Dartford Grammar School for Girls 11+ guide

About Dartford Grammar School for Girls

Dartford Grammar School for Girls is a selective state school for girls aged 11 to 18. Rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted, it prides itself on being a vibrant and happy community where students flourish academically.

The school offers a range of extracurricular activities including an annual community science fair and partnerships with local businesses and universities. It is the home of Thinking Hard, a national programme to transform classroom teaching and support students' thinking.

How to apply to Dartford Grammar School for Girls

Dartford Grammar School for Girls is a selective school. This means that your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place. In Kent, the 11 plus is known as the Kent Test.

Registration for the 2025 Kent Test opens on Monday 2nd June 2025 and closes on Tuesday 1st July 2025. The exam will take place in September 2025 and you’ll receive your child’s results in mid-October. You can then use these results to decide whether to apply for a place at Dartford Grammar School for Girls.

To apply, you’ll need to name the school as one of your preferred schools on the secondary school common application form. This will be available on your home council website from early September and must be submitted by Friday 31st October 2025.

Remember – passing the 11 plus doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for Dartford Grammar School for Girls below.

What's on the Kent Test?

The Kent Test is made up of two multiple-choice papers and a short writing task. It’s designed to assess your child’s skills in English, maths and reasoning — and to help grammar schools identify potential.

Each paper lasts around an hour, and your child will mark their answers on a separate answer sheet (this gets marked electronically).

Here’s what to expect:

Paper 1: English and maths

This paper is split into one 30-minute section that tests English, and another 30-minute section which assesses maths.

Each section includes a short 5-minute practice activity. This part isn’t marked; it just helps your child get familiar with the questions.

What’s in the English section?

The English section is mainly made up of a reading comprehension task. There are also questions that check your child’s grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. These might include:

• Choosing the best word to complete a sentence

• Spotting spelling or grammar mistakes

• Finding synonyms or antonyms

What’s in the maths section?

Your child will be tested on what they’ve learned in school in maths up to the start of Year 6. They should feel confident with:

• Times tables

• The four operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing)

• Fractions, decimals and percentages

• Ratio

• Area, perimeter and measurements

Some of the questions might feel more challenging than usual. This is so your child can show how they use their knowledge to solve new types of problems.

Paper 2: Reasoning

This paper focuses on verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and spatial reasoning.

These topics aren’t usually taught in school. They’re included in the test to measure your child’s potential, not just what they’ve learned so far.

Verbal reasoning

This checks how well your child can solve problems using words, letters and numbers. For example, they might be asked to spot patterns in sequences or choose words with similar meanings.

• Time: 30 minutes

• Includes a 10-minute practice and a 20-minute test

Non-verbal & spatial reasoning

These sections use shapes, diagrams and patterns. Your child will need to spot similarities and differences, complete sequences, and mentally rotate shapes.

• Time: 30 minutes in total

• Broken into short, timed sections (each lasting around 4–5 minutes)

Each section starts with a short, guided practice session.

Creative writing task

All children also complete a short creative writing exercise. This isn’t marked as part of the main test, but it might be used if your child’s results are reviewed by a headteacher panel or at appeal stage.

The creative writing task lasts around 40 minutes, including 10 minutes for planning and 30 minutes for writing.

How does place allocation work at Dartford Grammar School for Girls?

Your child will get three standardised scores in the Kent Test – one each for English, maths and reasoning. They will also get one total (aggregate) score. Children need a total score of 332 or higher and no single score lower than 107 to qualify for a place at a Kent grammar school.

If more than 180 children applying to Dartford Grammar School for Girls achieve these scores, the school applies oversubscription criteria. Children are prioritised for places in the following order:

1. Children who are or were in Local Authority care.

2. Children who have had pupil premium (free school meals) at any point in the last 6 years.

3. 100 places are reserved for children who live in the school's priority area.

4. Any remaining girls.

If the school is oversubscribed within any of those criteria, children are ranked in order of their combined score in the Kent Test. When these scores are tied, preference is given to the child living closer to the school, measured in a straight line.

Dartford Grammar School for Girls priority area

The school's priority area includes the following parishes:

Ash-cum-Ridley, Fawkham, Stone, Bean, Hartley, Sutton at Hone and Hawley, Crockenhill, Hextable, Swanley, Darenth, Horton Kirby and South Darenth, Swanscombe and Greenhithe, Eynsford, Longfield and New Barn, West Kingsdown, Farningham, Southfleet, and Wilmington.