Wycombe High School is a selective girls' grammar in High Wycombe with about 1,361 pupils and a history that began in September 1901 with 18 fee-paying students and three staff. The school moved through earlier town sites before settling on Marlow Hill in 1956, later adding technology, sport and drama blocks, the Wainwright Learning Centre, a Music Centre and an all-weather pitch.
Its current ethos is confident and distinctive. Wycombe High talks about students relishing challenge, chasing excellence and inspiring others, with values including infectious joy, limitless ambition, insatiable curiosity and generous spirit. The curriculum includes computing, design and technology, personal development and sixth-form study, while sport, music, drama, houses, leadership and the library give the school a lively all-round grammar feel.
Year 7 admission is through Buckinghamshire's Secondary Transfer Test. The published admission number is 192. The test score is age-standardised and weighted 50% verbal skills, 25% mathematical skills and 25% non-verbal skills; a score of 121 or above qualifies for Buckinghamshire grammar-school entry before Wycombe High's catchment, sister, partner-feeder and distance criteria are applied.
Wycombe High's public performance profile is very strong: Ofsted Outstanding, high Progress 8, 99.5% grade 5+ in English and maths and a sizeable sixth form. The admissions decision is therefore as much about Buckinghamshire transfer-test qualification and catchment detail as it is about the school's academic reputation.
