Key Facts
| School type | State grammar school (academy), day, ages 11 to 18; Year 7 co-educational, Years 8 to 11 girls only, Sixth Form mixed |
|---|---|
| Location | Chatham, Kent (Medway) |
| Entry points | 11+ (Year 7, published admission number 150); 16+ (Year 12/Sixth Form, subject to GCSE entry requirements) |
| Assessment | Medway Test (GL Assessment): English, Mathematics and Reasoning (verbal and non-verbal) papers, sat at a Medway Council test venue |
| Test provider | GL Assessment (Medway Test) |
| Registration deadline | Medway Test registration opens 18 May 2026 and closes 12 June 2026; secondary school Common Application Form deadline 31 October 2026 (for September 2027 entry); offers issued 1 March 2027 with acceptance by 12 March 2027 |
| Assessment date | Medway Test sat 15 to 16 September 2026 (children at Medway primary/junior schools) and 19 to 20 September 2026 (all other children); results issued to parents 14 October 2026 |
Figures correct at the time of writing — always confirm current fees and deadlines with the school directly.
Getting into Fort Pitt Grammar School at 11+ means registering a child for the Medway Test, meeting the qualifying standard for selective ability, and then naming the school as a preference on Medway Council's Common Application Form; with a published admission number of 150 places, meeting the standard does not by itself guarantee a place, since the school then applies its own oversubscription criteria. The school follows the common admissions procedure agreed by all Medway grammar schools, and its Year 7 intake is now mixed, though Years 8 to 11 remain girls only and the Sixth Form takes both boys and girls.
Registration for the test typically opens in spring and closes some weeks later, with the test itself sat in September, results reaching parents in October ahead of the secondary school application deadline later that month, and offers confirmed by Medway Council on national offer day the following March. Exact dates are published each cycle on Medway Council's website.
Entry points and places available
Fort Pitt Grammar School admits its main cohort at 11+ into Year 7, with a published admission number of 150 places, plus a small number of places at 16+ into the Sixth Form. Year 7 intakes became mixed, so both boys and girls may now apply, while Years 8 to 11 remain girls only; the Sixth Form takes students of either gender.
Entry into Year 12 depends on a minimum of five GCSEs at grade 5/4 including English and mathematics, plus any subject-specific requirements set out in the sixth form prospectus. Priority is given first to the school's own Year 11 students moving up, with remaining places allocated to other applicants who meet the entry requirements.
How the Medway Test works
The 11+ assessment used for entry is the Medway Test, an externally set assessment produced by GL Assessment for Medway Council. It comprises three papers: English (comprehension, punctuation and grammar, thirty minutes), Mathematics (fifty minutes), and Reasoning (verbal and non-verbal/spatial reasoning, forty-five minutes in total), with a minimum twenty-minute break between papers.
Children must sit the test at a Medway Council venue in Medway, whether or not they attend a Medway primary school; remote sitting elsewhere is not possible, and children living outside the UK cannot be tested. There is no resit and no remarking of any paper, and no appeal against an individual paper result.
How to register and apply
Parents register their child for the Medway Test through Medway Council's Parent Portal ahead of the published closing date, usually after discussing suitability with the child's current school; each child in a family needs a separate registration. The test itself is sat in September, and results are sent directly to parents in October.
Regardless of the result, families must separately name Fort Pitt as a preference on Medway Council's Common Application Form, since registering for the test is not itself a school application. Offers are issued by the Local Authority on national offer day the following March, with a short window to accept.
Catchment and oversubscription criteria
The school has no fixed catchment area but ranks applicants who have met the qualifying standard through six ordered criteria whenever places are oversubscribed. Priority goes first to children in public care, then to siblings of pupils still attending the school, then to children of staff employed for three years or more (or recruited to a demonstrable skill-shortage post), then to children living within two miles of the school.
Next comes a named list of parishes: Allhallows, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods, Cooling, Cuxton, Frindsbury Extra (including Wainscott and Upnor), Halling, High Halstow, Hoo St Werburgh (including Chattenden), St James Isle of Grain, St Mary Hoo and Stoke, with places allocated by walking distance. All other eligible children follow, again ranked by distance, and ties for the final place are settled by random draw.
How results and allocation work
Results of the Medway Test are sent to parents in October, ahead of the application deadline later that month. Medway Council then manages offers and refusals on the school's behalf, applying the oversubscription criteria above wherever a school is oversubscribed, and confirms allocations on national offer day the following March.
Passing the test confirms selective ability but does not guarantee a place at any particular grammar school. Families refused a place can ask to join the waiting list, which the Local Authority holds until the end of August before the school takes it over for the rest of the academic year; there is also a right of appeal to an independent panel against a refusal of admission.
How to prepare for the Medway Test
Because all three papers are age-standardised and unfamiliar in format to most Year 6 pupils, building familiarity with timed English, mathematics and reasoning papers under exam conditions tends to help more than last-minute cramming. Practising comprehension, punctuation and grammar questions alongside verbal and non-verbal reasoning exercises mirrors the structure Medway sets, and rehearsing the breaks between papers can help a child pace themselves calmly on the day.
Since there is no resit or remark of any paper, treating the registration window and the test date itself as fixed commitments matters as much as the content covered; missing either cannot be corrected afterwards.
Related guides
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Frequently asked questions
- Is Fort Pitt Grammar School still a girls' school?
- Fort Pitt Grammar School's Year 7 intake became mixed, admitting boys as well as girls, following Department for Education approval for it and two other Medway grammar schools to move to co-education. Years 8 to 11 remain girls only, and the Sixth Form admits both boys and girls.
- What test do children sit to get into Fort Pitt Grammar School?
- Entry depends on the Medway Test, an externally set assessment produced by GL Assessment for Medway Council. It has three papers, English, Mathematics and Reasoning (verbal and non-verbal), with a minimum twenty-minute break between papers, always sat at a Medway Council test venue.
- How many places does Fort Pitt Grammar School have in Year 7?
- The published admission number for Year 7 is 150 places, offered to children assessed as being of selective ability through the Medway Test. Meeting the qualifying standard does not guarantee a place, since the school then applies its oversubscription criteria whenever applications exceed the places available.
- Can children who don't live in Medway sit the Medway Test?
- Yes. Any child can take the Medway Test regardless of where they live, provided they sit it at a Medway Council test venue in Medway; remote sitting elsewhere is not offered, and children living outside the UK cannot be tested. A place still depends on meeting the qualifying standard and then the school's oversubscription criteria.
- Is there a catchment area for Fort Pitt Grammar School?
- There is no single fixed catchment, but oversubscription criteria prioritise children living within two miles of the school, then children in a named list of parishes including Hoo St Werburgh, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods and Cuxton among others, before all other eligible children are ranked by walking distance.
- What happens if my child doesn't get a place at Fort Pitt Grammar School?
- Families can ask to join the waiting list, held by the Local Authority until the end of August and then by the school for the rest of the academic year, and can also appeal the decision to an independent appeal panel. There is no resit or remark of the Medway Test itself.
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