Colchester Royal Grammar School was founded in 1206 and granted two Royal Charters, by Henry VIII in 1539 and by Elizabeth I in 1584. It has, therefore, a history of scholarship dating back to the sixteenth century. It became an academy in 2012 and was designated a National Teaching School and a National Support School in 2013. CRGS joined The Thinking Schools Academy Trust in May 2023.
 
CRGS is an 11-18 school for boys and admits girls into a co-educational Sixth Form. It is one of very few state boarding schools, with a family style boarding house designed for 30 Sixth Form students. This adds to the multicultural community of the school, which also offers a wide range of trips, exchanges and extracurricular activities to enrich the students’ education. The school has outstanding music and drama facilities and a comprehensive sports fixture list.

There is a unique ethos throughout CRGS, one which forms the foundation through which the students make the excellent progress that they do. Lessons designed to stretch and inspire are a fundamental feature of school life, but this is only a small part of the story. CRGS delivers a range of experiences through which we develop all students into the well-rounded, confident and talented young adults that you will find here. It seeks to provide the best education, give the students the greatest of opportunities and compete with the very best schools across the world. Indeed the Telegraph describes CRGS as the ‘top-performing state school’ and places us at the very top of their league table. We have won multiple awards, including several from the ‘Good Schools Guide’, which describes the school as “One of the country's top selective boys' state schools; rivals many independents.”  We were awarded the accolade of East Anglia State Secondary School of the Decade by The Sunday Times in 2021.

11+ Assesses 

Admission to Year 7 is determined by a pupil’s position within the selection procedure organised by the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE). This position is decided on the basis of the pupil’s standardized score in the selection tests. The selection procedure is open equally to pupils in Essex and those who live outside the county. Testing now takes place before application, and applicants to CRGS must register with the CSSE to take the selection tests by the official registration deadline.