SF School Facts UK

Girls selective secondary school in Torquay, Torbay

Torquay Girls' Grammar School

30 Shiphay Lane, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 7DY

Ofsted Outstanding · 2023 Selective Sixth form Girls
School website 01803613215

Ofsted

Outstandingas at 1 November 2023

Graded Outstanding at its last graded inspection, on 1 November 2023.

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

68.6 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

90% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

97% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

6.7 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

87% 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

0.37confidence interval 0.14 to 0.60

Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as 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
40.9

England average 32.3

A level students
112

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1058
Places
1200
How full
88% full — 1058 of 1200 places taken
Girls / boys
1055 / 3
Overall absence
5%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
10%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
5%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
6%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
0%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
6%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
99%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
97%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
79%
No sustained destination
1%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
146

After sixth form

Went to university
54%

England 50%

In education, work or training
86%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
2%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
125

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

54% 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
85%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
101

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 Torbay 019B, 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
25%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
21%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
49%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
23%

England 17%

Households with no car
25%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
39%

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
TORQUAY GIRLS' GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Headteacher
Headteacher: Sarah Forster
Local authority
Torbay
Ward
Shiphay
Constituency
Torbay
URN
136506

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Torquay Boys' Grammar SchoolAcademy converter No grade 70.8 0.2 mi
Torquay AcademyAcademy sponsor led No grade 47.6 0.5 mi
St Cuthbert Mayne SchoolVoluntary aided school No grade 39.7 1.1 mi
The Spires CollegeFoundation school Good 2022 44.5 1.3 mi
Paignton AcademyAcademy converter No grade 36.9 3.5 mi
South Devon UTCUniversity technical college No grade 25.7 4.5 mi
Newton Abbot CollegeAcademy converter No grade 40.5 4.7 mi
Coombeshead AcademyAcademy converter Good 2023 46.8 4.9 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
JCoSSVoluntary aided school Good 2022 60.9
Plymouth High School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2024 65.5
Maidstone Grammar SchoolFoundation school No grade 68.4
St Bede's Catholic High SchoolVoluntary aided school No grade 55
Wilmington Grammar School for GirlsAcademy converter Good 2022 66.7
Loreto Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 73.7
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, HorncastleAcademy converter Good 2024 66.2
Wycombe High SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2024 73.9

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.