Dane Court Grammar School

If your child does better when they are trusted rather than ordered about, Dane Court is worth a close look. It sits in Broadstairs, a short walk from the Kent coast, and is widely considered the stronger of Thanet's two grammars, drawing children from more than 30 feeder primaries. The school opened in 1957, originally as a selective technical school, and a rebuild costing around 20 million pounds has since given it a spacious, light-filled campus that the Good Schools Guide says looks more like a university, which sets the tone for the serious learning that goes on inside.

The Good Schools Guide describes a school that treats pupils respectfully and assumes they will behave maturely. Children are not publicly bawled out for misdemeanours; instead they talk through what happened. Expensive equipment is left out rather than locked away, on the simple principle that there is no reason to expect pupils to damage it. The arts are a real strength, in keeping with a town where many musicians and artists live, with strong drama productions and exceptional art on display. Sport does the school proud too, with football teams reaching Kent Cup finals and a national-champion table tennis team. Languages have long been a point of pride, the school having held specialist language status since 2003.

Dane Court suits a child who responds badly to authoritarian, old-school regimes and flourishes when treated with trust and respect. Martin Jones has been headteacher since 2020, and parents tend to talk less about the building and more about a child who feels known and taken seriously here.