Torquay, Devon · Torbay

Torquay Boys' Grammar School

No catchment, no sibling priority, pure rank order — but only about 1.8 applications per place, which is a mild oversubscription ratio by this index's own benchmark for calling a school superselective.

TBGS traces its roots to a 1904 teacher-training centre, becoming a grammar school in 1915. Like its Torbay neighbours, Torquay Girls' and Churston Ferrers, it shares a single GL Assessment English/Maths test sat once at any of the three schools, though each remains its own admissions authority. Its admissions mechanism — no catchment at all, places going purely by rank order — looks structurally similar to schools elsewhere in this index that are genuinely superselective. But Torbay Council's own figures put demand at roughly 305 applications for 168 places, a modest 1.8-to-1 ratio nowhere near the extreme oversubscription (20:1 or more) that anchors that label for schools like Henrietta Barnett — and a sibling school with an almost identical mechanism, Torquay Girls', was independently assessed as not superselective. We're treating this as a genuine judgment call rather than asserting it either way.

Key facts

Gender: boys
Age range: 11-18
Region: South West
Local authority: Torbay
Established: 1904
DfE URN: 136321
Website: https://www.tbgs.co.uk/

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: GL Assessment sets the papers, shared with Torquay Girls' Grammar School and Churston Ferrers Grammar School on a common test day, though each school independently ranks and admits against the shared result.partly verified
GL Assessment is named explicitly by sibling schools Torquay Girls' and Churston Ferrers, and TBGS's own admissions page links to GL's practice materials, but TBGS's own pages never state 'GL Assessment' in running text.
Test format: Two papers only — English and Maths, no verbal or non-verbal reasoning — each around 50-55 minutes, multiple choice. Scores are age-standardised before ranking. Families are told only a yes/no outcome, never the score.
Qualifying / pass mark: Not published, by explicit policy — the school states it will not disclose actual scores at any point, including at offer stage. In practice, all candidates are ranked highest to lowest and the 168 available places go top-down until the list is exhausted, so the effective cutoff is whatever score the 168th-ranked candidate achieves that year — a figure the school does not release.
Superselective?: Not establishedsources conflict
See the note above — this index's own research reached different conclusions for two Torbay schools with structurally similar no-catchment, rank-order admissions mechanisms, depending on whether the applicant-demand ratio or the bare mechanism was weighted more heavily. Presented as unresolved rather than asserted.

Catchment & priority criteria

None — the school's own policy explicitly says no priority is given for catchment area or feeder school. Boys from anywhere may apply; places go strictly to the highest scorers until the 168-place PAN is filled. Distance is used only as the final tie-break for candidates with identical scores at the cutoff.

All candidates ranked by standardised score, highest to lowest, until the 168-place PAN is filled
Tie-break at the cutoff: looked-after and previously looked-after children first
Then Pupil Premium-eligible candidates
Then all other tied candidates
Final tie-break: straight-line distance to the school, then random allocation if still equal

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2025	70.8 (Torbay average 47.4, England average 46.1)	93.4%	Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data nationally for this cohort	45.6% (blended A-level/IB metric — see note)	70.5% (blended A-level/IB metric — see note)
EBacc entry 61.7% (Torbay 26.2%, England 40.5%). A-level/IB-equivalent blended figures (school's own, not a pure A-level metric): 45.6% grades A/A or IB 7/6, 70.5% grades A-B or IB 7-5. DfE's separate pure-A-level dataset instead gives average grade B- (35.57 points), progress score 0 ('average'), and 28.3% of measured students achieving AAB+ with facilitating subjects.
2024	68.6	—	+0.34 ('above average'), independently corroborated by both DfE's historic data page and the school's own site	—	—
2023	—	—	+0.23 ('above average')	—	—

Ofsted

Rating: Under Ofsted's post-2024 report-card framework (no single overall grade): 'Strong standard' for Achievement, Attendance & Behaviour, and Inclusion; 'Expected standard' for Curriculum & Teaching, Leadership & Governance, Personal Development & Wellbeing, and Post-16 Provision. Safeguarding standards met.
Date: 24 February 2026
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/136321
2. Determined Admissions Policy 2027-28 — mechanism, PAN, non-disclosure of score — https://www.tbgs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/TBGS-Admission-Policy-2027-8-entry.pdf
3. School's own admissions page — key dates, GL Assessment materials link — https://www.tbgs.co.uk/join-us/apply-to-join-us/
4. School's own history page — founded 1904 — https://www.tbgs.co.uk/about-us/
5. Ofsted report, inspected 24 February 2026 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50303702
6. School's own examination results page — 2025 GCSE/A-level/IB figures — https://www.tbgs.co.uk/about-us/examination-results/
7. DfE Compare School Performance — 2025 GCSE results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136321/torquay-boys--grammar-school/secondary
8. DfE Compare School Performance — historic Progress 8 (2023, 2024) — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136321/torquay-boys--grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
9. Torbay Council — Sept 2026 entry allocation statistics (305 applications, 168 places) — https://torbay.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/admissions/school-place-allocations/tbgs-allocations

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