Dartford Grammar School
Academy · ages 11–18 · boys · selective · with a sixth form
Above average on every headline measure — 1st of 100 for average grade in Kent.
Dartford · Kent · one of 104 state secondaries
Summary
Dartford Grammar School sits 1st of 100 state secondaries in Kent for average GCSE grade. 100% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 65.1% across Kent. 98.9% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Kent in history and geography, with nothing measurably behind. Ofsted: Outstanding in December 2022.
It is a selective boys academy of 1,576 pupils, taking ages 11 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 9.5% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a low share, and 7.8% are on SEN support with a further 0.6% holding an education, health and care plan. 98.9% were entered for the full EBacc, more than the 46.9% entered across Kent, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push, and 88.8% took the separate sciences rather than combined. 4.2% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, better than the 22.9% across Kent, and 99.5% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Kent, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.
The school·Kent
Inspection
Outstanding
Inspected December 2022
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Outstanding
- Leadership and management
- Outstanding
- Personal development
- Outstanding
- Quality of education
- Outstanding
- December 2022 Full inspection Outstanding
That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.
Attendance
4% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 23% across Kent and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
After Year 11
100% stayed in education (2022/23 leavers)
GCSE results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C
Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.
Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.
Maths is the subject most of this year group sat. Maths tutors on Tutorperch.
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Sixth form · Key stage 5·2024/25
Sixth form
2024/25 · 2 A level students
Ofsted rated sixth-form provision Outstanding at the last inspection
A level results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching B or above
After sixth form
Of the 281 students who finished, 83.3% went on to higher education, 1.8% to an apprenticeship, and 9.6% into work. 95% were in a sustained destination of some kind six months later.
Destinations are for 2022/23 leavers, the most recent DfE has published. The results above are 2024/25.
What these mean
- Attainment 8
- The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
- Grades 4 and 5
- GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
- The EBacc
- A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
- Progress 8
- A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
- Percentage points
- The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
- Why some subjects say nothing
- A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
- Persistent absence
- The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.
- Spare places
- The amount of available capacity a school has compared with the number of pupils on roll. This is different from oversubscription: spare places measure whether a school has capacity, whereas oversubscription describes demand for places exceeding the number available. A school with no spare places may be popular, but a small school can also be full without receiving a large number of applications.
- Grades not published
- Where a subject was sat by only a few students, the Department for Education publishes how many entered and withholds the grades, so that individual students cannot be identified from the figures. The subject is shown, because the school does teach it, but there is nothing to compare. Most A level groups are small enough for this to apply somewhere on a page.
- Average A-level grade
- The average grade achieved across students' A-level entries. This is different from measures such as the proportion achieving AAB or better in two or more facilitating subjects, which are sometimes used to indicate higher attainment and university-entry performance.
School details
West Hill
Dartford
Kent
DA1 2HW
- Headmaster
- Mr Julian Metcalf
- Trust
- Dartford Grammar School
- Pupils
- 1,576 of 1,630 places
- Spare places
- 6%
- Free school meals
- 10%
- SEND
- 8% on SEN support, 1% with an EHC plan
- Separate sciences
- 89% of the year
- Progress 8
- Not published · last +1.11 in 2023/24
Other schools in Kent
103 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- Dartford Grammar School for Girls 0.2 km
- Dartford Science & Technology College 0.4 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Girls 1.8 km
- Wilmington Grammar School for Boys 2 km
- Leigh Academy Wilmington 2.1 km
- Leigh UTC Dartford 2.1 km
- Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy 2.3 km
- Stone Lodge School 2.9 km
- Orchards Academy 6 km
- Alkerden Church of England Academy 6.3 km
- Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet 7.4 km
- Leigh Academy Longfield 8.9 km
- Northfleet School for Girls 9.6 km
- Northfleet Technology College 9.7 km
- Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend 10.7 km
- Saint George's Church of England School 11 km
- Gravesend Grammar School 12.4 km
- St John's Catholic Comprehensive 12.5 km
- Thamesview School 13.6 km
- Meopham School 13.6 km
- Trinity School 17.5 km
- Knole Academy 17.6 km
- Wrotham School 17.6 km
- The Holmesdale School 21 km
- The Malling School 23.4 km
- Aylesford School 24.2 km
- Hadlow Rural Community School 26.1 km
- Leigh Academy Hugh Christie 26.2 km
- St Simon Stock Catholic School 27.9 km
- The Maplesden Noakes School 28 km
- Maidstone Grammar School for Girls 28.1 km
- Oakwood Park Grammar School 28.2 km
- St Augustine Academy 28.2 km
- Leigh Academy Tonbridge 28.8 km
- The Judd School 28.9 km
- Hillview School for Girls 29.1 km
- Tonbridge Grammar School 29.4 km
- Weald of Kent Grammar School 29.5 km
- Invicta Grammar School 29.8 km
- Valley Park School 30 km
- Maidstone Grammar School 30.2 km
- School of Science and Technology Maidstone 30.4 km
- New Line Learning Academy 31.5 km
- Cornwallis Academy 32.3 km
- St Gregory's Catholic School 32.9 km
- Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys 33 km
- Leigh Academy Mascalls 33.2 km
- Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School 33.6 km
- Bennett Memorial Diocesan School 33.8 km
- The Skinners' School 33.8 km
- Skinners' Kent Academy 34.4 km
- Westlands School 36.9 km
- Borden Grammar School 38.6 km
- Highsted Grammar School 38.9 km
- Fulston Manor School 38.9 km
- EKC Sheppey Secondary 39.6 km
- The Sittingbourne School 40.2 km
- Leigh Academy Minster 40.3 km
- The Lenham School 41.9 km
- Cranbrook School 45.1 km
- The Abbey School 49.7 km
- Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School 50 km
- Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre 53.2 km
- Chilmington Green School 55 km
- Towers School and Sixth Form Centre 56 km
- Highworth Grammar School 56.1 km
- The John Wallis Church of England Academy 57.4 km
- The North School 58 km
- The Norton Knatchbull School 58.1 km
- The Whitstable School 58.7 km
- Wye School 58.8 km
- The Canterbury Academy 62.4 km
- The Archbishop's School 62.6 km
- Herne Bay High School 63.6 km
- Barton Court Grammar School 64.3 km
- Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys 64.4 km
- Barton Manor School 64.9 km
- Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School 65.1 km
- St Anselm's Catholic School, Canterbury 65.3 km
- Orion Spires 67.1 km
- Brockhill Park Performing Arts College 72.2 km
- The Marsh Academy 72.6 km
- Turner Free School 76.6 km
- The Harvey Grammar School 77.3 km
- The Folkestone School for Girls 77.5 km
- Folkestone Academy 77.6 km
- King Ethelbert School 77.8 km
- Ursuline College 78.2 km
- Sandwich Technology School 81 km
- Hartsdown Academy 81 km
- Sir Roger Manwood's School 81.5 km
- Dover Christ Church Academy 82.9 km
- The Royal Harbour Academy 83 km
- Astor Secondary School 83.2 km
- Dover Grammar School for Boys 83.3 km
- St George's Church of England Foundation School 84 km
- St Edmund's Catholic School 84 km
- Dover Grammar School for Girls 84.1 km
- Dane Court Grammar School 84.7 km
- Duke of York's Royal Military School 84.8 km
- Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School 84.9 km
- The Charles Dickens School 84.9 km
- Goodwin Academy 86.4 km