Apply to Plymouth High School for Girls, in plain English.
Plymouth High School for Girls is a selective girls' grammar in Greenbank, Plymouth that fills all 120 Year 7 places in rank order of the shared Plymouth selective 11+ score — its admission arrangements state plainly that it has no catchment area. You must register your daughter for the 11+ directly with the school by 31 August 2026, then name the school on your council's Common Application Form by 31 October 2026. The external English and Maths papers (set by Quest Assessment from 2026) are sat across two Saturdays in September.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
One shared Plymouth 11+, used by all three Plymouth grammars — register by 31 August 2026.
Plymouth High School for Girls selects on the shared Plymouth selective 11+ — externally-set English and Maths papers (provided by Quest Assessment from 2026). Your daughter sits the papers once and the standardised result is considered by each Plymouth grammar she applies to. You register directly with the school; registration runs from 27 April to 31 August 2026 and each child sits the test once.
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
The admission arrangements state plainly: "Catchment area: No". After looked-after children and the reserved Pupil Premium places (see the criteria below), every remaining place is offered to the highest-scoring girls in rank order, wherever they live. Reaching the cut-off score does not guarantee a place — it only makes your daughter eligible to be ranked.
Pupil Premium gives priority — up to 12 places — so flag it at registration.
Up to 12 places are reserved for girls who reach the standard and qualify for the free school meals pupil premium or Ever 6 FSM, ranked by score. Complete the FSM pupil premium supplementary form and return it to the Plymouth admissions team by 31 October 2026. For the normal Year 7 round there is no sibling, staff, faith or feeder-school priority — those criteria apply to in-year (mid-year) admissions only.
Five steps — starting now.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these 3 criteria decide.
Only girls who reach the cut-off 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: Girls who are or were in council care (including those adopted from care or under a special guardianship / child arrangements order, and children who were in state care outside England) get the highest priority, provided they score within 5 points of the school's adjusted cut-off. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: Looked after and previously looked after children who achieve a score equal to or higher than 5 points below the adjusted cut off score for this school, by rank order of highest score in the 11-plus examination.
In plain English: Up to 12 places are reserved for girls who reach the standard and qualify for the free school meals pupil premium or Ever 6 FSM (broadly, eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years), ranked by score. Complete the FSM pupil premium supplementary form and return it to the Plymouth admissions team by 31 October 2026 — without the evidence your daughter will not be counted under this criterion.
What the document says: Up to 12 places will be allocated to candidates who achieve a score equal to or higher than 5 points below the adjusted cut off score for this school, by rank order of highest score in the 11-plus examination and who qualify for the free school meals pupil premium or Ever 6 FSM.
In plain English: Every remaining place goes to the highest-scoring qualifying girls in rank order, regardless of where they live. There is no catchment area. Distance is used only to separate two girls with exactly the same score (see the worked example below).
What the document says: Other candidates by rank order of highest score in the 11-plus examination. The cut off score is the score attained by the last candidate allocated to the school under this criterion.
Tie-breaker: if two girls have identical scores, priority goes first to a girl who qualifies for the free school meals pupil premium or Ever 6 FSM; then to the one living closest to the school, measured in a straight line using Plymouth City Council's electronic mapping system. If that still cannot separate them, places are decided by a supervised random ballot.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Plymouth High School for Girls has no catchment area and no geographic restriction — the admission arrangements say so in as many words ("Catchment area: No"). After looked-after children and the reserved Pupil Premium places are filled, every remaining place goes to the highest-ranking qualifying girls by combined standardised test score — regardless of where they live. A girl in Plymouth, Saltash, Ivybridge or Tavistock 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 girls with identical scores (after the Pupil Premium tie-break): the one living closer, by straight-line measurement using the council's mapping system, ranks higher, and if still tied, a supervised random ballot decides. For everyone else, home address has no bearing on the outcome.
See the school's location on the GrammarBound mapTwo girls ranked by score — not by where they live.
Both girls 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
Girls not allocated a place are automatically placed on a waiting list, ranked by the same published admission criteria — not by when you applied. Late applicants and waiting-list candidates are treated equally on one list. The list is maintained until the end of August 2027; when a vacancy arises it goes to the next girl on the list.
Responses and waiting-list requests are made to Plymouth City Council.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeals panel. For a selective school the panel must be satisfied your daughter reached the required standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. Information about the appeal process is available from Plymouth City Council's School Admissions Team. Appealing does not remove your daughter from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Plymouth High School for Girls 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.
You need an overall average GCSE grade of 6 across your best 8 GCSEs, with at least grade 6 in both GCSE English and Mathematics. Most A-level subjects then ask for a minimum grade 6 in a related GCSE; Mathematics and Physics A-levels require grade 7 in GCSE Mathematics. The school will review individual cases where a student narrowly misses the average but meets the requirements for their chosen subjects.
Apply direct to the school.
There are 10 external Year 12 places for September entry (total Year 12 capacity is 120, including girls continuing from the school's own Year 11). Apply directly to the school by the end of January 2027; the Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply to sixth-form entry. Offers are normally confirmed by the end of February, and there is a right of appeal if a place is not offered.