At a Glance

Introduction

Highworth Grammar School is an academically impressive selective school in Ashford, Kent, serving girls from years 7 to 13 with boys joining in the sixth form. The Schools motto ‘Ad Caelestia Sequere’ meaning ‘Reach for the stars’ epitomises and outlines their ethos. Highworth Grammar incorporates the teachings of world renowned Stanford University psychologist Dr Carol Dweck by encouraging a ‘growth mindset’ in their students such that they see their abilities, academically or otherwise, as constant opportunities for growth and development. This instils in students a desire for self betterment and a resilience against perceived downfalls, treating them instead as opportunities for growth. The progress 8 score discussed below suggests this is very much effective. A sense of community spirit, responsibility and leadership is build into the foundations of Highworth Grammar School as girls have numerous opportunities to pitch-in with the option to be trained as student librarians or in teaching languages. All students are involved in a system of ‘vertical tutoring’ whereby students are assigned to a supervised mixed age mentorship group providing the younger students with support and care whilst establishing leadership experience in the senior members. Further Leadership experience can be obtained via application to one of several student positions at the interface of staff and students including roles as a student governor, ambassador or prefect. 

Highworth Grammar School produces very strongly academically gifted girls with exceptional examination results. 100% of students received 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C by previous scoring) with 70% of students achieving the higher end of the scale at grades 9 to 7 (A* to A). Strong form continues into the sixth form, where 70% of students receive grades A* to B. Most impressive however is the Highworth Grammar Schools Progress 8 score of 1.04 which places it in the highest possible category ‘Well above average’ for pupil progress as compared to other schools. Progress 8 is a metric which compares schools based on how much progression students achieving similar grades at Key Stage 2 assessment had made by Key Stage 4 assessment (GCSE level). The School clearly has a positive effect on its students, improving their prospects to a greater degree than other institutions of its type. The latest Ofsted report attributed a grading of Outstanding to Highworth Grammar in every single category. 

Grammar School applications can be a confusing maze of different dates to make, criteria to fulfil, forms to file and assessments for your daughter to go through. At 11 Plus Hero we endeavour to provide you with a guide to all of the information you will need to make an informed decision about which selective Grammar School will best fit your daughter and how to prepare so that the selection test for Highworth Grammar School, The Kent Test, doesn’t seem like such a daunting prospect. To do that we provide familiarisation materials and practise papers to get used to the format of questions in these assessments.