Apply to Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, in plain English.
AGGS is a wholly selective girls' grammar that fills its 204 Year 7 places by the Trafford Consortium 11+: girls need a standardised score of 334 or more to qualify, and qualified girls living inside the school's 8-mile catchment area are ranked ahead of girls outside it. With about 462 applicants for 204 places, register for the consortium test by 19 June 2026 — separately from, and months before, the October Common Application Form deadline.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
Register for the Trafford 11+ by 19 June 2026 — separately from your council form.
AGGS is part of the Trafford Consortium of Grammar Schools. Your daughter sits one GL Assessment test — two papers of about an hour each, covering verbal, non-verbal and mathematics skills — on Monday 14 September 2026. Registration opens 23 April 2026 and closes 12 noon on 19 June 2026. This is completely separate from, and months before, the Common Application Form you send your home council.
The score is a pass mark — then it's about where you live and how close.
Girls qualify with a total standardised score of 334 or more (looked-after and Pupil-Premium girls qualify at 324). After that, the test score is not used to rank places. Qualified girls living inside the school's 8-mile catchment area are ranked ahead of girls outside it, and within each group the place goes to the girl living closest to the school by straight-line distance.
Living outside the catchment does not rule your daughter out.
The catchment confers priority, not exclusion. After the in-catchment girls are placed, every remaining place goes to qualified girls from outside the 8-mile area (criteria 5–7), again ranked by distance. Scores are standardised for a girl's age, so a summer-born daughter isn't disadvantaged.
Five steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 19 June 2026 — months before the Common Application Form deadline that catches most families out. Miss it and there is no route to a place at AGGS for 2027 entry until after National Offer Day.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these 7 criteria decide.
Only girls who reach the qualifying standardised score are considered at all. If more qualify than the 204 places, they are placed in the order below. The catchment area splits the list in two — in-catchment criteria (2–4) all sit above the out-of-catchment criteria (5–7) — and within every category the place goes to the girl living closest to the school by straight-line distance. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after girls who qualify come first, wherever they live. As Pupil-Premium-eligible children they qualify at a total standardised score of 324 or above. This covers children in council care, and those adopted from care (including from state care outside England).
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.1 — "Children who are Looked After or who have been previously Looked After, regardless of their place of residence." A "looked after child" is in the care of, or accommodated by, a local authority under section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989; "previously looked after" covers children adopted or on a child arrangements or special guardianship order immediately after being looked after, and those who were in state care outside England and were then adopted. Looked-after and Pupil-Premium girls qualify in Band X at a score of 324–333.
In plain English: Qualified girls who live inside the 8-mile catchment area and attract Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumGirls eligible for free school meals at any time in the last 6 years, plus armed-forces Service Premium children. AGGS's policy defines Pupil Premium to include Service Premium. funding come next. Where this group is oversubscribed, priority goes to the girls living closest to the school. You must verify Pupil-Premium status when you apply.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.2 — "Applicants residing within the school's catchment area who are in receipt of pupil premium." Where the number qualifying under this category exceeds the places available, priority is given to those residing closer to the school (see 'distance' in the definitions). Pupil Premium covers free-school-meals-in-the-last-6-years children and armed-forces Service Premium children.
In plain English: Qualified girls who live inside the catchment area and will have a sister at AGGS when they start come next. Where this group is oversubscribed, priority goes to those living closest to the school. A "sister" includes a full, half, step, adopted or foster sister living at the same address as part of the same family.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.3 — "Applicants residing within the school's catchment area who have a sister who will be a pupil of the school at the time of the applicant's proposed admission." Distance is the tie-break within the category. "Sister" is defined as any girl residing at the same address as part of the same family unit, whether full, half, step, adopted or foster.
In plain English: Every other qualified girl whose permanent home is inside the 8-mile catchment area, ranked by straight-line distance to the school — closest first. This is the criterion that places most in-catchment girls, and it sits above all out-of-catchment girls (criteria 5–7).
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.4 — "Applicants residing within the school's catchment area. Where the number of applicants qualifying for admission under this category exceeds the number of places available, then priority shall be given to those applicants residing closer to the school (see 'distance' in the definitions)." The catchment area is defined as an 8-mile radius from the main entrance of the school.
In plain English: Once the in-catchment girls are placed, the first out-of-catchment group is qualified girls in receipt of Pupil Premium, ranked by distance to the school — closest first.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.5 — "Applicants residing outside the school's catchment area who are in receipt of pupil premium. Where the number of applicants qualifying for admission under this category exceeds the number of places available, then priority shall be given to those applicants residing closer to the school (see 'distance' in the definitions)."
In plain English: Next, qualified girls who live outside the catchment area but will have a sister at the school when they start, ranked by distance — closest first.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.6 — "Applicants residing outside the school's catchment area who have a sister who will be a pupil of the school at the time of the applicant's proposed admission. Where the number of applicants qualifying for admission under this category exceeds the number of places available, then priority shall be given to those applicants residing closer to the school."
In plain English: Any remaining places go to the other qualified girls from outside the 8-mile catchment, ranked by straight-line distance to the school — closest first. This is how girls from elsewhere in Greater Manchester or Cheshire get in: there is no minimum distance, just a qualifying score and a place left after the higher criteria are filled.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4.7 — "Applicants residing outside the school's catchment area. Where the number of applicants qualifying for admission under this category exceeds the number of places available, then priority shall be given to those applicants residing closer to the school (see 'distance' in the definitions)." An exact tie at the cut-off is settled by random allocation (4.8).
An 8-mile catchment — priority, not a wall.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. AGGS's catchment area is defined in the policy as an 8-mile radius from the school's main entrance. Qualified girls living inside it (criteria 2–4) are ranked ahead of qualified girls living outside it (criteria 5–7). It does not guarantee a place — in busy years the in-catchment list alone can fill the school — and it does not shut out girls living further away, who still compete for any places left over.
Within every criterion, the place goes to the girl living closer to the school in a straight line, measured from the home address to the main entrance using the Trafford Local Land and Property Gazetteer. The test score is only a pass/fail qualifying bar — it is never used to rank places.
See the catchment area on the GrammarBound mapInside the area: priority. Outside: still in the race.
Girl A lives in Sale, about 3½ miles from the school and inside the 8-mile catchment, so a qualifying score places her under criterion 4 — ahead of every out-of-catchment girl. Girl B lives in central Manchester, just over 8 miles away and outside the area, so she competes under criterion 7; if a place is left after the in-catchment girls, the closest out-of-catchment girls get it. Her address never disqualifies her — it just sits her behind the in-catchment girls.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your daughter qualified but wasn't offered a place, she stays on the waiting list, kept until 31 December of the autumn term of Year 7. When a place comes free it goes to the girl ranked highest under the same seven oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner who lives closer (or in a higher category) can move above you. The list is reordered whenever anyone joins or leaves.
Qualified girls who applied on time are added automatically; contact AGGS Admissions after 1 March 2027 to confirm.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place, following National Offer Day. The appeals timetable is published on the school website by 28 February, and appeal information is provided by your home authority with the refusal. Appeals are heard by an independent panel, and appealing does not affect your daughter's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but AGGS also admits external students into Year 12 — at least five places each year. External applicants are judged on the same academic requirement as the school's own students, and apply direct to the school, not through the council form.
The grade floor.
The minimum for a Sixth Form place is four GCSEs at grade 7 or above and two more at grade 6, plus at least grade 6 in both GCSE Mathematics and English Language. To take a subject at A level you need a grade 7, 8 or 9 in the relevant GCSE. Looked-after and Pupil-Premium applicants may be admitted one grade lower on any one of these criteria.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to AGGS — not through the Common Application Form — by the deadline published on the school website in the preceding year. On receipt of the form and a reference with predicted grades, applicants may be invited in to discuss option choices. See the school's admissions page for the Sixth Form form and deadline.