Apply to Bournemouth School for Girls, in plain English.
Bournemouth School for Girls is a selective girls' grammar at Queens Park in Bournemouth that admits 180 girls a year through the shared BCP Consortium 11+ — one set of GL Assessment papers used by all four Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole grammar schools. Every girl must first reach the qualifying standard; then, after looked-after and Pupil Premium girls, 100 places go to the highest scorers from anywhere and the places that remain are reserved for girls living in the school's catchment area — Bournemouth and Christchurch postcodes — ahead of those outside it. Register by 4 September 2026, separately from and weeks before the October council application.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
You register for the BCP 11+ directly with the school — by 4 September 2026.
BSG does not run a test of its own. It uses the shared BCP Consortium 11+ — one set of GL Assessment papers in Mathematics, English and Verbal Reasoning, sat by all four Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole grammar schools on the same Saturday. You register on the BSG admissions page; registration opens 13 April 2026 and closes at 12 noon on 4 September 2026. Your daughter sits the test once, at the school she registered with, and the result is shared across all four schools. Registering for the test is separate from naming BSG on your council form — you must do both.
The first 100 places go on score alone — your address doesn't matter for those.
After the looked-after and Pupil Premium girls are placed, BSG offers 100 places to the highest scorers in the test, wherever they live. A strong score can win a place from any address. Only once those 100 open places are filled does the school turn to its catchment area for the places that remain — so the test result matters more here than at most catchment grammars.
For the places left over, the Bournemouth & Christchurch catchment comes first.
The places remaining after the 100 open places go to qualifying girls in the school's designated catchment area — Bournemouth postcodes BH1–BH11, the BH12 5 sector and Christchurch BH23 1, BH23 2 and BH23 3 — ahead of girls outside it, by score. So living in the catchment is the tie-breaker that decides most of the non-open places; girls outside it are placed only if any remain.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the BCP 11+ (step 1) closes on 4 September 2026 — weeks before the council application deadline that catches most families out. Registering for the test is not the same as naming BSG on your council application; you must do both.
If more girls pass than there are places, this order decides.
Girls with an EHCP naming BSG are admitted first, within the 180. Everyone else must reach the required standard in the BCP test; qualifying girls are then placed in the order below — looked-after girls, Pupil Premium girls, 100 places by score from anywhere, then the catchment area ahead of girls outside it. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: A girl whose Education, Health and Care Plan names Bournemouth School for Girls, and who has met the required standard, must be admitted before the oversubscription criteria are applied. These places come out of the 180.
What the document says: A school is legally required to admit an eligible child with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) issued by a Local Authority naming that school. Therefore, where a school has a number of children being admitted with an EHCP naming the school, this will reduce accordingly the number of places available, as expressed by the Published Admission Number.
In plain English: A girl who is in local-authority care, or who left care through adoption, a child arrangements or a special guardianship order (including a child who was in state care outside England), is the first oversubscription category once she has met the required standard.
What the document says: i. Eligible girls who are looked after children or previously looked after children … All children in category i will be given equal priority regardless of whether they fall into a, b or c.
In plain English: Qualifying girls entitled to the Pupil Premium are ranked next, by test score, wherever they live — there is no address restriction on this group. BSG's definition of the Pupil Premium includes children of UK Armed Forces personnel in the last six years, so forces families qualify under the same criterion. You must provide documentary evidence at the point of test registration — it can't be added later.
What the document says: ii. Girls who are eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant will be ranked next, in order of the entrance test scores … (those eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant are those in receipt of Free School Meals as of 31 October 2025, or have been in receipt of Free School Meals or are the children of UK Armed Forces personnel at any point during the six years before 31 October 2026).
In plain English: The biggest single block of places — 100 of the 180 — is awarded purely on test score, to the highest-scoring girls regardless of where they live. This is the open-merit core of BSG's admissions, and the reason a strong score can win a place from outside Bournemouth.
What the document says: iii. 100 places will be assigned to girls who scored most highly in the entrance tests, in rank order of the total of their entrance test scores, with those girls obtaining the highest scores given higher priority.
In plain English: Of the girls who haven't yet been placed, those living in the school's catchment area are ranked next, highest scores first. This is the criterion most local families end up competing under, once the 100 open places are gone.
What the document says: iv. Of the remaining eligible girls, those who live within the school's designated catchment area* and are ineligible for the Pupil Premium Grant will be ranked next, in order of the total of their entrance test scores … *The school's designated catchment area is defined as: BH1–BH11, BH12 5, BH23 1, BH23 2, BH23 3.
In plain English: Any places still left after the catchment girls are placed go to the highest-scoring girls living outside the area. In practice this group only sees offers in a year the catchment doesn't fill the remaining places.
What the document says: v. The remaining eligible girls (i.e. those who live outside the school's designated catchment area and are ineligible for the Pupil Premium Grant) will be ranked in order of the total of their entrance test scores, with those girls obtaining the highest scores given higher priority.
A postcode boundary — it decides the places the open competition leaves behind.
BSG's catchment is not a radius but a defined area: whole Bournemouth postcode districts BH1–BH11, the BH12 5 sector (Alderney / Wallisdown) and the Christchurch sectors BH23 1, BH23 2 and BH23 3 — covering Bournemouth town, Boscombe, Springbourne, Winton, Charminster, Kinson and Christchurch. It is not the whole story: the school first awards 100 places on score alone, from any address. The catchment decides the places that remain — qualifying girls in the area are placed (by score) ahead of girls outside it. So a top scorer gets in wherever she lives, but for the non-open places, living in the catchment is what puts your daughter ahead of an equally-scoring girl from outside.
Distance only breaks a final tie: where girls have identical scores and ranking competing for the last place, the place goes to whoever lives nearer the school, measured by straight-line distance using the Local Authority's GIS, with a random draw for genuinely equal distances. A girl living closer but outside the catchment is still behind every catchment girl for the non-open places.
See the catchment area on the GrammarBound mapTop score: in from anywhere. Otherwise: the catchment decides.
Both girls pass the test. If either scores high enough for the 100 open places, she's in — address aside. For the places that remain, Girl A in Winton (BH9, inside the catchment) is placed ahead of Girl B in Poole (outside it) at the same score. Distance never moves an out-of-area girl ahead of a catchment girl for those places.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
A girl who met the required standard but isn't offered a place is held on a waiting list, ranked by the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served (the 100-open-places rule is set aside on the waiting list, so it runs on looked-after, Pupil Premium and catchment priority). When a place comes free below the 180, it goes to the highest-ranked girl on the list. The main-entry waiting list is cleared on 31 August 2028; after that you reapply to BCP Council for the next year group.
Eligibility from the test lasts two calendar years; a girl tested after 1 February 2027 is assimilated into the waiting list after the first round of allocations.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place, exercisable once places have been offered. Appeals are heard by an independent Admissions Appeals Panel whose decision binds both sides; appealing does not affect your daughter's waiting-list position. Note you cannot appeal the test result itself — but you may still name and appeal for the school even if your daughter did not meet the required standard.
Joining Year 12 at BSG.
BSG admits external girls into its Sixth Form alongside its own Year 11 students. The catchment does not apply: Sixth Form entry is decided on GCSE results. External applicants apply directly to the school, not through the council.
The grade floor.
Applicants need a minimum of six GCSEs at grades 6–9, plus a grade 4 or above in English (Language or Literature) and a grade 4 or above in Mathematics. Individual A-level subjects set further specific GCSE requirements, and a place on a course also depends on there being space available.
Apply direct to the school.
Up to 60 external girls are admitted into Year 12 (the Sixth Form admission number is 60), meeting the same academic requirement as BSG's own Year 11 students; girls already in Year 11 at BSG who reach the bar have an automatic right of entry. Where external applicants are oversubscribed, priority runs EHCP, looked-after, Pupil Premium, then all others ranked by best-eight GCSE points. Applications go straight to the school — see the BSG admissions page for the current form and subject requirements.