Poole Grammar School A GSG School
- Poole Grammar School
Gravel Hill
Poole
Dorset
BH17 9JU - Head: Mrs. Katie Etheridge
- T 01202 692132
- F 01202 606500
- E [email protected]
- W www.poolegrammar.com
- A state school for boys aged from 11 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Dorset
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Pupils: 1202; sixth formers: 306
- Religion: None
- Open days: September and July
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Good 1
- 16-19 study programmes Good 2
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Good 2
- 1 Short inspection 27th March 2024
- 2 Full inspection 23rd January 2018
Short inspection reports only give an overall grade; you have to read the report itself to gauge whether the detailed grading from the earlier full inspection still stands.
- Previous Ofsted grade: Requires improvement on 1st December 2015
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
A mix of long-serving staff and those in the early stages of their careers. One boy told us: ‘The teachers here know their stuff and they really help you. We aren’t just learning. We are learning to apply our skills.’ The school motto is ‘finis opus coronat’ or ‘the end crowns the work’ – very appropriate for these high achieving boys. The arts are an integral part of school life. Impressive music department, with orchestras, bands and concerts galore. Lots of drama productions, often jointly with Parkstone Grammar, including…
What the school says...
Poole Grammar School is a selective boys' grammar school serving the Borough of Poole and its environs. It is a specialist mathematics, computing and cognition school with an international reputation for developing boys' literacy skills.
Boys take a set of entrance tests consisting of English, maths, verbal & non verbal - reasoning. There are 168 places available and the admissions policy is available on the school web site. At sixth form level 30 places are available for those from outside the school and the minimum entrance requirement is 344 points based on the candidate's best 8 GCSEs with an ...Read more
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School associations
State grammar school
What The Good Schools Guide says
Headteacher
Since September 2024, Mrs Katie Etheridge, who has worked at the school since 2005, starting as a geography teacher and rising to deputy head. She also qualified as a SENCo in 2018.
Entrance
In the past the entrance procedure was complex but the school website gives clear guidance on its admissions policy. ‘Admission is of approximately the top 16 per cent of the intellectual population,’ it says. School admits 180 year 7 pupils a year (six forms of 30 pupils). It’s oversubscribed and very competitive, with an average of two applicants per place. Priority given to looked after children, then boys from Poole who get pupil premium funding, boys who live in the borough of Poole and the sons of current members of staff. Prospective pupils take tests in English, maths and verbal reasoning and the...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
The school, though a selective Grammar school, is accutely aware that many very able pupils can hide conditions such as dyslexia through strategies that as time goes on become more difficult to sustain. Hence we are looking to take a more proactive role in early screening of pupils to then give appropriate support for their learning as early as possible. Dyslexia screening now being undertaken on entry and an 'in house' literacy advisor has been appointed to focus on needs in this area. The school has adopted a second specialism in SEN (Cognition and Learning) with a focus on supporting able boys with a wide spectrum of needs. Pupils who come to the school with a statement or who are on the feeder school special needs register are immediately put on our own register and the head of the induction year spends time with the feeder school ascertaining the needs that we will have to cater for when the pupil arrives. We have a Learning support coordinator in place on a 0.6 teaching timetable; a specialist teacher for SEN on the staff for two days per week and 6 LSAs available for indiviudal classroom support or outreach work depending on individual cases. 09-09
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Might cover/be referred to as;
ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Aspergers, Autism, High functioning autism, Neurodivergent, Neurodiversity, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), PDA , Social skills, Sensory processing disorder |
Y |
| HI - Hearing Impairment
Might cover/be referred to as;
Hearing Impairment, HI - Hearing Impairment |
|
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty
Might cover/be referred to as;
Learning needs, MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty |
|
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment
Might cover/be referred to as;
MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment, Sensory processing |
|
| Not Applicable | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability
Might cover/be referred to as;
Downs Syndrome, Epilepsy, Genetic , OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability, Tics, Tourettes |
|
| PD - Physical Disability
Might cover/be referred to as;
PD - Physical Disability |
|
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty
Might cover/be referred to as;
Complex needs, Global delay, Global developmental delay, PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty |
|
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Might cover/be referred to as;
Anxiety , Complex needs, Emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), Mental Health, SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health, Trauma |
|
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication
Might cover/be referred to as;
DLD - Developmental Language Disorder, Selective mutism, SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication |
|
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty
Might cover/be referred to as;
Complex needs, SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty, Cerebral Palsy (CP) |
|
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty
Might cover/be referred to as;
ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Auditory Processing, DCD, Developmental Co-ordination Difficulties (DCD), Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Handwriting, Other specific learning difficulty, SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) |
Y |
| VI - Visual Impairment
Might cover/be referred to as;
Special facilities for Visually Impaired, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Castle Court | 2024 | 5 |
| Trevor-Roberts School | 2024 | 1 |
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