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Kent's super-selective grammar schools: what score does your child actually need?

Your Kent Test results email landed on Thursday - three standardised scores, a total, and a one-word decision. If that word was 'grammar', your child can be considered by any of Kent's 32 grammar schools. But here's what the email doesn't tell you: at a handful of those schools, the score itself still decides who gets in.

Reviewed 19 October 2026 against kent.gov.uk

With the application deadline at midnight on Monday 2 November 2026 - exactly two weeks away - this is the guide to the schools where 345 is the entry ticket, not the finish line.

First, the 2026 threshold

For September 2027 entry, a grammar school assessment needed a total score of 345 or more, with no single score below 111 - a noticeable jump from last year's 332 and 108. Individual scores run from 69 to 141, so the highest possible total is 423. KCC's aim each year is to identify roughly the top 25% of the Kent cohort as grammar-standard - the threshold moves to fit the cohort, which is exactly why it moved this year.

Two things follow:

Two kinds of grammar school in Kent

Most of the 32 are distance schools. Once your child has passed, the deciding factor is where you live: looked-after children, pupil premium and siblings first, then whoever lives closest. At these schools a child scoring exactly 345 can beat a child scoring 410 if they live nearer. The score stops mattering the moment the pass email arrives.

A minority are score-ranked - the schools parents call "super-selective". Here the ranking runs on the total score itself, and distance is mostly a tie-breaker. For September 2027 entry, seven Kent grammars use score in a way that matters to your application:

Here's how each one works, from the schools' own determined 2027/28 admission policies.

The Judd School (Tonbridge, boys) - 180 places

The purest score school in Kent. 157 places go to boys in the inner area (defined by a list of postcodes) and 23 to the outer area, and within each area boys are ranked by their aggregate Kent Test score, highest first. Equal scores are separated by distance, then by a supervised random draw. Up to 5 inner-area places are reserved for boys eligible for free school meals or pupil premium, again ranked by score (this route needs the school's Supplementary Information Form). There is no catchment distance to hide behind: within each area, the score is the criterion.

Tonbridge Grammar School (girls) - 180 places

Three separate lists, two of them score-ranked:

Crucially, TGS sets no pre-determined cut-off. The school ranks every applicant, KCC matches everyone's preferences, and the "cut-off" is simply the score of the last girl offered on each list. The school publishes those actual cut-off scores on its website after 1 March each year - so for a realistic sense of what an offer has taken recently, look there.

The Skinners' School (Tunbridge Wells, boys) - 160 places

Skinners' writes its score rule directly into its admissions arrangements: priority goes to boys scoring at least 40 points above the KCC threshold. With this year's threshold of 345, that means 385.

The unusual part this year comes from the school itself. Because the 2026 pass mark is unusually high, Skinners' told parents on results day that the 385 entry point is also unusually high - and that it is very possible it will offer places to boys below 385 this year, as it has done before when the quota didn't fill. The school's advice: if you want Skinners', put it first. Because of how the preference system works, that costs you nothing (more on that below).

Dartford Grammar School (boys) - 180 places

Two categories, both score-ranked, with fixed score floors written into the policy:

Tied scores are separated by distance.

Dartford Grammar School for Girls - 180 places

DGGS works differently from the boys' school: there is no fixed score floor, but every criterion is ranked by score. The order is: looked-after children, then pupil premium (targeted free school meals - SIF with proof to the school by 1 November 2026), then 100 places reserved for girls in the Borough of Dartford or named parishes (including Swanley, Hextable and Horton Kirby & South Darenth), then all other eligible girls wherever they live. Within any oversubscribed criterion, the highest aggregate score wins; distance only breaks ties. In practice, the further you are from Dartford, the higher the score tends to need to be.

Wilmington Grammar School for Boys - 180 places

Wilmington is not a super-selective in the usual sense - most of its places go by sibling links, its 1.5-mile/named-parishes area and distance. But criterion 4 is a score route: up to 18 Governor Places (10% of the intake) for boys showing exceptional Kent Test performance excluding the maths test, living within 5 miles of the school. That's the one place in Kent where a brilliant English and reasoning pairing matters more than the total. Ties go by distance. The SIF (sibling or pupil premium only) is due by 31 October 2026.

Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School - 174 places

TWGGS is mainly a distance school: girls from its named parishes or within about 4 miles, ranked by nearness. But 17 of the 174 places are Governors' Places, offered to girls from the local area who would not otherwise get in, ranked purely by Kent Test score. For a local girl whose distance falls just short, a high score is a real second route in.

Why this year's higher threshold matters more at these schools

Rules pegged to the KCC threshold moved automatically when the threshold rose 13 points. "Threshold plus 40" was 372 last year; it's 385 now. "Threshold plus 20" moved from 352 to 365. If you're comparing forum posts or school data from previous years, convert them to points-above-threshold before drawing any conclusions - last year's "370 was enough" is not this year's benchmark.

The flip side: a higher threshold compresses the pool of children above these floors. Skinners' is already publicly managing expectations that its 385 rule may not fill its places this year. Nobody can promise where any school's line will land - that only becomes clear when offers are made on Monday 1 March 2027.

So what score is "good enough"?

The honest answer: nobody outside the allocation process can tell you, and anyone who does is guessing. Cut-offs are not targets - they emerge from who applied, how they scored, and how they ranked their preferences. What you can do this week:

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• kent.gov.uk - Kent Test results (2026 threshold and scores report); Secondary school admissions criteria 2027/28 (determined policies for The Judd School, Dartford Grammar School, Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, TWGGS) - all checked 19 October 2026
• Tonbridge Grammar School - Admission Policy 2027-28 (determined 28 January 2026) and Year 7 Guidance for Parents
• The Skinners' School - 2027 Year 7 admission information (15 October 2026) and admissions FAQs
• Kent County Council - Co-ordinated Scheme for Secondary Admissions 2027/28 (determined scheme)
• DfE Get Information About Schools - establishment records for The Judd School, TWGGS and DGGS