Colchester Royal Grammar School, Colchester

Ofsted's report card from its 14 April 2026 inspection grades Colchester Royal Grammar School on 7 areas: 4 exceptional and 3 strong standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Achievement - Exceptional. "Pupils develop deep and cumulative knowledge across the curriculum."

Curriculum and teaching - Exceptional. "Leaders provide clear and highly effective strategic leadership of the curriculum and teaching."

Leadership and governance - Exceptional. "Strategic leadership is a defining and distinctive strength."

Post 16 provision - Exceptional. "Post‑16 leadership is highly effective, strategic and inclusive."

Attendance and behaviour - Strong standard. "Overall attendance at the school is consistently above the national average."

Inclusion - Strong standard. "Inclusion is central to the school's ethos and practice."

Personal development and wellbeing - Strong standard. "Personal development and wellbeing are embedded across the school's culture, curriculum and daily practice."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure continued improvement to all areas of school work, particularly building on strong standards seen in attendance, inclusion and personal development".

In its own words: "Hopefully the information you gain here will convey the family atmosphere; the professionalism and the pursuit of excellence, which can be felt when physically entering the school. Please visit us on one of our Open Days; our students are our best selling point and to get a true picture you should come and meet them."

In 2026, pupils at Colchester Royal Grammar School averaged an Attainment 8 score of 80.9, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 46.5 in Essex and 47 across England.

98% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 45% in Essex and 47% in England.

That is down from 82.1 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was 1.09: pupils made well above average progress compared with pupils nationally who started secondary school at the same level. Progress 8 was not published for 2026.

Disadvantaged pupils averaged an Attainment 8 of 74.1, against 81.6 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 7.5 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 21 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were French, Chemistry and Physics.

Colchester Royal Grammar School is a grammar school: places go to children who reach the required standard in its entrance test, and only then are the oversubscription criteria applied.

For September 2026 entry, 280 families put Colchester Royal Grammar School as their first choice and 804 named it as one of their preferences, for 128 places offered. That is 2.2 first choices for every place. 217 families who put it first were not offered a place there.

Colchester Royal Grammar School admits pupils through an entrance test - in Essex, the CSSE (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex) test. Children have to be registered for it in advance, normally in the spring or summer of Year 5; the test itself is usually sat in September of Year 6, and results come out in October, before the 31 October deadline for naming secondary schools.

Passing the test makes a child eligible rather than guaranteeing a place: when more children pass than there are places, Colchester Royal Grammar School ranks them by the criteria in its admissions policy, which can include test score and distance. Check Essex's admissions pages and the school's own policy for this year's registration deadline - a child who is not registered in time cannot sit the test.

Essex has 4 state grammar schools in all, so a child who passes may have several selective schools to choose between.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Colchester Royal Grammar School are Colchester County High School for Girls (0.5 miles, Outstanding, selective, Attainment 8 79.7); St Benedict's Catholic College (0.5 miles, Good, Attainment 8 58.4); St Helena School (0.6 miles, Good, Attainment 8 42.4); and Philip Morant School and College (0.7 miles, Good, Attainment 8 45.6).

Colchester Royal Grammar School's 2026 results were higher than all 4 of them.

Colchester Royal Grammar School is one of 26 schools run by The Thinking Schools Academy Trust, an academy trust.

Across the trust's secondary schools, pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of 45.9 in 2024/25.

Of the 124 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 100% stayed in education or training for at least two terms.

Of the 179 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 86% went on to university or other higher education, 5% to apprenticeships and 4% into work.

4% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well below the average state school (25%), and 8.8% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.

The largest ethnic groups are Asian (39%), White British (33%) and Mixed (7%).

In 2026, 86 pupils (8%) received SEN support and 4 (0.4%) had an education, health and care plan, against 16.2% and 4.6% at the average state school. The most common need among them is social, emotional and mental health needs.

The nearest railway station is Colchester City Rail Station, about 0.7 miles away in a straight line.

10 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Essex County Hospital (outside), 140 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Colchester Royal Grammar School stands in is among the 20% least deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.

In 2024/25, Colchester Royal Grammar School issued 26 suspensions, 2.5 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and no permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Colchester Royal Grammar School are Hamilton Primary School (0.3 miles); St John's Green Primary School (0.5 miles); North Primary School and Nursery (0.7 miles); and St Thomas More's Catholic Primary School, Colchester (0.9 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.