Welcome to Thomas Aveling School

The Thomas Aveling School is a very successful non-selective mixed school; we are a happy school, a school for all abilities and a school for the local community of Rochester.

​We create a culture of high expectations and success for all students and staff. This is grounded in a supportive ethos where each student is treated as an individual, with their needs and ambitions supported by a great pastoral and children’s team.  A student’s well-being is of equal importance to their academic progress, the support we offer is outstanding.

​As well as supporting students of all abilities to make fantastic academic progress, Thomas Aveling provides an excellent all round education valuing Music, Drama, Sport and the Arts highly with exceptional facilities – we regard these subjects as providing the soul of the school and give students additional opportunities to excel.  The standard of teaching at the school ensures strong progress is seen in the core subjects of English, Maths and Science without affecting the time given to creative and practical subjects - students enjoy the full breadth of experiences.

​As a previously designated Training School, we take staff development very seriously.  We are a leading and founding member of Kent and Medway Teacher Training.  We lead the Medway Valley Partnership of training schools, and over 15 teachers are trained every year at Thomas Aveling, many of whom are then employed within Thomas Aveling or the wider Trust.

​We believe that all involved in Thomas Aveling work and achieve best when happy; students are given considerable say in their education, for example choosing their option subjects in Year 8, choosing extra-curricular activities early in Year 7 and having the chance to take part in the Student Council.  We have high expectations of all our students and considerable work goes into raising the aspirations of all - aiming high in everything we do.

We have the very highest expectations of all within Thomas Aveling and work closely with parents to maximise achievement and to develop young people into caring, successful adults.  We are very proud that when students leave us aged 18 (or 16 in the minority of cases) that they often go onto further study at University, specialist colleges or enter high quality careers in several areas.  Our students are successful due to the talent and tenacity of the staff at Thomas Aveling raising the students' aspirations and expectations and never letting them settle for being alright.