Apply to Stratford Girls' Grammar School, in plain English.
Stratford Girls' is an oversubscribed single-sex selective grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon — around 445 families applied for 120 Year 7 places in 2025. Girls sit the Warwickshire 11+ and must reach the qualifying score set each year; places then fill in rank order of score, but girls living inside the school's priority circle are offered places ahead of equally-qualifying girls outside it. Register for the test via Warwickshire's online portal by 11.59pm on 30 June 2026 — separately from, and months before, the October Common Application Form.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
You register for the 11+ test by 30 June 2026 — long before the CAF.
Stratford Girls' uses the Warwickshire 11+ Selection Test, run by Warwickshire Admissions on the school's behalf. Registration opens on 7 May 2026 through Warwickshire's online parent portal and closes at 11.59pm on 30 June 2026 — months before, and completely separate from, the October Common Application Form. Miss the registration deadline and, apart from evidenced exceptional circumstances, there is no route to a place for 2027 entry.
This is a score-led school — but the priority circle decides the order.
Every applicant must reach the Automatic Qualifying Score set each year; below it, a girl is not eligible. Above it, qualifying girls who live inside the priority circle are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying girl living outside it. So a high score matters, but where you live decides which queue you join.
The priority circle is drawn from the Stratford fountain — and it's a girls' school.
The priority circle has a radius of 16.936 miles measured from the Fountain in Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon — in the town centre, a short distance from the school in Shottery. Only girls are eligible. Your daughter must live inside that circle, at the address you give, by 31 December 2026, and Warwickshire can ask for evidence of where you live. Check the GrammarBound map to see whether your home falls inside.
Four steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Registering for the Warwickshire 11+ (step 1) closes at 11.59pm on 30 June 2026 — months before the CAF deadline that catches most families out. Registering for the test is not the same as applying for the school.
If more girls reach the standard than there are places, these criteria decide.
A girl with an EHCP naming the school, who meets the minimum academic standard, is admitted first, within the 120 (the Admission Number reduces accordingly). Everyone else who reaches the qualifying score is then placed in the order below — children in care, then Pupil Premium girls inside the priority circle, then everyone else inside the circle, then those outside it, each ranked by test score. Straight-line distance breaks ties. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Girls in council care, or who were in care before being adopted (including from state care outside England), come first — provided they reached the Automatic Qualifying Score, or scored within 20 marks of it. Tell the council about looked-after status when you apply.
What the document says: Category 1 — Any Looked-After or Previously Looked-After Children who either achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above, or who score up to twenty marks below it (extending to the Required Minimum Academic Standard where the gap is more than 20 marks).
In plain English: Girls eligible for the Pupil Premium through Free School Meals who live inside the priority circle and reach the qualifying score (or score within 20 marks of it) are placed next, ranked by test score. Up to nineteen places only are offered in this category. Warwickshire will ask for evidence of Pupil Premium eligibility.
What the document says: Category 2 — Children who live within the priority circle who attract the Pupil Premium via eligibility for Free School Meals who achieve either the Automatic Qualifying Score or above, or who score up to 20 marks below it. Up to nineteen places only will be offered to children in this category (including any re-offers made from the waiting list after 1st March 2027).
In plain English: This is how most girls get in. After looked-after and Pupil Premium girls, the remaining places go to all the other girls who reached the qualifying score and live inside the priority circle, strictly in rank order of test score. A high score wins an in-circle place; distance only settles a tie.
What the document says: Category 3 — Children who live within the priority circle who achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above for this School, for this particular year of entry.
In plain English: If girls inside the priority circle don't fill all 120 places, the school then offers places to qualifying girls living outside the circle, in rank order of test score. The policy says out-of-circle girls are normally only offered places in the first round if there aren't enough qualifying girls inside the circle.
What the document says: Category 4 — Children living outside of the priority circle who achieve the Automatic Qualifying Score or above for this School, for this particular year of entry. Children living outside the priority circle will be offered places in the first round only if there are insufficient children of the required level of ability living within the priority circle.
In plain English: Girls who didn't reach the qualifying score but did reach the lower Required Minimum Academic Standard go onto the waiting list for this school. Where two girls have exactly the same score, the place goes to the one living nearer the school, measured straight-line to the school centroid; a computerised random draw settles a complete tie.
What the document says: Category 5 — Children who score below the Automatic Qualifying Score but above the Required Minimum Academic Standard for the waiting list for this School, for this particular year of entry. To differentiate equal scores, those who live nearest the School in straight-line distance will be given priority.
A 16.9-mile priority circle — drawn from the Stratford fountain.
Stratford Girls' has no ward or parish catchment. Instead the determined policy defines a single priority circle: a circle of radius 16.936 miles measured from the Fountain in Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon (reaching south to the county boundary below Long Compton). The centre is the Stratford fountain in the town centre — a short distance from the school in Shottery — so the circle sits essentially around the school's own town. Qualifying girls who live inside the circle are offered places — in rank order of score — before any qualifying girl outside it. The boundary GrammarBound draws is that 16.9-mile priority circle: live inside it and you join the priority queue.
There is no single published distance cut-off: within each category, places are decided by test score, with straight-line distance only the tie-break between equal scores. That distance is measured from your home address point (Ordnance Survey co-ordinates) to the school centroid — not by road.
See the priority circle on the GrammarBound mapInside the circle: priority. Outside: only if places remain.
Child A lives inside the priority circle, so once she reaches the qualifying score she is ranked (by score) ahead of every qualifying girl living outside it. Child B lives outside, so she is normally only offered a place if there aren't enough qualifying girls inside the circle to fill the 120. Both must reach the Automatic Qualifying Score; the priority circle decides which queue they join.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your daughter isn't offered a place, she goes onto a waiting list held by Warwickshire Admissions of girls who reached the Required Minimum Academic Standard but didn't receive an offer. It is kept in strict oversubscription-criteria order until the end of the first term of Year 7 (31 December 2027) — and re-ranked each time a girl is added, so a later application can move ahead of an earlier one. When a place comes free it goes to the highest-ranked girl, not the longest waiter. A girl who hasn't yet sat the test can be tested and ranked before the list is dissolved.
Priority on the waiting list is not based on the date you applied or asked to join.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place. Appeals are heard by an independent appeal panel; for girls who didn't qualify, the panel takes account of the child's position in the test process, and prejudice to the school is only considered once the year group is full. A refusal does not stop you joining the waiting list — you can do both at once.
Joining Year 12 at Stratford Girls'.
The sixth form is single-sex and welcomes external female applicants alongside Stratford Girls' own Year 11. The priority circle does not apply to sixth-form entry — girls may be admitted irrespective of where they live. Entry is on GCSE results, confirmed after Results Day in August 2027.
The grade floor.
You need at least 54 points from your best eight GCSE results — scored on the 9–1 GCSE points system (9 points for a grade 9 down to 1 for a grade 1). Applicants with an EHCP are admitted first, subject to meeting the entry criteria, and any Stratford Girls' Year 11 student who meets the entry criteria automatically obtains a place. International qualifications are assessed against GCSE points using UK ENIC guidance, each counting as one of the best eight.
Apply direct to the school.
External applications go directly to Stratford Girls' — not through the CAF — with a deadline of 12 noon on 6 February 2027, and confirmed places follow GCSE Results Day in August 2027. Internal Stratford Girls' Year 11 students who meet the criteria are admitted automatically. If external places are oversubscribed, applicants are ranked first by looked-after status, then by Pupil Premium eligibility, then by total best-eight GCSE points, subject to teaching-set sizes not being exceeded.