The Boston Grammar School, Boston

Ofsted's report card from its 28 April 2026 inspection grades The Boston Grammar School on 7 areas: 1 strong standard, 5 expected standard and 1 needs attention. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Attendance and behaviour - Strong standard. "Pupils attend very well."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "Leaders provide strong strategic direction for the curriculum and teaching."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Leaders have created an increasingly inclusive culture where staff understand pupils' individual needs and respond to them with care."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders provide clear strategic direction and strong moral purpose."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "Leaders provide a comprehensive personal development programme."

Post 16 provision - Expected standard. "Leaders have a clear understanding of the purpose and quality of the post‑16 curriculum."

Achievement - Needs attention. "Published information on achievement in national examinations shows that, while pupils achieve highly overall, there is variability in their attainment and progress over time."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that achievement is raised, particularly for high prior attainers, through consistently high-quality teaching across subjects, including sufficient challenge and effective checks of learning that identify and address pupils' gaps"; "Leaders should ensure that teachers meet all pupils' needs more fully by making consistently precise and effective adaptations to the curriculum and teaching".

In 2026, pupils at The Boston Grammar School averaged an Attainment 8 score of 54.7, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 45.9 in Lincolnshire and 47 across England.

61% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 43% in Lincolnshire and 47% in England.

That is up from 53.1 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was -0.43: pupils made below 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 47.1, against 55.4 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 8.3 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 22 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Business Studies, Combined Science and Geography.

The Boston 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, 163 families put The Boston Grammar School as their first choice and 220 named it as one of their preferences, for 136 places offered. That is 1.2 first choices for every place. 29 families who put it first were not offered a place there.

The Boston Grammar School admits pupils through an entrance test, usually called the 11-plus. 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, The Boston Grammar School ranks them by the criteria in its admissions policy, which can include test score and distance. Check Lincolnshire'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.

Lincolnshire has 15 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 The Boston Grammar School are Haven High Academy (0.9 miles, Inadequate, Attainment 8 32.6); Boston High School (1.1 miles, Good, selective, Attainment 8 56.6); and Thomas Middlecott Academy (3.8 miles, Requires improvement, Attainment 8 27.6).

The Boston Grammar School's 2026 results were higher than 2 of these 3 schools.

The Boston Grammar School is run by its own single-school academy trust.

Of the 135 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 89% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 33% to a further education college, 3% to an apprenticeship and 2% into work.

Of the 112 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 63% went on to university or other higher education, 5% to apprenticeships and 23% into work. 15% went to one of the most selective third of universities.

14.8% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well below the average state school (25%), and 32.1% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.

The largest ethnic groups are White British (56%), Mixed (13%) and Asian (6%).

In 2026, 52 pupils (5.6%) received SEN support and 5 (0.5%) 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 autism.

The nearest railway station is Boston Rail Station, about 780 metres away (roughly a 10-minute walk).

12 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Grammar School, 80 metres away.

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

In August 2026, police recorded 429 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting. That is well above the typical figure around schools in Lincolnshire (33), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, The Boston Grammar School issued 21 suspensions, 2.4 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and no permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to The Boston Grammar School are Boston Pioneers Free School Academy (0.2 miles), St Nicholas CE Primary Academy (0.6 miles), Carlton Road Academy (0.6 miles) and Tower Road Academy (0.7 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.