SF School Facts UK

Girls selective secondary school in Bournemouth, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Bournemouth School for Girls

Castle Gate Close, Castle Lane West, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH8 9UJ

Ofsted Outstanding · 2024 Selective Sixth form Girls Full
School website 01202526289

Ofsted

Outstandingas at 8 May 2024

Graded Outstanding at its last graded inspection, on 8 May 2024.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 2 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

72.2 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

96% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

99% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

6.5 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

48% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the top 5% of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.54confidence interval 0.32 to 0.76

Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as well above average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

A levels 2024/25

Average grade per entry
B-
Average points per entry
37.5

England average 32.3

A level students
164

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1290
Places
1210
How full
Full — 1290 pupils against 1210 places
Overall absence
6%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
14%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
7%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
15%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
1%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
9%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
100%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
98%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
92%
No sustained destination
0%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
170

After sixth form

Went to university
64%

England 50%

In education, work or training
92%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
3%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
146

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

53% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
84%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
154

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 012B, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.

Adults with a degree
29%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
18%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
59%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
19%

England 17%

Households with no car
22%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
38%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Girls
Admissions
Selective (entrance test)
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
BOURNEMOUTH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Headteacher
Headteacher: David Sims
Ward
Muscliff & Strouden Park
Constituency
Bournemouth East
URN
136996

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
The Bishop of Winchester AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 49.6 0.2 mi
Bournemouth SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2024 74.2 0.3 mi
Avonbourne Boys' AcademyAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 47.3 1.4 mi
Avonbourne Girls AcademyAcademy converter No grade 53 1.4 mi
Glenmoor AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 60.7 1.6 mi
Winton AcademyAcademy sponsor led Outstanding 2024 55.4 1.7 mi
Kings BournemouthOther independent school No grade 2 mi
Livingstone Academy BournemouthFree schools Good 2024 2 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded secondary schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
The King's School, GranthamAcademy converter Good 2022 72.7
Kesteven and Grantham Girls' SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 68.8
Stroud High SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 76.9
Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 75.6
The Piggott SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 61.9
St Peter's Catholic SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2024 63.6
Bishop Wordsworth's Church of England Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 73.1
Hinchley Wood SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 64.5

Where these figures come from

  • School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
  • Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
  • Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
  • Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
  • Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.

All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.