Dartford Grammar School

Dartford Grammar School

Dartford Grammar School is a selective secondary school for boys aged 11-18 and admits girls to the sixth form. The school is one of a number of grammar schools in the area, whereby the intake of pupils is via the 11-Plus test and students admitted are in the top 25% of ability.

In fact, the school was founded by a lawyer, William D’Aeth, a merchant, Edward Gwyn and a landowner and philanthropist, William Vaughan inf 1576. Together they set up the terms of the school to donate land and property which would support a learned school teacher to lead a school for the teaching of the children of Dartford in the knowledge of grammar.

The Grammar school is now situated on Shepherds Lane, Dartford, having moved from when the school was founded in the High Street above Corn Market house.

So, the school moved in 1864 to the present site. The main old school building is now referred to as the Hardy Building. This was done in honour of the assistant to the school’s architect, Arthur Blomfield – a certain novelist, Thomas Hardy.

The School of Outstanding Status

Accordingly, the school has maintained an outstanding status and has three specialisms. So, it has Language College Status, an IB Programme, and a Science specialism. Then in 2007, the school became the first school in Britain. Also the first state school in the world, to teach the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme.

The students are divided into a system of five houses each with an individual colour, named after the three founders and two former distinguished students; D’Aeth (Yellow), Gwyn (Purple), Havelock (Red) – after General Henry Havelock, Vaughan (green), and Wilson (Blue) – after surgeon Sir Erasmus Wilson.

There have been a number of notable former pupils, including playwright and novelist Terence Frisby, meteorologist Henry Ambrose Hunt, poet Sidney Keyes, as well as a number of well-known musicians. Also, the guitarist Brian Pendleton and singer Dick Taylor who formed the band, The Pretty Things, were past students, whilst the founder of the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger too, was famously at Dartford Grammar School. An arts building bears his name today, in the grounds of the school.

Details about this school was brought to you by the local Plumbing Company Dartford.

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