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Loreto Grammar School vs Urmston Grammar Academy

Both are grammar schools in Trafford, 4.3 miles apart. Side-by-side on official DfE, Ofsted and council admissions data.

Side by side

Loreto Grammar School Urmston Grammar Academy
Phase Secondary Secondary
Gender Girls Mixed
Pupils on roll 1,075 1,137
Free school meals 5.5% 7.3%
Ofsted rating Outstanding Good
Attainment 8 — 2025/26 75.2 75.6
11+ test board School's own entrance examination (Maths; English and Verbal Reasoning by GL) GL Assessment
Admission system pass/fail then criteria order (score doesn't give priority after passing) pass/fail + catchment (passing the test is a gate; living in the catchment area determines priority over score)
Places offered — 202627 160 169
First preferences per place — higher means more competition for a first-preference place 1.61 1.4

Qualifying scores

Loreto Grammar School

Not published as a fixed pass mark. Loreto Grammar School runs its own 'Governors' Entrance Exam' (3 papers); girls meeting the school's standard are then prioritised by the Catholic faith-based oversubscription criteria, with distance only as a tiebreaker.

Council source ↗

Urmston Grammar Academy

334 (2026 entry)

Trafford Consortium qualifying score: 334 or above (standardised, across the two consortium papers). Reaching 334 is eligibility, not an offer — each school's oversubscription criteria then apply.

Council source ↗

These schools use different tests (School's own entrance examination (Maths; English and Verbal Reasoning by GL) and GL Assessment), so their pass marks are set on different scales and cannot be compared as numbers.

Who gets priority

Where a school is oversubscribed, these are the first criteria applied, in order. This is usually what decides an application.

Loreto Grammar School

  1. Baptised Roman Catholic looked after and previously looked after girls
  2. Baptised Roman Catholic girls with a sister at the school
  3. Baptised Roman Catholic girls at an associated primary school living in a nominated Local Pastoral Area
  4. Other baptised Roman Catholic girls
  5. Other looked after and previously looked after girls
  6. Baptised girls of other denominations

Source: school admissions policy.

Urmston Grammar Academy

  1. Looked after and previously looked after children
  2. About 15 places for the highest-scoring Pupil Premium children (minimum 324), wherever they live
  3. About 20 places for the top scorers, wherever they live
  4. Children of staff with at least eight years' continuous permanent service
  5. Children with a sibling at the school, wherever they live
  6. About 120 places by distance: M41 and M31 postcodes first, nearest first, then everyone else, nearest first

Source: school admissions policy.

Choosing between them

Loreto Grammar School is a girls school and Urmston Grammar Academy is a mixed school, so for many families the starting point is which one can admit their child. The figures on this page are the published ones — they describe intakes and results, not what either school would be like for your child. The right choice depends on your family's own priorities and circumstances.

Full detail for each school: Loreto Grammar School · Urmston Grammar Academy
Or see all secondary schools in Trafford ranked.

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