General Information for Applicants

History

Gad’s Hill School was founded in 1924 at Gad’s Hill Place, the former home of the author Charles Dickens and who lived here for 14 years until his death (in our dining room) in 1870.

The school was, for much of its history, an independent girl’s school serving North West Kent and at various stages it took boarders but has mostly been, as it is today, a day school. During the 1980s the school admitted boys into the Kindergarten (Key Stage 1) and Junior School (Key Stage 2) and in September 2001 the school became fully co-educational admitting boys into the Senior school.

The School

Gad’s HillSchool operates as three distinct departments within one school. The Kindergarten takes children from age three into the Nursery through to Year 2 with a maximum of 20 pupils per class. Pupils follow the National Curriculum although there is a strong emphasis on play, physical education, music and drama with all pupils performing in a number of short productions each year. The school places particular emphasis on communications and therefore pupils from Reception upwards receive twice weekly lessons in French and also ICT.

The Junior School is also one form entry with the exception of our Year 6 which has two classes each of 20 pupils. The curriculum adheres to Key Stage two of the National Curriculum with Literacy and Numeracy (and some other subjects) being taught by form tutors. However, our Junior pupils receive a high proportion of lessons with subject specialists; in particular French, DT, ICT, Art, Music, Science & Games. By Year 6 nearly all lessons are delivered by specialist tutors. Pupils also increase their communication skills as we expand the provision of French and ICT. There is a particular emphasis upon team games and almost all of our students have the opportunity to represent the school in fixtures against other schools. The Kindergarten and Junior School are managed on a day-to-day basis by the Head of Kindergarten & Juniors Fiona McPherson.

Head of Senior School, Alexander Bertwistle, manages the SeniorSchool. The Senior school isthree-form entry and receives a large intake of children at 11+ entry from other independent and state Junior schools. The curriculum is geared towards GCSE success with all pupils taking a broad spread of subjects (English, English Literature, Maths, Science, DT, ICT, Geography, History and French). Students choose a limited range of options at the conclusion of Key Stage 3. They follow a core of Maths, English (Literature + Language), French, Science, ICT. As options they may choose from a humanities subject (History or Geography), Art, DT, Music, Drama, PE and CCF (BTEC – Public Service).Our GCSE curriculum is broad, suits most pupils and provides a firm foundation for sixth form and university entry.

At present there is no sixth form education at Gad’s and pupils currently depart for local grammar schools (80%) or colleges (15%) or other independents (5%). The school is currently buildinga new purpose built school on site and which will eventually release the grade one listed mansion for use as a heritage centre. This will benefit the school enormously and would also enable the school to expand sufficiently to introduce post-sixteen education. The projected completion date for phase one is 2013 with the start of the second phase scheduled for 2018.

At present the school operates a good number of after school activities and would welcome new additions to the extra-curricular programme.

School Ethos

The current Headmaster, Mr David Craggs, was appointed in September 2000 and the school has since embarked upon a period of substantial redevelopment, expansion and success.

The school achieves excellent academic results with 90-100% of pupils leaving Gad’s with GCSE A*-C pass grades (including Maths & English) each year. The school was top of the DfES league tables for Kent and Medway in 2003-05.In 2011 was named by the BBC, Times, Telegraph as the top performing independent school in the country as well as the 8th best school (including state schools) overall. Demand for the entry to the school is strong and the school population has more than doubled in size. There are waiting lists for many of our year groups.

That said; we are not an academic hot-house. We place a priority on our children enjoying school and one way in which we do this is to ensure that there is plenty of drama, music, competitive games, swimming, trips, visits and a CCF to keep our children occupied, challenged and inspired. Most of these things never appear in a league table but we believe that by ensuring children enjoy their time here they are much more likely to contribute in all aspects of their school life and this benefits the academic side too.

At Gad’s we pride ourselves on being a small friendly school, where academic success is valued along with the recognition that there are many other attributes which a good school will offer to best prepare a child to live their lives. The joy and agony of team games, the discipline and concentration of learning an instrument, the confidence and challenge of performing to an audience, the awareness of the complex world around them, the care and concern for others and the opportunity to shape their destiny.

Employee benefits

The school actively promotes continued professional development and is willing to cover the cost of training and to subsidise postgraduate degree programmes to enhance our employee’s career development.

As an independent school we have a slightly longer school day (8.30am – 4.00pm) but enjoy a generous 16 weeks of school holidays.

Salaries reflect the national pay scales (including upper pay spine and leadership scale).

Children of all staff receive subsidised education at Gad’s Hill, subject to our standard entry requirements.