Rochester Independent College

Founded in 1984, Rochester Independent College in Kent is a day and boarding school offering a distinctive alternative to both traditional independent education and the highly selective local grammar schools. We offer day places from 11+ and boarding from 13+.

There is no uniform, no bells ring, students and staff are on first name terms and the average class size is 8.

The first thing you’ll notice when you visit RIC is that we occupy a one-of-a-kind urban campus. At the heart of a designated conservation area, the historically distinctive site with listed buildings linked by award winning wildlife gardens creates a special sense of place to explore and in which to live, study and work. Visit our campus just once and you’ll swiftly see why RIC is a school unlike any other. 

RIC aims to give students an enjoyable and successful experience of school in an international environment with small classes and high-quality teaching and pastoral care. 70% of our students are British, 30% international.

Students in all parts of the school do not sit at rows of individual desks but gather around one table, in the style of a university tutorial. The focus is on achievement without unnecessary pressure, on examination success in a lively, supportive and informal atmosphere. At RIC students learn and achieve more because they enjoy school and feel positive about themselves.

We value academic and creative achievements equally. Our reputation was first established in Mathematics and the Sciences. Royal Thai Government Scholarship students join each year, often after winning International Olympiad Gold Medals before arriving at RIC. Many of the College’s former students are now successful medical practitioners and local GPs, surgeons and consultants often send their children to us.

As well as offering traditional academic pathways, RIC is also one of the leading creative boarding schools in the UK and our staff, who are all practitioners in their own right, have industry and studio experience in filmmaking, fine art, illustration, graphic design and digital media, photography and fashion and textiles. Creative options at GCSE and A level include Music Technology, Digital Media, History of Art, Film and Media Studies, Textiles, Drama, Graphics and Photography.

We’re as committed to supporting students for whom passing exams at grade C is a great achievement as we are to those aiming for A*s. We welcome everyone who has the desire and motivation to excel, not just those who have passed the 11+ or have a string of top grades at GCSE. We help turn things around when they haven't worked out in the past. We aim to ensure that no student, regardless of academic ability, is left lost, overlooked or let down.

This successfully individual environment is a natural stepping-stone between school and university. Our annual destinations list reflects the diversity of our students and their enthusiasms. Recently students have proceeded to courses including Architectural Engineering at Bath, Economics at UCL, Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge; History of Art at Edinburgh; Vet Science at the RVC, Fashion Menswear at Central Saint Martins, Fine Art at UCL’s the Slade, Digital Media at Leeds; Computing at Imperial; Medicine at Oxford; Music Production at BIMM, Veterinary Science at Liverpool; Film Studies at Warwick; Politics at Exeter, Dentistry at Bristol; Law at LSE, Photography at Camberwell and Fashion Marketing at London College of Fashion. 

We have a flexible approach to admission and, as well as the usual 11+, 13+ and 16+ entry points it is usually possible to move directly into any year group. We offer one year A level and GCSE courses as well as successful retake programmes.

RIC is part of the Dukes Education family of schools and it’s a fit that works. We’re the Kent host centre for BMAT, MMI and interview practice courses from The Medic Portal and our students are able to access the best university admissions support from them and other Dukes organisations like Oxbridge Applications and A-List Education, the US admissions experts.

Come and see what makes RIC work. We’d love to show you our school.