Gad's Hill School in Higham,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, is an

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

for day pupils, founded in 1924. It is set in the former

Gads Hill Place Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, sometimes spelt Gadshill Place and Gad's Hill Place, was the country home of Charles Dickens, the most successful British author of the Victorian era. Today the building is the independent Gad's Hill School. ...

, the country home of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

School history

Charles Dickens died in what is now the school conservatory, but was formerly the school refectory. Cedric Charles Dickens, the author's great-grandson, was a governor of the school until his death in 2006. Marion Dickens, the author's great-great-granddaughter, is a former pupil of the school and, as of 2019, is a Director of the school company. As of 2013, the school was moving into purpose-built buildings in the grounds of the house.

Inspection judgements

As of 2018, the school's most recent inspection by the

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is approved by the Secretary of State for Education – under section 106 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 – to inspect independent schools in England. These schools are members of associations, w ...

was in 2017. The school was judged to meet all the regulatory compliance standards and educational quality was judged as good.

Academic performance

In 2017, the school's

Attainment 8 The Progress 8 benchmark is an accountability measure used by the government of the United Kingdom to measure the effectiveness of secondary schools in England. It bands pupils into groups based on their scores in English and mathematics during t ...

score at

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

was 45, compared to 46 for the local authority as a whole and 45 for England.

References

External links

School website
{{authority control 1924 establishments in England Grade I listed buildings in Kent Private schools in Kent Charles Dickens Educational institutions established in 1924