Dartford Grammar School (DGS) New Admission Criteria

[Pincopalla]

Hi there, as some of you may know, DGS have recently changed their admission criteria to reduce the number of places allocated to OOC applicants (50) compared to IC Applicants (130 places).

Do you know if they considered adding the sibling priority rule during the consultation process? I seem to remember that most local grammars (WGS, WGSG, BGS, C&S, Beths, Townley) have this in their admission criteria, except for DGS and DGGS. Of course, siblings would need to pass the relevant 11+ entry test.

OP, you reference a desire for consistency, but consider boys living in the LB of Bromley whose one selective school gives no priority to applicants for living within the home LA. In considering the school in question, you need to consider the LA’s sufficiency duty, especially given it is a fully selective LA at secondary phase.

Hi Pincopalla,

Thanks for your question. I am a teacher at Dartford Grammar School and was part of the discussion on whether to change the admissions policy last year. I supported keeping the admissions to 90 IC / 90 OOC but also appreciate why we moved to 135 IC / 45 OOC.

For reference:

IC - In catchment.

OOC - Out of catchment.

Hopefully I can share a coupe of details of why we changed the catchment area and the split.

The motivation for the change centred around there being a lack of grammar school access in areas of North West Kent such as Meopham, Hartley, West Kingsdown and South Darenth. This map shows the gap in grammar school provision: https://comprehensivefuture.org.uk/interactive-map-of-grammar-schools/.

As a result, a significant proportion of the staff were in favour of expanding the catchment area to include these areas. The policies from 2018 and 2025 show the differing catchment (though it did take me a while to compare the areas covered). For reference:

2018: https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/68118/Dartford-Grammar-School-admissions-criteria-2018-2019.pdf

2025: https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/164456/Dartford-Grammar-School-admissions-criteria-2025-2026.pdf

We felt that, with a larger catchment, the 90 / 90 split should be changed. There were discussions over how large to make the new IC intake. The Head presented strong evidence that the average 11+ score wouldn't change significantly even with a 135 IC / 45 OOC split. Like most changes, I suspect the 50% increase in IC places 'felt about right'.

I have a personal interest in this matter. When I attended DGS, I scored high enough to attain an OOC place. This made me want to keep the 90 IC / 90 OOC split.

Likewise, when I was at Dartford, the sibling policy was in place. Siblings used to get preferential access. I'm not sure why this has changed, but I'll ask next week and try to get back to you.

Thanks for the discussion here and best of luck if your son is applying in the coming year!

Mr R.

Pretty sure that as the only staff that form part of the governing body are the head and the staff representative, you've overstepped your authority to answer on behalf of the school here. If you click report and explain to MN, they'll likely delete it.

Interesting post the catchment is now very wide and if you are lucky to get a place from new barn etc or some lovely village, how does your son get to school? You probably need to move closer to the school. I did this for my daughter as her attendance was poor given the commute.

Here is the rub, the school is very close to crayford and bexley, so if you move closer for one son, the second can not have the same opportunities. Maybe in a few years there will be buses there, but in the meantime? I d love to live in some of the new catchment but it's not practical. I don't know if this will cause scores to drop, bigger catchment but few applications from those areas?

Does any one from the wider catchment have a plan I would love to know?

Thanks @WestHillWarrior

This is a very interesting point you are raising, as with all the Bexley Grammars, for example, you can rely on the Sibling Priority rule and once one of your children is in, you don't have to worry about where you live anymore.

Unfortunately, that is not the case with DGS and with the new criteria being so stringent for OOA applicants, many OOA families are now starting to snub the school in favour of others (i.e. Bexley Grammar), which are equally good (BG offers the IB, too!) but relatively easier to get in (for OOA) and would offer the Sibling Priority rule to keep siblings together.

Also, the experience with commuting can be very subjective, too. Some children cope better than others, and my personal experience is that a bit of commute can help children gain more confidence and independence.