Rochester, Kent · Medway
The Rochester Grammar School
Ran an IB-only sixth form from 2020, then reversed course back to A-levels from September 2025 — meaning its two most recent leaver cohorts have almost no real A-level data to compare.
Another Medway school rather than a Kent County Council one, using the separate Medway Test — and, unusually, Medway Council explicitly refuses to publish the test's qualifying score, citing commercial sensitivity under the Freedom of Information Act, a real disclosure difference from Kent's own more transparent threshold. Rochester's sixth form has had real curriculum whiplash: it ran an International Baccalaureate-only offer from 2020, becoming one of the few state schools in the UK to do so, before reversing that decision in September 2024 and reverting to A-levels from September 2025. That means its 2024 and 2025 leaver cohorts were overwhelmingly on the outgoing IB programme, so standard A-level attainment comparisons don't meaningfully apply to those years.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South East
- Local authority
- Medway
- Established
- 1888
- DfE URN
- 136313
- Website
- https://rochestergrammar.org.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- The Medway Test, a separate 11+ system from the Kent Test, commissioned by Medway Council. GL Assessment is named directly on Medway Council's own 'About the Medway Test' page — better-sourced than the equivalent Kent Test attribution found elsewhere.
- Test format
- Three papers: English (30 minutes: comprehension, punctuation, grammar), Mathematics (50 minutes), and Reasoning (45 minutes total: verbal, non-verbal and spatial reasoning), combined as English×2 + Maths×2 + Reasoning×1. No separate unmarked writing task is mentioned on Medway Council's own pages, unlike Kent's borderline/appeal writing task — a genuine format difference, not an omission.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published by Medway Council, which states directly on its own site that the pass mark is 'commercially sensitive and exempt from Section 43(1)&(2) of the Freedom of Information Act' — a materially different disclosure posture from Kent County Council. Tutoring sources report approximately 481 (Sept 2026 entry), 482 (Sept 2025 entry), and 492 (Sept 2024 entry), roughly the top 25% of the Medway cohort, but these figures aren't verifiable against any primary Medway Council publication.verify with school
Medway Council explicitly states the pass mark is commercially sensitive and FOI-exempt. The circulating 481/482/492 figures come only from tutoring/secondary sites — indicative, not authoritative.
- Superselective?
- No
Confirmed directly from the school's own determined admissions policy: a straightforward pass/fail model with no score-banding scheme. When oversubscribed, the school's 205 places are allocated through a 7-tier priority list — care status, Pupil Premium, siblings, named partner primary schools, staff children, medical need, then distance — with distance as the sole tie-break at every tier. A qualified applicant is never ranked against another qualified applicant by test score.
Catchment & priority criteria
No defined catchment or priority area. Straight-line distance from home to school is used only as the final tie-break within each oversubscription tier, not as an eligibility boundary.
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children (including those in state care outside England, and adopted children)
- Pupil Premium-eligible pupils, sub-ranked by current FSM, then FSM in the last 6 years, then armed-forces-connected criteria
- Siblings currently attending the school
- Children attending one of four named Thinking Schools Academy Trust Medway primary schools
- Children of staff (employed 2+ years, or filling a skill-shortage post)
- Health or medical reasons, evidenced by a GP or consultant
- Distance — shortest home-to-school distance (also the tie-break within any oversubscribed tier)
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 71.6 | 97.0% | +0.67 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.45 to +0.89) — this cohort predates the COVID-era Progress 8 gap | — | — |
| This Year 13 leaver cohort was predominantly still on the outgoing IB Diploma programme, so standard A-level attainment measures don't meaningfully apply. DfE's closest available measure ('academic qualifications including A-levels'): average grade B-, 38.1 points per entry, vs England C+/34.45. | |||||
| 2025 | 68.4 (Medway LA average 46.1, England state-funded average 46.1) | 92.4% (Medway LA 44.1%, England 45.4%) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | not applicable — see note | not applicable — see note |
| Genuine data gap, not an oversight: only 1 student sat true A-levels in this cohort (DfE suppresses figures at this size) — the rest were on the outgoing IB Diploma. DfE's broader 'academic qualifications' measure: average grade B, 38.99 points per entry, vs Medway LA C+/33.3 and England B-/36.25; progress score -0.11 ('Average'); retention 95.4%. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. This was the school's first inspection in 15 years — its previous Outstanding rating had simply lapsed rather than being downgraded.
- Date
- 17 January 2023
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, Medway local authority — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136313
- 2. School's own determined Admissions Policy 2025-26 — https://rochestergrammar.org.uk/site-rochester/assets/files/1364/rgs_admissions_policy_2025-26_determined-1.pdf
- 3. Medway Council — About the Medway Test — https://www.medway.gov.uk/info/200137/schools_and_learning/1049/medway_test_11
- 4. Medway Council — Medway Test results page (confirms non-disclosure of pass mark) — https://www.medway.gov.uk/info/200137/schools_and_learning/1049/medway_test_11/6
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 17 January 2023 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50209881
- 6. KentOnline — Rochester Grammar drops IB in favour of A-levels — https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/grammar-school-drops-international-diploma-and-returns-to-a-313537/
- 7. School's own Sixth Form page (current A-level offer) — https://rochestergrammar.org.uk/learn-with-us/sixth-form/
- 8. DfE Compare School Performance — secondary results — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/136313/the-rochester-grammar-school/secondary
Last updated 2026-08-31. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.