Schools in Plymouth

Primary schools: Only 5 of 68 primary schools use catchment areas; ALL secondary schools and the great majority of primaries use pure straight-line distance. (source)

Secondary schools: Explicit: all Plymouth secondary schools rely solely on distance, no catchment areas. (source)

Most schools use the local authority's default scheme rather than a school-specific catchment map — see each school's page for its own designated/catchment area where one is published.

All three Plymouth grammar schools use papers from Quest Assessments, sat over two September Saturdays: Day 1 — English comprehension (about 40 minutes, ~60 questions: reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation, grammar). Day 2 — Mathematics in two sections: a 10-minute fluency paper and a 30-minute mathematical-reasoning paper (~60 questions total). Devonport High School for Boys additionally sets its own internal English WRITING paper on top of the shared Quest papers. One registration round covers the shared papers for all three schools; results arrive in October before the 31 October application deadline.

Plymouth's three grammar schools (Devonport High School for Boys, Devonport High School for Girls, Plymouth High School for Girls) use a coordinated testing arrangement with shared test dates — the English paper on one September Saturday and the maths papers the following Saturday — so one round of sittings covers all three schools. Registration is with the schools (historically opening in the spring/summer term of Year 5 and closing at the end of August), and is open to children living outside Plymouth — the schools draw from across Devon and east Cornwall. Apply via your home LA's Common Application Form by 31 October. Check each school's oversubscription criteria for distance effects; Devonport High School for Boys also sets an additional internal English writing paper.