Apply to Stroud High School, in plain English.
Stroud High is a selective girls' grammar in Stroud that fills all 150 Year 7 places in rank order of the shared Gloucestershire Grammar School test score — there is no catchment area. In 2025 it drew around 404 applications for 146 places. 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.
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.
Stroud High 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 each child may take the test only once.
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
The school doesn't have a designated area, and accepts applications from outside Gloucestershire. After looked-after children, Pupil Premium / Service Premium families and a small block of Music/Art aptitude 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, Service Premium and Music/Art aptitude give priority — flag them at registration.
Girls from families eligible for Pupil Premium or Service Pupil Premium who reach the required standard are ranked ahead of other qualifiers, and up to 15 places are reserved for girls who reach the threshold in a Music or Art Creative Aptitude Assessment. You must flag eligibility on the test registration form. There is no sibling, staff, faith or feeder-school priority.
Five steps — starting now.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these 4 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. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order (including those who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted).
In plain English: Girls from families eligible for Pupil Premium (broadly, registered for income-related free school meals) or Service Pupil Premium (a parent serving in, or recently left, the armed forces) at the time of the test who reach the required standard are ranked ahead of other qualifying girls. You must flag eligibility at registration and send the school verifiable evidence before the test; the school checks it with the local authority.
What the document says: Students from families eligible for Pupil Premium or Service Pupil Premium at the time of the test who achieve the required standard (documentary evidence will be required to demonstrate that the Parent/Carer is eligible to receive Pupil Premium or Service Pupil Premium).
In plain English: Up to 15 of the 150 places go to girls who reach the threshold in a Music or Art Creative Aptitude Assessment (held in July) — but only if they also reach the entrance-test qualifying standard. Each child may try for one aptitude only. Girls who meet the aptitude threshold but miss out on a place drop into the next criterion that applies to them.
What the document says: Up to 15 places are available for students who achieve the required standard in either the Music or Art Aptitude Assessment. These places will be allocated based on oversubscription criteria and ranked by assessment scores.
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: Rank order from the entrance test. Where there are a number of students with an equal qualifying result, the tie break criteria will be used to determine their rank order.
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 the school's main reception using Ordnance Survey software. If that still cannot separate them, places are decided by supervised random allocation.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Stroud High has no catchment area and no geographic restriction — the policy says so in as many words, and it accepts applications from outside Gloucestershire. After looked-after children, Pupil Premium / Service Premium families and the Music/Art aptitude 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 Gloucester, the Cotswolds or the Forest of Dean competes on exactly the same terms as one in Stroud. 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 Ordnance Survey software) ranks higher, and if still tied, a supervised random draw decides. For everyone else, home address has no bearing on the outcome.
See Stroud High's location on the GrammarBound mapTwo girls ranked by score — not by where they live.
Both girls are in criterion 4 (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 oversubscription criteria in 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 of Year 7.
Request via the school's Admissions Office, following the LA's waiting-list process.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeals panel. For a selective school the panel must be satisfied your daughter met the qualifying standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. An Appeals Test is normally available in April for children without a test score who wish to be considered. Appealing does not remove your daughter from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Stroud High admits a minimum of 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 'Best 8' GCSE points score (the sum of your highest 8 GCSE grades on the 9–1 scale) that matches or exceeds the minimum published in the Sixth Form Prospectus, with at least grade 5 in both GCSE English and Mathematics. Individual A-level subjects also set their own GCSE entry grades, listed in the prospectus. The same requirements apply to internal and external applicants.
Apply direct to the school.
A minimum of 50 external places are available for September entry, with the Year 12 cohort totalling around 180. Apply directly to Stroud High; the Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply to sixth-form entry. You will be invited to an advisory discussion with the Sixth Form Team, and offers are confirmed once GCSE results are in. There is a right of appeal if a place is not offered.