Wilmington Grammar School for Girls 11 Plus Guide 2026

Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (WGSG) offers 180 selective Year 7 places in Dartford, Kent. To be considered, your daughter must sit the Kent Test — for September 2027 entry, registration ran from 1 June to 1 July 2026 and the test was sat on 10 September 2026 by pupils at Kent primary schools. WGSG applies a tiered oversubscription system with named priority parishes, Governor Maths Places, and Pupil Premium tiers — details that have a significant bearing on your daughter's chances and on how you should structure her preparation.

Wilmington Grammar School for Girls — School Overview

Wilmington Grammar School for Girls is an all-girls selective secondary academy located on Parsons Lane in Wilmington, in the Dartford district of Kent. The school is part of Endeavour MAT and works closely with its brother school, Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB); together they run WG6, a joint sixth form with a Year 12 capacity of 300 across both schools.

WGSG was last inspected by Ofsted in November 2022. That inspection rated the school Good overall, with Outstanding for behaviour and attitudes and for personal development. The school takes girls aged 11 to 18, with WG6 providing the sixth form.

The school's admission policy gives the same priority to girls living within 1.5 miles of the school and to girls living in its named parishes and wards, which include Dartford, Wilmington, Swanley, Swanscombe and Greenhithe, Longfield and New Barn, Meopham, Eynsford, Farningham, Otford, Hartley, Wrotham, Stone and 18 further parishes, wards and areas — a much broader footprint than the 1.5-mile radius alone. That is why the tiered system is covered in detail below. For a broader view of selective options in the county, see our Kent grammar schools guide 2026.

WGSG's partnership with Atom Learning means that girls eligible for Pupil Premium can access free online 11+ preparation through Atom Home once their primary school has verified their Pupil Premium status.

Understanding the 11+ Selection Process

Entry to Wilmington Grammar School for Girls is through the Kent Assessment Procedure, known as the Kent Test or PESE. All girls who wish to apply must be registered with Kent County Council (KCC) and sit the Kent Test; the school's admission policy says entry is through the Kent Assessment Procedure. Full admissions details are published on the WGSG Key Information page, and the school's admission policy for September 2027 entry, which this guide follows, includes the 2027 Supplementary Form.

Kent Test results are released on Thursday 15 October 2026. Applications for September 2027 secondary places opened on 1 September 2026 and close with Kent County Council on Monday 2 November 2026 (families applying through another local authority should check its closing date), and a girl assessed as suitable must name WGSG on the Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF) submitted to her home local authority to be considered. Passing the Kent Test does not guarantee a place; it makes your daughter eligible to be considered. Whether she actually receives an offer depends on where she sits in the school's oversubscription criteria.

The oversubscription criteria for September 2027 entry, in priority order, are:

The Governor Maths Places are awarded on performance in the Maths paper of the Kent Test; the school's policy calls them Governor Places. Up to 18 girls who have shown exceptional performance in the Mathematics paper of the Kent Test and live within 5 miles of the school receive places ahead of the proximity, parish and distance criteria that follow, with distance used to separate tied scores. If your daughter is particularly strong in mathematics, this criterion is worth knowing — a girl who lives within 5 miles of the school but outside the Tier 5 area can still be considered for a place on her Maths performance.

The priority parishes in Tier 5 sit alongside the 1.5-mile radius and cover 30 named parishes, wards and areas, including Dartford, Wilmington, Swanley, Swanscombe and Greenhithe, Eynsford, Farningham, Longfield and New Barn, Meopham, Otford, Hartley, Hextable, Stone, Sutton at Hone and Hawley, and Wrotham, among others. If you live in one of these areas, your daughter falls into Tier 5 once she has been assessed as suitable, and within the named parishes and wards priority goes to children eligible for Pupil Premium; a place still depends on how many remain after the earlier criteria have been applied.

If you live outside the proximity radius and the named parishes and do not qualify for the other Pupil Premium tier, your daughter falls into Tier 7 — the open-distance tier — and distance becomes the deciding factor. Families applying through Kent County Council can name up to 4 schools on their application and should consider Dartford Grammar School for Girls or other nearby Kent grammar schools among them.

Exam Content: Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning, Maths and English

The Kent Test comprises two multiple-choice tests and a writing exercise. Understanding the format is the first step to effective preparation.

Paper 1 — English and Mathematics (1 hour, multiple choice): Each section has a 5 minute practice exercise followed by a 25 minute test, and the English section is a comprehension exercise plus additional questions drawn from a set designed to test literacy skills. The multiple-choice format means speed and accuracy both matter — children must work efficiently under timed conditions. The maths section is particularly significant given the Governor Maths Places that reward exceptional performance.

Paper 2 — Reasoning (about 1 hour, multiple choice): This paper has a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length, and the non-verbal reasoning is split into short sections that are timed individually. Many children who are strong in literacy and numeracy still need targeted practice with the reasoning question types, which have their own conventions and timing demands.

Writing task (40 minutes): The writing exercise is not marked, but a local headteacher panel may use it as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process, and 40 minutes are allowed including 10 minutes of planning time. Our specialist tutors include creative and descriptive writing practice so the task feels familiar.

Results from the Kent Test are standardised: each child receives 3 standardised scores, for English, maths and reasoning, plus a total score. Standardisation compares her performance with the average performance of other children in each test, with a slight adjustment for age so that the youngest are not at a disadvantage. KCC gives the grammar school threshold for 2025 as a total score of 332 or more with no single score lower than 108, and says the 2026 threshold will be available in October 2026. See our guide to 11+ standardised scores explained for a detailed breakdown of how these scores work.

How Many Children Apply for Wilmington Grammar School for Girls?

With 180 Year 7 places available, the school's published priority order decides who is offered a place if preferences exceed places. Kent County Council says grammar schools in Kent provide for children in about the top 25% of the ability range. Being assessed as grammar suitable does not guarantee a place at a Kent grammar school, so passing the test is necessary but not sufficient for securing a place at WGSG.

Once looked-after children, siblings, staff children and the Governor Maths Places (up to 18) are allocated, the next criterion is Tier 5 — girls within 1.5 miles or in the named parishes and wards — and within the named parishes and wards priority goes to children eligible for Pupil Premium. Families outside the priority area who fall into the open-distance Tier 7 should not assume that passing the Kent Test will be enough, because places in that tier go by distance only after every earlier criterion has been applied.

A Supplementary Form must be sent directly to WGSG by 31 October 2026 if you have a child currently attending WGSG or WGSB, or if your daughter has been registered for free school meals in the last 6 years and you live within the parish boundaries or a 3 mile radius of the school. The form is not an application in itself — you must still apply through your local authority naming WGSG — and the school does not require it in any other circumstances, so check early whether it applies to you.

The waiting list is ranked by the same criteria and re-ranked each time a child is added. Offers are emailed by KCC on Monday 1 March 2027; WGSG's waiting list runs up to July 2028.

A Month-by-Month Preparation Plan

The Kent Test takes place in early September of Year 6. That gives families who start preparing in Year 4 or early Year 5 a substantial lead, and even families beginning later in Year 5 can make excellent progress with a focused, well-structured plan. The following timeline is geared towards families beginning preparation in September of Year 5.

September–December (Year 5): Build foundations in the four subject areas — arithmetic fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and an introduction to verbal and non-verbal reasoning question types. At this stage the goal is familiarity rather than speed: children should understand what each question type is asking before they practise against the clock. Reading widely — particularly non-fiction, newspapers and books above the child's comfortable level — accelerates vocabulary and comprehension in parallel.

January–March (Year 5): Introduce timed practice for individual question types. Focus on identifying where your daughter is weakest and dedicate extra sessions to those areas. Verbal reasoning question types each have their own conventions; working through them systematically now means they feel automatic by exam day. Non-verbal reasoning work should also be happening in short, regular sessions rather than long infrequent ones.

April–July (Year 5): Begin full practice papers under timed, exam-like conditions. Review errors carefully — understanding why an answer was wrong is more valuable than noting how many were incorrect. Start tracking standardised scores if using commercial practice papers that include age-adjusted scoring. Identify whether the Maths section is strong enough to be competitive for Governor Maths Places, as this changes the preparation priority.

Register for the Kent Test — 1 June to 1 July 2026: For September 2027 entry this window has closed; registration is made with KCC, not the school, and KCC's register page carries the dates for the round your daughter is entering.

July–August (summer holidays before Year 6): Consolidate and refine rather than introduce new content. Mix full mock papers with targeted revision of weaker areas. Build exam-day routines — fixed start time, quiet space, answer-checking strategies — so the test itself feels familiar rather than novel. The writing task deserves specific practice during this period: children who have never written under timed conditions often struggle with pacing regardless of their underlying ability.

Late August to early September (Year 6): In the final two weeks before the test, reduce the volume of practice and prioritise rest, consistency and confidence. A well-prepared child who is rested and calm will perform better than an exhausted child who crammed through the final weekend. On test day, ensure your daughter has a good breakfast, arrives early, and follows the instructions she has been given about what to bring. For a broader view of preparation pacing across all Kent schools, see our 11+ preparation timeline guide.

Expert 11+ Tutoring from Leading Tuition

We cover all four areas of the Kent Test — verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, maths and English — in a structured, personalised programme that adapts to your daughter's current level and targets the areas where improvement will have the greatest impact on her final score.

Sessions are available online, giving families flexibility while maintaining the focused, expert-led instruction that drives results.

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.

Reviewed September 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Kent County Council's Kent Test and secondary school places pages, WGSG's Admission Policy for Entry in September 2027 and key information page, GIAS and Ofsted.

Frequently Asked Questions