Apply to Torquay Girls' Grammar School, in plain English.
Torquay Girls' Grammar School is a selective girls' grammar in Shiphay, Torquay that fills all 192 Year 7 places in rank order of the shared Torbay 11+ score — its admissions policy defines no catchment area. You must register your daughter for the 11+ directly with one Torbay grammar by the final deadline of midday on 4 September 2026 (the school prefers 15 July), then name the school on your council's Common Application Form by 31 October 2026. The English and Maths papers are sat on one Saturday in September.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these.
One shared Torbay 11+, used by all three Torbay grammars — register by 4 September 2026.
Torquay Girls' Grammar School selects on the shared Torbay 11+ — English and Maths papers used by all three Torbay grammars (Torquay Girls', Torquay Boys' and Churston Ferrers). Your daughter sits the test once, at one named school, and the standardised result is considered by each Torbay grammar she applies to. You register directly with the test school; registration opens 1 March 2026 and the final deadline is midday on 4 September 2026 (the school prefers midday on 15 July 2026).
Places go in rank order of test score — there is no catchment.
Entry is determined by performance in the selection tests. After looked-after children and the Pupil Premium priority group (see the criteria below), every remaining place is offered to the highest-scoring girls in rank order, wherever they live. Reaching an eligible score does not guarantee a place — it only makes your daughter eligible to be ranked, and the school fills to its admission number of 192.
Pupil Premium — including the Service Premium — gives priority, so flag it at registration.
Girls on the eligible list who qualify for the Pupil Premium, including the Service Premium (free school meals / Ever 6 FSM, or armed-forces families), are ranked above all other candidates. You must provide evidence of eligibility. For the normal Year 7 round there is no sibling, staff, faith or feeder-school priority — those do not feature in this score-only policy.
Five steps — starting now.
If more girls qualify than there are places, these 3 criteria decide.
Only girls who achieve an eligible score 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 who have ceased to be looked after through adoption from state care) get the highest priority among candidates with an eligible score. This group is small in practice.
What the document says: Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children, including those children who have ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
In plain English: Girls on the eligible list who qualify for the Pupil Premium — currently or in the last six years eligible for free school meals — or for the Service Premium (children of regular UK armed-forces personnel serving now or in the past three years, or in receipt of an Armed Forces Compensation or War Pension award following a parent's death on active service) are ranked above all other candidates. You must provide evidence; the school may confirm eligibility with your home local authority.
What the document says: Children on the eligible list who are entitled to Pupil Premium, including the Service Premium. Parents/Carers will be required to provide evidence of eligibility and the school may request confirmation from the applicant's home local authority.
In plain English: Every remaining place goes to the highest-scoring eligible 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 based on the total score achieved in the tests of children on the eligible list.
Tie-breaker: if two girls have identical scores for the last available place, priority goes to the one living closest to the school — measured in a straight line from the main School Reception front door using Devon's Geographical Information System. For girls living equidistant from the school, a supervised random allocation decides.
No geographic boundary. Rank order decides everything.
Torquay Girls' Grammar School has no catchment area and no geographic restriction — entry is determined by performance in the selection tests. After looked-after children and the Pupil Premium priority group are placed, every remaining place goes to the highest-ranking eligible girls by combined standardised test score — regardless of where they live. A girl in Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Newton Abbot or Teignmouth competes on exactly the same terms. 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, by straight-line measurement from the main School Reception front door using Devon's mapping system, ranks higher, and if still equidistant, a supervised random allocation decides. For everyone else, home address has no bearing on the outcome.
See the school'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 238 and lives far from school; Child B scored 225 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
Girls not allocated a place are held on a waiting list, ranked by score with the oversubscription criteria separating equal scores — not by when you applied. A second allocation runs at the end of March / beginning of April 2027, and the local authority keeps the list until the first day of the autumn term; after that the school maintains it in partnership with the admissions team for as long as one name remains. A child's position can move down as well as up.
Responses and waiting-list requests are made through Torbay Council's School Admissions Team.
Appeal
You have the right to appeal to an independent appeals panel, whose decision is binding. For a selective school the panel must be satisfied your daughter reached the required academic standard, so successful appeals are uncommon. Apply to the Clerk to the Appeals Panel at Torbay Council; appealing does not remove your daughter from the waiting list.
Joining Year 12 from outside.
Torquay Girls' Grammar School admits external students into Year 12 alongside its own Year 11. Entry is by GCSE grades, not the Year 7 test — the selective 11+ criteria do not apply.
The grade floor.
The general entry requirement is six full GCSEs at grade 6 or above, including at least grade 5 in both GCSE English Language and Mathematics. Individual A-level courses then add their own subject-specific entry grades, set out in the Sixth Form prospectus. Meeting the general floor is the starting point; check the grade each chosen subject asks for.
Apply direct to the school.
Apply directly to the school's sixth form, which admits external girls alongside students continuing from the school's own Year 11. The Year 7 admissions criteria do not apply to sixth-form entry — places turn on the published GCSE requirements and the subject-specific grades for your chosen courses. See the school's Sixth Form Admissions Policy for the full arrangements, and note there is a right of appeal if a place is not offered.