Bexley Grammar School Sixth Form (16+) Entry

Bexley Grammar School's sixth form changed in September 2026. The Year 12 students who started that September are BGS's first cohort in years to study A Levels rather than the International Baccalaureate: after nine years as a fully IB sixth form, the school announced on 4 December 2025 that it would drop the IBDP entirely, following the Government's decision to withdraw the additional funding state schools receive for large IB programmes. One final IB cohort — the Year 13 group who started under the old system — continues through to May 2027; every Year 12 place from September 2026 onward is an A Level place. Entry is GCSE-based: the school's sixth-form Admissions Policy lists no test or interview, only a minimum 48-point score across a candidate's best 8 GCSEs plus grade floors in English and Maths and a subject-by-subject grade ladder. There are 280 total Year 12 places, with a minimum of 30 reserved for external applicants from other schools, and Bexley Grammar's sixth form provision was rated Outstanding by Ofsted at the school's most recent inspection.

Is Bexley Grammar School's Sixth Form the IB or A Levels from September 2026?

No, not for anyone starting Year 12 from September 2026. Bexley Grammar School (BGS) has been teaching the IB since 2003, and “building on 14 years of experience, became fully IB in 2017” . That changed on Thursday 4 December 2025, when the Headteacher announced that, in light of the Government's decision to remove the additional funding that state schools receive for delivering large programmes such as the IB, BGS would “not be in a position to offer the IB course of study from September 2026”. From September 2026, the IBDP is not offered as a programme of study to new students.

The transition is staged rather than immediate. Students who were already partway through the IBDP — the students who were in Year 12 in 2025/26 and are in Year 13 in 2026/27 — continue to study it “with full funding and support from the School” through to May 2027, when the last IB cohort finishes. Every new Year 12 student joining from September 2026 is on the school's new A Level pathway instead: a core of 3 A Levels, with an AS, the Extended Project Qualification, or a 4th A Level where appropriate, alongside an elective enrichment course. The school held an Open Evening to showcase this new programme on Tuesday 27 January 2026, with booking opening on Tuesday 9 December 2025 — both dated 2026 or earlier, part of the cycle that recruited the September 2026 Year 12.

There is one honest gap worth stating plainly rather than glossing over. Because Bexley Grammar School became fully IB in 2017, it has no recent A Level results of its own for a family to judge the new programme against; the school's 4 December 2025 announcement describes its A Level provision as “as recently as 2018”. That is not a criticism of the school: its sixth form provision was rated Outstanding by Ofsted, its teaching staff are, in the school's own words, “well-qualified and highly trained subject specialists, experienced in the provision of A Level curricula”, and the Ofsted rating and the school's wider academic record still stand. But a family choosing BGS for A Levels from September 2027 is choosing a genuinely new programme without a multi-year set of A Level results behind it, and that is a fact worth knowing rather than assuming.

What GCSE Grades Do You Need for Bexley Grammar Sixth Form Entry?

The entry requirements below are those in the school's sixth-form Admissions Policy, the version the school lists for September 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry. Bexley Grammar School's Admissions Policy sets two conditions that both apply together, not as alternatives:

On top of the points score and the English/Maths floor, every individual A Level subject carries its own separate GCSE grade requirement, and missing it rules out that specific subject even if the overall 48-point total is comfortably cleared:

Where a candidate wants to study a subject not offered at GCSE — Economics, Business Studies, Psychology or Theatre Studies, for example — the school determines the required grade itself. It is worth comparing this formula to how other selective schools set their own bar. Aylesbury Grammar School — a Buckinghamshire grammar rather than a Bexley one — uses the same points-score mechanism but a different total: a minimum of 44 points from a boy's best 8 GCSEs (or equivalent), including English and Mathematics, for September 2027 entry. Bexley Grammar's 48-point bar is four points higher across the same 8-subject spread; the mechanism is the same shape, the bar itself is not. Beths Grammar School, by contrast — covered on our separate Beths Grammar School sixth form guide — asks for a minimum of 7 full course GCSEs at grades 9 to 5, an average of at least grade 6 in the best 7, and a minimum of grade 5 in both English Language and Mathematics.

How Many Sixth Form Places Are There, and How Many Go to External Applicants?

The total combined Year 12 admission number is 280 students. Within that total, a minimum of 30 places are available to external applicants — students at other schools. No new admissions are normally accepted directly into Year 13, except in exceptional circumstances, which closes off sixth form entry as a route for a student wanting to join for their final year only.

The oversubscription process only applies to external applicants who have already met the academic entry requirements above; internal BGS students moving up from Year 11 are not competing against this ranking. Where external demand for the 30-plus places exceeds supply, Bexley Grammar School allocates places in a fixed order: Looked After Children or Previously Looked After Children first, then candidates ranked by their average GCSE points score across their best 8 subjects (including English and Maths) — the same 8-subject basis as the 48-point entry bar itself, just used here as a ranking rather than a pass/fail threshold. Where two or more external candidates tie on that ranked score, the tie-break is proximity: the shortest walking route by public highway and lit footpath from the candidate's home address to the school's official Governors-approved entrance. Families should be ready to provide proof of residency, since the policy says it will be required and that an offer may be withdrawn if it is not met.

Is There a Test or Interview for Bexley Grammar Sixth Form Entry?

No. Bexley Grammar School's published Admissions Policy describes a process built entirely around GCSE grades, with no test, assessment or interview stage of any kind, for internal or external candidates. Conditional offers are made on predicted grades, which the school seeks for all applicants, and admission itself is confirmed only once a candidate's actual GCSE results are published. Internal candidates already at BGS have their place in the sixth form confirmed when they receive their GCSE results; external candidates are required to confirm their GCSE results and accept a place by the Friday following the GCSE results.

If an external application is refused, the school's policy confirms a statutory right of appeal to an Independent School Appeal Panel, with the applicant notified in writing and given further details of the appeal procedure. Because an offer can be conditional on results not yet achieved at the point of application, this is functionally a two-stage process — a conditional offer, followed by a confirmation or refusal once results land — even though neither stage involves anything resembling an entrance exam.

What Parents Say

DP

Deborah Prior

★★★★★

Confidence and progress

My son was low in confidence after COVID and the gaps in learning were building up. Using this service helped plug those gaps, rebuild confidence, and improve his ability to learn properly again.

NI

Nicola

★★★★★

Amazing tutors!

We arranged maths and English tuition ahead of GCSEs and both tutors were brilliant. My daughter's grades improved, and by results day she achieved two grades higher than in her mock exams.

S

Saifan Khan

★★★★★

Great Teaching and Focused Learning

I attended an English bootcamp with Leading Tuition and the experience was excellent. The teacher gave focused attention to the small group while keeping the lessons interactive and engaging.

See more reviews on Trustpilot

How and When to Apply — and What the School Has Published for September 2027

The school's sixth-form Admissions Policy (the PDF is headed “September 2026”; the school lists it for 2025 to 2027 entry) says external applicants complete an online application form made available after the Information Evening normally held in November, with the due date normally early January. For September 2026 entry, the school's Open Evening presentation gave the closing date as Monday 23 February 2026. The Open Evening specifically showcasing the school's new A Level curriculum — announced in the same 4 December 2025 statement that ended the IB — was held on Tuesday 27 January 2026, with booking for that event opening on Tuesday 9 December 2025. The Open Evening on Tuesday 27 January 2026, the booking date of Tuesday 9 December 2025 and the 23 February 2026 closing date are in the past; they describe how the September 2026 intake was recruited.

For September 2027 entry, the school's Year 12 Admissions page gives the Sixth Form Open Evening as Tuesday 10 November 2026, and booking is required; the school's home-page calendar lists the evening from 5:30pm to 8:00pm and marks it provisional. The school says further details will be published on that page in due course. The school lists its sixth-form Admissions Policy as “Admissions Policy Sixth Form 2025-2027” on its Admissions Policies page, which says the policies there cover “September 2025 and September 2026 and 2027 entry”. In the 2026/27 school year, students in Year 11 are the September 2027 Year 12 intake, so the Open Evening on Tuesday 10 November 2026 is the event to book (booking is required); the application form and closing date are best checked on that Year 12 Admissions page, since the policy gives the due date only as normally early January.

What Does Ofsted Say About Bexley Grammar's Sixth Form?

Bexley Grammar School's most recent Ofsted inspection took place on 18 October 2022, with the report published on 25 November 2022. The overall outcome of that inspection was Outstanding, and — specifically relevant to this page — sixth form provision was rated Outstanding as its own separate sub-judgement, not simply inherited from the whole-school grade. That rating predates the IB-to-A-Level switch by almost four years, so it reflects the school's IB-era sixth form rather than the new A Level programme directly; it is the most recent inspection outcome Ofsted lists for the school.

Where Is Bexley Grammar School, and Who Runs It?

Bexley Grammar School is on Danson Lane, Welling, with the postal address DA16 2BL — a postal address that gives the county as Kent. According to the Department for Education's official record for the school (URN 136369), the local authority is Bexley. The school is an academy converter, mixed throughout (co-educational for all year groups, not only in the sixth form), covering ages 11 to 18, with a selective admissions policy. The same DfE record gives a whole-school capacity of 1,357 against a roll of 1,504 pupils, with 4% of pupils eligible for free school meals.

Bexley Grammar School's Year 7 entry runs through the Bexley Selection Test, a separate route from the sixth form entry described here. This page deliberately does not repeat that ground: everything above — the 48-point formula, the IB-to-A-Level switch, the 280 places, the Ofsted rating — is specific to Bexley Grammar School's own sixth form, not the wider borough admissions system. Families researching Bexley Grammar School's 11+ route for a younger child can find that covered on our separate Bexley Grammar School 11+ guide; families further along, looking at A Level or university preparation once a sixth form place is confirmed, may also find our A-Level tuition and Oxbridge admissions pages useful for the years beyond entry.

Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.

Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Bexley Grammar School's Year 12 Admissions page, home-page calendar, sixth-form Admissions Policy, Admissions Policies page, January 2026 Open Evening presentation and 4 December 2025 announcement, plus Ofsted, DfE (GIAS), Aylesbury Grammar School's and Beths Grammar School's own admissions pages.

Frequently Asked Questions