Real oversubscription criteria, Medway Test scores and the co-education transition, explained
Book a Free ConsultationFort Pitt Grammar School is a state selective grammar school on Fort Pitt Hill, Chatham, offering 150 places in Year 7 through the Medway Test, a three-paper selection exam provided by GL Assessment for Medway Council. Ofsted rated the school Outstanding in every judgement area at its inspection on 4 October 2022, and the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools record lists 1,009 pupils on roll against a capacity of 1,027. Fort Pitt is also becoming co-educational: the Department for Education approved the move, and Medway Council's record for the school states that Year 7 intakes from September 2026 onwards will be mixed, so the September 2027 intake will be Fort Pitt's second mixed Year 7 cohort. This guide sets out the key dates for September 2027 entry, the six oversubscription categories in the school's admissions policy, the Medway Test format and scoring, the school's academy trust and its GCSE results.
Checked October 2026
Medway Council's timetable and its record for Fort Pitt show Medway Test registration closed on 12 June 2026. Results are emailed after 10am on Wednesday 14 October 2026, or posted that day if no email address was given. Applications close on Saturday 31 October 2026 and offers follow on Monday 1 March 2027.
The table below draws together the essential facts about Fort Pitt Grammar School, checked against the school's own published policy documents, Medway Council's pages and the Department for Education's official record.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| School type | State selective grammar academy, Fort Pitt Hill, Chatham ME4 6TJ; Year 7 intakes from September 2026 onwards are mixed |
| Academy trust | Beyond Schools Trust; academy sponsor FPTA Academies (Fort Pitt Grammar School and The Thomas Aveling School); academy converter, open date 1 November 2010 |
| Year 7 places (PAN) | 150 places, offered to children assessed as of selective ability by the Medway Test |
| Current admissions policy | The school's Determined Admissions Policy for September 2027 governs Year 7 entry in September 2027 |
| Entry test | Medway Test only (English, Mathematics, Reasoning), provided by GL Assessment for Medway Council |
| Pupils on roll / capacity | 1,009 pupils against a capacity of 1,027 |
| Free school meals eligibility | 14.2% of children (106 pupils), as recorded by GIAS |
| Ofsted rating | Outstanding in all five judgement areas, inspected 4 October 2022 |
Fort Pitt Grammar School has been a girls' grammar school with a co-educational sixth form, but that is changing. The Department for Education approved a move to full co-education, and Medway Council's record for the school states that Year 7 intakes from September 2026 onwards will be mixed - the school's first mixed Year 7 intake. The September 2027 Year 7 intake - children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 - will therefore be Fort Pitt's second mixed Year 7 cohort, open to boys and girls and assessed against the same Medway Test result and the same oversubscription criteria.
Two details are worth knowing precisely, because they trip families up. First, the school's record on the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools (GIAS) service lists "Gender of entry: Girls", while Medway Council's record states that Year 7 intakes from September 2026 onwards will be mixed and that other year groups, apart from Sixth Form, remain girls only. Second, the rules are not identical for boys and girls during the transition period: the school's admissions policy states that in-year (mid-year, outside the normal September Year 7 round) vacancies are offered to "girls deemed to be of selective ability evidenced through age-appropriate testing in years 7-11 and boys in years 7-8 only." In practice, under that wording a family moving into the area with a son already past Year 8 cannot be offered an in-year place at Fort Pitt, while a daughter in Years 7 to 11 can, if there is a vacancy and she evidences selective ability. It does not affect a standard September Year 7 application for either sex.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppFort Pitt's own Determined Admissions Policy for September 2027 sets out six categories. Where applications from eligible children exceed the pupil admission number of 150, they are applied in this order to decide which children who satisfied the selection requirements are offered places:
| Priority | Category |
|---|---|
| 1 | Children in public care, or previously in public care |
| 2 | Siblings of a student who will still be attending the school |
| 3 | Children of staff employed at the school for three years or more, or recruited to a skill-shortage post |
| 4 | Children residing within 2 miles of the school |
| 5 | Children residing in a named parish, allocated by nearest safe walking distance |
| 6 | All other eligible children, allocated by nearest safe walking distance |
None of the six categories refers to a primary school, junior academy or feeder-school relationship. The named parishes at tier 5 are Allhallows, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods, Cooling, Cuxton, Frindsbury Extra (including Wainscott and Upnor), Halling, High Halstow, Hoo St Werburgh (including Chattenden), St James Isle of Grain, St Mary Hoo and Stoke. A family with no priority under the earlier categories competes in the final category, all other eligible children seeking a school place. Where two children cannot otherwise be separated for the last available place, Fort Pitt uses a random draw as the tiebreaker, not a further ranking of any kind. Families should plan their application around the six categories the school publishes.
Fort Pitt Grammar School converted to academy status on 1 November 2010. Its academy trust is Beyond Schools Trust, and its academy sponsor is recorded as FPTA Academies (Fort Pitt Grammar School and The Thomas Aveling School). Academy trust membership is not one of the six oversubscription categories set out in the previous section.
Two other Medway grammar schools - Chatham Grammar and Holcombe Grammar School - are also becoming co-educational from September 2026, and Fort Pitt's statement of 5 November 2024 says the move will balance access to grammar school education for boys and girls in the area.
The Medway Test, provided by GL Assessment for Medway Council, is made up of three timed papers: English (30 minutes), Mathematics (50 minutes), and Reasoning, which combines verbal and non-verbal/spatial reasoning (45 minutes in total). Each paper produces an age-standardised score, and the three are then combined into a single weighted total: the English standardised score is doubled, the Mathematics standardised score is doubled, and the Reasoning standardised score is counted once. For Year 7 entry, Fort Pitt's policy offers its 150 places to children deemed to be of selective ability by the Medway Test, with the weighted score calculated as Medway Council publishes it. Families wanting the wider secondary-transfer calendar can also check our 11+ exam dates timetable for 2026-2027.
Fort Pitt's Year 7 policy relies on the Medway Test rather than a school-specific test, and a minimum total weighted score is set every year, with the tests designed to assess the equivalent of 26% of children attending Medway maintained schools as grammar. Medway Council's own page lists the minimum weighted score for recent admissions years: 492 for 2024 admissions (23% of the cohort assessed as grammar), 482 for 2025 admissions (25%) and 481 for 2026 admissions (25%) - a small downward drift over three admissions cycles. Medway Test results are emailed after 10am on Wednesday 14 October 2026 to families who gave a valid email address when registering; otherwise they are sent by post on that day. Because the minimum score is set every year, the earlier figures are a guide rather than a target.
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Fort Pitt Grammar School and Chatham Grammar are both moving to co-education from September 2026 under the same Department for Education decision, according to Fort Pitt's statement of 5 November 2024. Families weighing the two schools should know the one difference in the entry test: Medway Council says the exception to the Medway Test is the admissions policy for Chatham Grammar, which allows children assessed as suitable for grammar school through the Medway Test or the Kent Test, while Fort Pitt's Year 7 policy refers to the Medway Test. A child must sit the Medway Test to be considered for a Medway grammar school such as Fort Pitt, and Medway says it cannot be sat at a later date.
Beyond the test, each school has its own admissions policy and oversubscription criteria, so it is worth reading both policies directly if a child could realistically be offered either place.
Fort Pitt Grammar School's own examinations page, which does not state the year of these figures, reports 98% of pupils achieving a grade 4 or above - a "good pass" - in English and Mathematics, with nearly 85% reaching a grade 5 or above (a "strong pass"), and 46% of grades at the top 7-9 level. These are outcomes for a fully selective cohort, so they are best read alongside the school's Ofsted judgement rather than in isolation: Fort Pitt was rated Outstanding in every one of the five areas inspected - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision - at its inspection on 4 October 2022.
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Medway Council's key dates for September 2027 entry apply to children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016. The dates below are taken from Medway Council's pages and its record for Fort Pitt Grammar School.
Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Medway Council's key dates, test, results and marking pages and its record for Fort Pitt, Fort Pitt's admissions policy, co-education and examinations pages, Get Information about Schools and Ofsted.
Fort Pitt Grammar School is in the middle of becoming co-educational. The Department for Education approved the change, as the school announced on 5 November 2024, and Medway Council's record states that Year 7 intakes from September 2026 onwards will be mixed. The Year 7 intake for September 2027 - children who registered for the Medway Test by 12 June 2026 and sat it in September 2026 - will be the school's second mixed Year 7 cohort, open to both boys and girls. The Department for Education's Get Information about Schools (GIAS) record lists 'Gender of entry: Girls', so Medway Council's record and the school's admissions policy are the sources to rely on for Year 7 entry.
No feeder-school priority appears in the school's Determined Admissions Policy for September 2027. For Year 7 the policy lists six oversubscription categories, applied when eligible applications exceed the pupil admission number of 150: public care, siblings, children of staff, children residing within 2 miles of the school, children in named parishes, and all other eligible children. None refers to a primary or junior school. Families should plan around those six categories and read the school's published policy itself.
Fort Pitt's Year 7 policy relies on the Medway Test, and a minimum total weighted score is set every year. Medway Council lists the minimum weighted score for being assessed as suitable for grammar school as 492 for 2024 admissions, 482 for 2025 admissions and 481 for 2026 admissions - a gentle three-year downward drift. The weighted score is calculated as the English standardised score doubled, plus the Mathematics standardised score doubled, plus the Reasoning standardised score once. Medway Test results are emailed after 10am on Wednesday 14 October 2026 to families who gave a valid email address when registering; otherwise they are sent by post on that day.
Yes. The Get Information about Schools record names the school's academy sponsor as FPTA Academies (Fort Pitt Grammar School and The Thomas Aveling School) and its academy trust as Beyond Schools Trust. Fort Pitt Grammar School converted to academy status on 1 November 2010. None of the six oversubscription categories in Fort Pitt's admissions policy refers to the academy trust or to The Thomas Aveling School, so the connection is not an admissions pathway.
Yes. Boys can apply for the standard Year 7 intake in September 2027 on exactly the same basis as girls, sitting the Medway Test and going through the same six-tier oversubscription process. Boys are treated differently in in-year (mid-year) admission: the school's admissions policy states that girls of selective ability can be offered a vacancy through age-appropriate testing anywhere from Year 7 to Year 11, while boys can only be offered an in-year vacancy in Years 7 or 8. That distinction does not affect a standard September Year 7 application, only a family moving into the area partway through secondary school.
Fort Pitt and Chatham Grammar are both moving to co-education from September 2026 under the same Department for Education decision, according to Fort Pitt's statement of 5 November 2024. The clearest practical difference is the entry test: Chatham Grammar is the one Medway grammar school that also accepts the Kent Test as an alternative to the Medway Test, while Fort Pitt only accepts the Medway Test. Each school has its own admissions policy, so it is worth reading both policies if a child could realistically be offered either place.
Fort Pitt Grammar School's own examinations page, which does not state the year of these figures, reports 98% of pupils achieving a grade 4 or above in English and Mathematics, with nearly 85% reaching a grade 5 or above (a strong pass) and 46% of grades at the top 7-9 level. The school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in every one of the five judgement areas inspected - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision - following its inspection on 4 October 2022, and the Get Information about Schools record lists 1,009 pupils on roll against a capacity of 1,027.
Leading Tuition's specialist tutors provide personalised one-to-one 11+ tuition, including online, for the Medway Test's English, Mathematics and Reasoning papers. Each programme is built around the child's own strengths and practice results, and the first step is a free consultation to talk through where your child is now and what to focus on. Families can message us on WhatsApp or book a call to start the conversation.