Folkestone, Kent · Kent
The Folkestone School for Girls
Ranks qualified applicants by distance, not score — and unlike most Kent grammars, has no sibling-priority criterion at all.
Folkestone Girls pegs its own eligibility standard explicitly to 'the top 25% of girls locally,' and — crucially — ranks oversubscribed applicants purely by distance once they clear that bar, not by how far above it they scored. That's a materially more transparent mechanic than genuinely superselective Kent schools. Also unusual: checked across two consecutive admissions cycles, the school's own policy has no sibling-priority criterion at all, something families often assume exists by default at a grammar school. Its curriculum partnership with the nearby boys' school, The Harvey Grammar School, only shares A-level subject timetabling — the roll itself remains single-sex, including the sixth form.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South East
- Local authority
- Kent
- Established
- 1905
- DfE URN
- 137837
- Website
- https://www.folkestonegirls.kent.sch.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Two routes: the county-wide Kent Test (GL Assessment reported as paper-setter, not confirmed on KCC's own pages), or the school's own in-house test — branded on the school's own site as the 'Shepway Test' and described as administered by CEM (Cambridge Assessment), functioning as a second-chance option for girls who didn't meet the Kent Test standard.partly verified
GL Assessment is widely reported but not confirmed on KCC's own pages. CEM as the Shepway Test's administrator comes only from the school's own site, not independently corroborated elsewhere.
- Test format
- Kent Test: three standardised scores — English, Maths, and combined Reasoning — multiple-choice/computer-marked, with an unmarked writing task considered only at Headteacher Appeal. Shepway Test: computer-based comprehension, vocabulary, maths and non-verbal reasoning, plus a 30-minute creative writing component.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- For the Kent Test route (2025 cycle, governing September 2026 entry): confirmed directly from Kent County Council's own page as an aggregate of 332 or more, with no component below 108. For the school's own test, no numeric aggregate is published — the standard is set to 'correspond approximately with that which would be attained or exceeded by 25% of girls locally.'
- Superselective?
- No
Confirmed directly from the school's own determined admissions policy: the qualifying standard is explicitly pegged to a baseline top-25%-locally standard, not an elevated one. Once a girl clears it through either route, oversubscription ranks purely by home-to-school distance — not by how far above the qualifying score she scored. This distance-based ranking (rather than score-ranking) is the clearest structural marker distinguishing it from genuinely superselective Kent schools.
Catchment & priority criteria
The Folkestone & Hythe district (formerly Shepway) receives priority, not exclusivity — used in two of the four oversubscription criteria. Girls living outside the district remain fully eligible and are considered under the final criterion, ranked by distance.
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Pupil Premium-eligible girls resident in the Folkestone & Hythe district
- Girls resident in the Folkestone & Hythe district, ranked by distance if oversubscribed
- All other girls who meet the selection standard, ranked by distance; supervised random draw for the final place
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 57.9 | 67% (67.3% per one aggregator) | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 29% | 57% |
| A-level: average grade B-, overall pass rate (A*-E) 99%. | |||||
| 2024 | verify with school | verify with school | This cohort's KS2 SATs predate the COVID cancellations, so a real Progress 8 figure should exist, but couldn't be independently retrieved during this research (DfE's performance service was inaccessible throughout). | — | — |
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good — sub-judgements: quality of education Good, behaviour and attitudes Outstanding, personal development Outstanding, leadership and management Good, sixth-form provision Outstanding. This is a downgrade from Outstanding, held for almost 12 years since the school's previous full inspection in 2012.
- Date
- 23-24 April 2024
- 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/137837
- 2. School's own determined Admissions Policy 2026-2027 — https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/184334/Folkestone-School-for-Girls-admissions-criteria-2026-2027.pdf
- 3. Kent County Council — Kent Test qualifying threshold — https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/school-places/kent-test/kent-test-results
- 4. Ofsted report, inspected 23-24 April 2024 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50249279
- 5. KentOnline — 'Kent grammar loses outstanding rating after 12 years' — https://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/kent-grammar-loses-outstanding-rating-after-12-years-308069/
- 6. School's own exam results page — https://www.folkestonegirls.kent.sch.uk/policy-procedure-and-performance/test-exam-and-assessment-results/
- 7. School's own Selection Tests page — https://www.folkestonegirls.kent.sch.uk/admissions/selection-tests/
Last updated 2026-08-31. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.