Kent grammar schools & catchment areas, in plain English.
Kent has more grammar schools than any county in England — 32 of them, every one selecting by the Kent Test. This page explains how Kent admissions work, how catchment areas differ from school to school, and lets you check your postcode against all 32. Then read a plain-English guide for each.
Check your postcode against every Kent grammar
See which catchments you fall inside, your distance to each school and your eligibility — free, no account needed.
Real, published boundaries and the latest distance cut-offs — not straight-line estimates.
How Kent grammar admissions work.
Every Kent grammar selects on the Kent Test — locally called PESE. Children sit it at the start of Year 6, usually in September; you register your child with Kent County Council over the preceding summer, separately from the school application itself. A few weeks later you receive a result saying whether your child has been assessed as “suited to grammar school”.
Applying is a separate step. You list your preferred schools — in order — on the Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF) you submit to your home council by 31 October. You can name Kent grammars even if you live in another county. Offers go out on 1 March.
If a school has more suitable applicants than places, it ranks them by its own published oversubscription criteria — children in care first, then usually siblings, then where you live. That last step is where catchment areas and distance come in.
How catchment areas work in Kent.
Kent grammars fall into two broad types. About 19 of the 32 have a defined catchment area — a named set of parishes, electoral wards or postcode districts. Live inside it and you get area priority; live outside and you drop to the “all other children” band.
The remaining 13 have no fixed area at all. They simply admit the nearest qualifying children, working outward until the year is full. The cut-off — the “last distance offered” — shifts a little every year with demand, so there is no permanent boundary, only an approximate radius.
That distinction matters when you are house-hunting: a defined-area school is binary (you are in or out), while a distance school is a sliding scale where every hundred metres counts. GrammarBound maps both — the real published areas and the latest distance cut-offs — so you can see exactly where you stand. Open the map or check your postcode above.
Every Kent grammar school.
All 32 grammar schools in Kent, grouped by area. Each links to a plain-English admissions guide with that school’s exact criteria, deadlines and distance rules.