Apply to Ripon Grammar School, in plain English.
Ripon Grammar School is a co-educational selective grammar — day and boarding — that fills its 117 Year 7 places (14 reserved for boarders) through an entrance test administered by North Yorkshire Council. Unlike most non-super-selective grammars, the test score genuinely ranks applicants: the highest-scoring children living inside the school's designated catchment area are offered the day places. Register for the test between April and 30 June 2026 — a separate step from naming the school on your council application.
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 test by 30 June 2026 — when your child is in Year 5.
Ripon's entrance test is sat in early September 2026, at the start of Year 6, but the application to take it must be in by 30 June 2026 — over a year before your child would start. North Yorkshire administers the test; you register through the school's admissions pages. This is completely separate from the application you send your home council in the autumn. Miss this deadline and your child cannot sit the test.
Here the score really does rank — within the catchment.
At many grammars the test is just a pass/fail bar. At Ripon it does more: North Yorkshire sets the standard from the highest-scoring 28% of the Year 6 children living in the catchment area. In practice the day places go to the top-scoring children in catchment, so a higher score genuinely helps — if you live inside the catchment.
Catchment comes before everything else.
After children in care and a small special social/medical group, the dividing line is the catchment area — Ripon and its surrounding villages, defined by North Yorkshire Council. Children inside it are placed ahead of children outside it. Living outside doesn't rule you out, but out-of-catchment places only come free if there is room after in-catchment children are offered.
Four steps — and two separate deadlines.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 30 June 2026, when your child is in Year 5; your council application (step 4) closes on 31 October 2026, in Year 6. They are different forms sent to different places — you need both. Miss the test registration and there is no route to a place for 2027 entry.
If more children qualify than there are day places, these criteria decide.
Only children who reach the required standard in the test are considered at all. After children in care come a small special social/medical group, then children living inside the catchment area, then children of staff, then children outside the catchment. Within every one of those groups a sibling at the school comes first, then the home closest to school. 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 children adopted from state care outside England.
What the document says: Day priorities 1 and 2 — "Looked after children and all previously looked after children for whom the school has been expressed as a preference," and "Children who appear to the Admissions Authority to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted." A child with an EHC plan naming Ripon Grammar who reaches the standard is admitted within the PAN.
In plain English: A small number of qualifying children are admitted ahead of the catchment because the council accepts there is a compelling social or medical reason why they need a place at Ripon Grammar specifically. This is rare and needs professional evidence (for example from a doctor or social worker) submitted with the application.
What the document says: Day priority 3 — "Children the Authority considers have special social or medical reasons for admission." The reason must be supported by appropriate professional evidence linking the child's need to this particular school.
In plain English: The catchment area is the main divide. A qualifying child whose home is inside the catchment is placed ahead of every child living outside it. Because the cut-off mark is set from the highest-scoring 28% of the catchment cohort, this is the group where the test score does the work — the top scorers in catchment fill the day places.
What the document says: Day priority 4 — "Those children whose home address lies within the catchment area for Year 7 entry as defined by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC)," ranked ahead of priority 6, children whose home address lies outside it. The catchment map is held by North Yorkshire Council.
In plain English: Children of people who work at Ripon Grammar sit between the in-catchment and out-of-catchment groups, provided the child has reached the required standard and the member of staff meets the employment condition. It applies to relatively few families each year.
What the document says: Day priority 5 — "Children of staff [employed for a minimum of 2 years or to fill a demonstrable skill shortage] at the school."
In plain English: Children outside the catchment are considered only if there are surplus places after every qualifying in-catchment child is offered one. When out-of-catchment places do come free, they go to the highest-scoring of those applicants. Whether any come free at all depends on how many in-catchment children apply that year.
What the document says: Day priority 6 — "Those children whose home address lies outside the catchment area for Year 7 entry as defined by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC)." Surplus places after the catchment cohort are offered in score order.
In plain English: When one of the groups above has more qualifying children than places left, two tie-breaks decide, in order: first a child with a brother or sister already at Ripon Grammar, then the child living closest to the school. So a sibling link can lift a child within their group, and after that distance settles it.
What the document says: "Within each of the priorities above the following sub-criteria will be used in order of priority: 1. Children with a sibling at Ripon Grammar School; 2. Those whose home address is closest to the School (measured using an electronic mapping system)." Sibling includes step, adopted and foster brothers or sisters living in the same house.
A catchment area — then the test score — decides most places.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. Ripon Grammar has a designated catchment area — Ripon and its surrounding villages, defined by North Yorkshire Council, reaching out to Masham in the north-west and Boroughbridge in the south-east. After children in care and the small social/medical group, in-catchment children are placed ahead of out-of-catchment children. Inside the catchment, the day places go to the highest-scoring children — the council sets the cut-off from the top 28% of the catchment cohort each year — so a strong test score genuinely matters here.
There is no fixed pass mark: the cut-off moves each year with how the catchment cohort performs (recent marks have been around the high-190s to low-200s). The map shows the catchment as a real boundary; for a single-address decision near the edge, check the fine-level map on the North Yorkshire Council website. About 70% of the school's intake lives within roughly five miles, and almost all within ten. Boarding places (14 of the 117) are admitted separately and are not catchment-based.
See the catchment area on the GrammarBound mapInside the catchment, the higher score wins the place.
Children A and B both live in the catchment. Child A scores 218 and is above the year's cut-off, so is offered a place; Child B scores 188 and falls below it, so misses out — inside the catchment, the score ranks. Child C lives outside the catchment, so is considered only if places remain after every qualifying in-catchment child is offered one — and then, again, in score order.
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. When a place comes free it goes to the child ranked highest under the same oversubscription criteria — children in care, social/medical, in-catchment, staff, out-of-catchment, with sibling and distance the tie-breaks — not first-come-first-served. The list is re-ranked every time a child is added, so a later joiner who is in-catchment or has a sibling can move above you.
Looked-after and previously looked-after children who reach the standard take precedence on the list.
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 are heard by an independent panel whose decision binds the school and the parents; appealing does not affect your child's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but Ripon Grammar also admits external students into its co-educational Sixth Form. There is no separate selection test — 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 grade 4 in GCSE English and Mathematics, plus either six GCSEs at grade 6 or 48 points across your best eight GCSEs. On top of that floor, each A-level needs at least grade 6 (grade 7 for some subjects) in the related GCSE, so check the requirement for each subject in the Sixth Form Course Guide.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to Ripon Grammar — not through the local-authority form — by the school's published closing date, with places confirmed on GCSE results day. See the school's Sixth Form admissions pages for the application form and the current Course Guide, which lists the academic criteria for each course.