Dartford Grammar School for Girls

Very good grades and teaching, and good facilities apart from some wires in the ceiling in some of the classrooms. Some of the teachers are concerning though.

Great GCSE grades & good curriculum. However, the teachers and some students are a bit concerning.

Bit annoying that some of the reviews are locked behind a paywall else I would have a field day reading them all out, especially in the company of my friends (me and my friends all agree this school is the worst) but I've definitely got my fair share of things to say!!
I'm slightly terrified of the fact that even me writing this review could put me into trouble (pretty sure my teachers could otherwise discern who it is speaking) so I've decided to make everything that bit more... vague.
I'm still keeping a lot of it in the review though. I don't think I'm scared of whatever corporate punishment they can throw my way... I'm already overwhelmed by my anxiety, so I'd probably just end it haha...

(Kidding! I'm feeling a lot better lately. My point is more that we all know you oppose free speech here in more ways than one, and if SLT dare try anything to do with this review I wouldn't put up with it :] like at all.)

Perhaps I'll write another review a few years down the line detailing it all, but whatever.

This school is terrible. And I mean TERRIBLE. Well, not for those hardy kids who can take relentless assignments and such... You'll be fine if you're extremely organised.
There are a few upsides, such as good teachers etc. but the food is terrible and sometimes there's even MOULD in the food.
Even reading through what reviews weren't behind paywalls made me shudder.
I think everyone hates it here, not least because they only care about grades...

If you really want to attend this school after reading this review, then by all means do! But please, only do if you can make sure that you're able to be perfectly mentally well ALL OF THE TIME. A good selling point is that you start your GCSEs in Year 9. It's the reason I'm stuck here, actually. Other than the "shame" fellow desi relatives could probably bring down upon my family for moving from a grammar school, I don't want to repeat content I already know. And I certainly don't want to be limited to a certain grade. This school still has sets (they might deny it at first) but we all do the higher papers.

But the problem is that everyone has to take their subjects following the EBACC - everyone has to take a language from two of either French, Spanish or German, everyone has to take either History or Geography (if not they bully you into it) and if there's not enough people taking your option subject? They cancel it. They bloody cancel it. Okay, three students in my year couldn't do Art Textiles on their own, but couldn't they get the qualification while sitting in an Art lesson? They took Art instead, which is honestly fine, but that's not the worst of it. Same goes for Psychology being overbooked. They judged it off of grades, but what about consulting students first? What about careers? They don't care about that though. PE was cancelled for my year. Why? Maybe it was because TWO LESS PEOPLE than they "needed" took it so they SHUT IT ALL DOWN. There were students who wanted to be SPORTS COACHES and now they CAN'T, not to mention they all had to REPLAN THEIR CAREERS. They complained. Everyone did. And nothing changed. Someone got stuck with Psychology instead of Drama because they changed their minds and told their form tutor (you're allowed to in exceptional circumstances) AND IT WASN'T PASSED ON.

But more than that I really HATE this school's attitude to everything.
Feeling sick? Here's a paracetamol!
You can sit in SS2 but only for one period! We only send you home if you're throwing up or have broken a limb.
Feeling depressed? You're truanting from school! And you were supposed to ring me!
Ring a deputy head at 7 in the morning? I'm not her kid! Why on earth would my mum do that?? But that's what she told my mum she should have done. Like what??
And truancy in this school means you get double the amount of lessons missed AS A DETENTION. This safeguarding teacher knew of all of my mental ills, and decided it was high time to threaten me with TEN HOURS OF DETENTION (we have five one-hour periods per day). Like that'd help my sobby panic attack subside.

This school only offers a small handful of clubs to my knowledge. Sports, mostly.
I can't tell you what clubs I'm in because one of two is small enough to the point that the only student in common is ME but I'm very fond of making music, writing poetry and animating... And I have had no time for my hobbies due to all the homework we get set.

The boys school? They have a homework timetable so teachers don't happen to set homework all due the same day.
But we don't have that!
At least, I wasn't lucky to ever see it.
Most mention it gets in our planners is that they stopped giving it to us to make us more responsible learners.
That's paraphrased.
I don't want to open my bag to check it.
I don't even want to look at my planner...

I ended up with six assignments due on one day (two assignments for one period), okay? I've stayed up night after night and crammed assignments the day before they're due. Why?
Teachers set a LOT of work. Especially during COVID, in lessons where you would otherwise work through three slides you instead were asked to complete an entire PowerPoint...
Hasn't changed, really. You work through less but some teachers are very inconsiderate when it comes to pace.
The thing is, I'm brown, with a single mother and two siblings. And the thing is my family actually want to spend time with me! So spending every night working or revising isn't possible!!

This school offers no support for students who aren't extremely speedy and I am a good student, just a slow learner. I got 98% in my 11+. I get 60-80% in my summatives. I'm above their Minimum Expected percentages and I'm above their Grade 7-9 indicators. I'm not incapable.

And yes, there are indeed support sessions.
But lunch is only 40 minutes and breaktimes are only 15.
And I REALLY don't want to waste my time queueing for terrible food when I can be with my friends instead...

Speaking of, the food is now wholly overpriced, badly made and terribly under-seasoned. In my time here, (three years) two sandwiches went from £1.20 to £2.65, and main meals went from £1.90 (including dessert) to £2.85 (excluding desserts, so £1 extra for those) AND THE NEW CATERING COMPANY ISN'T EVEN GOOD.
Queues take up to half of your lunchtime or all of your breaktime to get through, there were entire school years where half the line was refused food day after day because there aren't enough tills to get through everyone before lunch ends - if they didn't run out of food first, that is.

I make up for it by focusing always when I can and by just studying hard in general, but it's tiring...

I've written so much and yet I can't do any of this justice.
Is the headteacher even told about what goes on in this school? Her office is so neat and tidy and cosy and outside the walls' paint is peeling off in places and some guy paints it every now and again after school for a few hours... but that's one guy versus an entire school, PLUS the paint has to dry before the next day! Not practical.

Skirts? I saw a few white girls in the year above me who wore them way above their knee, never sanctioned.
Some brown girl whose skirt was barely showing the middle of her kneecap? Sanctioned immediately.
I wear a skirt but I wear it well below the knee.

This review is so messy!! I don't really write reviews. I'm a very waffly person :)

But honestly the main takeaway is this school only cares about grades. Grades and attendance and looking good.
Your effort grade is below the year average? Do better.
But it's an average?? It's not concrete?? Teachers will judge it on anything and averages mean around half the year can be below it?? Doesn't matter.
You were ill because of neglect from your father? Nah, you're probably lying.

There's so much I can say and there's so much I should redact from this...
But please, no matter what, I highly suggest you stay away from this school.

It has made me mentally ill and an anxious mess and I realised this school was bad for me in December of my Year 7 here but I couldn't leave because we'd moved here from outside Dartford just to be overloaded with stress and for the police to be called on my mother (without asking me) as soon as they caught wind of some fight we'd had that I was upset about...

I'm in Year 10 now and I'm 15. This has been the worst three years of my life and my friends are the only ones who have kept me going. But please don't send your kids here.

It's not worth it.

(thanks for reading i suppose... also sorry for bad grammar esp with commas etc., i just suck at using them correctly :D
oh and i hope anyone who is reading this has a nice day ^^)

I’ve been at DGGS since year 7. All I can take from this school is that the teaching is better than most, but if you want a school that takes pride in its students unacademic interests and boosts confidence, this isn’t the place for you.

The students at this school are inflated with the idea from day 1 that they are the best of the best, and are of a higher standing than other students in the UK. It is a grammar school, yes, however it is this idea that you are above everyone else that leads to some nasty behaviour from the pupils. It isn’t encouragement, it is a threat. “You’re the brightest in the country, act like it” should be their motto.

These girls are not punished for bullying. Racism, homophobia, and other horrible means of bullying aren’t dealt with in a way that is preventative. I suffered from whole class exclusion by my peers, being bullied for my interests, and received so little support from any teams within school. I suffered emotional abuse by another pupil for 3 years and whenever I would alert a member of staff about the things I was told (thoughts of self-harm, abuse from parents, and generally threatening messages) the teachers promised me they would take it seriously and look into it- but they didn’t. Just a little “are you alright?” chat and that was all. The emotional abuse continued and her behaviour towards me has affected me long term, enough that I have felt anxious and depleted going into school, and am now on anti-depressant medication because of the treatment from these girls.

There is a social hierarchy here, and if you don’t fit into the groups of “geniuses” or “populars” you’re treated awfully. There’s also a large issue of racism towards white people, since the majority of students here are from minority groups. This is overlooked and is damaging to the community as a whole. Let me make it clear that there is no racism to minority groups here, the students make sure of it.

This school isn't physically violent, but the well-being of students is completely disregarded.

Do not let the good grades fool you. The teaching is excellent and there is a number of clubs and extracurricular activities available to students to make them “well rounded” as citizens.

The catering is quite expensive, considering the quality, but of course there are free school meal schemes if applicable to your situation.

This school pushes for university education. In the instances where I talked about my outside of school activities (which I strive to make a career out of) I was met with unenthusiasm and disappointment. To a child’s self esteem, this was really detrimental.

If your child manages to get into this school, I am really happy for them because there is a huge demand for spaces here. But if you want to ensure your child’s love for learning stays intact, and hope they have a really positive community, this is not the school for them.

I am an ex-student and I feel like there are many ways this school should improve. First of all, they make such a big deal about diversity when they don't let us express our cultures in any way apart from a few assemblies and a culture week. They only care about making us clones of each other who have perfect grades.

Ruined my mental health twice already and haven't even finished the year. Only way of support is student support (which I am genuinely scared of) and subject support clubs which you can't really back out of if you get bad test scores. Really overwhelming.

This school is absolutely in shambles. I’m not sure if it was ever this terrible years ago but whatever is encouraging students to bring their children here is no longer existing. Send them to a Bexley school for a fair share of academics and in general feeling safe coming to school everyday. The teachers absolutely drag on their superiority and never listen to students even when the teachers are recognisably wrong. They have no pride in their students whatsoever and spend hours making long diversity assemblies to prove a point (them not being racist) rather than them actually applying what they say in those assemblies to the school community. Giving a black student an orange card one hour after school detention for saying a slur in their racial group but giving a yellow card to a white student which is practically just a warning? Tearing down blm posters which were put up by upset students who just wanted the school to touch the topic which turned out to be too "political and controversial" for them. They don’t care about mental health and will claim they do but only have staff who cover it and hold assemblies to promote it because of the reputation in the same way they do for diversity assemblies. I don’t think they understand, grades can’t be achieved when the basis of a person hasn’t either. Whether that’s their mental health or familiarity and love for the school. No one’s getting 9’s for every subject when they have none. The teachers are absolutely terrible

The senior leadership team are honourable nominees when it comes to not being considerate, reasonable and showcasing equality. Especially the individual members of staff who claim they care for mental well-being. No one is going to open up to you when you present yourself in such a manner. The only teacher from that side of the members of staff who is considerate and treats their job in a rational way is the head teacher. Everyone else is undeniably unfair to the students of different backgrounds or students who are struggling within school. The supply teachers are too rash with how they treat students who were unfortunate enough to not have an actual teacher teaching them and of course the senior leadership team will stick up for them no matter who’s in the wrong. Superiority can never be a thing in school in the view where a teacher should be able to control students like puppets. Without students would they even be teaching? The only people that do care for well-being are the student support teachers which is quite an embarrassment and catastrophe to the actual teachers who ‘excel’ in that category.

Not a great school. I got a yellow card the other day from this teacher who I will not name because I didn’t get my head of year to sign the time I went to the toilet in my planner after it hit my third time. 1. No one was told beforehand about this being the consequence and all of a sudden all of the whole class received a yellow card for a distasteful reason. 2. How can teachers leave lessons for things like leaving to go to the toilet too or other "unimportant" things and expect us to still be on our best behaviour but when it’s the other way round they will be keen on detentions. 3. We already get a signature from teachers when we’re out of lesson so the odds of us still having to get an extra one from our head of year is just confusing me. 4. We are humans and we have urgent bathroom situations just like every teacher has had too. They’ve all been in our shoes yet treat us so awfully even besides this whole toilet issue. Especially those of colour. The day a student in one of my classes just stood up and left to go to student support after the teacher wouldn’t let her whilst she was complaining of sickness and nausea, I just wanted to applaud her. No one deserves to be objectified to their own right or have teachers tell them when their bladder should be prepared to go and when it shouldn’t. They need to focus on bigger issues like their long term racism.

The school seemed like such an amazing place before I was sent there. From facilities to it being a grammar school and now being a student there, I have yet to seen what people describe the school as.

1. Academic wise they appear to be great and they offer clubs just like any other school for those who are struggling. Teachers could work on how to not make students feel uncomfortable or out of place however. From previous days, I’ve heard students mention how a teacher made the students read their exam results to the rest of the class. Teachers holding students back from their lunch time just because they didn’t finish class work set ten minutes to the end of the lesson or one or two students have misbehaved. Teachers really know how to make students feel uncomfortable in lessons too when they put them on the spot in front of the whole class and think through words they’ll immediately pick up what the teacher is teaching especially when they’re new to the course. Definitely more interactive lessons needed too, most of my year group have never felt more out of place when meeting new people due to the tense atmosphere these teachers present.

2. Music lessons are slightly overpriced considering most don’t run through the whole term but just the half term. There could be more performing clubs rather than sport clubs too but even with sport clubs they often cancel rather quickly or they divide the people attending into groups to lessen their time in these extracurricular clubs

3. More options on school trips and P.E lessons. It is necessary to do p.e lessons I agree but they need to not reinforce it the way they do to KS3 students as majority of the year group I’m in had not even chosen it as a GCSE subject. They could reduce the p.e lessons (which is not that easy I know and is probably the worser option) or they could let the year group decide what sports they’d like to play. It’s really upsetting seeing people make excuses to why they won’t participate in p.e or seeing them go to another p.e class’s lesson and still get in trouble.

3. Uniform rules are absolutely abnormal. They are extremely traditional and it just doesn’t match up with the fact that we’re living in 2022 not 1865. They make long assemblies about how we should express ourselves and how they are proud of diversity but that’s not possible with their ‘rules’. People don’t get disciplined by these rules but rather angry at them and I definitely agree. We attend an all girls school for a matter of fact, we attend a school that should be appreciative of rights women are able to get today in comparison to hundreds of years ago. No one is distracted by the colour of someone’s hair or the way they dress as we’ve all been sent here to get an education not to be judged or locked up in student support for dressing in our own ways. We are not clones of each other and we are not robots, we should be unique every single day and not be invited to dress up only once a year on culture day especially after how the school responded to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Hair has been a rollercoaster too, beads and hair colours are a part of certain culture’s traditions. So many other grammar schools out there with traditional values such as Townley Grammar allow students to have these done to their hair since they are proud of each and every one of their students heritage. When I see other students walk in with a different natural hair colour from their own and I am not allowed even just brown hair braids, I just think to myself how is this even possible?

4. Mental well-being. I thought I was comfortable talking to a teacher about how I feel and how I felt in the school environment until other staff were informed and they started underestimating my issues. A report of the amount of times students go to student support have been sent recently and it’s more of a way to encourage parents into thinking students are leaving lessons just to miss them. I can assure you no one wants to leave secondary with poor grades especially with this schools reputation and it’s such a shame they see it this way especially after me having to share such private issues with them. If someone is unwell or needs the toilet, you can’t stop them. It’s basic human rights. Even a year ago someone requested to use the toilet due to getting their first period and they even informed the female teacher about it and she still ignored. It was only until the whole class started to argue with her she was fed up.

5. Teachers being overly superior. As a student I have committed to listening and accepting what my teachers have been saying for years, since primary school. It’s only when students have had enough of these extreme words and they try to reason with the teacher, they are given unfair sanctions. Supply teachers here are especially good at this and the school needs to work on which supply teachers they’re hiring. Some will make up stories or twist words just for validation and to rub it into students faces that they’re more superior. Some will get the whole class in trouble for what one student did and you have no idea how much this has affected relationships between students and beyond.

I should’ve left when I had the chance to. Inform someone before it’s too late.

A note for future reference
1. Black Lives Matter is not ‘political’. It’s not any ethnic minority’s fault overall that some people won’t accept them just for how they were born
2. Someone was given a yellow card for use of a racial slur and they were not apart of that ethnic group. Someone who was a part of that ethnic group also used it and received an after school detention.
3. Coloured hair was once allowed until a teacher argued years back about a poc with pink braids and that person then pointed out that all the other people in the playground had dyed hair too and the teacher didn’t complain about it. They ‘cancelled’ coloured hair overall just to avoid such conflict
4. A friend of mine started wearing trousers, in fact there was a period where most of my year mates were doing so due to all the pressure and drama created by teachers when they wore skirts. A former male teacher would also make inappropriate comments about student’s skirts even just in our second year at the school. Instead of making stricter rules to create less ‘distraction’, double check who you’re hiring. When my friend wore trousers, a teacher commented "you’re quite thin aren’t you?" After stopping them to interrogate whether or not they were wearing skinny trousers. This is something my peer can’t help? Please have some more decency.
5. When teachers come in however they want, or dye their hair in brighter shades did they ever think how much of a distraction it may be to the students observing them? To be honest, I wasn’t being serious there but if they’re bothered by students being distracted by other students dying their hair, then what about the teachers? The focus of the lesson. Teachers can walk in twenty minutes late and leave the class clueless for that time being then blame it on traffic or being far away but if we’re a minute late it’s an instant sanction. Someone walked in a minute after a very late teacher and still was sanctioned.

If you want your child to get good grades then, by all means, send her to a grammar school but think twice when you send her to this one.

I'd like to say I have garnered a good judgment at this school after being here for many years and I can say this school caters to no one but themselves and their image.

A. If you are a female, which most students here are, and you decide to wear a skirt, the school requires it to be knee-length. God forbid a teacher see it any higher for it would be too distracting for anyone to concentrate. There may be no male students in class but there are male teachers who seem to be the ones who are finding the length of my skirt, which should be my business, but is clearly not a distraction.

B. What if you're a person of color in this school. What if someone has been making you feel unsafe as well. What about the teachers doing nothing when a person, who is not of that minority, says an offensive slur but when someone of that minority says it they are given isolation for no reason at all. Doesn't this take away from their learning as well?

Here are some of the things that you will be asked and told by teachers in this school community:

1. "Did you say anything to the white students involved first which caused them to say this."
2. "We don't want people to think that BLM is a political campaign."
3. "Why are you dwelling on issues that happened 400 years ago." (In reference to slavery)

C. What if you're a homosexual child at this school and the teachers are aware of this.
"Do you feel uncomfortable about your mental health because you are gay?" is one question among many invasive ones that have been asked and, when a child says they do not want to speak about said matters, they are told that they have to move forward. Parents are brought into a situation whether a child wants this or not because, despite what the school says, they don't want to help a child move forward, they want as few problems for themselves as possible. They don't make a safe environment for children to be able to come to teachers when homophobic comments are made within the classroom and that is not right.

What about the teachers fetishizing lesbian relationships? What about the teachers encouraging the students when they make the same remarks?

Quite frankly, the only thing that the school says they want is "academic excellence" and guess what, that is all they want.

D. What if you have a transgender student in the school? What if your child changes their name but they feel too uncomfortable to change it in the register? Well, that isn't enough for a teacher to show some respect and use it. Even when names are changed in the register, a teacher feels like deadnaming a student is more to their liking because of said teacher's preference or because that teacher's memory will fail them anyway. What about the child who feels worse every time they hear their dead name? The teacher makes it seem as if it is okay for other students to do what they are doing. It is wrong and hurtful. It's also funny how a teacher can call a cisgender child their preferred chosen name. This is not all teachers but, it's sad to say, most teachers do follow this trend. Let me not get started on pronouns either because this could go on forever.

E. What about a child whose mental health is not as good as others are in the school. The teachers say they want to help and that they have to tell someone else, and your parents if you are feeling upset. What if the child's parents, or the someone you say you must tell, are the problem? They tell our friends that is better to tell a teacher when our friend is feeling down but where does trust with friends come into that if we're constantly afraid something we don't want to share will be found out? This stops people from venting and when a teacher does find out or is told, things are not shared exclusively with the student so they at least know what is going on? We are given people to go to but can we rely on them to be there when we need them? Students have been told to just go to class or to get a drink of water but how is a drink of water or a trip to a classroom going to help a child in their time of need.

F. Let me talk about a newer issue. The pandemic. When over half of a certain year in the school was sent home for being in close contact with at least half a class of infected students, instead of sending the whole year home, they only sent those in close contact. What a coincidence that that same week, the number of covid cases within our school, and Kent, spiked.

These are just the bigger problems faced in this school which prides itself on academic excellence and helping raise a child for the future but there are smaller ones. Children are being bombarded with homework, forced to partake in activities they do not wish to partake in because they must be "raised to survive in the world of work" rather than feel comfortable.
I really haven't gotten into everything. I have failed to mention the unrealistic canteen times for the older students who must wait till 1:30 before they are allowed to eat which, last time I checked, was a basic human right. When they go for food, there is no food left and they are forced to eat a cold tuna sandwich rather than warm food.

When all these problems are raised, what does the school do? Hide, cover, and bury the truth along with a student's good mental health, will to try, and want to strive to that academic excellence. Honestly, most of the students can't wait to leave especially when the teachers who they are supposed to go to are the ones at the forefront who are trying to bring students down.

If you think that scaring your child into academic excellence is the way to go then, go ahead, send them to this school, but if you'd rather save your child from 5-7 years of trauma, do not!

The only way I could see this school as good is if you’re trying to kill yourself, because honestly, they could not give less shits.
They have the reputation from outsiders that they want- a good school with students who achieve high grades. That is all they care about. Do yourself a favour. Do not go.

From the outside the school seems honourable. Nice facilities and good grades. Don't send your kids here, don't go here. They will be miserable. They have no freedom of expression. The school promotes creativity and good mental health and yet they are the reason many students have terrible mental health and no motivation. A number of racist rules are in place, and even if students bring up the issues within the school, they are coveres up with performative action that does not solve anything.

The school may be considered as ‘outstanding’ by ofsted but they are really quite the opposite. Behind closed doors, they are blatantly homophobic and racist,, especially the majority of the deputy heads,, and don’t care if you’re struggling with mental health. You’re just supposed to ‘cope’.

For instance, there was one BLM peaceful protest,, which, bear in mind, was not ‘violent’ in any way,, to show how the students support and care about the black ethnic minorities in our community, but the school repeatedly made a big fuss about it to hide the fact that they did not support the cause.

They only care about grades, if your skirt is at your knees or below (practically all of the male teachers find it distracting if it’s any higher), and whether you have a flash on your blazer. If you ask anyone who attends this school, I can guarantee you that they would say their mental health has gradually been declining as each day progresses.

Overall, if you’re considering sending your child here because of their ‘excellent’ reputation, I advise you to rethink your decision — I certainly would have if I had known how students have been made to feel.

the school completely disregards mental health, its extremely stressful and teachers are unapproachable.

Schools okay I guess. Teachers and heads/deputies basically only care about grades and whether your skirt is above the knee or not. No room for self expression, you basically just become a number. Students are rude and self obsessed, you’re basically only popular if you’re rich. Good luck.

Good school, I get amazing grades