Apply to Newport Girls' High School Academy, in plain English.
Newport Girls' High School (NGHS) is an oversubscribed girls' selective grammar in Newport, Shropshire, with just 120 Year 7 places. Girls sit the school's own entrance test and must reach the qualifying score the school sets each year; places then fill in priority order — looked-after girls, a small Pupil Premium group, then girls living inside the Newport boundary area, then everyone else by score. Register for the test online by 4pm on 26 June 2026 — months before, and separately from, the October Common Application Form.
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 11+ test by 26 June 2026 — long before the CAF.
Newport Girls' runs its own entrance test. Registration is done online through the West Midlands Grammar Schools portal, linked from the NGHS website. It opens on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on Friday 26 June 2026 — months before, and completely separate from, the October Common Application Form. Miss the registration deadline and, apart from evidenced exceptional circumstances, there is no route to a place for 2027 entry.
This is a score-led school — but the Newport boundary area decides the order.
Every applicant must reach the qualifying score the school's Selection Panel sets each year; below it, a girl is not eligible. Above it, after looked-after and a small Pupil Premium group, qualifying girls who live inside the Newport boundary area are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying girl living outside it. So a high score matters, but where you live decides which queue you join.
The Newport boundary area is a published map — and it's a girls' school.
The school publishes a boundary map covering Newport and the surrounding villages; girls living inside it take priority at the in-area stage. Only girls are eligible. The school can ask for evidence of where your daughter lives. The exact line is published only as a map, so check the GrammarBound map to see roughly whether your home falls inside.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the entrance test (step 1) closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026 — months before the CAF deadline that catches most families out. Registering for the test is not the same as applying for the school.
If more girls reach the standard than there are places, these criteria decide.
A girl with an EHCP naming the school, who meets the academic standard, is admitted first (within the 120). Everyone else who reaches the qualifying score is then placed in the four stages below — looked-after girls, then up to 15 Pupil Premium girls at a Telford & Wrekin primary, then girls inside the Newport boundary area, then all other areas — each ranked by test score. Tap any stage to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Girls in council care, or who were in care before being adopted (including internationally adopted children from state care outside England), come first — provided they scored no less than 95% of the qualifying score. Tell the council about looked-after status when you apply.
What the document says: Stage One — Looked After Children. The Trustees will prioritise the admission of any girl who is defined as Looked After or previously Looked After, including Internationally Adopted Children (IAPLAC), provided she has scored no less than 95% of the qualifying score.
In plain English: Up to 15 places go to girls whose primary school receives the Pupil Premium for them and who attend a Telford & Wrekin primary on the school's published Appendix 1 list, provided they scored no less than 95% of the qualifying score. They are ranked by test score, and you must provide evidence of Pupil Premium eligibility at least five working days before the test.
What the document says: Stage Two — Pupil Premium Students. The Trustees will next admit up to 15 girls whose primary school receives pupil premium support for them at the time of the entrance test, who attend a primary school within Telford & Wrekin listed in Appendix 1, and who have scored no less than 95% of the qualifying score. The highest-scoring 15 are offered places.
In plain English: This is how most girls get in. After the looked-after and Pupil Premium stages, the remaining places go to all the other girls who reached the qualifying score and live inside the publicised Newport boundary area, strictly in rank order of test score. A high score wins an in-area place.
What the document says: Stage Three — Newport Boundary Area Pupils (In-area girls). Places are next allocated to all girls who reside within the publicised boundary area and who have achieved the qualifying score. If there are more Newport-area girls than remaining places, places are allocated to those with the highest test scores in rank order.
In plain English: If the earlier stages don't fill all 120 places, the school then offers places to qualifying girls living anywhere else — in the UK or abroad — strictly in rank order of test score. Where two girls are tied for the final place, the place goes to the one living closest to the school.
What the document says: Stage Four — All Other Areas. Consideration is finally given to out-of-area candidates residing outside the boundary area anywhere in the UK or abroad. Places are awarded solely on the decreasing rank order of the standardised test scores. In the event of a tied score for the 120th place, the final place is offered to the student who resides closest to the school.
A published Newport boundary area — Newport and its villages.
Newport Girls' has no ward or parish catchment list. Instead the determined policy gives priority (at Stage 3) to girls who live inside a publicised "Newport boundary area" — a designated zone around Newport and the surrounding villages, published by the school only as a map. Qualifying girls who live inside the area are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying girl outside it. The boundary GrammarBound draws is an approximate trace of that published map: live inside it and you join the in-area queue.
Because the school publishes the boundary only as a raster Ordnance Survey map (no parish or postcode list), the line GrammarBound shows is georeferenced from that map and is illustrative of the published extent, not an exact reproduction. There is no published distance cut-off: within each stage places are decided by test score, with straight-line distance only the tie-break between equal scores for the final place.
See the Newport boundary area on the GrammarBound mapInside the area: priority. Outside: only if places remain.
Child A lives inside the Newport boundary area, so once she reaches the qualifying score she is ranked (by score) ahead of every qualifying girl living outside it. Child B lives outside, so she is only offered a place if the earlier stages don't fill the 120. Both must reach the qualifying score; the boundary area decides which queue they join.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your daughter isn't offered a place, she can join a waiting list the school holds until the end of the school year. Only girls who reached the qualifying score (or 95% of it for looked-after and Pupil Premium girls) are eligible to be on it. The list is kept in strict oversubscription-criteria order — not by the date you applied — and is re-ordered each time a girl is added or leaves, so a later application can move ahead of an earlier one. When a place comes free it goes to the highest-ranked girl.
Candidates must reapply each academic year to stay on the waiting list.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place. Appeals are heard by an independent appeal panel; for girls who didn't qualify, the panel takes account of the child's position in the test process, and prejudice to the school is only considered once the year group is full. A refusal does not stop you joining the waiting list — you can do both at once.
Joining Year 12 at Newport Girls'.
The sixth form is single-sex and welcomes external female applicants alongside NGHS's own Year 11. The Newport boundary area does not apply to sixth-form entry — girls may be admitted irrespective of where they live (it only settles a final tie). Entry is on GCSE results, confirmed after Results Day in August 2027.
The grade floor.
You need at least grade 5 in GCSE English Language and grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics, plus at least grade 6 in the three A-level subjects to be studied (grade 7 is strongly desired in Maths and Sciences) and at least grade 6 in three further GCSEs. BTEC courses count at Merit standard, each replacing one GCSE. Applicants with an EHCP are admitted first, and NGHS Year 11 students who meet the criteria obtain a place automatically.
Apply direct to the school.
External applications go directly to NGHS — not through the CAF — with a deadline of 14 February 2027, and confirmed places follow GCSE Results Day in August 2027. Internal NGHS Year 11 students complete an Options Form. If external places are oversubscribed, applicants are ranked first by looked-after status, then by descending GCSE Average Points Score; a tie for the final place is settled by Newport-boundary-area residence and then random allocation.