Kent Grammar Schools: Complete Guide for Parents 2026
32 schools, the Kent Test, a 2025 qualifying aggregate of 332 — everything you need for the 2026 Kent 11+ admissions cycle
Book a Free Consultation32 schools, the Kent Test, a 2025 qualifying aggregate of 332 — everything you need for the 2026 Kent 11+ admissions cycle
Book a Free ConsultationKent County Council's list of Kent grammar schools names 32 schools. All of them use the Kent Test to help decide which children are offered places; KCC's 2027 guide also marks eight of them as having their own tests (named in the FAQ below). A child who is assessed as suitable for a Kent grammar school can name any Kent grammar school on the application, though an assessment does not guarantee a place. For the 2025 test the qualifying aggregate was 332 of a possible 423, with no single score lower than 108; KCC says the 2026 threshold will be available in October 2026. Scores are age-standardised. This guide covers how the Kent grammar school system works, the geographic clusters of schools, key 2026 dates, and how to choose between schools.
Checked October 2026
Kent County Council's Kent Test and secondary school places pages give Thursday 15 October 2026 as results day and Monday 2 November 2026 as the application closing date. The 2026 tests were sat on 10 September and 12 and 13 September; the latest published threshold is 332 (2025 test).
Kent County Council says its grammar schools provide for children in about the top 25% of the ability range. The county's grammar schools operate as a coherent system: the Kent Test and one application form listing preferences.
The Kent Test is sat in September of Year 6: the 2026 tests were sat on Thursday 10 September 2026 and the weekend of 12 and 13 September 2026, and results are emailed on Thursday 15 October 2026. Children who achieve the qualifying aggregate — 332 in the 2025 test, with no single score lower than 108 — are assessed as suitable for a Kent grammar school and can name Kent grammar schools among the up to four preferences on the Kent County Council application. Each school then applies its own oversubscription criteria to determine who receives a place. Passing the test does not guarantee a place at any specific school; it makes a child's application eligible for an offer. KCC says a child who was not assessed as suitable can still apply, but the application to that school will be refused when offers are made on 1 March 2027, and the family can then appeal.
This structure means that a child's application strategy matters as much as their test score. A child who scores well above the threshold and lists four schools all far from home may receive no grammar school offer, because each school ranks the applicants it receives using its own oversubscription criteria. Understanding the geography of each school's priority area — and being realistic about distance-ranked competition — is essential for effective preference listing.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Number of grammar schools | 32 (schools on Kent County Council's list of Kent grammar schools) |
| Registration and results | Kent County Council (parents register with KCC; results are emailed on results day) |
| Test components | English, Maths, Reasoning (plus an unmarked writing exercise) |
| Qualifying aggregate | 332 of a possible 423 (2025 threshold; scores are age-standardised) |
| Per-component minimum | No single score below 108 (2025 threshold; KCC says the 2026 threshold will be available in October 2026) |
| Registration closes | Closed Wednesday 1 July 2026 for September 2027 entry |
| Kent Test date | Sat on Thursday 10 September 2026 (pupils at a Kent primary school) and the weekend of 12 and 13 September 2026 (pupils who do not attend a Kent primary school) |
| Results | Thursday 15 October 2026 (emailed to the address given at registration; posted first class if no email address was given) |
| CAF deadline | Monday 2 November 2026 |
| National Offer Day | Monday 1 March 2027 (Kent offers emailed to applicants who gave an email address) |
| Max preferences on form | 4 school preferences on the Kent application (grammar or other schools) |
Kent County Council's list names 32 grammar schools in towns across the county. Understanding which cluster is closest to home is the starting point for school selection.
Kent County Council's list names three grammar schools in Canterbury:
Kent County Council says grammar schools are often oversubscribed, so each school ranks its applicants using its own criteria. Read each Canterbury school's admissions criteria to see how it ranks applicants from outside the city.
Medway Council has its own Medway Test, and Kent County Council says the Kent Test is only valid for Kent grammar schools. Medway families should check Medway Council's own arrangements for the grammar schools in their area.
Among the grammar schools on Kent County Council's list, these are in Maidstone:
Kent County Council's list names these grammar schools in Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells:
Preparing your child for the Kent Test and Kent grammar schools?
Leading Tuition specialises in Kent Test preparation — the English, maths and reasoning papers, and the unmarked writing exercise that a headteacher panel may read. Book a free consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
Each Kent grammar school ranks applicants using its own oversubscription criteria, which are in its published admission arrangements on the school's website or on Kent County Council's admissions criteria page. While there is variation between schools, the most common criteria in KCC's guide are looked after and previously looked after children (who get the highest priority), siblings, health, social and special access reasons, and distance.
A critical feature of the Kent system is that each school ranks applicants using its own oversubscription criteria — not one set of rules from Kent County Council. This means the way distance is used can differ from school to school. Reading the oversubscription criteria for each school on the preference list is essential, not optional.
KCC measures distance as a straight line from the address point for the child's home to the address point for the school. Some academies and other schools may use a different method, which their oversubscription criteria explain.
Families can name up to four school preferences on the Kent application, and KCC says it is in their best interest to list four schools. If a child is not offered any preference, KCC allocates an alternative school with places available and tries to make it the nearest to home; that school will not be one of the preferences listed.
Kent County Council is explicit that the writing exercise will not be marked. It produces no score and forms no part of the aggregate: the three standardised scores are English, maths and reasoning, and it is those three that carry the 2025 threshold of 332 and the per-score minimum of 108.
That does not make it optional. KCC's own description is that the writing exercise “may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process” — and KCC says the child's primary school headteacher can refer an assessment decision they disagree with to that panel before parents receive the decision. So the writing is not marked and adds nothing to the aggregate; KCC says the Headteacher Assessment Panel can consider it alongside test scores, recent work and comments from the child's current school. Forty minutes are allowed, including ten minutes of planning time.
The writing task is a piece of writing completed under test conditions. Strong writing shows structure and organisation, vocabulary range and precision, sentence variety and fluency, spelling accuracy, and punctuation. Practising writing to a prompt under timed conditions, regularly in the years before the test, is better preparation than writing freely in school without a time limit or a prompt.
Building the writing skill for the Kent Test involves: practising different types of writing (narrative, descriptive, persuasive), working on vocabulary variety (avoiding repetition, using precise nouns and strong verbs), developing structural habits (clear opening, developed middle, satisfying close), and drilling punctuation accuracy (full stops, commas, direct speech, paragraphing). These habits take time to internalise — they are built over months, not in the last few weeks before a test.
Step 1: Identify the schools within practical daily travel distance. For most families, this means schools within a daily journey by train or bus that the child can sustain through all their secondary school years. Create a shortlist from which you can choose up to four preferences.
Step 2: Check the oversubscription criteria for each school on your shortlist. Download the admissions policy for each school. How does the school rank applicants — by distance, siblings or another criterion — and where would your child fall?
Step 3: Visit open evenings. KCC's key dates list September to October for visiting school open events (if available), before applications close on Monday 2 November 2026. Attending three or four evenings and letting the child form their own view is far more informative than reading school profiles alone. Children who visit schools often have strong views about which environment suits them — those views are worth taking seriously.
Step 4: Build a balanced preference list. List four preferences in genuine preference order. Include at least one school where you have a realistic expectation of a place under its oversubscription criteria. Do not list only reach schools — a child who qualifies but is not offered any preference is allocated an alternative school with places, which KCC tries to make the nearest to home and which will not be one of the preferences listed.
For a full breakdown of the Kent Test format, see our Kent 11+ format guide 2026. We have dedicated individual guides for Simon Langton Grammar for Boys, Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School, and Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich. Our complete grammar school preparation guide covers preparation timelines and how to build an effective programme from Year 4 to offer day.
For Medway families, see our dedicated Fort Pitt Grammar School 11+ guide 2026 .
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
These schools are also on Kent County Council's list of Kent grammar schools. Each is shown with its town and the gender given on that list.
Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Kent County Council's Kent Test, Kent Test results, secondary school places and grammar school list pages and its Admission to secondary school in Kent 2027 guide.
Kent County Council's list of Kent grammar schools names 32 schools, in towns including Folkestone, Dover, Canterbury, Maidstone, Tonbridge and Dartford. All of them use the Kent Test to help decide which children are offered places, and a child who is assessed as suitable for a grammar school can name any of them on the secondary school application. For the 2025 test the qualifying aggregate was 332, with no single score lower than 108; KCC says the 2026 threshold will be available in October 2026.
For the 2025 test the threshold was an aggregate of 332 across the three standardised scores — English, maths and reasoning — with no single score lower than 108. Kent County Council says the 2026 threshold will be available in October 2026. Both conditions must be met: a child who scores well in two papers but below the single-score minimum in a third has not qualified, regardless of the total. Scores are standardised, with a slight adjustment for each child's age so that the youngest are not at a disadvantage. KCC says some Kent grammar schools, particularly those most likely to offer places to children from outside Kent, give priority to those with the highest scores.
Yes. KCC says all grammar schools in its area use the Kent Test to help decide which children should be offered places. Its 2027 guide also says some individual schools have their own tests, and marks eight grammar schools "Own test": Borden Grammar School, Dover Grammar School for Boys, Dover Grammar School for Girls, Folkestone School for Girls, Harvey Grammar School, Highsted Grammar School, Mayfield Grammar School and Weald of Kent Grammar School. Contact those schools direct about their tests. Some schools may also ask for a Supplementary Information Form, returned directly to the school. Results are emailed on Thursday 15 October 2026 to the registration address, or posted first class on results day if no email address was given.
For Year 7 entry in September 2027, pupils at a Kent primary school sat the Kent Test on Thursday 10 September 2026 and all other pupils on the weekend of 12 and 13 September 2026. There is no automatic registration for the Kent Test: a parent must register every child directly with Kent County Council. For September 2027 entry the window opened on 1 June 2026 and closed on 1 July 2026. Results are emailed on Thursday 15 October 2026 to the registration address, or posted first class on results day if no email address was given; online applicants can view them after 5pm. The Kent secondary school application must be submitted by Monday 2 November 2026. National Offer Day is Monday 1 March 2027.
Several Kent grammar schools are co-educational, including Barton Court Grammar School in Canterbury, Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham and Dane Court Grammar School in Broadstairs. Many of Kent's most well-known grammar schools are single-sex: The Judd School (boys), Tonbridge Grammar School (girls), The Skinners' School (boys), Weald of Kent Grammar School (girls), Maidstone Grammar School (boys), Invicta Grammar School (girls). Families seeking a mixed grammar school should check the admissions policy for each school on their shortlist; Kent County Council's list shows whether each school is mixed, boys or girls.
Start with geography: which schools are within practical daily travel distance? Then read each school's oversubscription criteria — each school ranks applicants using its own criteria, which matters when places are oversubscribed. Consider school character: single-sex vs co-educational, size, ethos, and sixth form structure. Visit open evenings — children often form strong preferences after visiting. List four preferences strategically: include at least one school where you have a realistic expectation of a place, alongside any aspirational first preference.
Leading Tuition's specialist tutors teach online one-to-one, so each child works on the areas where they need most help: the English and maths paper, the reasoning paper with its verbal and non-verbal sections, and the unmarked writing exercise that a headteacher panel may read. Lessons include timed practice under test conditions, and our team can talk through your preference list and each school's admissions criteria before the application closing date. Book a free consultation to talk through where your child stands now.
Leading Tuition prepares students for the Kent Test with specialist tutors who know the English and maths paper, the reasoning paper and the writing exercise in depth.
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