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  • The Rochester Grammar School
    Maidstone Road
    Rochester
    Kent
    ME1 3BY
  • Head: Clare Brinklow
  • T 01634 843049
  • F 01634 818340
  • E office@rochestergrammar.org.uk
  • W www.rochestergrammar.org.uk/
  • A state school for girls aged from 11 to 18.
  • Read about the best schools in West Kent and East Kent
  • Boarding: No
  • Local authority: Medway
  • Pupils: 1,182; sixth formers: 182 (9 boys)
  • Religion: None
  • Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
  • Ofsted:
    • Latest Overall effectiveness Good 1
      • 16-19 study programmes Good 1
      • Outcomes for children and learners Good 1
      • Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good 1
      • Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good 1
      • Effectiveness of leadership and management Good 1
    • 1 Full inspection 17th January 2023
  • Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report

What says..

Since 2020, the IB has replaced A levels at sixth form, only one of four state schools in Kent (and one of 16 in the UK) to do so. Pupils say they value the breadth it offers, with anthropology, Japanese, visual art, business management, environmental systems and societies, global politics, economics, philosophy, sports, health and exercise science all joining the more conventional subjects on the menu. Bold in its approach too, not shying away from controversial or sensitive issues – we stopped in our tracks to reflect on...

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Curricula

International Baccalaureate: diploma - the diploma is the familiar A-level equivalent.

Cambridge Pre-U - an alternative to A levels, with all exams at the end of the two-year course.

School associations

State grammar school

What The Good Schools Guide says

Headteacher

Since June 2017, Clare Brinklow, previously assistant principal for four years. Her grit and staying power is illustrated by the fact that she did her history degree while working as a senior airline cabin crew (it took her six years); she also holds a master’s in professional practice from University of Kent. Moved into teaching because she ‘loved working with people’, completing a year’s ‘on the job’ training with the Graduate Teacher Programme at Bordon Grammar School Trust, joining Rochester Grammar in 2009 as an NQT teaching history, sociology and politics, rising quickly to assistant director of sixth form.

She welcomed us wearing a Christmas jumper: ‘Sorry for the sparkles, I’m normally more professional!’ No wonder pupils call her ‘down-to-earth’. Parents also approve: ‘She encourages them to be kind to...

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Please note: Independent schools frequently offer IGCSEs or other qualifications alongside or as an alternative to GCSE. The DfE does not record performance data for these exams so independent school GCSE data is frequently misleading; parents should check the results with the schools.

Who came from where

Who goes where

Special Education Needs

Interpreting catchment maps

The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.

Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.

For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained

Further reading

If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.

Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.

Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.

*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.

The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.

Children get into the school from here:

regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year


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