Local authority · South East
Medway has 24 secondary schools in this dataset — 22 state-funded and 2 independent. 6 are selective, admitting on an entrance test; 2 have a religious character; 24 have a sixth form.
The typical school here posts a three-year Progress 8 of +0.12 (average) — 0.13 of a grade per subject above the national median of -0.01. That is the middle of the 16 schools in this area with a published score.
The spread inside the area is wider than the gap between areas: from -1.09 to +0.89. Which school a child goes to matters more here than which area you move to.
For 2026 entry the typical school here drew 1.01 first preferences per place — more pressure than the national median of 0.95×. 10 of the 19 schools with published figures were named first by more families than they had places for. A high figure means popular, not good, and it is not your chance of a place — that depends on where you live.
Overall absence runs at 8.6% for the typical school here, level with the national median of 8.7%. Absence is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average.
Ordered on the three-year average Progress 8, which is steadier than any single year. Read the confidence interval beside each score before you read the order: it is the range the school's true figure is likely to sit in, and a wide one means a small year group rather than an unpredictable school.
| School | Progress 8 | 95% interval | Attainment 8 | Pressure | Ofsted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical SchoolAcademy converter | +0.89well above average | +0.70 to +1.092023–24 | 70.4 | 1.67× | Outstanding |
| 2 | The Rochester Grammar SchoolAcademy converter | +0.75well above average | +0.45 to +0.892023–24 | 72.0 | 1.18× | Good |
| 3 | Fort Pitt Grammar SchoolAcademy converter | +0.58well above average | +0.41 to +0.872023–24 | 65.5 | 1.60× | Outstanding |
| 4 | Chatham GrammarAcademy converter | +0.41above average | +0.14 to +0.572023–24 | 61.3 | 1.23× | Good (ungraded) |
| 5 | Rainham Mark Grammar SchoolAcademy converter | +0.33above average | +0.10 to +0.462023–24 | 64.5 | 1.21× | Good |
| 6 | Holcombe Grammar SchoolAcademy converter | +0.17average | -0.09 to +0.392023–24 | 60.1 | 0.77× | Good (ungraded) |
| 7 | Rainham School for GirlsAcademy converter | +0.15average | +0.16 to +0.492023–24 | 44.9 | 1.01× | Strong standard (achievement) |
| 8 | The Thomas Aveling SchoolAcademy converter | +0.14average | -0.04 to +0.362023–24 | 43.4 | 1.14× | Good (ungraded) |
| 9 | The Howard SchoolAcademy converter | +0.10average | +0.07 to +0.422023–24 | 42.7 | 0.94× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 10 | Leigh Academy Hundred of HooAcademy sponsor led | -0.05average | -0.24 to +0.112023–24 | 42.2 | 0.83× | Good (Improving) (ungraded) |
| 11 | Leigh Academy StroodAcademy sponsor led | -0.37below average | -0.36 to +0.022023–24 | 38.2 | 0.81× | Expected standard (achievement) |
| 12 | St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive SchoolVoluntary aided school | -0.46below average | -0.79 to -0.302023–24 | 38.1 | 0.59× | — |
| 13 | Brompton AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.54well below average | -0.56 to -0.192023–24 | 36.7 | 1.71× | — |
| 14 | The Victory AcademyAcademy sponsor led | -0.55well below average | -0.55 to -0.162023–24 | 35.5 | 0.86× | Good |
| 15 | The Robert Napier SchoolAcademy sponsor led | -0.95well below average | -1.23 to -0.772023–24 | 30.4 | 0.43× | — |
| 16 | Waterfront UTCUniversity technical college | -1.09well below average | -1.23 to -0.572023–24 | 31.4 | — | Good |
2 of the 15 other schools ranked here have a confidence interval that overlaps Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School's. On these figures they cannot be told apart from the school at the top of the table, and the order between them is not a finding. 4 schools here have an interval that includes zero (shaded above) — those cannot be told apart from an average school nationally.
These are not bottom of the table — they are not in it. A school with no published score has not done badly; the measure was not calculated for it, and the reason differs.
| Greenacre School | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
|---|---|
| King's School, Rochester | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Leigh Academy Rainham | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Maritime Academy | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| MidKent College | Sixth-form or 16–19 site — no GCSE cohort, so no Progress 8 |
| Oasis Restore | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
| Rochester Independent College | Independent — no Progress 8 is calculated for fee-paying schools |
| Walderslade School | No Progress 8 published — usually a new school, a special school, or too small a cohort |
The most sought-after school in Medway for 2026 entry was Brompton Academy at 1.71 first preferences per place — 351 families named it first for 205 places.
Pressure is not a chance of admission. A school with two applicants per place can still admit every family living near it, while a less popular school further away turns you down. Distance from the gate is usually what decides it, and no national figure can tell you that for your own address.
See Medway on the map →The same schools on a map, with every filter: results, admissions pressure, Ofsted, faith and selection — or sorted by distance from your own postcode.Admissions do not stop at an authority line. If you live near one, your realistic list of schools spans both sides of it.
The results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, so they describe pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers sixth-form results, pastoral care, music, sport or drama, or how a school feels to walk around — which is what parents most often say settled it. The ranking is a starting point for a shortlist, not a verdict on a school.
Nor is it a prediction of a place. Admission depends on each school's criteria and, most often, on how far you live from it — and in Medway you apply for a state-funded place through the council's coordinated scheme, naming several schools in order of preference.