Weald of Kent Grammar School

Weald of Kent Grammar School is a large selective girls’ grammar school with a mixed sixth form, operating across Tonbridge and Sevenoaks sites as a single-academy trust. This graded inspection found the school performing well across the board, a marked improvement from the previous inspection. Leaders and trustees have driven a cultural shift that staff, pupils and parents have bought into, and provision is consistent across both campuses. Safeguarding arrangements are effective. Pupils achieve very well, including in the sixth form. Teachers are knowledgeable and enthusiastic, the curriculum is ambitious and sequenced, and reading is promoted well. Pupils with SEND are supported to access the full curriculum, and disadvantaged pupils’ attainment gaps are closing. Behaviour is calm and purposeful, attendance is improving, and the transformed PSHE programme plus a broad extracurricular offer support pupils’ personal development. Staff feel changes have been managed supportively. The main concerns are attendance for some groups, especially pupils with SEND, which remains lower than peers and is not always monitored with a full picture of underlying issues, so those pupils miss learning and opportunities. Careers information, advice and guidance is still being embedded, and some pupils do not feel fully confident about their next steps. The school is also continuing to refine curriculum sequencing to close relative gaps in understanding.

Strengths

• Pupils achieve very well, including students in the sixth form.
• Teachers have strong subject knowledge and provide clear, insightful explanations.
• The curriculum is ambitious and challenges pupils to think deeply as scholars.
• Teachers check understanding rigorously, including by asking pupils to explain and prove answers.
• Reading is promoted well, with support for pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• Pupils with SEND benefit from supportive strategies and access the full breadth of learning.
• Disadvantaged pupils' attainment gaps are closing, and sixth-form students with SEND achieve exceptionally well.
• Behaviour is calm and purposeful, with no low-level disruption.
• Attendance has been on an upward trend, and staff work sensitively with persistently absent pupils and families.
• The transformed PSHE provision addresses important online and real-life themes.
• Pupils enjoy a broad extracurricular programme, including trampolining, robotics and cooking.
• Leaders and trustees have acted strategically and managed change supportively with consideration for staff workload.
• Staff, pupils and parents feel listened to and involved in the school's culture shift.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Attendance for some groups, including pupils with SEND, remains lower than their peers.
• The school's attendance monitoring does not always bring together a full picture of the issues faced by pupils with SEND.
• Some pupils miss learning and opportunities because of lower attendance and do not achieve as highly as they could.
• Careers information, advice and guidance is not yet fully embedded.
• Some pupils do not feel fully confident about making decisions about their next stage of education.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Weald of Kent Grammar School attended 93.2% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 20.7% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 1.1% of pupils at Weald of Kent Grammar School were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 2 pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Weald of Kent Grammar School had 17.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 8.3% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 2.6% of pupils at Weald of Kent Grammar School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 0.2% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Weald of Kent Grammar School received £7,095 and spent £7,402 for each of its 1,902 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £968,000 (£509 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

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• Secondary Schools

All schools in Tonbridge · Kent local authority: places and applications

What is Weald of Kent Grammar School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Weald of Kent Grammar School is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Weald of Kent Grammar School last inspected by Ofsted?

Weald of Kent Grammar School was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Weald of Kent Grammar School have?

Weald of Kent Grammar School has 1,913 pupils on roll.

What age range does Weald of Kent Grammar School cover?

Weald of Kent Grammar School for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Weald of Kent Grammar School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 69.3, and 95% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Weald of Kent Grammar School?

Weald of Kent Grammar School is at Tudeley Lane, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 2JP.