Gravesend's schools are one of the best things about living there. About nine in ten graded schools across the county are good or better. The town has two grammar schools of its own. A primary school is a short walk from most front doors. The classrooms are fine. The application form is where families lose sleep.
Across Kent, Ofsted has graded 221 of 245 schools good or outstanding, which is about nine in ten. Of those, 38 are outstanding. At the other end, 21 require improvement and 3 are inadequate. Another 255 settings across the county have no published grade yet, and they are left out of these counts. The figures cover all of Kent, from Dartford to Dover, so they describe the system Gravesend families apply into more than the school at the end of any one road.
Kent County Council allocates places by its published admissions rules, so living near a school in Gravesend does not secure a place in it, however short the walk. The Department for Transport modelled the trip in 2019 at about 8 minutes on foot to the nearest primary and about 18 minutes to the nearest secondary, or about 15 by public transport. That second figure is the one that changes when the offer letter names a school on the other side of town. The address that keeps the walk to Whitehill Primary School short is a planning decision, and the council will make its own.
The secondary choice has a shape all of its own. Gravesend Grammar School and Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend both admit by selection, and Mayfield, which used to be Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, counts the actress Gemma Arterton among its former pupils. Alongside them are Thamesview School and St John's Catholic Comprehensive, with Northfleet School for Girls and Northfleet Technology College on the western side of town. Two grammars in one town are a big draw for parents moving out of London, and those parents are the reason the tutoring starts in Year 4.
The primaries are spread across the estates, from the old town to Riverview Park and Singlewell, and the families in Chalk, Shorne and Cobham have village primaries of their own nearer to home. One of the town's independent prep schools has closed, so any older guide that still lists it as an option is out of date. Check each school's latest Ofsted report yourself, because the county-wide figures above cannot tell you how one particular school is doing.
For schools, Gravesend is about as good as a buyer can reasonably hope for. Most of what is on offer is rated good or better, and the grammars give it a pull that towns of the same size usually lack.