Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School

If your child wants to be stretched without losing the wider side of school, Sir Henry Floyd is the kind of Aylesbury grammar that quietly earns parents' trust. It opened on its current site in 1963 and took its name two years later from Brigadier Sir Henry Floyd, then Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and a man from a long line of soldiers. The school is honest about its surroundings, as the Good Schools Guide records: 'We'll never be the beautiful historical grammar, but the contemporary feel has its benefits,' as one person there put it. Entry at 11 is by the Buckinghamshire eleven-plus, and it is heavily oversubscribed.

What sets it apart, the Good Schools Guide says, is a high academic profile sitting alongside a real focus on wellbeing and a rounded education 'that's so often missing from grammar schools'. One student told the Guide: 'It's so easy for a school to fixate on academic results, but you come out with so much more here.' Performing arts are a particular strength, with dance, drama and music on the timetable for the first three years and strong take-up beyond. Sport has improved sharply under a newer head of department, and the Guide notes moving accounts from parents of how the school supported families through hard times, work that won it a county award for health and wellbeing.

Sir Henry Floyd suits a child who wants academic stretch but also the wider experience of school, especially one drawn to performing arts. Sam Holdsworth has been head of school since June 2023, leading a place where, in pupils' own words, a child comes out with more than just their grades.