Dartford pupils averaged 51.4 on Attainment 8 in 2026, against 46.2 in England. We list official GCSE figures for all 11 mainstream schools. Updated November 2026.
Dartford’s 11 mainstream state secondary schools now have official 2026 GCSE figures, and the four grammars take the top four places. Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy made the biggest rise of the 11.
The Department for Education published the provisional figures on 15 October (key stage 4 performance). Teenagers living in the borough averaged 51.4 on Attainment 8, the government’s main GCSE score. The England average was 46.2 and the South East’s 47.3.
That places Dartford joint 35th of England’s 297 districts on its residents’ results. It is well ahead of Gravesham (44.9) and a little ahead of Sevenoaks (50.8) and Bexley (49.5) (DfE district data).
The results, school by school
| School | Pupils | Attainment 8 | 2025 | Grade 5+ English and maths | Grade 4+ English and maths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dartford Grammar School | 182 | 78.9 | 79.9 | 99.5% | 99.5% |
| Dartford Grammar School for Girls | 179 | 77.3 | 75.5 | 97.8% | 100% |
| Wilmington Grammar School for Boys | 173 | 67.6 | 64.6 | 95.4% | 98.8% |
| Wilmington Grammar School for Girls | 174 | 65.3 | 66.7 | 90.8% | 96.6% |
| Dartford Science & Technology College | 150 | 47.1 | 49.1 | 53.3% | 71.3% |
| Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy | 219 | 46.5 | 42.9 | 46.1% | 61.2% |
| Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet | 131 | 45.2 | 42.5 | 30.5% | 53.4% |
| Leigh Academy Wilmington | 226 | 45.1 | 45.4 | 39.8% | 64.6% |
| Leigh Academy Longfield | 168 | 41.8 | 40.2 | 32.1% | 60.7% |
| Leigh UTC Dartford | 121 | 41.3 | 44.4 | 35.5% | 57.9% |
| Stone Lodge School | 169 | 39.5 | 37.6 | 26% | 49.7% |
| England, all state-funded | 631,538 | 46.2 | 46.1 | 46.3% | 64.8% |
The table comes from the DfE’s school-level data. Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet, Leigh Academy Wilmington, Leigh Academy Longfield and Leigh UTC Dartford appear in the 2025 figures as Ebbsfleet Academy, Wilmington Academy, Longfield Academy and The Leigh UTC. Rowhill School, the borough’s 12th school, is a special school with 33 pupils in this year group. We have left it out because its figures cannot fairly be compared with mainstream schools.
Who moved most
These are the biggest changes in Attainment 8 on 2025:
- Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy: up 3.6 points. Its grade 5 English and maths rate rose from 35.2% to 46.1%
- Wilmington Grammar School for Boys: up 3.0 points
- Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet: up 2.7 points
- Leigh UTC Dartford: down 3.1 points
- Dartford Science & Technology College: down 2.0 points
One year’s change can reflect a different group of pupils, so treat these as a signal rather than a verdict.
How to read the table fairly
The grammars are not a like-for-like comparison. They select pupils by ability at 11. The other schools teach the children who did not go to a grammar, so a lower score does not mean weaker teaching.
There is no Progress 8 this year. That measure normally shows how far a school moved its pupils from where they started. The DfE has no 2025 or 2026 figure, because these year groups sat no primary tests in the Covid years.
The figures are provisional. Earlier years are marked final, and these can still change.
Where a child lives matters. The 51.4 counts Dartford’s resident teenagers wherever they study. Counting the borough’s own 12 schools, whose pupils include those who travel in, gives 53.7.
The gap for disadvantaged pupils
The 389 disadvantaged teenagers living in the borough averaged 39.0 on Attainment 8. The other 1,265 averaged 55.2. A third of the disadvantaged group (33.4%) got grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 62.2% of the rest.
Inside the grammars the numbers are smaller, but the scores hold up. Dartford Grammar School for Girls had 42 disadvantaged pupils, averaging 72.8.
What it means for you
If you are choosing a school. Use this table next to the Ofsted report cards we covered in August, and our term dates page. Visiting still tells you things a score cannot.
If your child is at one of these schools. The school will hold subject-level detail that a headline figure cannot show, and it is fair to ask for it.
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