Royal Grammar School

Thomas Horsley, the original settlor of the Royal Grammar School Newcastle (RGS) pledged his legacy to the School in 1525.  Almost 500 years later, RGS continues to flourish as the premier independent school in the North East of England and as one of the country's leading schools, and the Sunday Times’ North East Independent School of the Decade 2020. Most recently, RGS was awarded the Sunday Times’ 2023 North East's Top Independent Secondary School for Academic Performance. We regularly lead all northern schools in national league tables and pride ourselves on academic excellence, a high level of pastoral support, involvement in a wide range of sports and other co-curricular activities, and our commitment to bursaries and partnerships.

The RGS has grown substantially in recent years. There are now some 1,320 students, over 260 of whom are in the Junior School. The Sixth Form of 330 students is one of the largest in the independent sector. We became coeducational 20 years ago and girls now comprise 46% of the school.

The school is based in the heart of the City, immediately opposite Jesmond Metro station.  The school occupies over 30 acres of land and has state-of-the-art facilities, including five brand new art studios, a new library, a new Sixth Form Centre, a 25m swimming pool, two Sports Halls, a Performing Arts Centre, outdoor football/rugby pitches at Mooracres, an artificial turf pitch for hockey and the former County Cricket Ground.

Academically the school is highly selective. Students are assessed for entry at the key entry points (Y3, Y5, Y7 and a handful at Y9, plus sixth form). The biggest entry points are Y3 (60 students), Y7 (c.75 students) and Y12 (c. 45 students).  Beyond the academics, in Junior School (Y3-6) entry is assessed through activity days whilst at Y7 students are assessed through online tests and an interaction day. Sixth form entry is through interview only. Students sit baseline tests in Y7, Y10, and L6 – the average GLA CAT score for both the current Y7 and L6 is 117.

Academic selection and excellent teaching means the school’s results are exceptional. The published figures for 2023 are on the school’s website. For A Level, 34% of A level grades were at A*; 71% A*- A; and 89% A* - B. For GCSE, the proportion of grade 9s was 41.2%; 9 – 8 was 67.8%; and 9 – 7 was 85.8%. These results placed the RGS 51st, nationally, in The Sunday Times Parent Power survey, up from 73rd place in 2022.

In 2021 The Sunday Times Parent Power survey judged RGS Newcastle to be the North East Independent School of the Decade. Since then, the RGS has consistently ranked first for academic results in the North East. In 2023, as well as receiving accreditation for the Wellbeing Award for Schools, the RGS was awarded the overall title of Independent School of the Year for the whole of the UK, following winning the category for Outstanding Educational Partnerships. We have more recently been awarded the title of Sunday Times Parent Power North East Independent School of the Year for 2024.