Apply to Skipton Girls' High School, in plain English.
Skipton Girls' High School is a girls' selective grammar school that fills its 120 Year 7 places through its own entrance test. Every applicant must reach the required standard; places are then decided by a short set of priorities that put girls living in the school's designated Priority Area first, with straight-line distance breaking ties. Register online with the school by 19 August 2026 — registering for the test is 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 Skipton Girls' test by 19 August 2026 — directly with the school.
North Yorkshire runs no county-wide test, so Skipton Girls' sets its own entrance test, sat on Saturday 26 September 2026. The online registration form must be submitted by midnight on Wednesday 19 August 2026. This is completely separate from the application you send your home council in the autumn — miss this deadline and your daughter cannot sit the test or be considered for a place.
It's a pass mark, not a league table.
Every applicant must reach the required standard — a pass bar the school sets each year from how the main cohort performs. The test score is not used to rank applicants for places: once your daughter is deemed suitable, where she is offered a place is decided by the priorities below, not by how high she scored.
The Priority Area, then distance, decides.
After looked-after children and Pupil Premium girls, places go to girls living in the school's Priority Area — the Craven and Wharfedale area around Skipton that reaches up into the Yorkshire Dales. Within any band that can't be fully met, the shortest straight-line distance to school decides. Living outside the Priority Area doesn't rule you out, but in-area girls are placed first.
Four steps — and two separate deadlines.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 19 August 2026; your council application (step 4) closes on 31 October 2026. 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 until the late-testing round in May.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these criteria decide.
Only girls who reach the required standard in the test are considered at all. After children in care come Pupil Premium girls, then girls living inside the Priority Area, then girls outside it. Whenever a band can't be fully met, the place goes to whoever lives closest to school in a straight line. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after girls come first among the oversubscription criteria, as long as they reach the required standard in the test. This covers girls 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 — "Places will be offered to looked after… and previously looked after girls who have been deemed suitable." A girl with an EHC plan naming Skipton Girls' who has been deemed suitable is offered a place before the oversubscription criteria are applied, and is counted within the PAN.
In plain English: Skipton Girls' places Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumChildren registered for free school meals at any time in the last 6 years. Tick the Pupil Premium box at registration and provide evidence by the end of September. girls — and girls whose families receive Universal Credit and are eligible for free school meals — above even the Priority Area. If your daughter qualifies here, tick the box when you register for the test and send evidence to the school by the end of September.
What the document says: Criterion 2 — "To those who at the time of application are registered as Pupil Premium and/or those whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit." Parents must tick the Pupil Premium or Universal Credit box at registration and provide evidence by the end of September; evidence received later is treated as late.
In plain English: Once children in care and Pupil Premium girls are placed, the Priority Area is the next divide. A qualifying girl whose home is inside the Priority Area is placed ahead of every girl living outside it — even one who lives closer to the school. The school says it has always been able to offer places to every in-area girl who reaches the standard.
What the document says: Criterion 3 — "To those girls living within the School's Priority Area who have been deemed suitable," ranked ahead of criterion 4, "girls living outside the School's Priority Area." A map of the Priority Area is published on the school website and on page 7 of the policy.
In plain English: The school anticipates a number of places for girls living beyond the Priority Area, but it may not be able to offer a place to every out-of-area girl who reaches the standard. Whether an out-of-area place comes free each year depends on how many in-area girls apply.
What the document says: Criterion 4 — "To those girls living outside the School's Priority Area who have been deemed suitable." The policy notes that "it is anticipated that a number of places will be available for girls beyond this area," but offers to out-of-area girls are not guaranteed.
In plain English: When one of the bands above has more qualifying girls than places left, the places go to those who live closest to the school in a straight line. There is no fixed distance cut-off; how far the Priority Area effectively reaches changes year to year with who applies.
What the document says: "If there are not enough places for all the girls in one of these priority groups… we will then offer places to those living nearest school." Distance is "a straight line from home to the School, as measured by an electronic mapping system… from the front door of the home to the main School entrance on Gargrave Road." An exact tie for the last place is settled by independently-witnessed random allocation.
A Priority Area — then distance — decides most places.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. Skipton Girls' has a designated Priority Area — the Craven and Wharfedale country around Skipton, from Thornton-in-Craven and Gargrave in the west, up the dale through Grassington to Kettlewell and Buckden, across Littondale and Malhamdale, and east to Embsay, Bolton Abbey and Beamsley. After children in care and Pupil Premium girls, in-area girls are placed ahead of out-of-area girls, and whenever a band can't be fully met the nearest home decides. Girls outside the Priority Area are considered next, again with distance the tie-break.
There is no distance cut-off: how far the Priority Area effectively reaches changes year to year with the number and addresses of applicants. The map shows the Priority Area as a real boundary; for a single-address decision near the edge, check the fine-level map on the North Yorkshire Council website. An exact tie for the last place between equidistant girls is settled by independently-verified random allocation, not by a further distance test.
See the Priority Area on the GrammarBound mapInside the Priority Area: priority. Then closest to school wins.
Child A lives in Grassington, inside the Priority Area, so a qualifying score places her in the in-area band — ahead of every out-of-area girl. Child B lives in Ilkley, outside the Priority Area, so she falls into the out-of-area band — considered only once the in-area girls are placed. Within each band the home nearer the school (by straight-line distance) is served first, so a closer out-of-area girl still ranks behind every in-area girl.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your daughter reached the required standard but wasn't offered a place, she is held on the waiting list, kept by the school until 31 August at the end of the year of admission. When a place comes free it goes to the girl ranked highest under the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner who is Pupil Premium, in-area or living closer can move above you. The list is re-ranked every time a child is added.
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 Trust and the parents; appealing does not affect your daughter's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but Skipton Girls' also admits external students into its Sixth Form (target 35 external places). There is no entrance test for the Sixth Form — 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 five or more GCSEs at grade 9–4, which must include English and Mathematics. On top of that floor, each A-level needs at least grade 6 in the GCSE subject you want to study, so check the requirement for each subject in the Sixth Form Prospectus.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to Skipton Girls' — 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 pages for the application form and the current Sixth Form Prospectus, which lists the academic criteria for each course.