Dartford Grammar School for Girls

I have not had a good experience at this school at all. One positive about this school is the wellbeing team and how they approach students with learning disabilities or anything prohibiting them from doing well. However, the discrimination within the school is yet to come to an end. If you are an ethnic minority, try and look for a school like Townley Grammar because I recently wrote a complaint about the unjust behaviour from teachers in the school and a teacher laughed as they read it. Please attend a school that will take you seriously. It's really disappointing the way they go about situations and certain teachers will intimidate you in scenarios where you are doing the bare minimum. For example, you may be eating lunch quietly in their student support area and they'll kick you out. Not everyone is well adapted to the noise in the canteen and they should at least try to understand that. I also don't get why the student support area is designated for some people doing tests but at the same time, people can come in for paracetamol, medication, throwing up and all sorts. They need to sort out the rooms in the school because the reason why it's crowded in the first place is because all kinds of issues are taking place in there. The quality of teaching has really gone down from when I first came and the best staff left the team one by one.

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.

Corrupt school that does nothing to resolve, bullying, mental health issues or any other problem…unless it’s about your grades. In that case, they will shame and ridicule you and threaten you until you do well in your exams!

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.

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.

ruined my mental health. i barely started at the school and especially with online learning the teachers have been piling on work and not been there to help. i’ve developed issues with self harm which the school knows about and they’ve done nothing about. they care more about ur skirt length than u actually being there. favouritism is so obvious, a girl almost broke my arm and received no punishment but another girl was accused of shouting at a teacher and out in isolation. good if u want ur grades but mentally it’s a hellhole

Good school, I get amazing grades