051/the-henrietta-barnett-school

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