The Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe is a selective boys' grammar school on Amersham Road, with day places, weekly boarding and a co-educational sixth form from September 2025. Its heritage is unusually deep: the school traces more than 450 years of history and holds a Royal Charter granted in 1562. The current headmaster's welcome frames that history as tradition that evolves, with an all-round education aimed at leadership, collaboration and meaningful contribution.
Academically, RGS is demanding and broad. The curriculum and enrichment structure includes classics or Latin, modern languages, computer science, creative arts and a substantial sixth form. The school is also clear that results are only part of the offer: its character framework is intended to help pupils speak up, step forward and shape their own path. Public outcomes support the academic reputation, with +1.13 Progress 8 and 98.6% grade 5+ in English and maths recorded by GOV.UK.
The co-curricular life is a defining part of the school. RGS signposts arts, careers provision, character, Combined Cadet Force, co-curricular trips, Duke of Edinburgh, music, pastoral care and sport, while boarding adds another layer through Fraser Youens House and boarding activities. The school describes itself as a place where pupils are known as individuals, whether they are day students or boarders.
Year 7 admission has 182 published places and uses the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test. The test has two multiple-choice GL Assessment papers, with the final standardised score weighted 50% verbal, 25% mathematical and 25% non-verbal; a score of 121 or above qualifies a child for Buckinghamshire grammar-school consideration, but higher scores do not bring extra priority under Buckinghamshire rules. Public benchmarks record Ofsted Good in October 2019, 47.7% AAB or better at A level and 74% of 16 to 18 leavers progressing to higher education in the latest destinations data.
