Apply to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, in plain English.
Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School (KGGS) is a girls' grammar school in Grantham, Lincolnshire — the counterpart to The King's School next door — and one of the schools that share the Lincolnshire Consortium 11+. Your daughter qualifies by reaching a fixed standardised-score standard of 220 across the verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers — it is a pass mark, not a league table, so a higher score does not buy a better place. There is no catchment area: when more qualified girls apply than the 174 places, straight-line distance decides, so register for the test by 31 March 2026.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
The 11+ is a pass mark of 220, not a ranking. Reaching it makes your daughter eligible — it does not order her.
The Lincolnshire Consortium 11+ is two papers — verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning (which includes spatial reasoning) — set and standardised by GL Assessment. The standardised scores are added together, and a child needs an aggregate of 220 (intended to identify the top 25% of children by ability) to reach the qualifying standard. Once a girl has reached 220 she is fully qualified; a score of 250 carries no more weight than 221. If places run short, it is distance — not score — that separates qualified girls.
There is no catchment area. Distance only matters if the school is oversubscribed by qualified girls.
KGGS does not have a designated catchment, a feeder list, or postcode tiers. Every qualified girl across Lincolnshire (and beyond) is eligible to apply. If more than 174 qualified girls list the school, the remaining places — after looked-after children, siblings, Pupil Premium and children of staff — go to those living closest in a straight line. There is no published distance cutoff; the furthest distance offered changes every year, so the circle on our map is indicative only.
Registering for the test and applying for the place are two separate jobs — with two separate deadlines.
Register your daughter for the 11+ by 31 March 2026 (when she is in Year 5) — sitting the test is not an application. You then have to name KGGS on your home council's secondary application form by 31 October 2026. Miss the test registration and she cannot sit; miss the application and she cannot be offered a place, even if she passed.
Five steps — register in spring, sit the test in autumn, apply by 31 October.
Registration for the test closes in March, six months before the papers are sat. Put the registration date in your calendar now — it is the easiest one to miss.
If too many girls qualify, these five criteria decide.
Children with an EHCP naming KGGS are admitted before these criteria apply. All other qualifying girls are placed in the highest criterion that applies to them; within each criterion, closest girls rank first. Tap any criterion to read the detail.
In plain English: Girls who are currently in council care, or who were previously in care and left it through adoption, a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order (including those adopted from state care outside England), get the highest priority — provided they have reached the qualifying standard. Where they live does not matter.
What the document says: Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children, including those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
In plain English: Qualified girls who have a sibling at KGGS who will still be attending when they start come next. A sibling means a full sister, or another child living for the majority of term time in the same household — including step- and half-siblings and any child for whom an adult in the household has parental responsibility. Within this group, the closest girls rank first.
What the document says: There is a sibling at the school who is attending when the application is made.
In plain English: Qualified girls eligible for the Pupil Premium — registered for Free School Meals at any point in the previous six years — whose home is within 12 miles of the school come next. You must tick the Free School Meals box on the 11+ registration form and ask your daughter's primary school to verify eligibility by 31 October. Within this group, the closest girls rank first.
What the document says: Students who are eligible for the Pupil Premium who achieve the minimum qualifying standard and whose home address is within 12 miles of the school according to note 5.
In plain English: Qualified daughters of a member of school staff come next, where the parent has either worked at the school for two or more years at the time the application is made, or was recruited to fill a vacant post for which there was a demonstrable skill shortage. Within this group, the closest girls rank first.
What the document says: Children of staff applies in either or both of the following circumstances: a) where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made; and/or b) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
In plain English: Every other qualified girl — anyone not admitted under criteria 1 to 4 — competes for the remaining places ranked by straight-line distance from home to school, closest first. This is the criterion that decides most places. If two girls live an identical distance away and only one place is left, an independent lottery breaks the tie.
What the document says: The distance from the home to the school. Priority will be given to the child living nearest the school, as defined in note (5). [Tie breaker] If two or more children are tied for the last place a lottery will be drawn by an independent person, not employed by the school or working in the Children's Service Directorate at the local authority.
No catchment — closer to school simply means a higher rank.
KGGS is distance-ranked with no catchment area. Once your daughter reaches the qualifying standard of 220, her position in the deciding criterion is set entirely by how far she lives from school — closest first. Score does nothing beyond the 220 threshold, and there are no postcode tiers, feeder schools or designated areas. Because the school does not publish a distance cutoff, how far "close enough" reaches depends on how many qualified girls apply that year.
Distance is measured in a straight line, to three decimal places, from your home's address point in the OS AddressBaseOS AddressBaseThe Ordnance Survey address database. Lincolnshire County Council measures a straight line between the Post Office Address Point of your home and a fixed point at the school. database to a fixed point at the school.
See the indicative area on the GrammarBound mapTwo qualified girls, no sibling link — the closer one ranks higher.
Both girls have reached the qualifying standard of 220 and neither has a sibling at KGGS. Girl A is 3.0 miles away — she ranks above Girl B at 6.5 miles. Test score above 220 makes no difference; only distance counts.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Reserve list
If your daughter met the qualifying standard but was offered a lower-preference school, she is placed on the KGGS reserve list. The list is held in oversubscription-criteria order — not by how long you have waited — so a closer late applicant can move above her. It is kept by the Schools Admission Team until the end of the coordinated round in August, then by the school to the end of the academic year.
Appeal
You can appeal if a place is refused on non-qualification, oversubscription, or both — provided you named KGGS on your application form. Appeals are organised independently of the school, and the panel's decision is binding. Appealing does not affect your position on the reserve list. Note that overturning a non-qualification refusal needs exceptional circumstances.
Joining Year 12 — around 20 external places.
The KGGS sixth form takes both its own Year 11 students and external applicants. The grade floor is a pass (grade 4) in Maths and English, six GCSEs at grade 5+, and a grade 6 in each subject your child wants to study.
Six GCSEs at grade 5+, grade 4 in Maths and English — and grade 6 in chosen A-level subjects.
The A-level minimum is passes at grade 4 or above in GCSE English Language and Mathematics, plus at least six GCSE passes at grades 5–9. On top of that, each A-level needs at least grade 6 in the related GCSE subject (or any prerequisite subject — for example, you are unlikely to manage A-level Science without grade 6 in GCSE Maths). Check the Sixth Form Information Booklet for the exact subject thresholds.
Internal students continue automatically — apply directly for external places.
The external Year 12 admission number is 20, not counting students continuing from the school's own Year 11 (the sixth form is typically around 330 in total). Where there are more external applicants than places, decisions are made on the basis of overall GCSE performance using the best 8 grades, then the same oversubscription criteria as for Year 7. Apply directly to the school.
See kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk for the Sixth Form Information Booklet and subject entry requirements.