Ermysted's Sixth Form Entry Requirements 2027

Ermysted's Grammar School is a selective, boys-only voluntary aided school in Skipton, North Yorkshire, whose sixth form is a formal second entry point with 35 published places for external students. Entry requires a minimum of grade 5 in at least five GCSE subjects, including maths and English. There is no 16+ test: the school selects on GCSE results alone, and offers are made only after results day.

Almost everything below comes from one document — the 2027-28 admissions policy that the school's Governing Body ratified on 27 November 2025. Where the school's Sixth Form Prospectus says something different, both versions appear here, with the source, and with a note on which one governs.

The sixth form admits boys only, and the DfE register agrees

A number of boys' grammar schools open their sixth forms to girls, which makes 16+ the only route in for a daughter. Ermysted's is not one of them. The admissions policy states plainly that "As a single sex boys' school, only male pupils are eligible for entry", and the Year 12 section repeats the point rather than leaving it to inference: the school "welcomes external applications from male pupils in Year 11 at other secondary schools".

This is worth checking rather than assuming, because the school's own sixth form landing page opens by saying it welcomes students from all backgrounds — a sentence about social and educational background that reads, to a parent skimming, as though it might be about sex. It is not.

The Department for Education register records the same thing. Ermysted's Grammar School holds URN 121716, DfE number 815/4608, with gender of entry recorded as Boys and no separate 16+ marker of the kind the register carries for schools whose sixth forms turn mixed. Policy and register agree, so a girl in Skipton looking for a selective sixth form is looking at a different school. The obvious one sits on the same road: Skipton Girls' High School, URN 136664, DfE number 815/4518, a selective girls' school on Gargrave Road with its own admission arrangements.

The two schools do share teaching. Ermysted's Sixth Form Prospectus describes "an exciting Sixth Form collaboration with shared teaching across the two schools in several subjects", and the same document says the collaboration is why certain A-Level courses can run at all. Shared lessons are not shared admissions: a boy applies to Ermysted's under Ermysted's policy, and may then be taught alongside Skipton Girls' students in some subjects.

The grade floor — and the two school documents that state it differently

The determined admissions policy sets the requirement as follows: "a pupil is required to achieve a minimum of Grade 5 in at least five GCSE subjects, including GCSE Mathematics and GCSE English Language or Literature, or equivalent qualifications."

The Sixth Form Prospectus states it twice, and neither statement carries the Literature alternative. On its entrance requirements page: "a minimum of Grade 5 in at least five GCSE subjects including at least Grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics and English Language." In the How to Apply section at the back: "including GCSE Mathematics and GCSE English Language."

The gap matters to exactly one candidate — the boy who takes both English GCSEs, gets a grade 5 or better in Literature and a grade 4 in Language. Under the policy he clears the English condition. Under the prospectus he does not.

The policy governs. It is the school's determined admission arrangement, ratified by the Governing Body on a stated date and published to meet the School Admissions Code; the prospectus is a marketing and curriculum document that summarises it. If your son is in that position, quote the policy wording when you contact the school, and ask for the position in writing before results day rather than arguing it on the morning.

Source: Ermysted's Grammar School 2027-28 Admissions Policy and Sixth Form Prospectus, both published on ermysteds.uk.

No test and no interview at 16+, unlike every other entry point

Families arriving from the 11+ route into Ermysted's often expect a selective school to test at every door. This one does not. The policy separates the two mechanisms in a single sentence: "For admission into Years 7 to 11, selection is by means of selection tests. For admission into Year 12, selection is by consideration of an applicant's performance at GCSE."

The contrast within the same document is sharp. A boy joining in Year 9 sits in-house papers in English, science and maths, and to reach the required standard needs "a minimum of 180 marks out of 300 … including a minimum of 60% in two of the three subjects and a minimum of 50% in the remaining subject". A boy joining in Year 12 sits nothing. There is no entrance paper, no aptitude test and no interview in the admissions process — the only interview mentioned anywhere in the school's sixth form documents is a subject conversation with the Head of Music for candidates who want A-Level Music without having taken the GCSE.

The practical consequence is that there is nothing to revise for the application itself. The whole selection rests on the GCSE grades awarded in the summer, which is why work done in Year 10 and Year 11 is the only preparation that changes the outcome.

Catchment still ranks applicants at 16+, which most sixth forms drop

This is the least-known part of the policy and the part most likely to surprise a family outside the Skipton area. At many schools, geography decides Year 7 places and then disappears once a candidate has met a sixth form grade threshold. At Ermysted's the Year 12 oversubscription criteria are the same shape as the Year 7 ones.

After looked-after and previously looked-after children, the policy ranks applicants who have met the standard "whose home address lies within the catchment area at the time of application", and only then those whose address lies outside it. Within each of those two groups the order is: pupil premium first, then a sibling at the school in September of the year of entry, then whoever lives closest. If two applicants are still tied and live equidistant from the school, the remaining place "will be allocated at random", in a process "conducted in the presence of a witness who is independent of the School and its admissions process".

The catchment is defined by primary school areas rather than a radius. The policy names them: Beamsley, Bradley, Burnsall, Carleton, Cracoe, Embsay, Gargrave, Grassington, Kettlewell, Kirkby-in-Malhamdale, Skipton, Thornton-in-Craven and Threshfield. North Yorkshire Council publishes a fine-level map of the boundary.

Read together with the places figures below, this means an out-of-catchment boy with the grades is not competing on grades. He is competing for whatever is left of the external allocation after in-catchment applicants have been ranked ahead of him — and in a year where the external applications exceed the places, that is the whole contest.

Thirty-five external places, against an internal transfer that is not capped

The policy sets out both numbers in the same sentence: "The School has a Published Admission Number ('PAN') of 128 places in Year 7 and a PAN of 35 places for external students joining the School in Year 12."

The asymmetry is the important part. Internal pupils "transfer to Year 12 provided they have met the entry requirements", and the policy states there is "no upper limit to the number of internal pupils transferring". The PAN of 35 binds only external applicants. A large Year 11 cohort meeting the grade floor therefore does not reduce the external allocation, and a small one does not increase it — the two routes are counted separately.

One thing does reduce it. Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school are admitted before the criteria are applied, and the policy notes that where this happens "it will reduce the number of places available".

For scale, Ofsted records the school as having 836 pupils against a capacity of 896 across Years 7 to 13. Thirty-five external sixth form places is a meaningful intake against a school of that size, and larger than the external allocation at many boys' grammar sixth forms — but it is a cap, and the school applies its criteria "until the PAN has been achieved". The policy does not say it will go over.

The subject grades that decide the timetable after the offer

Clearing the five-subject floor gets a boy a place. It does not get him his courses. The policy adds a second condition — "a pupil must reach the published requirements for entry onto his proposed course of study" — and points to the sixth form booklet for the detail. The prospectus sets those thresholds subject by subject, and most sit a full grade above the general floor.

Source: Ermysted's Grammar School Sixth Form Prospectus, subject pages.

Two of these are worth pausing on. Further Mathematics asks for a grade 8 in GCSE Mathematics — three grades above the general floor, and the single highest published bar in the prospectus. Music is the one subject with a defined alternative route: a candidate who has not taken GCSE Music but has passed Grade 5 practical and Grade 5 theory, and who attends an interview with the Head of Music, will be considered.

The prospectus also sets a threshold for breadth rather than entry. Most students take three A-Levels; "students who achieve a GCSE average points score of 7.0 or higher (GCSE points awarded as per grade) are able to select a fourth A-Level subject". That is a straight average of grades across the GCSE set, so it is decided on results day alongside everything else.

What happens on 20 August 2026

Nothing about a Year 12 place is settled before GCSE results. The policy is explicit: "Places in Year 12 can only be offered and allocated following GCSE Results Day in August", and "the School will contact each applicant directly on or soon after the GCSE results day". The prospectus lists the same day as both results day and enrolment day for the September 2026 intake.

The dates for the June 2026 series are set by JCQ and published in AQA's key dates calendar. GCSE results reach schools and colleges from 00:01 on 19 August 2026, and are released to students from 08:00 on 20 August 2026. A-Level results for the same series went to students on 13 August 2026. That one-day gap between centres and students is why a school can hold an enrolment session on results morning with the offers already decided.

Only applicants who "have met and evidenced that they have met the entry requirements on the GCSE Results Day in August" are considered, so an external candidate should arrive with the statement of results itself, not a printout or a screenshot from a school portal.

If the grades fall short: extenuating circumstances, then the governors

There are two distinct routes, and they run in order. First, discretion: "For individuals who fail to achieve these requirements, the Admissions Committee will consider any extenuating circumstances before deciding whether or not to offer a place in the Sixth Form." That is a decision made inside the school, and the policy sets no form or deadline for it, which means raising the circumstances early and in writing is the sensible approach.

Second, appeal. Here Ermysted's does something a lot of parents get wrong, because Year 12 appeals do not go where Year 7 appeals go. Appeals for Year 7 and in-year places "will be organised by the Local Authority, North Yorkshire Council". Year 12 appeals do not: they are set out in writing and sent "within 30 school days of being informed of the decision to refuse entry to Year 12" to the Clerk to the Governors at the school. Send a Year 12 appeal to the council and the clock keeps running.

The policy also notes what usually triggers that clock — the decision to refuse is "typically the publication of the applicant's GCSE exam results", so the 30 school days start from results day in most cases, not from a later letter.

The dates still ahead for September 2027 entry

The September 2026 cycle has closed. Its external application deadline was noon on 29 May 2026, and its remaining step is results day. The live cycle is September 2027, and its deadline is set out in the current policy.

Source: Ermysted's Grammar School 2027-28 Admissions Policy; AQA key dates calendar (JCQ) for the results date.

Applications received after the deadline "will be considered as late and dealt with after the first round of applications". External applicants download a Word application form and return it to Mrs Lindsley, Assistant Head of Sixth Form, at jlindsley@ermysteds.uk — there is no local authority common application form for Year 12, and no online portal to complete instead.

What "Outstanding sixth form" on the school's website refers to

The school's sixth form page describes an Ofsted-rated "Outstanding" Sixth Form. That is accurate, and it is narrower than it looks. At the inspection of 28 September 2022, Ofsted judged sixth form provision Outstanding, along with behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. Quality of education was judged Good, and the overall outcome for the school was Good.

So the claim is about one graded judgement rather than the school's overall grade. It is a real judgement and a strong one; it is simply not the same statement as "an Outstanding school", and a parent comparing sixth forms should read it as the former.

On outcomes, the school's own prospectus reports that 10% of 2023 leavers secured an offer to study at Oxford or Cambridge. That is the school's published figure rather than an independently verified one, and it covers a single cohort.

Frequently asked questions

The primary source for everything above is the school's own 2027-28 admissions policy, which is the document to check before acting on anything on this page. Its Year 12 section runs to three pages and is written in plain English. Read it alongside the school's Sixth Form Prospectus for the subject-level grades, and use our 16+ entry guides for comparisons with other selective sixth forms and our A-Level tuition pages for what happens after the offer.