Dartford Grammar School

Tuesday 3 June 2025 Two DGS Yr 12 boys represent Kent U17 rugby team in its unbeaten campaign! Two Yr12 students, Zac Sargeant (left in photo below) and Osarodion Lawrence-Orumwense were selected to play in the Kent U17 rugby side earlier this year, and we are thrilled to report that the side was undefeated in the three matches that were played in May.

Friday 23 May 2025 DGS students earn Flight Status aboard the International Space Station We are thrilled to announce a remarkable achievement by our students in 3 teams, who have earned FLIGHT STATUS in the prestigious Astro Pi Mission Space Lab program, run by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Saturday 10 May 2025 Year 9 Games Console Repair Workshop On Thursday 8th May, Year 9 took part in a workshop where they learned about repairing games consoles. This was part of the wider sustainability drive that the school is pursuing on many fronts - of course including our new solar panels and electric car-charging points that have recently been installed - and indicates just how much further we are now going to consider the environment than merely recycling paper and drinks cans!

Friday 25 April 2025 Antarctica Flag Competition - DGS's Gitansh Gumpu's design taken on epic journey In November 2024, the Royal Geographical Societies ran their annual Antarctica Flag competition, in which students from schools across the country are invited to design and submit a flag for Antarctica. Successful submissions are printed and taken on board a journey to Antarctica. We are thrilled to report that the design by Gitansh Gumpu (7F) was chosen for this epic journey.

Saturday 5 April 2025 We say 'Happy Retirement' to our long-serving Premises Manager At the close of this term, we say farewell today to our Premises Manager, Mr Andrew Ridley, after an astonishing 36 years at the school.

Wednesday 2 April 2025 Vaughan triumph at inter-house swimming gala Well done to all the swimmers who on Wednesday represented their Houses at Fairfield Pool for the school's annual swimming gala.

Saturday 29 March 2025 Founders' Day 2025 Friday 28th March saw the school come together to mark the 449th anniversary of the founding of the school. As is customary, years 7 and 12 attended a service in Holy Trinity School in Dartford, whilst the rest of the students had that service replicated in a special assembly at school. In the evening, the Founders' Day concert celebrated the occasion in the presence of special guests and parents.

Friday 28 March 2025 Sonic Soiree 2025 In March, the music department came together to deliver the 2025 Sonic Soiree - hoping to repeat the success of last year's fundraising evening by giving a stage to the impressive number of Bands that exist in Dartford Grammar School. It is a very popular evening with students, who this year volunteered a potential programme that proved to be too long for the anticipated time slot - the Year 9 bands therefore played as a warm-up session before the actual soiree began!

Wednesday 26 March 2025 Japanese Schools Exchange Visit 36 students from our partner schools – Koyo and Kaichi high schools visited Dartford Grammar School in March 2025, all of whom were hosted by families of our students. We are grateful for the warm hospitality shown to our visitors by those families, and hope that they enjoyed this experience.

Monday 17 March 2025 DGS shines at Lee Valley Indoor Athletics Championships 40 athletes from Dartford Grammar School entered into the championships held over the weekend of 15/16 March 2025 at Lee Valley. There was a great deal of success from the squad with lots of personal bests being achieved.

Tuesday 11 March 2025 DGS ranked as one of the happiest schools in England and Wales Dartford Grammar School is delighted to find that the school is ranked by the Sunday Times, after extensive research, as one of the 14 happiest schools in England and Wales!

Thursday 6 March 2025 World Book Day The celebrations for World Book Day began with Miss Tupman's whole school assembly, which explored how Dartford Grammar School's reading habits exemplify our students' critical thinking, curiosity and outward-looking perspectives.

Wednesday 26 February 2025 CCF 3-day training exercise The first weekend of half term saw Year 9 and Year 10 cadets brave the cold weather and deploy to Yardley Chase Training Area for three day squadron fieldcraft and infantry tactics exercise with the aim of training and testing cadets in fieldcraft and tactics in line with the Army Cadet Syllabus.

Thursday 6 February 2025 Culture Day On Wednesday 5th February we welcomed all DGS students to Culture Day - an event we hope will be an annual one going forward. The day was organised and led by School Vice-Captain Sophia Onolememen and Year 12 student Kweku Asafo-Adjei, alongside an excellent group of 6th Form Students. It was a real celebration of the diverse cultural backgrounds of our students and staff, with a visual representation of this fact created on a large map of the world which will remain on show throughout the year.

Saturday 25 January 2025 Medals at the London Area Judo Tournament 2025 12 boys from Dartford Grammar School attended the University of East London to compete in the London Area Judo tournament. The competition brings together club players from all over London and the standard of Judo on display was incredibly high, with our players facing some tough opponents and fighting well to each receive a medal. The students really enjoyed themselves, and learned a lot about competing in Judo – it is one thing to train, yet entirely another thing to compete in front of a crowded arena, with referees and timekeepers etc. The boys really did themselves and the school proud! The medals won are as below:

Friday 24 January 2025 Dartford Grammar School celebrates International School Award win on 25th Anniversary of the prestigious prize On Monday January 20 our Head Teacher, Mr. Julian Metcalf, and our Head of Languages, Mrs. Donna Kane, were delighted to attend the 2025 International School Award Ceremony in Westminster to receive our reaccreditation certificate for this prestigious award in recognition of all the school does to develop international citizens and promote intercultural understanding and respect.

Sunday 8 December 2024 Dartford Grammar School Wins The Sunday Times State Secondary School of the Year 2025 The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2025 has recognised Dartford Grammar School as the State Secondary School of the Year in the Southeast. This is based on the school’s combined GCSE and IB results for 2024.

Wednesday 25 September 2024 International School Award 2024-2027 We are delighted to announce that Dartford Grammar School has been awarded reaccreditation of the prestigious International School Award in recognition of all the school does to develop international citizens and promote intercultural understanding and respect.

Thursday 22 August 2024 Dartford Grammar School: GCSE Results August 2024 Following our outstanding IB results in July, we are delighted that our Year 11 students have achieved a similarly impressive, and richly deserved, set of GCSE results. These are the product of their hard work over the last few years, combined with the considerable support of their subject teachers.

Friday 15 March 2024 U19s Netball On Wednesday 13th March, our Netball Team took part in the U19s Eltham College Tournament. We played five games, back-to-back, up against Langley Boys, Eltham College, JAGS, Colfe’s and Sydenham High.

Friday 15 March 2024 Rugby 7s The U16 rugby 7s squad, supported by Mr Martin and Mr Peters, took part in the Kent Cup tournament at Sutton Valence School on Thursday (14th March). To everybody's delight, it seemed to be the first time in recent memory that 7s had been played in sunny conditions.

Monday 22 January 2024 Environmental Design Challenge 2024 DGS was part of the winning company on Saturday at the Environmental Design Challenge at Imperial College London (successfully defending our win from last year). Students were required to design and pitch a sustainable settlement situated in Kroo Bay, Sierra Leone. They had to consider not just their environmental impact, but also the complex cultural factors at play in the region as well as risks of landslide and flooding. As always, our students conducted themselves excellently: with good humour, drive to succeed and innovative solutions (particularly in terms of infrastructure and systems). We look forward to defending our title again next year.

Thursday 24 August 2023 Dartford Grammar School's class of 2023 celebrate impressive GCSE results

Monday 10 July 2023 Athletics - English Schools Cup Final 2023 On Saturday, the Junior and Intermediate athletics teams took part in the English Schools Cup Final in Chelmsford. They progressed through the 1st round and regional finals relatively comfortably, but the final would be a different proposition. This is a team event with points being awarded for performances, not positions. The Juniors set 11 new pbs, whilst the Inters collectively set 12 new pbs and 3 new school records.

Thursday 6 July 2023 IB Results 2023 Congratulations to the Year 13 class of 2023 on a very strong set of IB exam results. This is the product of their hard work in the sixth form, and the considerable efforts and support of their subject teachers and parents.

Tuesday 16 May 2023 Japanese students visit Oxford University On Thursday 11th May, ten JEP students and the Yr12 IB Japanese cohort joined the trip to Oxford University Japanese Department for an exciting day of activity and immersion into university life.

Friday 31 March 2023 Year 9 West Country Rugby Tour During the last weekend of March, 41 of the school's Year 9 rugby players went on tour to the West Country, with much of the weekend spent in Wales. This was their first experience of a rugby tour as the boys' Year 7 Lancashire Tour opportunity fell victim to Covid.

Friday 31 March 2023 Y10 MEP Birmingham Trip Our Y10 MEP students took part in the MEP ‘Journey to the East’ Birmingham trip this week, and their enthusiasm made the trip fun for all. They not only learned a great deal of culture, language and modern politics, but also had the opportunity to practise their Mandarin skills at the workshops.

Tuesday 28 March 2023 Koyo and Kaichi Highschools visit DGS on exchange We were delighted to welcome back our Japanese exchange schools - Koyo and Kaichi Highschools – in March 2023.

Wednesday 15 March 2023 Adam Gemili (OD) returns to open new fitness suite On Tuesday 7th March 2023 we were delighted to welcome Adam Gemili (OD 2005-10) back to school to open the new fitness suite. Adam is in training but found a slot in his busy diary to not only perform the official opening, but to spend time talking to students and answering their questions.

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