Leicester Grammar School

Academic ambition and a calm, kind culture sit side by side at Leicester Grammar School, and neither is allowed to crowd out the other. This is a selective, co-educational independent day school on a 75-acre purpose-built campus at Great Glen, in the Leicestershire countryside just south of the city. It forms the senior arm of the Leicester Grammar School Trust, which educates children from age 3 through Leicester Grammar Junior School and LGS Stoneygate before they reach the senior school at 10 or 11. Results are the headline: GCSE and A-level cohorts both sit in the top 4% of schools in England, and a Cambridge-heavy Oxbridge record backs that up. Around 1,282 pupils are on roll across the Trust, and the headmaster is Magnus Anderson, a Cambridge physicist.

Founded in 1981, Leicester Grammar School is a young foundation by independent-school standards, and it still reads as one actively building its identity rather than resting on centuries of it. It began close to Leicester Cathedral, keeping an Anglican Christian ethos, and it retains that tradition today while drawing a community of many faiths and none. In 2008 the school moved to its current 75-acre campus at Great Glen, a purpose-built site opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The move gave it the scale and facilities of a much larger institution: room to spread out, dedicated specialist spaces, and green fields on the doorstep, all within a short drive of Leicester.

The tone on the ground is ordered without being severe. A restorative approach to behaviour has shaped a settled, well-run community in which pupils are, in the main, kind and considerate and understand why the rules exist. Leaders have built a culture where diversity and inclusion are valued, and pupils are accepting and tolerant of those who hold different faiths and beliefs. The school articulates its character through five values that recur across daily life: Respect, Trust, Courage, Curiosity and Community, each unpacked into qualities such as humility and encouragement, resilience and self-belief, scholarship and service. It frames its purpose as an inspiring centre for co-educational excellence in academic and personal development, within a Christian ethos.

A roll of close to 1,300 across the three Trust schools gives Leicester Grammar the breadth of a large school while keeping the feel of a connected community, in which staff and pupils alike are sorted into one of four houses: Dukes, Judges, Masters and Vice Chancellors. The house names nod to the school's own sense of civic seriousness, and the system carries competition and pastoral belonging through from the youngest years to the sixth form.

The Trust structure is worth understanding before applying, because it shapes the pathway a child follows. The youngest children start at age 3 in the early years at Leicester Grammar Junior School and LGS Stoneygate, move up through the junior phase, and then sit the senior entrance assessment for a place at Great Glen. That gives families a single continuous route from the early years to the sixth form on one set of shared bus services, but it is a route governed by assessment at the senior gate rather than automatic progression, so a place in the early years is not by itself a guarantee of a senior place.

The school performs strongly at every stage where results are measured. At GCSE the profile is dominated by the very top grades: roughly 64% of entries were awarded grade 9 or 8, a further 17% at grade 7, so more than 80% of all grades reached grade 7 or above. That is a cohort weighted towards the top of the scale rather than a long tail of solid passes.

In FindMySchool's proprietary ranking of England's schools by GCSE results, built from official data, Leicester Grammar places 154th of 3,895 in England, in the top 4.0%, measured against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. That is well above the England average. On the overall measure, which blends those results with the FindMySchool inspection score, it sits 124th of 3,887 in England and 2nd of all schools in the Leicester area. A blended measure of GCSE and A-level performance together places the school higher still, 107th in England.

The sixth form matches that standard. At A-level around 29% of entries were graded A*, about 32% A and roughly 24% B, so close to 86% of all grades fell in the A* to B band. The margin over the England picture is wide: the combined A* and A rate of about 61% here is more than double the England average of around 24%, and the A* to B rate of 85% comfortably clears the England figure of about 47%. In FindMySchool's proprietary A-level ranking built from official data, the sixth form ranks 105th of 2,562 in England for results, in the top 4.1%, and against every school in England with published A-level results. Its overall position is 89th of 2,561, and 2nd locally.

The sixth form curriculum is broad enough to sustain that record. Twenty-four A-levels are on offer, spanning the sciences and Further Mathematics, a full set of humanities including Classical Civilisation, Greek and Latin, three modern languages, and creative subjects from Ceramics to Drama and Theatre. The classics provision in particular is unusual for a co-educational independent of this size, and it gives academically ambitious students room to build genuinely distinctive A-level combinations rather than defaulting to the same three or four subjects.

One honest qualification belongs here. The most recent ISI inspection identified a single area for development: greater collaboration between and within academic departments, so the teaching and learning experience is more consistent from subject to subject. The results suggest this is fine-tuning at a high level rather than a structural weakness, but it is the school's own stated next step.

Teaching is delivered with pace and authority, and the curriculum is broad and deliberately stretching. The curriculum is taught effectively, pupils achieve well and make typically good progress, and lessons rest on relationships between teachers and pupils founded on mutual respect and a shared enthusiasm for the subject. That warmth, rather than compliance alone, is what drives engagement, and clear expectations are treated as the foundation on which lively teaching is built rather than an alternative to it.

Support for individual needs is a genuine strength rather than an afterthought. The Learning Development Department, led by Director of Learning Development Miss Joy Clapham, works across all three Trust schools, pairing specialist teachers, school nurses and teaching assistants to give small-group and one-to-one intervention for pupils with specific learning needs, health needs or disabilities, alongside provision for pupils learning English as an additional language. Leaders are effective at identifying and meeting the needs of all pupils, with the result that those with SEND and EAL achieve broadly in line with their peers. Careers guidance is woven in early through a structured programme, and by the sixth form it feeds directly into demanding application routes.

Progression through the school is built in but not automatic. Students move up through the senior years, while sixth-form places depend on meeting academic requirements rather than being guaranteed. To join the Lower Sixth, students need at least three GCSEs at grade 7 and three more at grade 6, plus demonstrated engagement in wider school life; external applicants are interviewed before a place is offered. In practice the bulk of the sixth form continues from the school's own Year 11, with a smaller intake joining from outside at 16.

University is the destination for the overwhelming majority of leavers. In the 2023/24 leaving cohort of 108 students, 73% progressed to university, with a further 16% moving into employment. Demand for the most competitive courses is high, and the school prepares aspiring medics through a dedicated Pre-Medical Course that has a strong record of getting students onto medicine, dentistry and veterinary routes. The Extended Project Qualification and the sixth-form Aspire programme give the most ambitious students structured intellectual stretch beyond their examined subjects, which matters at a school where the next step is almost always a competitive course.

Oxford and Cambridge feature regularly, and the pattern is distinctive. Across a recent cycle students submitted 34 Oxbridge applications and received 9 offers, of which 8 were taken up, a conversion rate that reflects careful, well-matched preparation rather than scattergun applying. Every one of those offers came from Cambridge, where 9 offers followed 24 applications, an unusually Cambridge-weighted profile for a school of this size. Old Leicestrians, as alumni are known, have gone on to varied public lives, among them the England and Leicester Tigers scrum-half Harry Ellis, the former MP for Brent East Sarah Teather, the opera singer James Oldfield and the Sale Sharks back Paolo Odogwu.

Main entry is at 10 and 11, by an entrance assessment covering core subjects, with some candidates also interviewed. For 2027 entry the application deadline is 4pm on Monday 7 December 2026, the entrance assessments fall on the morning of Tuesday 5 January 2027, and decisions are communicated by the end of January 2027. Open events typically run in October and May. Families considering an application should treat those dates as the pattern for the cycle and confirm the current timetable with the school, since exact dates shift each year.

The wider Trust admits children much earlier. Leicester Grammar Junior School and LGS Stoneygate take pupils from age 3 through the Early Years Foundation Stage, so a child can, in principle, begin in the early years and follow the same Trust through to the sixth form, a continuity that is part of the appeal for local families. Progression from the junior school into the senior school is the common route, though the senior entrance assessment still applies.

As a selective independent, entry is governed by assessment rather than by home address, so there is no catchment distance to weigh. What matters instead is preparation for the entrance assessment and, at 16, the GCSE grade requirements. Families weighing the daily journey can use the FindMySchool map to gauge travel from home against the school's ten bus routes, and the saved-schools shortlist to line Leicester Grammar up against other independents in the area.

Wellbeing is treated as a leadership priority, not a bolt-on, and the school has invested in the capacity of the staff responsible for pastoral care. That investment shows in the systems pupils actually use. In the senior school a Whisper reporting tool lets students flag a worry discreetly, while younger pupils have Worry Monsters to help them raise concerns, and effective lines of communication mean children know how to reach an adult when something is wrong. Safeguarding arrangements are robust and effective, kept under close monitoring by trustees, with staff receiving regularly updated and comprehensive training.

Behaviour is calm and considerate, shaped by the restorative approach that runs through the school's culture, and pupils respond positively to opportunities to express their opinions and shape school life. Diversity and inclusion are actively valued, and the school channels that outward through fundraising and engagement with local and national charities, so pupils learn service alongside self-belief. The Ivy House Award, a leadership programme built around self-awareness, self-leadership and then the service of others, gives that ethos a structured form in the sixth form.

Sport is a defining strength, and rugby leads it. Rugby, hockey, netball, cricket and tennis are the main team sports, competed at local, county, regional and national level under Director of Sport James McCann, and the school's rugby pedigree is striking for its size: alumni include the England and Leicester Tigers scrum-half Harry Ellis, Bristol Bears hooker Harry Thacker and the England Under-20 captain Finn Carnduff. The seasonal games programme spreads well beyond the first-team sports, taking in squash, swimming, badminton, table tennis, cross-country, rugby sevens, basketball and strength and conditioning, so pupils who are not on a county pathway still have a competitive or recreational option every term.

Music is the second pillar, and it is unusually broad for a school of this age. Under Director of Music John Barker, a Royal College of Music graduate, pupils can join flagship ensembles including the First Orchestra, the Symphonic Wind Band, the Senior Choir, the Big Band and the Folk Group, with a Sinfonietta, Chamber Choir and String Orchestra adding chamber and string routes for the more advanced. The school also runs a Choral Society open to local people, giving pupils the experience of performing alongside adult singers from the community. Drama sits alongside it under Director of Drama Tanya Jaremczenko-Dye, a specialist trained at the East 15 Acting School, and A-level Drama and Theatre keeps the subject alive to the top of the school.

STEM and enrichment are the third strand, and they are notably academic in flavour. Pupils contribute to the Young Scientists Journal and the Young Arts and Humanities Journal, compete at Model United Nations conferences, and take part in the Bright Sparks STEM Fair. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a mainstay, with over 180 students in Years 9 and 10 working towards Bronze and around 50 in Years 12 and 13 pursuing Gold. In the sixth form, Young Enterprise has run for more than a decade and is consistently oversubscribed, while the Extended Project Qualification lets students pursue an independent research topic beyond the syllabus and the Aspire programme structures wider intellectual stretch. Taken together, the co-curricular offer leans towards depth and genuine achievement rather than a long list for its own sake.

Day fees for Years 6 to 13 are £7,253 per term including VAT, or £6,044 per term before VAT, which works out at roughly £21,759 a year at the current rate. A non-refundable registration fee of £100 applies on application, along with a refundable deposit of £500 held until a pupil leaves. Sibling discounts reduce the burden for larger families: 5% off for a second child, 7.5% for a third and 10% for a fourth. For nursery and junior fees, and the current year's exact figures, see the school website; government-funded early-years hours are available to eligible families, and our guide to nursery funding explains how they work.

Financial support runs on two tracks. Scholarships recognise outstanding academic, musical, artistic or sporting talent and potential, awarded on merit. Means-tested bursaries, assessed on family income, aim to support pupils who could not otherwise afford to attend, and can range from partial support up to full coverage of the termly fee. Together they widen access beyond families who can meet the full fee unaided, though as at any selective independent the number of full awards is finite.

Leicester Grammar sits at Great Glen, on the London Road corridor south of Leicester, a rural setting that trades city-centre convenience for space and a purpose-built campus. Travel for most families is by car or by the school's own network of ten bus routes, which serve the senior school, Leicester Grammar Junior School and LGS Stoneygate together, so siblings across the Trust can often travel on the same service. Given the countryside location, the coach network is central to how the school works day to day, and prospective families should check which routes pass near home.

For the early years and junior phase, the Trust provides structure appropriate to younger children; specific hours, nursery arrangements and fees are set out on the school website rather than published as a single figure. As with any selective independent, families should confirm the current daily timetable and any before- or after-school provision directly with the school.

Entry is by assessment, and competition is real. Places at 10, 11 and 16 depend on an entrance assessment and, at sixth form, on grade requirements of three 7s and three 6s at GCSE. The education is strong, but a place is not a given, so preparation matters.

The location is rural. The 75-acre Great Glen campus is a genuine asset, but it is a drive from central Leicester and much of the county. Families will depend on the car or the school's ten bus routes, and the daily journey deserves a realistic look before applying.

Consistency across departments is the school's own next step. The latest ISI inspection asked for greater collaboration within and between academic departments so the experience is more even from subject to subject. Results are high across the board, but it is worth asking how a particular department compares.

Fees now carry VAT. Day fees for Years 6 to 13 stand at £7,253 per term including VAT. Sibling discounts and means-tested bursaries soften the cost for some, but full bursary awards are limited, so most families should plan around the headline figure.

Leicester Grammar School is one of the strongest academic independents in the East Midlands, and the numbers are not borderline: GCSE and A-level cohorts both sit in the top 4% of schools in England, and the sixth form's Cambridge conversion is a standout. What lifts it above a pure results story is the culture around those results, calm, restorative and genuinely kind, with real investment in pastoral care and a co-curricular programme that prizes depth over breadth. It is best suited to academically able children who will thrive on stretch and want a full sporting and musical life alongside it, whose families can manage the fees and the rural commute. The main caveat is entry itself: the school is selective at every stage, so securing a place, not the education that follows, is the first hurdle.