Chatham Grammar School for Girls 11+ Preparation | Leading Tuition

Chatham Grammar School for Girls is a state selective grammar school on Rainham Road, Chatham, founded in 1907 as the Chatham County School for Girls and one of six Medway grammar schools selecting through the Medway Test. Entry to Year 7 is decided by the Medway Test, sat in September of Year 6, with a Published Admission Number of 150 places. The school is now in the middle of a significant change: following Department for Education approval, it admitted its first boys into Year 7 in September 2026, ending 119 years as a girls-only school, and the intake for September 2027 — the cohort currently registering and sitting the test in autumn 2026 — will be the school's second co-educational Year 7 cohort. Families targeting a place, whether for a daughter or a son, need to prepare thoroughly for the Medway Test's three papers, ideally starting in Year 4 or Year 5, and to understand exactly how the school's admissions criteria and qualifying score work during this transition.

What Are the Key Facts and Dates for Chatham Grammar 11+ Entry 2027?

The table below sets out the essential facts about Chatham Grammar School for Girls and the confirmed key dates for September 2027 admissions, based on information published by the school and Medway Council.

Registration for the Medway Test is completed online via the Medway Council admissions portal, and is entirely separate from the Common Application Form for a secondary school place, which is submitted to your home local authority. Families who miss the 12 June 2026 registration window should contact Medway Admissions directly, as late registration is handled on a case-by-case basis and cannot be guaranteed. Because Chatham Grammar sits within the Medway testing area but also accepts the Kent Test from Kent-resident families, households living near the Kent/Medway boundary should check with the school's admissions team (admissionscg@ukat.org) which test applies to their address before registering.

What Does the Medway Test Involve?

The Medway Test is set and marked by Medway Council and used by all six Medway grammar schools, including Chatham Grammar. It differs from the neighbouring Kent Test in both structure and marking, so families relocating from a Kent-tested area should not assume the two formats are interchangeable. The test comprises three separate papers, each targeting a distinct skill area.

Each paper produces a raw score, which is standardised for the child's exact age at the time of testing so that summer-born children are not disadvantaged relative to autumn-born classmates. The standardised scores are then combined using the weighting above — English doubled, mathematics doubled, reasoning counted once — to produce a total weighted score out of a maximum of 700. This total weighted score is what determines whether a child is assessed as "eligible for grammar school," and it is the figure that ultimately decides whether a child clears the Chatham Grammar admissions bar.

There is no official past-paper bank published by Medway Council, which makes structured, format-matched practice more important than for consortiums that release official familiarisation booklets. Preparation should therefore lean on high-quality practice materials that mirror the English, mathematics and reasoning balance of the real test, rather than generic 11+ workbooks that assume a different paper structure.

How Competitive Is Entry to Chatham Grammar School for Girls?

Because there is no fixed pass mark published in advance, the qualifying threshold for Chatham Grammar and the other Medway grammar schools is set retrospectively each year, calibrated to identify approximately the top 25-26% of the Medway Year 6 cohort as "grammar-suitable." Medway Council's own published figures show how this threshold has moved in recent years: the minimum qualifying score was 492 for September 2024 entry, fell to 482 for September 2025 entry, and fell again to 481 for September 2026 entry. The council has explained the movement partly as a deliberate widening of the eligible band — from roughly 23% of the cohort a few years ago to around 25-26% today — rather than the test itself becoming easier. The exact threshold for September 2027 entry will not be published until results are released in October 2026, but the recent downward drift suggests families should plan around a similar range in the high 470s to low 490s rather than assuming a fixed historical figure still applies.

It is important to understand that clearing the qualifying score makes a child "eligible" for a grammar place — it does not by itself guarantee a place at Chatham Grammar specifically. Where eligible applications for Chatham Grammar exceed the 150 available places, the school's determined admissions arrangements for September 2027 entry rank applicants in a fixed order: looked-after and previously looked-after children first, then children of staff employed at the school for two years or more, then children with a sibling already attending Chatham Grammar, and finally all other eligible children ranked by distance from home to school using Medway Council's shortest safe walking route measurement, with a random draw as the final tiebreaker for the last available place. Families should read the school's published determined admissions policy in full, since sibling and distance criteria — not the raw test score — decide who actually receives an offer once the eligibility bar has been cleared.

How Should I Prepare My Daughter or Son for the Chatham Grammar 11+?

Effective preparation for the Medway Test requires structured, progressive work across all three papers, built up over at least a year rather than a short burst immediately before the September test window. Because English carries double weighting alongside mathematics, families sometimes under-prepare it relative to reasoning — a mistake that can cost more marks overall than a weaker reasoning paper, given the weighting formula.

Year 4 (Optional Early Start): Build genuine reading stamina and vocabulary through wide fiction and non-fiction reading — this underpins both the English paper and the verbal reasoning component. Strengthen core arithmetic fluency through games and mental maths rather than formal practice. Light, low-pressure exposure to non-verbal reasoning puzzle books is useful, but timed practice is not appropriate yet.

Year 5, September (Structured Preparation): Begin systematic work across all three Medway Test papers. Prioritise comprehension technique and creative writing structure for the English paper, since it is double-weighted. Build maths fluency in ratio, fractions, decimals and geometry beyond the standard KS2 pace. Introduce verbal and non-verbal reasoning with worked explanations so your child understands why an answer is correct, rather than pattern-matching without comprehension.

Year 5, January onward: Increase session frequency and begin timed section practice across all three papers. Track performance by paper, not just overall score, given the weighting formula — a strong reasoning score cannot fully compensate for a weak English score once doubling is applied. Start using exam-standard practice materials rather than only familiarisation-level questions.

Year 6, September–June: Run full timed mock tests under exam conditions at least monthly, replicating the English, maths and reasoning paper sequence. Confirm your Medway Test registration by the 12 June 2026 deadline — this is a hard cut-off, and late registration cannot be assumed. Continue targeted work on remaining weak areas identified through mock results, rather than broad, unfocused revision.

Summer before the test: Maintain two to three light sessions per week over the summer holidays to keep skills sharp without burning your child out. The test window falls in mid-September, only days into Year 6, so children need to be exam-ready before the school year even begins.

What Does the Move to Co-Education Mean for Applicants?

Chatham Grammar's shift to co-education is one of the most significant changes to hit the Medway grammar system in decades, and it is directly relevant to any family applying for September 2027 entry. In November 2024, the Department for Education approved proposals from three Medway grammar schools to change their admissions gender: Chatham Grammar (previously girls-only) and Fort Pitt Grammar School (previously girls-only) began admitting boys into Year 7 from September 2026, while Holcombe Grammar School (previously boys-only) began admitting girls at the same time. Medway Council's stated reasoning was straightforward — Chatham Grammar had for several years struggled to fill its 150 places from girls living in Medway alone, while Holcombe Grammar faced the same problem in reverse with boys, and both schools were increasingly reliant on out-of-area applicants to fill vacant places. Widening each school's eligible intake to both sexes was intended to produce a more even balance of grammar places across the Medway system.

For the September 2027 Year 7 intake — the group of children currently preparing for and about to sit the Medway Test in autumn 2026 — this means Chatham Grammar will be running its second co-educational admissions round. Existing pupils already at the school in Years 8 to 13 continue in single-sex classes and an unchanged curriculum throughout the transition, and the school has built dedicated facilities, including new toilets and changing areas, ahead of admitting boys. The school itself is candid that "the gender composition of year groups will vary annually and cannot be predetermined," since it depends entirely on the mix of applications and test results each year rather than a fixed quota for boys versus girls. Families should not assume Chatham Grammar remains a girls-only option — several 11+ information sources have not yet updated their guidance to reflect this change, so it is worth confirming directly with the school's admissions team if there is any uncertainty about eligibility for a son as well as a daughter.

What Is Chatham Grammar School for Girls Like as a School?

Chatham Grammar has a long history in Medway, tracing back to its founding in January 1907 as the Chatham County School for Girls, with the current Rainham Road building formally opened in February 1913. The 1944 Education Act converted it into a fully state-funded, fee-free grammar school under the eleven-plus selection system that still operates today. The school became an academy within the University of Kent Academies Trust in 2017. It currently educates around 950 pupils across Years 7 to 13, against a site capacity of 976, with roughly 202 students in the sixth form.

Ofsted's most recent full inspection took place in October 2023, with the report published in November 2023, and rated Chatham Grammar 'Good' overall, noting a calm and purposeful school culture with particular strengths in pastoral care and extra-curricular provision, alongside some inconsistency in teaching quality in a minority of subjects as an area for further development. Across four full inspections between 2003 and 2018, Ofsted consistently rated the school 'Good.'

Academically, Chatham Grammar's 2025 GCSE results showed an Attainment 8 score of 61.8, with 75.5% of pupils achieving grade 5 or above in both English and maths, and 92.1% achieving five or more GCSEs at grade 9-4. At A-level, the average points score per entry was 28.61 (broadly a grade C average), with 5.1% of entries achieving AAB or better in facilitating subjects. These figures place the school in the upper-middle tier nationally, consistent with a solid, well-regarded grammar school rather than one of the very highest-performing selective schools in the South East.

Beyond the classroom, Chatham Grammar has a long-running Combined Cadet Force established in 2018, an active music, drama and sporting programme, and a history that includes wartime evacuation to Faversham and South Wales during the Second World War. Notable alumnae include the Cambridge economics professor Phyllis Deane and the psychiatrist Lorna Wing OBE, who was influential in early autism research. See also our guides to Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School for families also considering Kent grammar options, our Kent 11+ borough guide for the wider regional picture, and our general 11+ Tuition page for an overview of how we support families across all selective schools.

Frequently Asked Questions About Chatham Grammar 11+ Entry

For the school's own published admissions arrangements, timetable and contact details, see Chatham Grammar's official Year 7 admissions page for September 2027 entry. Families comparing Medway options against neighbouring Kent grammar schools may also find our wider 11+ School Guides hub useful for cross-referencing test formats and dates.