Chelmsford, Essex · Essex
King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford
The confirmed highest last-place-offered score of any CSSE school, two years running — not reputation, actual FOI-disclosed council data.
KEGS was founded by royal warrant in 1551 and teaches boys 11-16, with a co-educational sixth form. It shares the CSSE consortium's test with Colchester Royal Grammar and other Essex/Southend selective schools, and FOI-disclosed council data confirms it directly: KEGS's last-place-offered standardised score was the highest of any CSSE grammar school for both the September 2025 and September 2026 entry cycles, ahead of Colchester Royal Grammar in both years. GIAS's own 'Mixed' gender tag for this school is misleading — it describes the whole-school population including the co-ed sixth form, not Year 7 entry, which remains boys-only.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- East of England
- Local authority
- Essex
- Established
- 1551
- DfE URN
- 136642
- Website
- https://www.kegs.org.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE) — confirmed as one of ten current member schools directly from CSSE's own website.
- Test format
- Two papers: English (60 minutes plus 10 minutes' extra reading time) and Mathematics (60 minutes), both KS2-curriculum-based with no verbal or non-verbal reasoning, age-standardised.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No fixed pass mark — places go by descending rank order of CSSE standardised score. The Published Admission Number is 150: 120 reserved for boys in a 12.5-mile priority area (with a minimum 330 score for a small Pupil Premium/looked-after sub-quota within that group), and 30 open regardless of address (with a minimum 350 for a small Pupil Premium/looked-after sub-quota within that group). FOI-disclosed last-place-offered scores: September 2026 entry — 353-354 in-catchment, just above 370 out-of-catchment; September 2025 entry — 354-355 in-catchment, just above 371 out-of-catchment.
- Superselective?
- Yespartly verified
Confirmed against the seven CSSE members conventionally described as grammar schools; three further official CSSE members aren't selective grammar schools in the same sense and had no comparable disclosed scores, so they weren't independently checked.
Confirmed directly against council FOI data, not reputation: KEGS's last-place-offered standardised score was the highest of any CSSE grammar school with disclosed figures for both the September 2025 and September 2026 entry cycles — ahead of Colchester Royal Grammar School (the next-highest) in both years, on both in-catchment and out-of-catchment figures. Three further official CSSE members (St Bernard's, St Thomas More, and Shoeburyness High Schools) aren't conventionally selective grammar schools and had no comparable disclosed scores, so 'highest of all ten' is confirmed against the seven comparable grammar schools specifically.
Catchment & priority criteria
A 12.5-mile 'Priority Area' around the school, with continuous residence required since 31 October of Year 6. 120 of the 150 Year 7 places are reserved for Priority Area residents; the remaining 30 are open to boys regardless of where they live.
- Children with an EHCP naming the school
- Up to 8 Priority Area places for Pupil Premium/looked-after boys scoring 330+
- Remaining Priority Area places (up to 120 total) by rank order of score
- Up to 2 of the remaining 30 places for Pupil Premium/looked-after boys scoring 350+
- Remaining places by rank order of score regardless of address
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 83.3 (England average 46.1, Essex average 45.1) — the school's own results-day announcement initially cited 82.9, a minor discrepancy against DfE's validated figure | 100.0% (England average 45.4%, Essex average 43.1%) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally. A '1.11' Progress 8 figure circulates on some secondary aggregator sites for this year but couldn't be traced to any primary source and isn't used here. | 69% | 91% |
| 196 Year 13 leavers, described by the school as a record year. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Under Ofsted's post-2025 report-card framework: 'Exceptional' — the top band — in Achievement and Post-16 Provision; 'Strong standard' in all other evaluated areas. The prior inspection (December 2021, old framework) rated the school Outstanding overall.
- Date
- 10 February 2026
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136642
- 2. Admissions policy for September 2026 entry (approved by Trustees, December 2024) — https://www.essex.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-08/2025%20King%20Edward%20VI%20Grammar%20School%20(5411)_0.pdf
- 3. School's own history page — founded 1551 — https://www.kegs.org.uk/our-history2/2634.html
- 4. CSSE's own website — current member schools list — https://csse.org.uk/schools/
- 5. CSSE FOI response — last-place-offered scores, September 2025 entry — https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/scores_of_last_selective_place_o
- 6. CSSE FOI response — last-place-offered scores, September 2026 entry — https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/scores_of_last_selective_place_o_2
- 7. Ofsted report, inspected 10 February 2026 — https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/136642
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136642/king-edward-vi-grammar-school,-chelmsford/secondary
- 9. School's own 2025 results page — https://www.kegs.org.uk/a-level-results-2025/
Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.