SF School Facts UK

Girls selective secondary school in Rochester, Medway

The Rochester Grammar School

Maidstone Road, Rochester, Kent, ME1 3BY

Ofsted Good · 2023 Selective Sixth form Girls Full
School website 03333602120

Ofsted

Goodas at 17 January 2023

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 17 January 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

68.4 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

92% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

99% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

6.5 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

94% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the top 5% of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the top quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.67confidence interval 0.45 to 0.89

Taking that range into account, pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally. DfE bands this as well above average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

Pupils

Pupils on roll
1206
Places
1110
How full
Full — 1206 pupils against 1110 places
Girls / boys
1190 / 16
Overall absence
4%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
11%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
12%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
23%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
0%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
1%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
99%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
98%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
0%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
91%
No sustained destination
1%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
200

After sixth form

Went to university
81%

England 50%

In education, work or training
98%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
5%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
80

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

47% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
84%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
94

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for Medway 017C, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.

Adults with a degree
25%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
22%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
55%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
26%

England 17%

Households with no car
18%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
36%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
Secondary
Ages
Ages 11–18
Gender
Girls
Admissions
Selective (entrance test)
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
THE THINKING SCHOOLS ACADEMY TRUST
Headteacher
Principal: Clare Brinklow
Local authority
Medway
Ward
Rochester East & Warren Wood
Constituency
Rochester and Strood
URN
136313

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest secondary schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 69.5 0.1 mi
The Thomas Aveling SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 41.3 0.5 mi
St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive SchoolVoluntary aided school No grade 40 0.8 mi
Fort Pitt Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 65.9 0.8 mi
Holcombe Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 62.4 0.9 mi
Rochester Independent CollegeOther independent school No grade 0.9 mi
King's School, RochesterOther independent school No grade 1.2 mi
The Victory AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 35.5 1.4 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded secondary schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
St Michael's Church of England High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 58.9
The Robert Smyth AcademyAcademy converter Good 2022 53
Heckmondwike Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 80.2
Harrogate Grammar SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 56.6
Thornden SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 59.9
The Holt SchoolAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 63.7
Perins SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 50.9
Waldegrave SchoolAcademy converter No grade 67.3

Where these figures come from

  • School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
  • Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
  • Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
  • Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
  • Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.

All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.