Kent grammar school catchment areas - please help!!

[Naturelover42]

Hello, I've done a lot of research on the grammar school process and catchment areas etc. but there's still one BIG unanswered question now that both Skinners and Judd have a distance criteria.
Assuming that my son performs well on the test, how close do you have to be to the super selectives (Judd, Skinner etc) to get a place?
We are looking for a home to rent at the moment.

If we rent in Tonbridge are we unlikely to get Skinners?
If we rent in Twells are we unlikely to get Judd?
Should we try to rent in the middle of both?
What about surrounding villages?
Any intel gratefully received before we make the wrong decision.........
THANK YOU

Thanks for the feedback @Osakagirl
If you have an email address for the skinners admission team, could you please share. We are in a bit of a predicament regarding address evidence and need some further clarity.

The admissions email is on the school website under staff contact - don't want to put it here obviously....!

As panicmode1 says, email address is on the website. The person in charge is very approachable and responsive

Anyone knows what the final cutoff score was for Skinners this year? DS sitting exams this September and he is aiming for Skinners or Boys Grammar.

The attached re Skinners v Judd is from the website with the active 11+ fora.....

Thanks so much. We are inside catchment.

I heard that quite a few that didn't get offers in March were later offered a place at the end of April and wondered what the lowest score might have been this year. I don't know the exact score for last year but it was quite a bit below 372.

My son was at the skinners open day last week and said there was a boy who had got in the day before but his score was 363 (he lives close to the school). My friend’s son got 379, but they don’t live in catchment and he’s number 40 on the wait list…

Is living within 10 miles to Skinners considered as within inner area catchment? I read that skinners were offering within much closer distances last year

To the best of my knowledge, they specified certain boroughs in west Kent. So if you were in say, Hildenborough, which is in Kent, you got a place, but you were in Crowborough (Sussex) you were out of catchment. I have heard anecdotally that they want to prioritise those paying taxes to Kent county council, but also to have more local families, as in the past there were kids from as far as Orpington, but the parents were too far away to be involved in the pta and other school events, so they shifted the catchment. I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but just from seeing kids around, some age groups seem to have more kids getting on the train than others.

Skinners defines their “catchment” as West Kent area. If you google their admission policy for 2024, you’ll see the full list of places which fall within this. Places outside of this are considered outer area.

In 2023, their distance within their defined West Kent area for first and second round offers widened significantly. In recent times, it’s been a “local” school serving Tunbridge Wells and a very small area around it. They raised their threshold score in 2023 which completely changed the game. There’s been no commentary as to why they did this (to my knowledge), but I suspect that the school is looking for academic parity (and ultimately results) with Judd.

There are only 20 places allocated to outer area. If it helps, my son is finishing year 7 (so 2023 entry). We live circa 16 miles, as the crow flies, from the school. He was third on the outer area list when the school was handed the waiting list after second round offers. He was offered a place in May.

There’s so much movement, so the chances of moving up the list (even from quite far down the list) are relatively high if you’re within the West Kent area. If you’re in outer area, the chances are lower as there are less places allocated in this category and the inner and outer lists operate totally separately.

There are also 16 governors’ places - these are allocated in preference of 11+ score.

@Naturelover42 if you DS is sitting the Kent Test this September,are sure that you look at the schools' admissions policies for the correct year of entry, so 2025/2026, not 2024/2025. Ditto when it comes to looking at schools for your younger DC- if they are 2 years younger, 2027 entry, look out for schools consulting on changes to their policies, which they will have to do between October 2025 and January 2026 if they are going to.

Just wondering if anyone is aware of any pupils from the sevenoaks area who have joined skinners but with a mark which is a bit more modest around 360 ish. We had a visit to Judd and they were extremely good. Havent had a chance to visit skinners but we are hoping to join a more balanced school.....

They raised their threshold score in 2023 which completely changed the game. There’s been no commentary as to why they did this (to my knowledge), but I suspect that the school is looking for academic parity (and ultimately results) with Judd.

I think that it was that the threshold had remained as 360 since they went to an inner and outer catchment, yet the 11+ pass mark had moved higher every year so the differential between pass and 'superselective' was being diminished and that's why it is now pass mark + 30 (or whatever the current arrangements say). The schools are very different - I've had/have three boys at Skinners' and we actively chose it over Judd, even though we had a choice.

My understanding is that the catchment wasn't shifted to make parents more engaged with the PA and the school but due to capital funding - KCC put money into the new library etc, on the understanding that Kent children were benefitting. When my eldest joined, there were children coming from as far afield as South London and Eastbourne, but that seems to be rarer in my youngest's cohort.

@expatinmys - you could probably phone or email the admissions team and ask - they are really helpful. However, I think it's doubtful, given the distance - in the first round I think it was 371 or something this year.

Thanks @Panicmode1

Our next choice is TWGSB. We visited the school and it was really good. The TW site anyway.

@Osakagirl Hi there, my son will participate 11+ Kent test in this September and we are thinking to move into the catchment of Skinners'. May I know when did you move in last year and when did the school and council ask you to provide these documents and proofs? (After March 1 school offer day?)

Thank you.

@Osakagirl Kent produce a guide to applying fir secondary schools, which has very clear information about the relevant dates if you're moving house. If you google it, it should come up on their website.

You’ll get the results of the Kent test mid October, so you’ll know your son’s results then. You need to apply to secondary school by October 31st. Obviously it wasn’t possible to move in 13 days, so we submitted an application in our old borough. We then moved on the 25th November, and I submitted evidence to Kent council straight away, so the application was changed to Kent. If you do this after 8th December it’s too late to change your primary address and they will consider his application from your existing address. If your child is not attending primary school locally in west Kent they may withdraw the offer of a place, but year 6 places are difficult to come by in Tunbridge wells. I suspect that it might be more difficult this year. In hindsight, I’d set up the rental to start for the 31st October, but sign the rental agreement once you know whether he’s got a good mark. It will be less of a faff than trying to change the address later.

@Osakagirl thanks for your reply. So, how to deal with the issue if I can't find a year 6 space nearby the new home after moving home? I am actually living in Kent now (but not the area of West Kent), I don't mind to send my son to the current primary school until I got a offer of a year 6 space near my new home. So, do you think if the Council will accept this circumstances?

Thank you.

I don’t know because I’m not the council or the admissions officer for skinners! I can only tell you my own experience. It’s a chicken and egg situation - you can only apply for a school place when you have an address, but you can’t know which schools have places when you’re deciding where to live. And the year 6 places go fast after 11plus results. But I’m told the village primaries tend to have more places (fordcombe, speldhurst etc) as well as southborough and st Matthews highbrooms. Better to contact skinners and the primaries directly as it might be different for 25/26 entry

Hello,

(And Hi to Osaka girl!). Very grateful to those willing to share their knowledge and experience. We don't have results of 11+ yet, but let's be positive...!

Could I ask if it's realistic to live in a village outside of TW (less than 9 miles away) and send kids in on a bus? Will the whole family be stuck in traffic twice a day driving to a station and/or driving to school?

My husband would prefer a move out of London to include living directly in the countryside. So Cranbrook would be a wonderful location for that. But Skinners possibly a better school choice for my son. However, from a practical perspective, I suspect the latter would mean living in TW itself.

Thanks in advance for any (non-judgemental) insights.

@postingpartum my 3 sons are or have been at Skinners'. Great choice 😊

I would far rather be in the countryside too, but am grateful that the boys can walk (actually we couldn't be much closer to the school than we are!). TW traffic is diabolical and the buses and trains are unreliable (due to interminable TW roadworks) and expensive. I also like the fact that we don't have to taxi them everywhere now they are teens - I grew up in the depths or rural Somerset and seeing friends in the holidays/weekends always needed a lot of parental involvement.

You would have the option of Cranbrook

Thanks so much for responding! Yes I'm v practical about these things too. It's obviously very sensible to live in the town itself. Sensible and functional don't always win the argument in this house though...