Admissions

Entry to Year 7 2023Information for ParentsYear 7 is full. Places were offered to all students in our first priority region and some students in our second priority region. Please read the following information for guidance.

Waiting ListYou should notify KCC if your son passed his Kent Test and you wish him to be placed on our waiting list. You cannot have him added if he has not passed. Towards the end of April onwards, we will award places to boys at the top of this list should places become available. This is ONLY ever 2 or 3, if any at all, and these will be prioritised in accordance with our oversubscription criteria. This means only children living locally will benefit.

AppealWhether your son passed or not, you can lodge an appeal with an independent appeal panel that will hear your case and can decide to direct us to admit your son. However, the school is full and they will not uphold any number of appeals which will prejudice the education of existing students. Historically they have directed us to take around a dozen children, these are invariably local boys. If you live outside our local areas, an appeal is very unlikely to succeed, especially as there is an enormous demand for places from those living within the area.

To appeal, complete an appeal form (below) and return it to us via email or in the post. You do not, at this time, need to provide your full case, this can be done at a later stage. The form on its own is all we need.

Our appeals will take place at Gravesend Grammar School between Tuesday 2nd May and Friday 26th June. You will be notified in advance of the date of your appeal.

Contacting UsPlease email admissions@gravesendgrammar.com. We will endeavour to respond within 24 hours as we acknowledge this is an anxious time for parents. Please explain your query in your email and provide a telephone number in case we need to speak with you.

Those Offered PlacesPlease wait for us to contact you. Information about what you need to do will be emailed to you soon.

Gravesend Grammar School is traditionally a popular school serving the community of Gravesham and its neighbouring parishes with year groups frequently over-subscribed. As a selective school, we require students joining us to meet our academic requirements. For those joining at the beginning of Year 7, this means success in the Kent Test (sometimes known as the 11+). For those seeking entry at other points (excluding 6th Form), we have entrance examinations that determine eligibility for entry.

There are three entry points for admission into Gravesend Grammar School:

Admission into Year 7
In-Year Admissions – Y7 to Y11
Sixth Form

Admission to Year 7

Entry into our school requires success in the Kent Test. Registration for the Kent Test is completed online at the Kent County Council website in June of the year the child is in Year 5. Students sit their Kent Test in the following September, the results of which are given to parents in October. Around this time, parents and their children are provided the opportunity to see schools in action at schools’ open events before they submit their Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF) online on the KCC website. This application form allows parents to list, in preference order, four schools they wish their child to attend. Once the application has been submitted, there is nothing further to do except await National Offers Day in March of the following year when local authorities inform parents of the school their child has been allocated. Parents whose preference is GGS, and who live within our priority regions, usually get a place. Parents living outside these regions are less likely to secure a place. A map of our priority areas is included in our Admissions Arrangements below.

We do not require a supplementary form except for those children who are in receipt of Pupil Premium whose parents should complete the form below and return it to admissions@gravesendgrammar.com.

If you would like further support for your child in preparation for the Kent Test, please click here

In-Year Admissions

In-Year Admissions refers to admission into the school after the normal point of entry at the start of Year 7 through to the end of Year 11. These admissions are almost exclusively a transfer to GGS from another secondary school. It is a parent’s entitlement to change their child’s secondary school at any time, and schools must process applications in accordance with the Schools Admissions Code 2021. The offer of a place is dependent on availability and a child’s eligibility to take up this place. As a grammar school, eligible students are those who have met our academic requirements through either the Kent Test or our own entrance examinations. Parents should read our In-Year Admissions Arrangements (below) which explain the procedure we follow in processing applications.

In-Year Application Form

In-Year Admissions Arrangements

Admission into Sixth Form

Most students transfer directly from our Year 11 into Sixth Form. Additionally, we provide places for students from other schools. More information about entry into Sixth Form can be found on our Sixth Form pages.