Apply to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith, in plain English.
QEGS is a co-educational selective academy that fills its 160 Year 7 places through its own entrance test. Children must reach the required standard; one in five places then goes to the very highest scorers wherever they live, and the rest are decided by a set of priorities that end with a designated catchment area and straight-line distance. Register directly with the school by 12 July 2026 — months before the October local-authority deadline that catches most families out.
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 QEGS test by 12 July 2026 — directly with the school.
Cumbria runs no county-wide test, so QEGS sets and marks its own entrance test, sat on Thursday 17 September 2026. You must register your child on the school's own form (via qegs.applicaa.com) by midnight on Sunday 12 July 2026. This is completely separate from the application you send your home council in the autumn.
Reach the standard, and one in five places goes on test score alone.
Every applicant must first reach the required standard in the test (a pass bar set each year — there is no published number). Of the 160 places, 32 (20%) are then offered to the highest-scoring children regardless of where they live. Only after those are filled do the catchment and distance priorities come into play for the remaining places.
For most places, the catchment area then distance decides.
After looked-after children, siblings, Pupil Premium and staff children, the remaining places go first to children living in the school's designated catchment area (the Eden valley around Penrith), and within that by shortest straight-line distance to the school. Living outside the catchment does not rule you out — but in-area children are placed first.
Five steps — the first deadline is July, not October.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 12 July 2026 — months before the local-authority application deadline that catches most families out. Miss it and there is no route to a place at QEGS for 2027 entry until the post-allocation test after National Offer Day.
If more children qualify than there are places, these criteria decide.
Only children who reach the required standard in the test are considered at all. The first 32 places (20% of 160) go to the highest scorers regardless of where they live. If more children qualify than the places that remain, those are filled in the order below — and the final criterion uses the designated catchment area, then straight-line distance. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after children come first among the oversubscription criteria, as long as they reach the required standard in the test. This covers children 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 — "Children in Local Authority Care or Previously in Local Authority Care." A child with an EHC plan naming Queen Elizabeth Grammar School who has reached the required standard is admitted before the oversubscription criteria are applied, and is counted within the PAN.
In plain English: Children who will have a brother or sister at QEGS when they start come next. "Brother or sister" is read broadly — natural, adopted, step and foster siblings living in the same household all count.
What the document says: Criterion 2 — "Current Family Association: A sister or brother attending Queen Elizabeth Grammar School at the time the child starts." Where twins, triplets or other multiple-birth siblings would take the school over its PAN, a place is offered to each of them even if that exceeds the PAN.
In plain English: Up to 10 places (about two per form) are held for children who attract Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumChildren registered for free school meals at any time in the last 6 years. QEGS's policy also includes Service Premium — children of regular armed-forces families, or registered as a service child in the last 4 years. funding via Free School Meals, and to children eligible for the Service Premium (armed-forces families). You must return the Supplementary Information Form (Appendix 3) with evidence by 31 October to be considered here. Any of these places not taken up roll down to the next criterion.
What the document says: Criterion 3 — "Pupil Premium: Priority will be given to 10 Students in receipt of Pupil Premium (including Service Premium)." Pupil Premium covers children registered for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years; Service Premium covers children with a parent in the regular armed forces, or registered as a service child in the four years before the test-registration deadline.
In plain English: Children of a current, permanent member of QEGS staff who has worked there for two or more years (or was recruited to fill a demonstrable skill shortage), and who lives at the same address. Contract and peripatetic staff are not included.
What the document says: Criterion 4 — "Children of Permanent Members of QEGS Staff: A child whose parent/carer is a current and permanent member of staff employed for two or more years at the time of registration or who has been recruited to fill a demonstrable skill shortage." The definition excludes contract staff and peripatetic staff.
In plain English: All remaining places are decided in two bands: first children living inside the school's designated catchment area (the Eden valley around Penrith), then children living anywhere else. Within each band, places go to those who live closest to the school, measured in a straight line. So an in-catchment child is placed ahead of a closer out-of-catchment child — but among in-catchment children, the nearer home wins.
What the document says: Criterion 5 — "Priority will be given to category a) followed by category b) for all remaining places, giving priority to those who live closest to the school. a) Queen Elizabeth Grammar School designated catchment area (see Appendix 2); b) All other areas." Distance is the straight line from the child's home to the school's OS reference point NY 51206 29679, measured by the local authority's GIS; the shortest distance is served first.
A catchment area — then distance — for most places.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. QEGS has a designated catchment area — a band of Eden-valley parishes around Penrith, from Lazonby in the north to Shap in the south and the Ullswater fells to the west. For the places left after the score-only 20% and the sibling, Pupil Premium and staff priorities, in-catchment children are placed first, and within the catchment the nearest home to the school wins. Children outside the catchment come next, again ranked by distance.
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; an exact tie for the last place — children in the same block of flats, or otherwise equally distant and equally eligible — 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 Langwathby, inside the designated catchment area, so a qualifying score places her in category 5a — ahead of every out-of-catchment child. Child B lives in Appleby, outside the catchment, so she falls into category 5b — considered only once the in-area children are placed. Within each band, the home nearer the school (by straight-line distance) is served first, so a closer out-of-area child still ranks behind every in-area child.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your child reached the required standard but wasn't offered a place, they are held on the waiting list, maintained by the school until 31 December 2027. When a place comes free it goes to the child ranked highest under the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner in a higher category, or living closer in-catchment, can move above you. The list is re-ranked every time a child is added or a place offered.
The local authority administers the list until 31 August 2027; the school takes it over from 1 September 2027.
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. Appeals use the school's Notice of Appeal form and are heard by an independent panel whose decision binds the governors; appealing does not affect your child's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but QEGS also admits external students into its co-educational Sixth Form. 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 a Total Points Score of 48 across your best 8 GCSEs, including at least grade 5 in GCSE English Language or English Literature and grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics. Individual A-level courses then set their own higher subject grades, so check the requirement for each subject your child wants to study.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to QEGS — not through the local-authority form. Students with non-standard qualifications are assessed separately. See the school's admissions page for the Sixth Form form and deadline.