Sale, Greater Manchester · Trafford
Sale Grammar School
Same 334 threshold as its consortium partners, but no separate lower score for Pupil Premium applicants — 'GL only provide one standardised score for Sale Grammar School.'
Sale Grammar formed in 1991 from the merger of separate boys' (1932) and girls' (1957) grammar schools. It's one of five schools sharing the Trafford Consortium's GL Assessment test — Altrincham Boys, Altrincham Girls, Sale, Stretford, and Urmston (Loreto and Saint Ambrose College, Trafford's two Catholic grammar schools, sit their own separate tests). Its qualifying score, 334, matches Altrincham Boys' and Urmston's general threshold exactly — but unlike those two, Sale doesn't operate a separate, lower score for Pupil Premium applicants; its own site states plainly that GL Assessment provides only one standardised score for the school. Places then go mostly by catchment and distance rather than pure rank, which is why we don't call it superselective despite the shared high bar.
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- North West
- Local authority
- Trafford
- Established
- 1991
- DfE URN
- 136498
- Website
- https://www.salegrammar.co.uk/
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, shared with four other Trafford Consortium schools (Altrincham Boys, Altrincham Girls, Stretford, Urmston) on the same day. Loreto and Saint Ambrose College sit separate tests of their own.
- Test format
- Two papers of about an hour each, covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics, age-standardised.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- A standardised score of 334 or higher, confirmed for the most recently completed cycle (September 2026 entry) directly on the school's own site — identical to Altrincham Boys' and Urmston's general threshold. Unlike those two schools, Sale doesn't publish a separate, lower Pupil Premium score: the school states explicitly that GL Assessment supplies only one standardised score for Sale, and Pupil Premium status instead affects priority placement (up to 15 reserved places) rather than the qualifying bar itself.verify with school
334 is confirmed for the most recently completed cycle (September 2026 entry). The September 2027 figure can't exist yet — scores are only standardised after that test is sat.
- Superselective?
- Noverify with school
No official classification exists either way; this is reasoned from the school's own admissions mechanics.
Its general qualifying score (334) matches Altrincham Boys' and Urmston's exactly, suggesting 334 functions as a shared consortium-wide threshold rather than a school-specific competitive bar. More decisively, its own oversubscription criteria are primarily catchment- and distance-based: after looked-after children and up to 15 Pupil Premium places, applicants inside the priority area are ranked by distance, and only applicants from outside the area are ranked by test score — a different mechanism from schools that rank every applicant by score alone regardless of address.
Catchment & priority criteria
A priority area covering postcode M33 plus Trafford-resident parts of M23, WA14, and WA15, measured by straight-line distance to the school.
- Candidates with an EHCP naming the school, subject to reaching the qualifying score
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Up to 15 places for Pupil Premium-eligible candidates: those in the priority area first (by distance), then others at a Trafford state primary (by score, then distance)
- Candidates within the priority area, by distance if oversubscribed
- Candidates outside the priority area, by rank order of test score
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 76.1 (Trafford average 57.9, England average 46.1) | 96.9% (Trafford average 63.9%, England average 45.4%) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 57% | 83% |
| A-level: progress score +0.12 ('above average'), average grade A- (45.32 points/entry, Trafford average B/41.1, England average B-/36.1). | |||||
| 2024 | — | — | +0.80 ('well above average'). The preceding year, 2022/23, scored +0.67, also 'well above average'. | — | — |
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding
- Date
- 29 June 2022
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, capacity, LA — https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136498
- 2. Admissions Policy 2027 — https://0e58658be539ee7325a0-220f04f871df648cf4a4d93a111e3366.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/sale/uploads/document/Admissions-Policy-2027-1.pdf
- 3. School's own September 2026 entry page — confirms 334 score, single-threshold statement — https://www.salegrammar.co.uk/6733/september-2026-entry
- 4. School's own September 2027 entry page — test date, PAN — https://www.salegrammar.co.uk/6731/september-2027-entry
- 5. Trafford Council — authoritative confirmation of which schools share the consortium test — https://www.trafford.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/starting-school-and-admissions/starting-secondary-school/entrance-test-grammar-schools
- 6. Ofsted report, inspected 29 June 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50194962
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136498/sale-grammar-school/secondary
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — historic Progress 8 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136498/sale-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.