Gravesend Grammar School

If your son is bright but more drawn to making and doing than to dusty tradition, Gravesend Grammar may fit him well. It is a selective boys' school taking pupils at eleven, with a sixth form that opens its doors to both boys and girls. The school has an unusual history: it was opened in July 1893 by Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, and its origins lie in the town's municipal technical school, which set out to teach practical subjects such as art and science, often in the evenings so that working students could attend. That hands-on streak still marks the school out from grammars that lean more heavily on classical tradition.

The school describes a set of plain values it expects pupils to live by: respect, hard work, friendship and exploration. The aim is to hold traditional standards in a modern setting rather than for their own sake, with a calm, purposeful atmosphere and a real care for pupils as people, not just as a set of marks. It is a down-to-earth place that prizes effort and decency, and that practical heritage still shows in how it teaches and what it values.

Gravesend Grammar suits a boy who enjoys being challenged academically but who also responds to a practical, no-nonsense school that cares as much about how he treats others as how he performs. He will be expected to work hard and to muck in, and in return he is known and looked after rather than left to sink or swim. Led by headteacher Malcolm Moaby, it offers academic ambition without grandeur, the kind of school where a willing, curious boy can settle in and quickly feel at home.