The Rowans
The Rowans is an academy alternative provision converter in Chatham for boys and girls aged 5 to 16. It has 54 pupils and room for 95. About 78 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted visited in December 2025 and gave it a report card, which is below.
Silverbank, Churchill Avenue, Chatham, ME5 0LB01634 338803therowans.orgMrs Fiona May headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 9 December 2025. Instead of one overall word, it now gives a grade for each part of school life. Read the full report on Ofsted's website.
Ofsted says these new grades can't be lined up against the old one-word grades.
Earlier inspections (1)
| Date | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 9 November 2021 | S5 Inspection | Outstanding |
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Medway council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
What parents say
From Ofsted's Parent View survey: 31 parents answered in the year to 6 April 2026. Parents choose whether to fill it in, and many only do so when an inspection is coming, so don't read too much into small differences. The England figures are the average for all schools with enough answers to publish.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
Specialist SEND provision. Resourced provision (extra staff and funding within a mainstream school) with 89 pupils, for social, emotional and mental health.
To get a place in the unit or resourced provision, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school. Other schools in Medway with social, emotional and mental health provision.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (47), language and communications needs (4), Autistic spectrum disorder (1), Moderate learning difficulty (1), Multi-sensory impairment (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 54 | 70 | 50 | 26 | 35 | 54 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 78% | 70% | 64% | 65% | 57% | 54% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 2% | 0% | 4% | 12% | 3% | 4% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 70% | 92% | 100% | 91% | 91% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 30% | 8% | 0% | 9% | 9% |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 6 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 33% | 24% | 56% |
| Education | 33% | 14% | 31% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 0% | 6% |
| Work | 0% | 10% | 19% |
| Not in education, work or training | 17% | 33% | 44% |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the academy accounts return, year to August 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INSPIRE Free Special School | Free school | 330 m | 98 | Good 2023 | – | Compare |
| Bradfields Academy | Academy | 330 m | 452 | Outstanding 2022 | – | Compare |
| PGW Partnership of Greenacre and Walderslade | Sixth form centres | 440 m | – | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Walderslade School | Academy | 540 m | 697 | Inadequate 2023 | 0 | Compare |
| Wayfield Primary School | Academy | 550 m | 428 | Report card 2025 | 2 | Compare |
| Greenacre School | Academy | 600 m | 747 | Inadequate 2023 | 0 | Compare |
| Maundene School | Academy | 710 m | 385 | Good 2022 | 33 | Compare |
| St Thomas More Roman Catholic Primary School | Academy | 860 m | 397 | No overall grade 2024 | – | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is The Rowans a good school?
The Rowans doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted's report card from December 2025 rated its teaching as strong.
What is The Rowans's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 9 December 2025 it rated teaching as strong, achievement as strong, behaviour and attendance as strong, leadership as strong.
How many pupils does The Rowans have?
54 pupils aged 5 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 95 places, so it is 57% full.
What do parents say about The Rowans?
84% of the 31 parents who answered Ofsted's Parent View survey would recommend it to other parents, and 84% say their child is happy there. Across England, 84% of parents would recommend their child's school.
Does The Rowans have specialist SEND provision?
Yes. It has resourced provision (extra staff and funding within a mainstream school) for social, emotional and mental health. To get a place there, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school.
Does The Rowans have a breakfast club?
Yes. It is on the government's free breakfast club programme, so every pupil can have a free half-hour breakfast club before school.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Silverbank, Churchill Avenue, Chatham, ME5 0LB
- Telephone
- 01634 338803
- Website
- www.therowans.org
- Headteacher
- Mrs Fiona May
- Free breakfast club
- Yes: on the government's programme, so every pupil can have a free half-hour breakfast club before school (listed since September 2026).
- Type of school
- Academy alternative provision converter (Academy alternative provision converter, academies)
- Phase
- Pupil referral unit / alternative provision, ages 5-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- The Howard Academy Trust (9 schools)
- Local authority
- Medway
- Ward
- Wayfield & Weeds Wood
- Constituency
- Chatham and Aylesford
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 June 2017 (academy converter)
- URN
- 144134 · LAESTAB 8871107 · UKPRN 10063925
- Formerly
- The Rowans
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, academy accounts return 2024/25.
- Breakfast club: DfE list of schools on the free breakfast club programme.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.