Ramsgate, Kent · Kent
Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School
Rated Inadequate in March 2024 for teaching boys and girls in separate single-sex classes school-wide despite being classified 'Mixed' — fully co-educational teaching only began in September 2024, and a September 2025 re-inspection found Good across every category.
Despite the name, this school is in Ramsgate, not Chatham (Medway) — the name comes from a 2011-2013 merger of two predecessor schools, Chatham House (boys) and Clarendon House (girls), not the town. Its recent history is genuinely unusual and directly relevant to a family choosing today: although officially classified 'Mixed' throughout, the school taught boys and girls in separate single-sex classes and tutor groups school-wide — a 'diamond model' — right up until 2024, when Ofsted found the practice came with safeguarding and consultation failures serious enough to rate the school Inadequate overall. The school ended single-sex teaching that September, and an 18-months-later re-inspection found Good across every category, with inspectors noting the school is 'calmer now that classes are mixed.'
Key facts
- Gender
- co-ed
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South East
- Local authority
- Kent
- DfE URN
- 136382
- Website
- https://www.ccgrammarschool.co.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- The Kent Test, commissioned county-wide by Kent County Council. GL Assessment is widely reported as the paper-setter but wasn't confirmed on a KCC primary page during this research.
- Test format
- The school's own determined admissions document describes three multiple-choice papers — Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, and Maths — taking about 2.5 hours, with no explicit mention of a separate English paper or the unmarked writing task used elsewhere in Kent. This doesn't cleanly match the general Kent Test format described by other Kent grammars, and couldn't be reconciled during this research — worth confirming directly with the school or KCC.sources conflict
The school's own admissions document describes a 3-paper format (Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, Maths) with no mention of English or a writing task, which doesn't match the format generally reported for the Kent Test at other Kent grammars.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Genuinely unresolved between sources for the same test cycle: secondary sources cite an aggregate of 332 with no component below 106; other Kent-wide research found 108 as the minimum component instead; and the school's own admissions document describes yet a different standard — 'an aggregated standardised age score of 110 or more in each of the three skills,' separately described as 'normally around the 75th percentile or above.' None of these was confirmed directly against a Kent County Council primary source. Treat any specific figure as indicative pending direct verification.sources conflict
Three different figures for the same test cycle across different sources, none confirmed directly against Kent County Council. See qualifyingScore field for detail.
- Superselective?
- No
Confirmed directly from the school's own determined Admission Arrangements for 2026/27: no score-banding or elevated pass-mark tier exists. All applicants who clear the qualifying standard are pooled and ranked using only the ordered priority criteria below, with straight-line distance as the tie-break within each category — never by comparing test scores directly against each other.
Catchment & priority criteria
A defined catchment exists — Thanet, Broomfield, Chestfield, Herne, Herne Bay, Reculver, Swalecliffe and Whitstable — but it sits low in priority, ranked below care status, health need, Pupil Premium, siblings, and staff children.
- Children with an EHCP naming the school
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Health and special access reasons, evidenced under the Equality Act 2010
- Children in receipt of Pupil Premium or Service Premium
- Current family association — a sibling attending at time of admission
- Children of staff (2+ years' service, or filling a skill-shortage post)
- Children living within the catchment area
- All other eligible children
- Tie-break within every category: straight-line distance from home to school
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 64.6 (Kent LA average 47.0, England state-funded average 45.9) | 84.7% (Kent LA 47.9%, England 45.9%) | +0.3 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.1 to +0.5) — this cohort predates the COVID-era Progress 8 gap | — | — |
| A-level: average grade B- (35.73 points per entry, 242 students) vs Kent LA C+ (34.22) and England C+ (34.38); retention to end of programme 97.2% (Kent 95.6%, England 92.3%). | |||||
| 2025 | 64 (Kent LA average 46.7, England state-funded average 46.1) | 84.9% (Kent LA 47.0%, England 45.4%) | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level: average grade B- (36.44 points per entry, 225 students) vs Kent LA C+ (34.87) and England B- (35.0); 16.0% achieved AAB+ with 2 facilitating subjects (Kent 17.3%, England 17.5%); A-level progress score -0.05 ('Average'). | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. The previous inspection (March 2024) rated the school Inadequate overall, specifically over safeguarding and consultation failures tied to teaching boys and girls in separate single-sex classes and tutor groups school-wide despite being a nominally mixed school. The school ended single-sex teaching that September; this inspection confirms the transition succeeded.
- Date
- 24-25 September 2025
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136382
- 2. School's own determined Admission Arrangements 2026/27 — https://www.ccgrammarschool.co.uk/assets/Documents/Admissions/CCGS-Determined-Admission-Arrangements-for-2026.27-1.pdf
- 3. Ofsted report, inspected 24-25 September 2025 (current) — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50288983
- 4. Ofsted report, inspected 5-7 March 2024 (previous, Inadequate) — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50257103
- 5. Isle of Thanet News — 'Secures Good grading from Ofsted', October 2025 — https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2025/10/07/chatham-and-clarendon-grammar-school-secures-good-grading-from-ofsted/
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136382/chatham-%26-clarendon-grammar-school/secondary/results-over-time
- 7. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136382/chatham-%26-clarendon-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
Last updated 2026-08-31. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.