Colchester Royal Grammar School

Term dates

Academies can set their own term dates. Many follow Essex council's dates, shown below as a guide, but check with the school, especially for INSET days.

• Term
• Holiday
• INSET day
• Exeat

See Essex's full dates

Admissions

Places for Year 7 are applied for through your home council, not the school.

Apply for a secondary school place on GOV.UK

Selective school: Year 7 entry is by an entrance test (the 11+). Registration for the test usually closes in the summer of Year 5.

For the sixth form, apply to the school directly.

How many families applied: Year 7

For September 2026, 280 families put this school as their first choice, and 128 places were offered. 63 of the families who put it first got a place (23%). More families put it first than there were places.

Offers made on national offer day, from the Department for Education. Waiting lists and appeals can change things later. The hardest schools to get into.

11+ entrance test

This school uses CSSE 11+ Selective Test (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex), a shared test used by 6 other schools. Your child sits one test, and the result is shared with every school in the group that you apply to.

How shared 11+ tests work

Before and after school

This club is registered with Ofsted at the school's postcode, so usually run on the school site:

• School's Out Activities At Colchester Royal Grammar School, holiday club. Ofsted report

Ask the club or the school about times, prices and places. More clubs nearby.

Ofsted inspection

Report card, 14 April 2026. Ofsted now grades each area separately, from exceptional to urgent improvement, with no single overall grade.

Inclusion

Strong standard

Curriculum and teaching

Exceptional

Achievement

Exceptional

Attendance and behaviour

Strong standard

Personal development and wellbeing

Strong standard

Sixth form

Exceptional

Leadership and governance

Exceptional

Safeguarding standards: met.

Previous inspection, 11 May 2021. Overall: Inadequate It was inspected as Colchester Royal Grammar School, before the school changed (for example, became an academy).

Read the Ofsted reports

From Ofsted's published inspection data (Open Government Licence). Report cards and older grades use different scales, so they can't be compared directly.

About and location

Type

Academy

Phase

Secondary

Ages

11–18

Pupils

1073 (capacity 777)

Gender

Boys

Religious character

Christian

Academy trust

THE THINKING SCHOOLS ACADEMY TRUST

Admissions

Selective (entrance test)

Phone

01206509100

Address

Lexden Road, Colchester, CO3 3ND

Website

crgs.co.uk

Official school record, including Ofsted reports