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. 425 (including 160 single-room boarding places).
Fees per annum (2025–2026). Tuition: £20,400–£33,300. Weekly Boarding: £20,100; Full Boarding: £15,900–£27,900.
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 13, 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.
In the Sixth Form, personal tutors work closely with our students to give advice about course combinations and to help ensure that all courses are designed to meet the requirements for university entrance. With such small classes, individual attention is not only available, it’s practically inescapable.
The College has particular strengths in Mathematics, Sciences, English Literature and Social Sciences plus creative, visual and the performing arts.
The College’s reputation for academic excellence is founded on over 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 national Independent Schools Association 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.
Boarding at RIC combines the informality of a university halls of residence with the supervision and pastoral support appropriate for students aged 13+.
New for 2025 is the Northbank campus, home to a dedicated boarding student village and the Gowers Visual Arts Centre, an ‘art college style’ base for our award-winning visual arts including A levels in Fine Art, Graphic Design, Fashion and Textiles, Photography, 3D, and our UAL Art Foundation course.
Rochester Independent College is part of the Dukes Education Group.