Apply to Colyton Grammar School, in plain English.
Colyton Grammar School is a super-selective co-educational grammar in East Devon that fills all 160 Year 7 places in rank order of its own 11+ score — its admissions policy defines no catchment area. You must register your child for the 11+ directly with the school by 31 July 2026, then name the school on your council's Common Application Form by 31 October 2026. The English, Maths and Creative Writing papers are sat at the school on Saturday 12 September 2026.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
The school runs its own 11+ — register directly with Colyton by 31 July 2026.
Colyton Grammar School selects on its own 11+ — papers in English, Maths and Creative Writing (there is no verbal or non-verbal reasoning). Familiarisation material is provided through Quest Assessments. You register your child directly with the school online via Applicaa; registration opens in April 2026 and closes on 31 July 2026. The test is sat at the school on Saturday 12 September 2026.
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
Entry is determined by performance in the selection tests. After looked-after children and the Pupil Premium priority group (see the criteria below), every remaining place is offered to the highest-scoring children in rank order, wherever they live. Reaching an eligible score does not guarantee a place — it only makes your child eligible to be ranked, and the school fills to its admission number of 160.
Pupil Premium — including the Service Premium — gives priority, so flag it at registration.
Children on the eligible list who qualify for the Pupil Premium, including the Service Premium (free school meals / Ever 6 FSM, or armed-forces families), are ranked above all other candidates. You must provide evidence of eligibility. For the normal Year 7 round there is no sibling, staff, faith or feeder-school priority — those do not feature in this score-only policy.
Five steps — starting now.
If more children qualify than there are places, these 3 criteria decide.
Only children who achieve an eligible score are considered. They are then placed in these priority groups; within each group, the highest test score comes first. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Children who are or were in council care (including those who have ceased to be looked after through adoption from state care) get the highest priority among candidates with an eligible score. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children, including those children who have ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
In plain English: Children on the eligible list who qualify for the Pupil Premium — currently or in the last six years eligible for free school meals — or for the Service Premium (children of regular UK armed-forces personnel serving now or in the past three years, or in receipt of an Armed Forces Compensation or War Pension award following a parent's death on active service) are ranked above all other candidates. You must provide evidence; the school may confirm eligibility with your home local authority.
What the document says: Children on the eligible list who are entitled to Pupil Premium, including the Service Premium. Parents/guardians will be required to provide evidence of eligibility and the school may request confirmation from the applicant's home local authority.
In plain English: Every remaining place goes to the highest-scoring eligible children in rank order, regardless of where they live. There is no catchment area. Distance is used only to separate two children with exactly the same score (see the worked example below).
What the document says: Rank order based on the total score achieved in the tests of children on the eligible list.
Tie-breaker: if two children have identical scores for the last available place, priority goes to the one living closest to the school — measured in a straight line from the main School Reception front door using Devon's Geographical Information System. For children living equidistant from the school, a supervised random allocation decides.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Colyton Grammar School has no catchment area and no geographic restriction — entry is determined by performance in the selection tests. After looked-after children and the Pupil Premium priority group are placed, every remaining place goes to the highest-ranking eligible children by combined standardised test score — regardless of where they live. A child in Colyton, Seaton, Axminster, Honiton, Sidmouth or Lyme Regis competes on exactly the same terms. The circle drawn on our map is illustrative only — it is not a real boundary.
Distance is used only as a tie-breaker between two children with identical scores: the one living closer, by straight-line measurement from the main School Reception front door using Devon's mapping system, ranks higher, and if still equidistant, a supervised random allocation decides. For everyone else, home address has no bearing on the outcome.
See the school's location on the GrammarBound mapTwo children ranked by score — not by where they live.
Both children are in criterion 3 (everyone else, by rank). Child A scored 238 and lives far from school; Child B scored 225 and lives close by. Child A ranks above Child B because score — not proximity — decides. Distance would only matter if their scores were exactly equal.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
Children not allocated a place are held on a waiting list, ranked by score with the oversubscription criteria separating equal scores — not by when you applied. The waiting list is held by Devon County Council until 31 August 2027, after which the school maintains it until 31 December 2027. A child's position can move down as well as up as others join or leave the list.
Responses and waiting-list requests are made through Devon County Council's School Admissions Team.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeals panel, constituted and operated by Devon County Council, whose decision is binding. For a selective school the panel must be satisfied your child reached the required academic standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. Appeals are made in writing to Devon County Council; appealing does not remove your child from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Colyton Grammar School admits external students into Year 12 alongside its own Year 11. Entry is by GCSE grades, not the Year 7 test — the selective 11+ criteria do not apply.
The grade floor.
The minimum entry requirement is 54 points from the best eight GCSEs (grade = points), including at least grade 5 in GCSE English and Mathematics. Only first-sitting grades count. Individual A-level courses then add their own subject-specific entry grades, set out in the Sixth Form prospectus. Meeting the general floor is the starting point; check the grade each chosen subject asks for.
Apply direct to the school.
Apply directly to the school's sixth form, which admits external students alongside those continuing from the school's own Year 11; there is no entrance exam. The published admission number for external Year 12 applicants is 56. The Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply to sixth-form entry — places turn on the published GCSE requirements and the subject-specific grades for your chosen courses. See the school's Sixth Form Admissions Policy for the full arrangements, and note there is a right of appeal if a place is not offered.