Poole, Dorset · Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Poole Grammar School

Shares one test — 'the Consortium' — with all three other BCP grammar schools, none of which publishes a qualifying score for any of them.

Poole Grammar has taught boys since 1904. It sits within a genuinely shared testing arrangement its own admissions policy calls 'the Consortium': one set of entrance papers, used by Poole Grammar, Bournemouth School, Bournemouth School for Girls, and Parkstone Grammar School alike, sat once at one of two venues. Each school then applies its own admission number and its own criteria to the shared results — and none of the four publishes a numeric pass mark, by design, for any year.

Key facts

Gender: boys
Age range: 11-18
Region: South West
Local authority: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
Established: 1904
DfE URN: 136850
Website: https://www.poolegrammar.com

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: GL Assessment supplies the shared 'Consortium' test used by all four BCP grammar schools (named explicitly by Bournemouth School and Parkstone Grammar School's own admissions pages; Poole's own policy describes the same test without naming the provider). The Consortium is switching to Quest Assessments from the test sat in September 2027 — affecting September 2028 entry, not the current live cycle.partly verified
GL Assessment is named by two Consortium partner schools' own pages, but not by Poole's own determined policy, which describes the same test without naming the provider.
Test format: Three multiple-choice papers sat on one date at either Bournemouth School or Poole Grammar School: English (45 minutes), Mathematics (50 minutes, KS2 curriculum), and Verbal Reasoning (50 minutes). Scores are age-standardised and combined into an aggregate. Meeting 'the required standard' doesn't guarantee a place — offers then follow the oversubscription criteria below.
Qualifying / pass mark: verify with schoolverify with school
Confirmed via two independent primary sources that the score is genuinely not published by design — individual results go only to families after testing, and the aggregate cut is set fresh each cohort. This applies to all four BCP Consortium schools, not just this one.
Superselective?: Not establishedverify with school
'Superselective' has no official DfE definition, so this is inferential (absence from commonly-cited lists, structural comparison) rather than based on a direct score comparison, which wasn't possible since none of the four Consortium schools publishes its score.

Catchment & priority criteria

Geographic priority is defined as living within the historic Borough of Poole (specific BH12–BH18 and part of BH21 postcode sectors). Boys inside this area get priority over boys outside it within each Pupil Premium tier. Distance for tie-breaking is measured by BCP Council's own GIS system as the shortest safe walking route, with special provisions for island and Sandbanks chain-ferry residents.

Children with an EHCP naming the school who met the required standard
Looked-after and previously looked-after children, by rank order of score
Pupil Premium-eligible boys within the Poole priority area, by rank order of score
Pupil Premium-eligible boys outside the priority area, by rank order of score
Sons of staff with 2+ years' service, by rank order of score
Non-Pupil-Premium boys within the priority area, by rank order of score
Non-Pupil-Premium boys outside the priority area, by rank order of score

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2025	70.2 (BCP average 50.5, England average 46.1)	95.5% (BCP average 56.7%, England average 45.4%)	Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort	39.9%	63.9%
EBacc entry 60.2% (BCP 44.1%, England 40.5%), EBacc average point score 6.42. A secondary source gave A-level A*-B as 70% against the school's own stated 63.9% — the school's own figure is used, with the discrepancy noted rather than resolved.
2024	—	—	—	36.2%	63.4%
2023	—	—	—	42.7%	67.3%

Ofsted

Rating: No overall grade (Ofsted stopped issuing them for state schools from September 2024). Category grades: Quality of Education — Good; Behaviour and Attitudes — Outstanding; Personal Development — Outstanding; Leadership and Management — Good; Sixth Form — Good.
Date: 13 May 2025
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/136850
2. Determined admissions policy (September 2026 entry) — Consortium wording, PAN, oversubscription criteria, catchment — https://www.poolegrammar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Admissions-Policy-2026-Entry-amended.pdf
3. Live Year 7 admissions page — current cycle test date, PAN, Quest Assessments change announcement — https://www.poolegrammar.com/join-our-school/admissions/admissions-to-year-7/
4. Bournemouth School's admissions page — corroborates shared Consortium test and GL Assessment — https://www.bournemouth-school.org/admissions-2/joining-year-7-in-september/
5. Parkstone Grammar School's admissions page — further corroboration — https://www.parkstone.poole.sch.uk/information/admissions/
6. Ofsted report, inspected 13 May 2025 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50279771
7. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136850/poole-grammar-school/secondary
8. School's own exam results page — 2023-2025 A-level figures — https://www.poolegrammar.com/our-school/exam-results/

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