Apply to Ermysted's Grammar School, in plain English.
Ermysted's is a boys' selective grammar school in Skipton that fills its 128 Year 7 places through its own entrance test. Every applicant must reach the required standard; places are then decided by a short set of priorities that put children living in the school's designated Craven catchment area first, with straight-line distance breaking ties. Register directly with the school by 31 August 2026 — registering for the test is a separate step from naming the school on your 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.
Register for the Ermysted's test by 31 August 2026 — directly with the school.
North Yorkshire runs no county-wide test, so Ermysted's sets and marks its own entrance test, sat on Saturday 26 September 2026. Registration opens on 13 April 2026 and closes at 12:00 noon on Monday 31 August 2026, on the school's own form. This is completely separate from the application you send your home council in the autumn.
It's a pass mark, not a league table.
Every applicant must reach the required standard — a pass bar the school sets each year from how the main cohort performs. The test score is not used to rank applicants for places: once your son reaches the standard, where he is offered a place is decided by the priorities below, not by how high he scored.
The catchment area, then distance, decides.
After looked-after children, places go first to boys living in the school's designated catchment area — the areas served by the Craven and Wharfedale primary schools around Skipton. Within the catchment, Pupil Premium children and siblings come first, then the shortest straight-line distance to school. Living outside the catchment doesn't rule you out, but in-area boys are placed first.
Five steps — and two separate deadlines.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 31 August 2026; your council application (step 4) closes on 31 October 2026. They are different forms sent to different places — you need both. Miss the test registration and there is no route to a place for 2027 entry until the late-testing round.
If more boys qualify than there are places, these criteria decide.
Only boys who reach the required standard in the test are considered at all. After children in care, the deciding split is the catchment area: in-area boys are ranked ahead of out-of-area boys. Within each area band the same tie-breaks apply, in this order — Pupil Premium, then sibling, then shortest distance. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after boys come first among the oversubscription criteria, as long as they reach the required standard in the test. This covers boys in council care, and those adopted from care (or who left care under a child-arrangements or special-guardianship order), including from state care outside England.
What the document says: Criterion 1 — first to "a looked after child or a child who was previously looked after… subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order." A boy with an EHC plan naming Ermysted's who has reached the required standard is admitted before the oversubscription criteria are applied, and is counted within the PAN.
In plain English: The catchment area is the big divide. A qualifying boy whose home is inside the designated catchment area is placed ahead of every boy living outside it — even one who lives closer to the school. The three tie-breaks below (Pupil Premium, then sibling, then distance) are then used within the in-area group first, and only afterwards repeated for the out-of-area group.
What the document says: Criterion 2 — "To children… whose home address lies within the catchment area at the time of application," ranked ahead of criterion 3, "children… whose home address lies outside the catchment area." The catchment area (Appendix 2) is "the areas served by the primary schools in Beamsley, Bradley, Burnsall, Carleton, Cracoe, Embsay, Gargrave, Grassington, Kettlewell, Kirkby-in-Malhamdale, Skipton, Thornton-in-Craven and Threshfield."
In plain English: Within the catchment band — and then within the out-of-catchment band — boys who attract Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumChildren registered for free school meals at any time in the last 6 years. Return the Supplementary Information Form with evidence to be considered here. funding via Free School Meals are placed first. You must return the Supplementary Information Form with evidence by 27 November to be counted here.
What the document says: "Preference to children in the second and third priority will be applied in the following order: (i) To children who are registered as in receipt of the Pupil Premium at the time of application…" Pupil Premium covers children registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years.
In plain English: After Pupil Premium, the next tie-break within each area band is having a sibling at Ermysted's in the September your son would start. "Sibling" is read broadly — half-brothers, adopted, fostered and step-brothers, and the son of a parent's partner living in the same household all count.
What the document says: "(ii) To children who have a sibling at the School in September of the year of entry." A sibling "includes half-brothers, adopted or fostered brothers, step-brothers, or the son of the parent's partner… living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling."
In plain English: When two boys are otherwise equal — same area band, neither Pupil Premium, neither with a sibling — the place goes to the one who lives closest to the school in a straight line. This is the final tie-break, applied first to in-catchment boys and then to out-of-catchment boys. There is no fixed distance cut-off; how far the catchment effectively reaches changes year to year with who applies.
What the document says: "(iii) To children who live closest to the School." Distance is "straight line distance measured by an electronic mapping system from a child's home address to the school… from a fixed point within the dwelling to the nearest entrance to the school grounds." An exact tie between equidistant boys for the last place is settled by independently-witnessed random allocation.
A catchment area — then distance — decides most places.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. Ermysted's has a designated catchment area — "the areas served by the primary schools in" Skipton and a ring of Craven, Wharfedale and Malhamdale villages, from Thornton-in-Craven and Gargrave in the west to Beamsley in the east and up the dale through Grassington to Kettlewell and Kirkby-in-Malhamdale. After children in care, in-catchment boys are placed ahead of out-of-catchment boys, and within each band Pupil Premium, then a sibling, then the nearest home decide. Children outside the catchment are considered next, again ranked by the same priorities.
There is no distance cut-off: how far the catchment effectively reaches changes year to year with the number and addresses of applicants. The map shows the designated catchment area as a real boundary; for a single-address decision near the edge, check the fine-level catchment map on the North Yorkshire Council website. An exact tie for the last place between equidistant boys is settled by independently-verified random allocation, not by a further distance test.
See the catchment area on the GrammarBound mapInside the catchment: priority. Then closest to school wins.
Child A lives in Grassington, inside the designated catchment area, so a qualifying score places him in the in-area band — ahead of every out-of-catchment boy. Child B lives in Ilkley, outside the catchment, so he falls into the out-of-area band — considered only once the in-area boys are placed. Within each band the home nearer the school (by straight-line distance) is served first, so a closer out-of-area boy still ranks behind every in-area boy.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your son reached the required standard but wasn't offered a place, he is held on the waiting list, maintained by the school until 31 December 2027. When a place comes free it goes to the boy ranked highest under the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner who is in-catchment or living closer can move above you. The list is re-ranked every time a child is added or a place offered.
Looked-after and previously looked-after children who reach the standard take precedence over the waiting list.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place, regardless of where you ranked the school on your application. Year 7 appeals are organised by North Yorkshire Council (not the school) and heard by an independent panel whose decision binds the governors; appealing does not affect your son's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but Ermysted's also admits external boys into its Sixth Form (external PAN 35). External applicants apply direct to the school and are judged on GCSE achievement, then on the entry requirements for each A-level course.
The grade floor.
The minimum for a Year 12 place is at least grade 5 in five or more GCSE subjects, which must include grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics and grade 5 in GCSE English Language or English Literature. Individual A-level courses then set their own higher subject grades in the Sixth Form Information Booklet, so check the requirement for each subject your son wants to study.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to Ermysted's — not through the local-authority form — by the school's deadline of 28 May 2027, with places confirmed on GCSE results day. See the school's admissions pages for the Sixth Form Application Form and the current Sixth Form Information Booklet.