The Royal Grammar School is a boys’ grammar school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is an average size secondary school with academy status and it also offers boarding facilities for around 70 pupils. This page has everything you need to know about The Royal Grammar School and can help you get started with the admissions process. You can also find helpful information about the 11 plus exam, such as exam practice resources, information about exam boards and key dates in the calendar.  Other School details:

Address: The Royal Grammar School, Amersham Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP13 6QT

County: Buckinghamshire

Type of school: Boys’ grammar school, co-educational at Sixth Form

Age range: 11-18

Ofsted rating: Outstanding

Number of pupils: 1368

Admissions to Year 7: 182 (plus 10 boarding places)

Open evening (2024 entry): TBC – the exact date will be uploaded here but you can also see their Virtual Open Evening here

11+ exam date (2024 entry): 14 September 2023

Exam board: The Secondary Transfer Test (GL Assessment)

Admissions phone number: 01494 524955

Admissions email address: You can use the contact form here

The Royal Grammar School 11 Plus: Performance 

The school was originally founded in 1551 and has been at its current location since 1915. The school has many notable alumni, including the comedian Jimmy Carr, the rugby player Matt Dawson and politician Christopher Grayling. The school has an excellent academic reputation and The Good School’s Guide says “teachers’ passion for their subjects is evident as you walk around the school”. In terms of student make up, approximately 33% of pupils speak English as a second language, 5% are on free school meals and 1.5% have some support for special educational needs.

The school’s results are very good: in 2019, three quarters of A-level results were awarded A*-B, with almost half awarded A*s and As. Boarders’ results are often particularly impressive: 86% of grades for boarders were A*-B and 60% were A*s.

In 2022 in GCSE’s, the most common grade achieved by RGS students was the A* with 50.1% of all grades being the top, gold-star standard. 80.9% of all grades – or in total 334 grades – were awarded at A* or A. 

You can see a full breakdown of GCSE results here, but over the past three years, 74% of all GCSE entries have been graded 9-7, and in 2018 and 2019 boys at the Royal Grammar School recorded the highest percentages of 9-7 grades of any boys’ school in Buckinghamshire .In 2020 over 40% of Year 11s achieved all 9-7 grades, including 12 who scored a clean sweep of grade 9s in ten or more GCSE subjects. In 2020, 88 of Year 13s – almost half of the year-group – gained all A and A* grades at A-level, whilst 23 achieved a clean sweep of A*s.

The Royal Grammar School 11 Plus Admissions Process: 2024 Entry

Below you can find the key dates in the calendar for the 2024 entry. Please note that if your child already attends a Buckinghamshire primary school (excluding independent schools), they will automatically be registered for the 11 plus exam. Parents should contact the school for details on opting out. You can also find more information in their Admissions Policy for 2024 for day pupils and for boarders.

Preparing for The Royal Grammar School’s 11 Plus Exam

The Secondary Transfer Test is made up of two 60 minute exams. The first is an English paper which involves comprehension, grammar and Verbal Reasoning questions; the second is a Maths paper which also involves Non-Verbal and Spatial Reasoning questions. Each paper is weighted 50/50; however, the sections are not. The first paper accounts for 50% of the marks, while the second paper is split non-verbal 25% and mathematics 25%. You can find a familiarisation booklet, with guidance on how to answer the different types of questions, here, and there is also plenty of detailed information on the Buckinghamshire Council website.

While much of the test is like KS2 Maths and English questions that candidates are familiar with from school, Verbal and Non-Verbal reasoning may be new and this may be where your child should start with revision. This helpful 11 Plus Exam Guide to the Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning Tests can help you to better understand how to prepare your child for these elements of The Secondary Transfer Test, and it’s also worth checking out the GL Assessment page, which has lots of handy free resources.

The test is competitive, but there are also 13 grammar schools to choose from in Buckinghamshire, which works in students’ favour. In general around 30% of students who sit the Secondary Transfer Test qualify for a grammar school place each year, with around a further 5% qualifying after a successful Appeal or Review. You can find the allocation profiles for all the grammar schools in Buckinghamshire here, which explains how priority has previously been allocated to previous students, which may help you in deciding which school to put as your first choice.

As the exam is scheduled for mid-September, your son should already be getting prepared. However, if they have not started preparing yet, it is not too late. Discover Help your Child Become 11 Plus-Ready in the Six-Month Countdown to the exam for support in approaching exam readiness and preparation, and for parents who are unsure where to begin, you might like to check out this Top 10 Tips to Pass the 11+ Exam guide. 

It’s also worth noting that if you are applying for a boarding school place, then your son will also likely be called for an interview. This is not an academic interview, but a pastoral one; it is designed to ensure that your son would be able to cope with, and benefit from, a boarding environment, and go over any health and safety issues. You can find out more about this on their Boarding page.