Rochester Independent College
Rochester Independent College
Org 1: ISA
254 St Margaret’s Banks, Rochester, Kent ME1 1HY
Telephone: 01634 828115
Key dates: Autumn term: Monday 9 September 2024 to Friday 13 December 2024
Half term: Monday 21 October 2024 to Friday 25 October 2024
Spring term: Tuesday 7 January 2025 to Friday 11 April 2025
Half term: Thursday 13 February 2025 to Friday 21 February 2025
Summer term: Wednesday 23 April 2025 to Friday 4 July 2025
Half term: Monday 26 May 2025 to Friday 30 May 2025
Age Range: Senior to 18
Day or Boarding: Day, Weekly Boarding, Full Boarding
Gender: Co-ed
Exams offered: A Level, GCSE, IGCSE
Principal: Alistair Brownlow, MA Hons St Andrews, MPhil Glasgow, MEd Buckingham
Senior Vice Principal: Kelly Flatman, BA Hons Leeds (Graphic Design)
Vice Principal (Sixth Form): Ian Pay, BA Hons, MA Lancaster, MEd Buckingham (History, Politics)
Vice Principal (Lower School): Leighton Bright, BA Hons Reading, PGCE, MA (SEN) CCCU, SENCO
Age range. 11–19 Co-educational.
Number of pupils. 370 (including 120 single-room boarding places).
Fees per annum (2024–2025). Tuition: £15,600–£22,800. Weekly Boarding: £15,600; Full Boarding: £12,660–£18,000.
Rochester Independent College is an alternative to conventional secondary education with a happily distinctive ethos. Accepting day students from the age of 11 and boarders from 14, the focus is on examination success in a lively, supportive and informal atmosphere. Students are encouraged to be themselves and achieve exam results that often exceed their expectations. There is no uniform, no bells ring and everybody is on first-name terms. The average class size is 8.
Students enjoy being here and are treated as young adults. We encourage them to search for their own answers, to voice their opinions, to think critically, creatively and independently. They leave not only with excellent examination results but with enthusiasm for the future and new confidence about themselves and their education.
Personal tutors work closely with sixth-form students to give advice about course combinations and help ensure that their courses are designed to meet the requirements of university entrance. With such small class sizes, individual attention is not only available, it’s practically inescapable.
The College has particular academic strengths in the Sciences, Mathematics, English Literature, Social Sciences and the Creative and Visual Arts including Film, Photography and Digital Media.
The College’s reputation for academic excellence is founded on almost 40 years’ experience of rigorous teaching. Students come to us for a variety of reasons and from many different backgrounds. We are not academically selective; our only entrance qualification is an honest determination to work hard. Our results, however, are always ranked among the best of the academically selective schools and students secure places at top universities. Direct entry into any year group is possible and the College also offers intensive one-year GCSE and A level courses as well as retake programmes. International students benefit from specialised English Language teaching support.
In 2021, Rochester Independent College won the Independent Schools Association 2021 award for Excellence and Innovation in Fine Arts. The judges were impressed with the huge range of ways in which the College values, promotes and gives profile to the arts and considered the College an inspiration to the whole sector. The link between an aesthetic appreciation of the visual arts and personal development runs through all aspects of school life and is highly valued by the whole school community.
The College Halls combine the informality of a university residence with the supervision and pastoral support appropriate for young adults. The College offers students the opportunity to thrive in an atmosphere of managed independence and acts as a stepping stone between school and university. All accommodation is on campus and in single rooms.
Rochester Independent College is part of the Dukes Education Group.