The Thomas Aveling School Review 2026: Oversubscribed Medway secondary with a clear character education spine

A large, mixed 11 to 18 school in Strood, serving Rochester families, this is a place that tries to make consistency feel ordinary. The current headteacher, Mrs Fiona Linter, is named on the school’s own website, alongside a strong emphasis on five student virtues: Ambition, Resilience, Respect, Pride and Creativity.

The most recent Ofsted inspection (13 and 14 September 2022) confirmed the school continues to be Good, and reported that pupils and students say they feel safe and happy.

For parents, the headline practical point is demand. Medway’s published admissions figures for September 2025 show 785 applications for 220 offers, which is roughly 3.6 applications per place before applying the oversubscription rules.

The school frames its culture around the five student virtues, and it uses them as a shared language rather than a poster slogan. The virtues are presented as the characteristics students are expected to practise across classroom routines, behaviour expectations, and wider participation. That matters because it gives staff a consistent reference point when expectations need reinforcing, and it gives students a stable set of cues about what “doing the right thing” looks like in practice.

Ofsted’s picture of day to day conduct aligns with that intent. Behaviour is described as orderly around the site and calm in lessons, with high expectations and quick responses when bullying does occur. This is not a claim that problems never arise, it is a sign that systems for managing them are taken seriously and understood by students.

The school sits within Beyond Schools Trust. In practical terms, this tends to show up in shared priorities such as professional development, consistency of safeguarding practice, and a trust level role in driving improvement.

This is a non selective school, so the key question for families is usually progress and outcomes across a broad ability range, rather than selective entry. On GCSE outcomes, the school’s average Attainment 8 score is 42.9, and its Progress 8 score is 0.16. For parents, that Progress 8 figure indicates students, on average, make slightly above average progress from their starting points across eight GCSE slots.

Ranked 2,830th in England and 5th in Rochester for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), performance sits below England average, placing it within the lower 40% of schools in England.

For sixth form, A level outcomes show 2.38% of grades at A*, 5.95% at A, 17.26% at B, and 25.6% at A* to B. Ranked 2,272nd in England and 7th in Rochester for A level outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), the sixth form sits below England average, placing it within the lower 40% of schools in England.

The most helpful way to interpret that combination is this: the school appears to add value across the secondary phase (Progress 8 above zero), but the sixth form outcomes, as measured here, are an area where many families will want to ask direct questions about subject level performance, entry guidance, and how strongly students are matched to their courses.

Parents comparing local options should use the FindMySchool Local Hub page and the Comparison Tool to view GCSE and A level indicators side by side with nearby schools.

The curriculum is described as ambitious and carefully structured in the most recent inspection, with attention to sequencing across key stages. Ofsted also notes specific strategic decisions that shape learning over time, including making triple science available to a growing number of pupils, reducing early English exam entry, and increasing the focus on languages with the aim of increasing English Baccalaureate participation.

The school website adds detail about how that structure is meant to feel in classrooms. It describes deliberate approaches such as spaced practice and interleaving, and it references a “TA10” teaching charter, which is essentially a set of shared classroom expectations around what strong teaching and learning look like. The practical implication is standardisation. In a large secondary school, reducing variation between classrooms is one of the clearest ways to protect students who may not thrive if expectations change teacher by teacher.

Reading is positioned as a whole school priority, with Ofsted noting that the English department has been particularly active, while also identifying that reading is not yet embedded as evenly across all subjects as leaders would like. For families, this is a useful diagnostic. It points to a school that has identified literacy as a lever for improvement, has started work in earnest, and is still building consistency beyond English.

The school does not publish a single, trust wide destination statistic in the sources used here, so the most reliable destination picture comes from the dataset for the 2023/24 leavers cohort. In that cohort, 39% progressed to university, 29% moved into employment, and 8% started apprenticeships.

For families, the practical takeaway is not that one route is “better”, it is that the sixth form appears to support multiple pathways. The school’s own sixth form pages also emphasise careers education, PSHE, and structured support for applications, with regular guidance on university processes, employment routes and apprenticeships.

If your child is specifically aiming for a highly competitive university course, the right question to ask on a sixth form visit is how the school supports the full arc: subject choice, super curricular development, predicted grade accuracy, and application preparation. The school describes an EPQ offer as an additional stretch option, which can be valuable when it is used to build research skills and academic independence alongside A levels.

Year 7 entry is coordinated through Medway, and the council’s published timeline for September 2026 entry is clear: applications open 01 September 2025 and close 31 October 2025, with offers issued 02 March 2026.

Demand is real. Medway’s directory figures for September 2025 show 785 applications and 220 offers. In practice, that usually translates into a high premium on understanding the oversubscription rules and being realistic about the distance and criteria that apply in a given year.

Parents should use the FindMySchool Map Search to check their precise distance from the school gates and to sense check it against recent patterns before making housing assumptions.

Sixth form entry is a separate process. The school states that applications for September 2026 entry must be submitted by Friday 30 January 2026.

For internal students, this deadline matters because it shapes subject blocking and group sizes. For external applicants, it is a signal that the sixth form wants decisions early enough to plan teaching groups and guidance.

Ofsted describes a strong safeguarding culture, and it states that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Beyond safeguarding, the practical markers for parents are often behaviour routines, staff accessibility, and whether students can name who helps them when something goes wrong. The school’s published materials emphasise high expectations and support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and Ofsted specifically notes that pupils with SEND are very well supported and that disadvantaged pupils are prioritised and well known.

A useful nuance for families is that Ofsted also identifies an improvement area in personal, social and health education sequencing. That is worth probing, not as a red flag, but as a measure of how coherent and developmental the programme is from Year 7 through Year 11, particularly on relationships education, online safety, and preparation for adulthood.

The extracurricular offer is unusually easy to evidence because the school publishes a detailed club list. It is not limited to sport. Options include Duke of Edinburgh, Young Game Developers, Photography, Eco Club, Gardening Club, Clay Club, Crochet Club, LGBT+ Alliance, Puzzle Club, and a Maths help clinic, alongside a wide menu of sports.

That breadth matters for two reasons. First, it gives quieter students multiple entry points into belonging, not only the obvious team sports routes. Second, it supports the school’s stated character education model, because students can practise leadership, reliability and collaboration in settings where the feedback loop is immediate. For example, Eco Club and Gardening Club naturally build responsibility through sustained projects, while Young Game Developers rewards persistence, iteration and peer critique.

The sixth form’s wider curriculum descriptions reinforce this theme, referencing enrichment and a VESPA style mindset programme (vision, effort, systems, practice and attitude). The practical implication is structure. Students who are capable but disorganised often benefit when study habits are explicitly taught rather than assumed.

Published information about the school’s day indicates timings broadly running from 8:30am to 3:00pm, with some flexibility depending on the programme.

This is a state school, so there are no tuition fees. Families should still budget for the usual secondary costs such as uniform, equipment, trips and optional enrichment.

• Competition for places: Medway’s published figures for September 2025 show 785 applications for 220 offers. Families should treat this as a genuinely competitive school.

• PSHE coherence is still being refined: The most recent inspection identifies that PSHE sequencing is not yet coherent enough to build depth year on year. Ask what has changed since September 2022, and how topics are planned across the key stages.

• Sixth form outcomes need careful matching: The dataset indicates below average A level outcomes compared with England averages, so subject choice, entry guidance and study support are key questions for sixth form applicants.

• Reading across subjects is a stated improvement area: The inspection notes strong work in English but less consistent embedding elsewhere. For some students, especially those who struggle with comprehension, how quickly this becomes truly whole school will matter.

The Thomas Aveling School looks strongest for families who want a large, non selective Medway secondary with clear behaviour expectations, a strong safeguarding culture, and a broad enrichment menu that gives students many ways to engage. It suits students who respond well to consistent routines and who will take advantage of structured support and extracurricular participation. Competition for Year 7 places is the main barrier, so families should approach admissions with a realistic plan and clear understanding of the Medway timeline.