The Robert Napier School
Third Avenue, Gillingham, ME7 2LX
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Trust
- BEYOND SCHOOLS TRUST
- Headteacher
- Mrs Jenny Tomkins
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Sponsor
- FPTA Academies (Fort Pitt Grammar School and The Thomas Aveling School)
- SEN provision
- VI - Visual Impairment
- Constituency
- Gillingham and Rainham
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,080
- Pupils on roll
- 1,048
- URN
- 138511
- Local authority
- Medway
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01634851157
About this school
The Robert Napier School is a secondary academy in Gillingham. It teaches children aged 11 to 18 and has 1,048 pupils on roll.
You can read Ofsted's latest judgement for the school below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Numbers and a report only go so far, so visit in person before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Requires improvement
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Sixth form
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 185 | 163 | 185 |
| Attainment 8 score | 31.2 | 27.9 | 32.5 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.69 -0.90 to -0.48 | -1.00 -1.23 to -0.77 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 11% | 8% | 16.2% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 36% | 27% | 36.2% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 9% | 20.9% | 17.3% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How The Robert Napier School has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Medway average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 31.2 | 34 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 27.9 | 36 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 32.5 | 36.1 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 13.1% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 13% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 11% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,037 |
| 2023/24 | 1,050 |
| 2024/25 | 1,011 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How The Robert Napier School compares
The Robert Napier School ranked 15th of 18 secondary schools in Medway for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 24% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 5% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 32.5 | 11% | 50.4% | 1,048 | — |
| Chatham Grammar | 61.8 | 4.7% | 17% | 948 | 0.6 miles |
| Brompton Academy | 38.1 | 8.7% | 39.8% | 1,399 | 1.0 miles |
| The Victory Academy | 35.5 | 9.8% | 45.1% | 1,213 | 1.4 miles |
| Waterfront UTC | 30 | 11.7% | 37% | 381 | 1.5 miles |
| Rainham Mark Grammar School | 62.7 | 5.4% | 10.5% | 1,568 | 1.5 miles |
Results reflect each school's cohort as much as its teaching, and free school meals share is context, not a judgement. Small gaps between neighbouring schools are rarely meaningful on their own.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 50.44%
- English as an additional language
- 18.3%
- Overall absence
- 11.02%
- Persistent absence
- 36.2%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Chatham Grammar0.6 miles
Secondary · Chatham
-
Brompton Academy1.0 miles
Secondary · Gillingham
-
The Victory Academy1.4 miles
Secondary · Chatham
-
Waterfront UTC1.5 miles
Secondary · Chatham
-
Rainham Mark Grammar School1.5 miles
Secondary · Gillingham
Other schools in Gillingham
The Robert Napier School ranks 5th of the 5 ranked secondary schools in Gillingham.
- Brompton Academy Secondary
- Leigh Academy Rainham Secondary
- Rainham Mark Grammar School Secondary
- Rainham School for Girls Secondary
- The Howard School Secondary
- Barnsole Primary School Primary
- Brompton-Westbrook Primary School Primary
- Burnt Oak Primary School Primary
- Byron Primary School Primary
- Deanwood Primary School Primary
- Fairview Community Primary School Primary
- Featherby Infant and Nursery School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does The Robert Napier School teach?
- The Robert Napier School teaches children aged 11 to 18. It is a secondary school in Gillingham.
- Who is the headteacher of The Robert Napier School?
- The headteacher of The Robert Napier School is Mrs Jenny Tomkins, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was The Robert Napier School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected The Robert Napier School, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How big is The Robert Napier School?
- The Robert Napier School has 1,048 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 18.
- Is The Robert Napier School full?
- The Robert Napier School has capacity for 1,080 pupils and 1,048 on roll (97%), so it is close to full. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is The Robert Napier School a faith school?
- No. The Robert Napier School has no designated religious character.
- Is The Robert Napier School a selective school?
- No. The Robert Napier School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs The Robert Napier School?
- The Robert Napier School is part of BEYOND SCHOOLS TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- What SEN provision does The Robert Napier School have?
- The schools register lists The Robert Napier School's special educational needs provision as: VI - Visual Impairment. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have The Robert Napier School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 31.2 in 2022/23 and 32.5 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does The Robert Napier School rank locally?
- The Robert Napier School ranked 15th of 18 secondary schools in Medway for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 24% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 5% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is The Robert Napier School's absence rate?
- The Robert Napier School's overall absence rate is 11% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are The Robert Napier School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, The Robert Napier School's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 1 July 2026.