Secondary school offers in Kent: offer day 2027

National Offer Day Monday 1 March 2027 · 104 secondary schools · first-choice odds, waiting lists and appeals

How likely is a first choice here?

For September 2026 entry, 78.9% of families living in Kent were offered their first-choice secondary school, against 83.6% across England. 702 families (3.8%) were offered none of the schools they named. Kent ranks 47 of 150 councils in England, hardest first (see every council).

50 of its 104 secondary schools had more first-choice applications than places.

The most sought-after, by first-choice applications per place offered: Dartford Grammar School (3.2 per place; grammar, 11+ needed), Dartford Grammar School for Girls (2.4 per place; grammar, 11+ needed), The Judd School (2.2 per place; grammar, 11+ needed), Tonbridge Grammar School (2.0 per place; grammar, 11+ needed), St John's Catholic Comprehensive (1.8 per place).

If you didn't get your first choice

1. Accept the place you were offered by the date in your offer letter. Accepting it does not affect a waiting list or an appeal, and a place that isn't accepted can be withdrawn.
2. Get on the waiting lists you want. Every school must keep one until at least 31 December of the year your child starts. It is ranked by the school's admission rules, not by when you joined, so a family moving closer can go above you. Some councils add you automatically for schools you ranked higher than the one offered; your offer letter says which.
3. Decide whether to appeal. You can appeal for every school that refused your child. You get at least 20 school days from the offer to lodge it, and on-time appeals must be heard within 40 school days of that deadline. The figures below show how often appeals succeed here.
4. Look at schools that took lower preferences. These are the likeliest to have room now.

Schools that took children who ranked them lower

For September 2026 entry these 48 schools offered more places than they had first-choice applications, so some went to families who put them second or lower. They are the likeliest to have room after offer day; ask Kent or the school.

• Alkerden Church of England Academy Ebbsfleet Valley
• Astor Secondary School Dover
• Aylesford School Aylesford
• Brockhill Park Performing Arts College Hythe
• Chilmington Green School Great Chart
• Folkestone Academy Folkestone
• Fulston Manor School Sittingbourne
• Goodwin Academy Deal
• Hartsdown Academy Margate
• Herne Bay High School Herne Bay
• Hillview School for Girls Tonbridge
• Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre Tenterden
• King Ethelbert School Birchington
• Knole Academy Sevenoaks
• Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet Swanscombe
• Leigh Academy Hugh Christie Tonbridge
• Leigh Academy Longfield Longfield
• Leigh Academy Mascalls Tonbridge
• Leigh Academy Tonbridge Tonbridge
• Leigh UTC Dartford Dartford
• Meopham School Gravesend
• New Line Learning Academy Maidstone
• Northfleet School for Girls Gravesend
• Northfleet Technology College Gravesend
• Orchards Academy Swanley
• Orion Spires Canterbury
• Sandwich Technology School Sandwich
• Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy Dartford
• Skinners' Kent Academy Tunbridge Wells
• St Augustine Academy Maidstone
• St Edmund's Catholic School Dover
• St Gregory's Catholic School Tunbridge Wells
• St Simon Stock Catholic School Maidstone
• Stone Lodge School Dartford
• Thamesview School Gravesend
• The Abbey School Faversham
• The Archbishop's School Canterbury
• The Holmesdale School Snodland
• The John Wallis Church of England Academy Ashford
• The Lenham School Maidstone
• The Maplesden Noakes School Maidstone
• The Marsh Academy New Romney
• The North School Ashford
• The Sittingbourne School Sittingbourne
• The Whitstable School Whitstable
• Ursuline College Westgate-on-Sea
• Valley Park School Maidstone
• Wrotham School Sevenoaks

How Kent decides places

Same 'nearness' principle applies under the Secondary Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme.

This covers the schools Kent sets the rules for. Academies, free schools and faith schools set their own; check each school's admission arrangements. Kent admissions.

Every secondary school: demand for 2026 entry

Sorted by first-choice applications per place, the most contested first.

Places offered is the number of offers made on national offer day, and first choices offered the share of families who put the school first and got it (Department for Education, September 2026 entry). Last distance offered is published by Kent, in a straight line from home to school: ¹ distance of the last child offered a place, under the distance criterion. ² distance of the last child offered a place, under the nearest school criterion. It moves every year with who applies, and siblings and other priority groups are offered places first.

Appeals in Kent

Secondary school appeals across all of Kent, from the Department for Education. Appeals are not published school by school. Across England in 2025/26, 19.5% of 27,084 secondary appeals heard were upheld. How appeal odds differ between councils.

More for Kent

• Every school in Kent, with catchment areas and Ofsted
• Starting school in Kent
• Map of schools near your home, with your chance of a place where we have the data