Apply to Ribston Hall High School, in plain English.
Ribston Hall is a selective girls' grammar in Gloucester that fills all 150 Year 7 places in rank order of the shared Gloucestershire Grammar School test score — there is no catchment area. You must register for the test by 26 June 2026 at midday, then name the school on your council's Common Application Form by 31 October 2026. Girls eligible for Pupil Premium have 30 places reserved for them and qualify at a lower standardised score.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
One shared test, used by all seven Gloucestershire grammars — register by 26 June 2026 at midday.
Ribston Hall uses the Gloucestershire Grammar School Admission Test (the G7 test), set by GL Assessment for 2027 entry. You register once and the same score is used by every G7 school you apply to. The test is sat on Saturday 12 September 2026; registration closes at noon on 26 June 2026 and there are no re-sits.
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
The school doesn't have a designated area. After looked-after children and a reserved block of Pupil Premium places (see the criteria below), every remaining place is offered to the highest-scoring girls in rank order, wherever they live. Meeting the qualifying standard does not guarantee a place — it only makes your daughter eligible to be ranked.
Pupil Premium girls have 30 reserved places and a lower score — flag it on the registration form.
The qualifying standard for girls who are Pupil Premium, looked-after or previously looked-after is set lower than for other children, and 30 places are reserved for Pupil Premium girls. You must tick Pupil Premium eligibility on the test registration form; the school then verifies it with the local authority. There is no sibling, staff, faith or feeder-school priority.
Five steps — starting now.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these 3 criteria decide.
Only girls who meet the qualifying standard 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 meet the qualifying standard or rank within 100 places of it. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: 1. Children in Care / Children Previously in Care (including those who were in state care outside England and ceased to be so as a result of being adopted) who have met the qualifying standard, or 100 ranked places below it, offered priority by rank order.
In plain English: Up to 30 of the 150 places are reserved for girls eligible for Pupil Premium — broadly, registered for income-related free school meals at any point in the six years before the test registration deadline. They qualify at a lower standardised score. Within this block, Pupil Premium girls living in the Gloucester postcodes GL1, GL2, GL3 and GL4 are ranked first, then Pupil Premium girls living elsewhere. Tick the box at registration; the school verifies it with the local authority.
What the document says: 2. 30 places will be allocated to students who qualify for Pupil Premium who have met the qualifying standard or 100 ranked places below it: (a) Pupil Premium students who live in Gloucester postcodes GL1, GL2, GL3, GL4 by rank order; (b) Pupil Premium students who live outside those postcodes by rank order.
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: 3. Students by rank order in the qualifying standard.
Tie-breaker: if two girls have an equal combined score, the higher rank goes to the one living closest to the school, measured in a straight line from home to school using the local authority's computerised system (Ordnance Survey address points). If that still cannot separate them, places are decided by supervised random allocation.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Ribston Hall has no catchment area and no geographic restriction. After looked-after children and the 30 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 Cheltenham, the Forest of Dean or the Cotswolds competes on exactly the same terms as one in Gloucester. 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: the one living closer (straight-line, by the LA's computerised system) ranks higher, and if still tied, a supervised random draw decides. For everyone else, home address has no bearing on the outcome.
See Ribston Hall'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 342 and lives far from school; Child B scored 329 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
If the school is oversubscribed, a Year 7 waiting list is held and prioritised by the same rank order (the tie-breaker applies if needed), irrespective of when you applied. Each time a girl is added, the list is re-ranked. Only girls who met the qualifying standard can join it. The list is held until 31 December 2027.
Request via the school's Admissions Office.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeals panel. Note that for a selective school the panel must be satisfied your daughter met the qualifying standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. Appealing does not remove your daughter from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Ribston Hall admits up to 50 external students into Year 12 alongside its own Year 11. The sixth form is co-educational — boys are welcome, even though Years 7–11 are girls only.
The grade floor.
You need a minimum of five full-course GCSEs at grade 6 in separate subjects (Core and Additional Science count as separate subjects). You must also have at least grade 5 in both GCSE English Language and Mathematics. The same requirements apply to internal and external applicants, and individual A-level subjects may set their own higher GCSE entry grades.
Apply direct to the school.
Up to 50 external places are available for September entry, with the Year 12 cohort capped at 125. Apply directly to Ribston Hall; the Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply to sixth-form entry. You will be invited to interview with the Sixth Form Team, and the Admissions Review Group considers cases with extenuating circumstances. Confirm your place with results on GCSE results day.