Highsted Grammar School: 11+ Entry Guide for Parents 2026

Highsted Grammar School is a selective state grammar school for girls, situated in Oad Street, Borden, near Sittingbourne in Kent. It admits approximately 120 girls into Year 7 each year, with an agreed admission number of up to 150 when applications are sufficient. Entry is principally via the Kent Test, the county-wide 11+ examination administered by GL Assessment. What makes Highsted distinctive among Kent grammar schools is an optional additional assessment called the Highsted Test, introduced in 2016, which gives girls a second route to demonstrate their academic ability. This guide covers everything parents need to know: the test formats, key 2026 dates, admissions criteria, and how to structure preparation effectively.

About Highsted Grammar School

Highsted Grammar School draws students from Sittingbourne and the broader Swale district, including villages in ME9 and ME10 postcodes such as Faversham, Sheerness and the surrounding rural areas of mid-Kent. The school offers a comprehensive academic curriculum from Year 7 through to sixth form, and consistently achieves strong A-Level and GCSE outcomes. It is a foundation school operating within the Kent County Council admissions framework, which means its admissions process is coordinated through KCC's Pan-Kent system rather than being entirely self-administered.

Families choosing Highsted often do so because of its community atmosphere and the personalised support it provides relative to some of the larger Kent grammar schools. With roughly 120 girls per year group (compared to 240 at Invicta Grammar School in Maidstone, for example), it is a smaller school where pastoral care is well regarded. The school's location in the village of Borden — rather than in the centre of Sittingbourne itself — means that many students travel by school bus from surrounding towns and villages.

Highsted participates in the Consortium of Selective Schools in Kent (CSSK), meaning that girls who sit the Kent Test through KCC's portal are automatically included in the admissions pool for all Kent grammar schools they list as preferences. The Highsted Test is an additional, separate route that does not require separate registration through KCC — it is registered directly with the school.

The Kent Test: What Your Daughter Will Face

The Kent Test is the shared 11+ entrance assessment used by all 33 grammar schools across Kent County Council's area. It is administered by GL Assessment and covers four areas: English (reading comprehension and a writing task), mathematics (Key Stage 2 curriculum, problem-solving emphasis), verbal reasoning (word codes, analogies, letter sequences, and other language-pattern tasks), and non-verbal reasoning (shapes, matrices, spatial patterns, and abstract sequences).

The test comprises two papers, each approximately 45-50 minutes in length. All children sit both papers on the same day — Thursday 10 September 2026 for children attending Kent primary schools, or Saturday/Sunday 12-13 September 2026 for children at schools outside Kent. Results are age-standardised before a combined total is calculated. To be considered grammar school-able, a child must achieve a total standardised score of at least 332 with no individual section score below 107. Both conditions must be met simultaneously — a high total score does not compensate for a sub-107 score in any individual area.

The English section is the component that most clearly distinguishes the Kent Test from tests in other counties. Many families preparing for Buckinghamshire or Essex grammar schools focus primarily on verbal reasoning, maths, and non-verbal reasoning. In Kent, a substantive English component — including extended writing — means that strong readers and writers have a structural advantage, and that specific English preparation (comprehension strategies, writing fluency, vocabulary) is essential alongside the reasoning work.

The writing task in particular rewards children who have practised writing at speed under timed conditions. It is not enough to be a good writer in class; the writing must be produced confidently in roughly 15-20 minutes, with an appropriate structure, varied vocabulary, and accurate punctuation. This component is often underweighted in preparation programmes — families who drill reasoning extensively but neglect timed writing practice are often surprised that their child's overall score is pulled down by a weak writing performance.

Item	Details
Entry year	Year 7 (September 2027 for girls currently in Year 5)
Year 7 places	Approximately 120 (PAN up to 150)
Test	Kent Test (GL Assessment) — plus optional Highsted Test
Kent Test format	2 papers, 4 areas: English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Qualifying score	332 total; no single area below 107
Test date 2026 (Kent schools)	Thursday 10 September 2026
Test date 2026 (non-Kent schools)	Saturday/Sunday 12-13 September 2026
Highsted Test registration closes	1 July 2026 (register directly with school)
Results	Mid-October 2026
Common Application Form deadline	Saturday 31 October 2026

The Optional Highsted Test: A Second Route to a Place

Since 2016, Highsted Grammar School has offered an optional school-specific assessment called the Highsted Test. This is an additional route to a Year 7 place and has equal status to passing the Kent Test — a girl who achieves a qualifying standard on the Highsted Test is treated exactly the same in the admissions process as a girl who passes the Kent Test. The two routes are separate, not combined: a girl who sits both tests benefits from two independent opportunities to demonstrate her ability.

The Highsted Test comprises two components: a computer-based assessment covering verbal ability, numeracy, and non-verbal reasoning; and an English paper assessing reading comprehension and writing skills. Registration for the Highsted Test is made directly with the school, not through KCC. Registration for September 2026 entry opened in spring 2026 and closed on 1 July 2026. The test itself is typically held in September at the school.

This dual-route system is beneficial for several groups of families. Girls who are strong academic performers but who perform less well under the specific pressure of the standardised Kent Test format may have a better chance through the Highsted Test, which uses the school's own assessment criteria. Girls who have previously sat the Kent Test and did not quite reach 332 can attempt the Highsted Test as an additional route. And girls who have moved to the area after the Kent Test registration window closed — or whose circumstances changed — have a potential fallback route through Highsted that does not exist at other Kent grammar schools.

Preparation for the Highsted Test should focus on the same four areas as the Kent Test (English, maths, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning), since the computer-based section tests three of those areas. The English paper requires the same kind of structured writing and reading comprehension preparation as the Kent Test. In practice, a well-prepared Kent Test candidate is also well-prepared for the Highsted Test.

How Competitive Is Entry to Highsted Grammar School?

Approximately 18,000 children across Kent and neighbouring counties sit the Kent Test each year, competing for around 7,000 Year 7 grammar school places across Kent's 33 grammar schools — an overall pass rate of approximately 25-30%. For Highsted specifically, with approximately 120 Year 7 places, competition is real but the school is not typically among the most oversubscribed in Kent. Schools in Tonbridge, Maidstone and Canterbury often have more applications per place than schools in Sittingbourne.

However, the practical reality is that a girl who scores exactly at the 332 threshold faces real uncertainty at any oversubscribed Kent grammar school, including Highsted. The admissions criteria at Highsted do not include a geographic priority zone in the traditional sense — priority goes first to looked-after children, then to Pupil Premium children, then to siblings (sisters attending the school, or brothers in the Sixth Form), then to all other qualifying girls ranked by straight-line distance from home to school. A girl who passes the Kent Test at 332 and lives 15 miles from Highsted is competing in the same pool as a girl who passes at 345 and lives 3 miles away. Scoring comfortably above the threshold matters.

Key Dates for 2026 Entry

The timeline below covers the key dates for girls seeking Year 7 entry in September 2027 — the cohort sitting the test in September 2026.

Admissions Criteria and Priority Order

When more girls qualify for a place at Highsted than there are places available, the school applies its oversubscription criteria in the following order:

1. Looked-after and previously looked-after children — children in local authority care, or children who were previously looked after and subsequently placed with a family through adoption, a special guardianship order, or a child arrangements order. These children receive the highest priority regardless of score or distance.

2. Children in receipt of Pupil Premium — girls who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the preceding six years. Pupil Premium is used as a proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage, and this priority is intended to ensure that grammar school places are accessible to academically able children from lower-income households.

3. Sisters and siblings in the sixth form — girls with a sister currently attending Highsted Grammar School, or a brother currently in the Sixth Form. This priority applies only to siblings currently on roll, not to families where a sibling previously attended.

4. All other qualifying girls by distance — any girl who has met the qualifying standard on either the Kent Test or the Highsted Test, ranked by the straight-line distance from her permanent home address to the school gate. Distance is the primary tiebreaker once higher-priority criteria have been exhausted.

There is no formal catchment area at Highsted in the sense of a defined geographic zone conferring eligibility. The proximity ranking operates as a practical equivalent — girls who live closer to the school have an advantage over those who live further away, all other criteria being equal. Given Highsted's location in Borden rather than in a large town centre, families from surrounding villages and the Sittingbourne area are typically the closest. Out-of-district families from Canterbury, Maidstone or Faversham may find that distance works against them when the school is oversubscribed.

A Preparation Timeline That Works

Families whose daughters successfully enter Highsted typically begin structured preparation in Year 4 or early Year 5 — 12 to 18 months before the September test. This is not about pressure or excessive drilling; it is about pacing the work properly so that the final months before the exam focus on consolidation and confidence rather than catching up.

Phase 1 (Year 4 to early Year 5): Introduce each Kent Test question type systematically. Many girls have never encountered verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, or technical grammar questions before structured preparation begins. This phase is about familiarity, not speed — understanding why an answer is correct builds more durable skills than repeated guessing. Strong reading habits (fiction, non-fiction, longer texts) are developed alongside. Writing practice begins at short bursts: 10-15 minute paragraphs developing vocabulary and sentence variety.

Phase 2 (middle Year 5 to June/July): Shift the focus to timed practice across all four components. Girls work through past papers and practice materials under realistic time conditions. A good tutor's value here is in diagnosis: identifying which specific question types are pulling the score down (often non-verbal reasoning, or the writing task) and targeting those directly. Maths is practised in timed sessions to build the automatic recall needed for the problem-solving section.

Phase 3 (June to September of Year 6): Mock exams under exam conditions. Full papers completed in one session, ideally with a short break between papers as in the real test. By this point, girls should be performing consistently across all four areas. The focus is on mental stamina (performing well for two hours without tiring), pace management (neither rushing nor running out of time), and the practical logistics of exam day. Girls who have done this consistently through the year walk into September 2026 in a calm and prepared state.

One logistical point: girls at Kent state-funded primary schools are registered for the Kent Test automatically by their school. Parents who want to withdraw their daughter must inform the school before registration closes. Girls at independent schools or schools outside Kent must register manually through the KCC portal during the registration window (typically June to 1 July). Girls sitting the Highsted Test register separately with the school.

Frequently Asked Questions