Stroud, Gloucestershire · Gloucestershire
Marling School
No enlarged Qualifying Group, no sibling priority — the same lean rank-order mechanism as most of the Gloucestershire consortium, minus Pate's extra layer of selectivity.
Founded in 1887, Marling teaches boys 11-16 with a co-educational sixth form. It's part of the Gloucestershire consortium's shared GL Assessment test, and — like Denmark Road, The Crypt, Sir Thomas Rich's and Ribston Hall — its own admissions policy sets no enlarged 'Qualifying Group' beyond its 150-place admission number, unlike Pate's explicit top-250 pool for the same-sized intake. It also has no sibling priority at all, matching Pate's on that point specifically even though the two schools diverge on selectivity intensity.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South West
- Local authority
- Gloucestershire
- Established
- 1887
- DfE URN
- 137123
- Website
- https://www.marling.gloucs.sch.uk/
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, shared with six other Gloucestershire consortium schools, sat the same day.
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice papers, about 45-50 minutes each: Paper 1 covers verbal ability; Paper 2 covers non-verbal reasoning and mathematics. Electronically marked on behalf of all seven consortium schools.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No fixed pass mark. The Published Admission Number is 150; places go by descending rank order of standardised score, after looked-after-children and Pupil Premium priority groups, until the PAN is filled. Marling publishes no enlarged 'Qualifying Group' the way Pate's does (top 250 for the same 150 places).
- Superselective?
- Nopartly verified
The PAN-vs-Qualifying-Group structural comparison is solid (both schools' own determined policies), but supporting claims about typical required score percentages come from independent 11+ guides, which even disagreed with each other on Pate's exact national ranking position.
Marling's own determined policy ranks and admits up to its 150-place PAN with no larger published qualifying pool, whereas Pate's explicitly defines a top-250 Qualifying Group against an identical PAN — meaning a Pate's candidate must outrank roughly 100 more competitors just to be deemed eligible. DfE-confirmed 2025 Attainment 8 also puts Marling (73.9) well below Pate's (82.7, secondary-sourced), though above several other consortium siblings on the same comparison. Marling sits in the upper-middle of the consortium's selectivity range rather than at Pate's extreme.
Catchment & priority criteria
No catchment area or geographic priority zone — applications are accepted equally from inside and outside Gloucestershire. Distance is used only as a tie-break between identical scores, after attendance at a Cotswold Beacon Academy Trust primary school. There is no sibling priority at any stage.
- Candidates with an EHCP naming the school who met the qualifying standard
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children who met the qualifying standard
- Pupil Premium-eligible candidates who met the qualifying standard
- All other candidates who met the qualifying standard, by rank order of score
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 73.9 (England average 46.1, Gloucestershire average 50.3) | 98.1% (England average 45.4%, Gloucestershire average 53.1%) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 31% | 66% |
| 69% of grades at 9-7, 99% at 9-4. A-level A*-C 88%. | |||||
| 2024 | 71.3 (secondary-sourced, not independently re-confirmed against DfE directly) | — | +0.64 (secondary-sourced, not independently re-confirmed against DfE directly) | 37% | 68% |
| 60% of grades at 9-7, 98% at 9-4. A-level A*-C 85%. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good in every category inspected (Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and Management, Sixth-Form Provision) — Ofsted stopped issuing a single overall word-grade for state schools from September 2024, so there's no headline word beyond the per-category ratings. A 2013 inspection under the older framework rated the school Outstanding overall.
- Date
- 19-20 November 2024
- 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/137123
- 2. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137123/marling-school/secondary
- 3. Ofsted report, inspected 19-20 November 2024 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50265167
- 4. Determined Admissions Policy, 2027 entry — https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/vilm2gzk/marlin-1.pdf
- 5. Comparator: Pate's Grammar School's determined admissions arrangements — https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/oxvnhfgb/pates-determined-admissions-policy-for-september-2026-entry.pdf
- 6. School's own admissions and entrance test page — https://www.marling.gloucs.sch.uk/joining-us
- 7. School's own 2025 GCSE and A-level results document — https://www.marling.gloucs.sch.uk/media/DOC68EF81757BA64/2025%20GCSE%20%20A%20Level%20Results%20-%20prospectus%20-%20web.pdf
- 8. Historic England statutory listing — founded 1887 by Sir Samuel Marling — https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1223565
Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.