Sir William Borlase's Grammar School A GSG School
- Sir William Borlase's Grammar School
West Street
Marlow
Buckinghamshire
SL7 2BR - Head: Mr Edward Goodall
- T 01628 816500
- F 01628 816501
- E enquiries@swbgs.com
- W www.swbgs.com
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Buckinghamshire
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Buckinghamshire
- Pupils: 1,170; sixth formers: 430
- Religion: Does not apply
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 1
- 1 Full inspection 27th June 2012
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Historically, the school has been criticised as being an elitist, academic hothouse, but there is overwhelming agreement that is no longer true, with staff being pushy, but by not overly so. There’s a sense that you can be who you really are at this school. ‘There’s room for every type of person,’ confirmed one student. Parents agree. ‘Whether you’re in the nerdy academic bunch, the sporty lot or the performing arts bunch – or in no particular bunch at all - you are seen as equal,’ said one. Evidence of an ordered and respectful…
What the school says...
After 12 years as Deputy Head Teacher and a further five and a half as Headteacher, Kay Mountfield is retiring from the school. Her replacement is Mr Ed Goodall, the Deputy Headteacher of another outstanding Buckinghamshire Grammar School.
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School associations
State grammar school
What The Good Schools Guide says
Headteacher
Since September 2023, Edward Goodall. Educated at St Peter's School, York and Durham University, where he read archaeology. He decided to teach after spending two years as a rowing coach and boarding house tutor at King's College, Auckland and completed his PGCE at the University of Oxford.
He was head of history and classics at The Archbishop's School, Canterbury, head of humanities at St Crispin's School, Wokingham and assistant headteacher at Ranelagh School, Bracknell before serving as deputy headteacher at Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham for seven years. He's committed to the holistic education of the child and believes strongly in the value of the co-curriculum alongside academic learning.
Entrance
Catchment area shrank considerably in the late 90s and has remained relatively small, but the school is still heavily oversubscribed at 11+,...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
Special Needs issues are addressed in the first instance within the classroom context. Additional support and advice is provided by members of the Leadership Team, with each of the three Assistant Heads taking a specific interest for one Key Stage. The Assistant Heads are also supported by Heads of Key Stage 3 and 4 and by full time Learning Mentors, each of whom works with a single year group, following them through their school careers. Screening for specific issues, such as dyslexia, is undertaken on intake in Year 7. The school also works closely with the Local Authority's SEN support services, including an attached Educational Psychologist.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | Y |
| Aspergers | Y |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | Y |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | |
| Dyscalculia | |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | |
| Dyspraxia | |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| Special facilities for Visually Impaired | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Gayhurst School | 2023 | 1 |
| Rupert House School | 2023 | 1 |
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