Chatham Grammar School: 11+ Entry Guide for Parents 2026

Chatham Grammar School — historically known as Chatham Grammar School for Girls — is a selective grammar school in Chatham, in the Medway unitary authority area of Kent. From September 2026, the school is admitting both girls and boys into Year 7, transitioning to fully co-educational entry for the first time. The school offers 150 Year 7 places, assessed through the Medway Test, a separate selective entry assessment distinct from the Kent Test used by Kent County Council grammar schools. Part of the University of Kent Academies Trust (UKAT), Chatham Grammar has a strong academic tradition in the Medway area and a mixed sixth form that has long been co-educational. This guide covers the Medway Test in detail, how it differs from the Kent Test, the key 2026 dates, admissions priorities, and how to structure preparation properly.

About Chatham Grammar School

Chatham Grammar School is located in Chatham, one of the five Medway towns along with Rochester, Gillingham, Strood, and Rainham. The school is situated in the Medway unitary authority area, which means it sits outside the jurisdiction of Kent County Council for educational purposes. This has a direct practical consequence for Year 7 admissions: pupils seeking entry to Chatham Grammar sit the Medway Test, not the standard Kent Test used across the rest of Kent.

The school operates as an academy within the University of Kent Academies Trust (UKAT), a multi-academy trust associated with the University of Kent. UKAT schools share a common admissions framework and an educational philosophy that emphasises academic rigour, pastoral care, and university-level progression. The sixth form at Chatham Grammar has been co-educational for a number of years, drawing students from across the Medway grammar school network. From 2026 entry, the school is extending this inclusivity to Year 7, making it genuinely co-educational from entry through to Year 13.

Chatham Grammar's academic results are consistently strong at both GCSE and A-level. The school is known for its performance in sciences, mathematics, and English, and a significant proportion of sixth-form leavers progress to Russell Group universities annually. Its location in central Chatham makes it accessible from across the Medway towns via public transport, which is a practical consideration for families applying from Rochester, Gillingham, and Strood.

The Medway Test — Chatham Grammar's Year 7 Entry Assessment

The Medway Test is the selective assessment used for Year 7 entry at all grammar schools in the Medway unitary authority area. It is a separate system from the Kent Test, administered independently by Medway Council rather than Kent County Council. Families who are new to the Medway grammar school system — particularly those who have friends or relatives who went through the Kent grammar process — need to understand that the Medway Test and Kent Test are completely different processes with different registration windows, different test dates, and different results timelines.

The Medway Test is supplied by GL Assessment and consists of three papers. The English paper (30 minutes) covers reading comprehension — testing understanding of an unseen passage — and English grammar and vocabulary questions. The maths paper (50 minutes) covers the Key Stage 2 curriculum with an emphasis on problem-solving: number operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, geometry, measurement, and data handling. The reasoning paper (45 minutes) covers verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, and spatial reasoning — three distinct components combined into a single paper. The total assessment time is approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes, spread across the three papers.

Results are age-standardised across all three papers before being combined. This means a child born in August is not disadvantaged compared to a September-born peer — the standardisation adjusts for the age at which the test is taken. There is no published single threshold score; Chatham Grammar takes pupils who are deemed selective by the Medway Council testing system. When the school is oversubscribed with selective pupils, the school's oversubscription criteria determine allocation.

An important practical point: Chatham Grammar also accepts results from pupils who have sat the Kent Test rather than the Medway Test. This means families living on the Kent side of the Medway border — for example in Faversham (ME13) or parts of the Swale district — can apply to Chatham Grammar using a Kent Test result if that is more convenient. However, pupils who live in Medway and are registered at a Medway primary school should use the Medway Test as their primary route, since that is the system their primary school will be expecting.

Item	Details
Year 7 places	150 (girls and boys from September 2026)
School type	Selective grammar academy (co-educational from 2026); part of UKAT
Test used	Medway Test (GL Assessment); Kent Test also accepted
English paper	30 minutes — comprehension and grammar/vocabulary
Maths paper	50 minutes — KS2 problem-solving curriculum
Reasoning paper	45 minutes — verbal, non-verbal, and spatial reasoning
Medway Test registration	18 May – 12 June 2026
Test date (Medway pupils)	15–16 September 2026
Test date (non-Medway pupils)	19–20 September 2026
Results released	14 October 2026
Application deadline (SCAF)	31 October 2026
Offers made	2 March 2027

The Medway Test Format — A Paper-by-Paper Breakdown

English (30 minutes): The English paper consists of two sections. The first is a reading comprehension, in which children read an unseen passage — typically narrative prose or a non-fiction extract — and answer multiple-choice questions testing inference, vocabulary in context, and understanding of the author's purpose and technique. The second section covers English grammar and vocabulary: identifying correct punctuation, choosing the grammatically accurate sentence from four options, selecting the right word form, and understanding word relationships and meaning. The English paper rewards wide reading above all other preparation activities. Children who have read consistently for at least a year before the test approach comprehension passages with natural fluency and vocabulary depth that cannot be replicated through last-minute drilling.

Maths (50 minutes): The maths paper is the longest of the three and covers the full Key Stage 2 curriculum with a problem-solving emphasis. Topics include: four operations with whole numbers and decimals, fractions, percentages and ratio, algebra foundations (finding missing values, simple equations), perimeter, area and volume, angles, coordinates, symmetry, data handling (bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, frequency tables), and multi-step word problems. The 50-minute duration is generous relative to the number of questions, but children who have only done maths in untimed conditions often find the pacing difficult. Regular timed maths practice from Year 5 is the most effective preparation for this paper.

Reasoning (45 minutes): The reasoning paper combines verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, and spatial reasoning into a single sitting. Verbal reasoning question types include: word codes (if CAT = 3-1-20, what is DOG?), analogies (arm is to body as branch is to ___), word pairs, letter sequences, and insertions. Non-verbal reasoning tests pattern recognition, matrix completion, and shape sequences. Spatial reasoning tests the child's ability to visualise how shapes rotate, fold, and reflect. The combined reasoning paper means children cannot skip the spatial component even if it is their weakest area — it forms part of the single score. All three components of reasoning are learnable with systematic practice.

How Competitive Is Entry to Chatham Grammar School?

Chatham Grammar is consistently oversubscribed with selective applicants. Each year, more pupils achieve a selective result on the Medway Test than there are 150 Year 7 places available. Being deemed selective by the Medway Test is therefore necessary but not sufficient — the school's oversubscription criteria then determine who receives a place offer. For the 2026 intake (the first co-educational Year 7 cohort), demand may be higher than usual as families from both sides of the gender equation consider the school for the first time.

The oversubscription criteria at Chatham Grammar, once the selective threshold is met, are as follows. First priority goes to looked-after and previously looked-after children. Second priority goes to siblings of pupils currently attending Chatham Grammar or any other UKAT academy — a notable feature of the UKAT framework that gives an advantage to families with children already in the trust. Third priority goes to children of staff employed at Chatham Grammar for more than one year, or those recruited to fill a skill shortage. Fourth priority — covering the majority of applicants — is straight-line distance from home to school, with the closest living applicants prioritised over those living further away.

The practical consequence of the distance-based fourth tier is that families living close to the school have a structural advantage in years when the school is oversubscribed. Chatham Grammar draws from the Medway towns broadly, but in competitive years the fourth-tier cut-off can fall relatively close to the school's address. Families from Gillingham, Rochester, and Strood who are genuinely committed to Chatham Grammar should treat their home-to-school distance as a relevant factor in their planning.

The Medway Test vs the Kent Test — Key Differences for Families

Many families in the Medway area are confused about the relationship between the Medway Test and the Kent Test. This confusion is understandable — both tests assess similar academic abilities and use GL Assessment materials — but they are administered by different local authorities on different dates with different registration processes. Understanding the differences clearly is essential to avoid missing a registration deadline or sitting the wrong test.

Different administering bodies: The Kent Test is run by Kent County Council and applies to grammar schools in the Kent county area. The Medway Test is run by Medway Council and applies to grammar schools in the Medway unitary authority (Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham, Strood, Rainham). Chatham Grammar is in Medway, not Kent.

Different registration windows: Medway Test registration for 2026 opens on 18 May 2026 and closes on 12 June 2026. Kent Test registration opens on 1 June 2026 and closes on 1 July 2026. The windows overlap but are not the same — if your child is at a Medway primary school and you want the Medway Test route, you must register by 12 June, before the Kent Test window closes.

Different test dates: Medway Test is taken on 15–16 September 2026 (for Medway pupils) or 19–20 September (non-Medway). Kent Test is taken on 10 September 2026 (Kent pupils) or 12–13 September (non-Kent). The dates do not clash, so a child with ambitions across both systems could theoretically sit both, but most families choose one system and focus there.

Cross-acceptance: Chatham Grammar accepts both Medway Test and Kent Test results. This means a family living in, say, Faversham (Kent) who has already registered for the Kent Test can apply to Chatham Grammar using their Kent Test result. However, their application would be assessed under the same oversubscription criteria — and distance from school would apply. A family living closer to Chatham Grammar who sat the Medway Test has the same chance of an offer as one who sat the Kent Test, provided both are deemed selective.

Preparing Your Child for the Medway Test: A Structured Approach

The optimal preparation timeline for the Medway Test follows the same broad phases as preparation for any other GL Assessment-based 11+ test. The key principles are: start early enough to learn properly rather than cram, focus on weak areas rather than only practising strengths, and build the time management skills needed to perform consistently under exam conditions.

Phase 1 — Foundation building (Year 4 to early Year 5): Introduce all verbal reasoning question types for the first time. Work through non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning formats one at a time. Keep maths knowledge sharp and slightly ahead of the classroom curriculum. Establish a consistent reading habit — daily reading of books, newspapers, and longer articles builds both the vocabulary and the inferential reading skills tested in the English paper. At this stage, work should be exploratory and low-pressure: the goal is familiarity, not performance.

Phase 2 — Timed practice (mid-Year 5 to June Year 6): Shift to timed practice papers under realistic conditions. Work through each paper type separately, then combine into full mock sittings. Identify specific weak question types within each paper and target these directly rather than just repeatedly doing practice papers. For maths, the 50-minute paper requires confident problem-solving across the full KS2 curriculum — children who have gaps in areas like ratio, algebra foundations, or data interpretation should address these explicitly in Year 5. For reasoning, create a record of which question types your child finds reliably easy versus difficult, and spend additional time on the latter.

Phase 3 — Mock tests and consolidation (July–September Year 6): In the final weeks before the September test, the emphasis is on full-length mock tests under exam conditions, building test-day composure, and reviewing any remaining weak areas. Children who have done this phase properly enter the test room feeling calm and methodical rather than anxious. The Medway Test is taken by hundreds of children simultaneously — the child who has built a confident, practiced routine handles the formal environment much better than one who has only done informal practice at home.

An important practical point for Medway families: pupils at Medway state primary schools are registered for the Medway Test automatically, in the same way Kent pupils are registered automatically for the Kent Test. Parents who do not wish their child to sit must actively withdraw before the registration deadline of 12 June 2026. Pupils at independent schools or schools outside Medway must register manually — missing the deadline means the child cannot sit that year.

Chatham Grammar in Context: Other Medway Grammar Schools

The Medway grammar school system currently includes several selective schools serving the Medway towns. Alongside Chatham Grammar, Medway families typically consider Rochester Grammar School, Rainham Mark Grammar School (boys), The Howard School, and other selective academies depending on their child's gender and location. The Medway Test result applies to all Medway grammar schools simultaneously, so one test determines eligibility across the whole Medway selective system.

Chatham Grammar's transition to co-educational entry from 2026 makes it distinct in the Medway grammar landscape, where several schools remain single-sex. Families who want a selective school education for a son in the Chatham area now have Chatham Grammar as an option alongside the traditionally boys' grammars in the area. Similarly, families with daughters have a wider range of grammar school options in Medway than in previous years.

For a broader guide to how selective school entry works and how to navigate the 11+ process as a whole, see our complete grammar school preparation guide for 2026. For advice on the GL Assessment verbal reasoning question types used in the Medway Test reasoning paper, see our GL Assessment 11+ guide. For guidance on English comprehension preparation for the Medway Test, see our how to pass the 11+ guide.

Frequently Asked Questions