Best Grammar Schools in Kent: GCSE and A Level Results Ranked

On average Attainment 8, the best grammar schools in Kent start with Dartford Grammar School at 79.9, followed by The Judd School at 78.4, Tonbridge Grammar School at 77.2 and Dartford Grammar School for Girls at 75.5.

The table below ranks 32 schools on a single measure, average Attainment 8 from the DfE's key stage 4 performance tables, with the percentage achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths and the average A level grade, where published, shown alongside.

Which grammar schools in Kent have the best GCSE results?

Average Attainment 8 runs from 79.9 at Dartford Grammar School down to 57.9 at The Folkestone School for Girls, and the top five schools all sit at 73.4 or above: Dartford Grammar School, The Judd School (78.4), Tonbridge Grammar School (77.2), Dartford Grammar School for Girls (75.5) and Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School (73.4). Highworth Grammar School, Invicta Grammar School and The Skinners' School then share sixth place on 70.8, with Weald of Kent Grammar School a little behind on 70.

Further down, the middle of the table is tightly packed. Cranbrook School (66.9), Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys (66.8) and Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (66.7) sit in consecutive places on almost identical figures, and Maidstone Grammar School for Girls and Barton Court Grammar School share seventeenth place on 66.4. Dane Court Grammar School and Gravesend Grammar School share twentieth on 65.3, with Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School on 65.1 and Wilmington Grammar School for Boys on 64.6 close behind.

Boys' and girls' schools are spread through the whole table, with Dartford Grammar School and The Judd School first and second and Tonbridge Grammar School third. The six co-educational schools all appear from fourteenth place downwards, led by Cranbrook School on 66.9 and ending with Sir Roger Manwood's School on 62.7 in twenty-eighth. On A level grades the order mostly follows GCSE results, with The Judd School on A- and Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School, Invicta Grammar School and The Skinners' School on B+. The clearest difference is Dover Grammar School for Boys, nineteenth on Attainment 8 but on C-, whilst Dover Grammar School for Girls and The Folkestone School for Girls, 31st and 32nd, both show B-. Dartford Grammar School, Tonbridge Grammar School and Dane Court Grammar School have no published A level grade.

How does entry to Kent grammar schools work?

Entry begins with the Kent Test, the 11+ selection test that Kent County Council runs for the county's 32 grammar schools, which children sit in Year 6 in September before applying for a secondary place. Every Kent grammar school relies on the same test, though the result only carries weight within Kent, since Medway Council and the London Borough of Bexley each run their own separate selection tests.

A pass shows that grammar school is a suitable option, and it does not secure a place by itself. A family still applies to each school they want through the ordinary secondary admissions round, so the table above is best read as a way of choosing which schools to name.

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When do you register for the Kent Test?

Registration opens at the start of June and closes at the start of July, for children in Year 5 who will sit the test at the start of Year 6 and enter Year 7 the following September. A parent who misses that window can still make a late request by emailing Kent County Council's admissions team with the child's full name, date of birth, home address and current school.

Children at a Kent primary school sit the test on a school day in early to mid-September, and children at other schools sit the same papers on the following weekend. Results are issued on a Thursday in mid-October, by email to the address given at registration or by first-class post where none was given. A parent whose posted result has not arrived can ask the child's primary school for the scores the day after results are issued.

How is the Kent Test structured?

The Kent Test has two multiple-choice papers, answered on a separate sheet and marked by computer, plus a separate writing exercise. Test one covers English and maths in 1 hour, split into two sections that each open with a 5-minute practice exercise before a 25-minute test, and the English section includes a comprehension exercise.

Test two is a reasoning paper of about 1 hour including practice sections, with a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly equal length; the non-verbal section is divided into short sections that are each timed individually. The writing exercise lasts 40 minutes, including 10 minutes of planning, and is not itself marked, though a local headteacher panel may use it alongside the test scores if a child's case goes to headteacher assessment. Each child receives three standardised scores, for English, maths and reasoning, and a total made up of all three.

What do these Kent grammar school results show?

Average Attainment 8 is each pupil's grades across eight GCSE-level qualifications, with English and maths double-weighted and a maximum of 90, so it summarises the whole GCSE profile at each school. The grade 5 English and maths percentage covers two subjects only, which is why the two columns can disagree: Dover Grammar School for Boys has 93 on that measure, the same as Oakwood Park Grammar School in tenth, yet sits nineteenth on Attainment 8 at 65.4 against 68.9.

The table records results and does not describe teaching, pastoral care or how well a school suits an individual child. A level grades are the DfE's average where published, and three schools in the table have none, so a gap in that column reflects the published data only.

How the schools are ranked

The ranking covers every state grammar school in Kent with a published Attainment 8 score in the Department for Education's key stage 4 performance data, ordered from highest to lowest, with schools on the same figure sharing a rank. Every school in the table selects by ability at eleven, so the figures reflect a selective intake as well as the teaching; Progress 8 was not calculated for this cohort.

The data is the Department for Education's own download from Compare school and college performance, so anyone can reproduce the order from the same file; the data year and source are listed in the key facts above.

Admissions guides for the ranked schools

• Dartford Grammar School (ranked 1)
• The Judd School (ranked 2)
• Tonbridge Grammar School (ranked 3)
• Dartford Grammar School for Girls (ranked 4)
• Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School (ranked 5)
• Highworth Grammar School (ranked =6)
• Invicta Grammar School (ranked =6)
• The Skinners' School (ranked =6)
• Weald of Kent Grammar School (ranked 9)
• Oakwood Park Grammar School (ranked 10)
• Maidstone Grammar School (ranked 11)
• Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School (ranked 12)
• The Norton Knatchbull School (ranked 13)
• Cranbrook School (ranked 14)
• Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys (ranked 15)
• Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (ranked 16)
• Maidstone Grammar School for Girls (ranked =17)
• Barton Court Grammar School (ranked =17)
• Dover Grammar School for Boys (ranked 19)
• Dane Court Grammar School (ranked =20)
• Gravesend Grammar School (ranked =20)
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (ranked 22)
• Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (ranked 23)
• Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend (ranked 24)
• Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School (ranked 25)
• Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (ranked 26)
• Borden Grammar School (ranked 27)
• Sir Roger Manwood's School (ranked 28)
• The Harvey Grammar School (ranked 29)
• Highsted Grammar School (ranked 30)
• Dover Grammar School for Girls (ranked 31)
• The Folkestone School for Girls (ranked 32)

Related guides

• Kent Test
• Best private schools in Kent
• Best grammar schools in the UK by GCSE results
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory
• The 11+ entrance exam explained

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