A local state grammar school has been crowned the best school in the county for its teaching of an international educational programme.

Dartford Grammar School was named Sunday Times International Baccalaureate School of the Year for the second time following a review of academic results across Kent and the South East.

The school for boys in West Hill, Dartford, which admits girls to its sixth form, has offered the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme exclusively for the past ten years.

It has even been known to outperform some of the country's top performing private schools, with many of its pupils going on to secure places at top universities.

During the last academic year the school achieved outstanding IB Diploma results with an average point score of 36.9 points, well above the world average of 29.6.

Three sixth form leavers achieved a perfect score of 45 points, and are among just 214 students of the 167,000 taking the diploma worldwide to have achieved this feat.

The scheme sees students taught across a wealth of areas, including at least one language, science and humanities subject.

Top performing education providers are to be revealed in Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2020, this weekend.

The school is also ranked the second best in the South East when comparing its IB point scores with the equivalent A Level grades A*-B.

Headmaster, Mr William John Oakes was delighted to hear the school had been ranked the best IB provider for a second time and praised students and staff for their hard work.

Mr Oakes said: "It is a great accolade for Dartford Grammar School to be awarded the prestigious Sunday Times IB School of the Year title for the second time in four years.

"The IB Diploma is a programme where the journey is just as important as the destination and there are few people, once they understand the breadth and challenges of an IB education, who would not agree that this is what real education should look like!

"International engagement with the IB Diploma means our students can readily join a world scene on equal terms, competing and collaborating with the best of the best.

"The record breaking results of 2019 have shown once again that where students engage with excellent teaching in a supportive environment, great things can happen."

Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Schools Guide praised the school's achievements adding that it was "one of the country’s truly exceptional schools – and one to be treasured”.

“It is hard to win one of our School of the Year awards once," he said. "To do so twice in four years is exceptional, but Dartford Grammar made an unanswerable case this year with IB results that surpassed all previous achievements."

The schools editor added: "This is no bastion of educational privilege, but one that has achieved its notable success through hard work, inspired teaching and free-thinking."

Other high performing state secondary schools in Kent included Tonbridge-based The Judd School and Tonbridge Grammar School which ranked 4th and fifth respectively.

Sevenoaks School was also named the eighth best independent school across Kent and the South East.

The detailed breakdown of the full league tables can be viewed here thesundaytimes.co.uk/parentpower

News from our universities, local primary and secondary schools including Ofsted inspections and league tables can be found here.

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