Tunbridge Wells Preps, Holmewood House, The Mead, Rose Hill Up to Date Thoughts...

[TWCurious]

Hi all
We are looking to move to Tunbridge Wells in the next year and I'm hoping for some up to date thoughts on local prep schools. Any up to date info on Holmewood House and The Mead would be very much appreciated. We haven't ruled Rose Hill out completely but we've heard some quite unsettling rumours via friends of friends about viability and the popularity of the Head - as in she's really not! However, I'm keeping an open mind.
My children are currently in Reception, Year 1 and Year 3.
Many thanks in advance.
Edited

Wow, clearly lots of people only consider a secondary as being worthy if it has at least 90% A*/B and is an Oxbridge feeder! We (and most other HH parents) LOVE Ruth and the holistic, low academic pressure, but fun and inspiring environment she has nurtured. They all have so many opportunities! I also think it is genuinely a non selective school vs others which just say they are…… we left our old school as it had turned our child into a nervous, miserable mess. When I was looking most of these “highly regarded, highly academic” schools made it clear my child’s sort of neurodiversity was not welcome. Holmewood however, made it abundantly clear they embraced neuro quirkiness and all sorts of neurodivergent children and ability ranges were welcome and supported! Not so elsewhere. One of the schools being mentioned above went as far as to say they had to prioritise their existing children and couldn’t “risk” my child “becoming a distraction”. Well, they are absolutely not a distraction at Holmewood and have thrived!! Maybe, the leavers destinations at Holmewood appear the way they do because it is genuinely a non selective school, that doesn’t manage out neurodiverse or struggling children. Instead it’s a school that finds the genuine best fit secondary rather than cramming them into Tonbridge/Sevenoaks/Judd, wellbeing be damned?! Personally, I think the purpose of a prep school is to nurture happy children and help them find the secondary option that’s right for THEM vs right for a leavers destination table or marketing booklet. You only have to see the new wellbeing centre to understand the priorities of this fabulous school.

The misinformation is that is is detrimental to go in y7 when the secondary schools encourage it and it is much easier to get in then (unless there is seriously behavioural issues) I do encourage you to chat to all the heads of these secondary schools as you may find it easier to get in earlier if you are worried about putting your child through a 13plus.

Absolutely agree Holmewood great for neurodivergent children. They do go at a slower pace so can't fault for that. I find you make these decisions so young its very hard to tell what works for your child which is why there is switching around between these schools.

@bumbletub I’m a bit confused by your last post. Could you show me where I said it was “detrimental” to go in Year 7?

What I actually said was that these schools are still selective at 11+, and that joining in Year 7 isn’t a universal “easy route”, which the earlier post seemed to imply. I’ve already quoted Hurst’s admissions policy, so I won’t repeat it, but many schools do set formal entry criteria even for their own Year 7–8 pupils. A Head may well reassure parents that it’s usually smoother internally, but that doesn’t remove the underlying assessed entry process at 11+.

On The Mead, I’m literally just going by their own published leavers’ data:
www.meadschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2019-2023-Data-11-and-Leavers-Copy-4.pdf

The Mead’s 2023 destinations show most pupils going to grammars or local state schools, or smaller local independents (Bethany, KC, Battle Abbey). There aren’t any listed moving to Ardingly, Worth or Sevenoaks. The previous year also notes pupils leaving at Year 7 to join Holmewood because they were aiming for Tonbridge at 13. That’s all I meant when I said Years 7–8 at 3–13 preps serve a purpose... they provide access to the 13+ schools that simply aren’t available from an 11+ school.

Similarly, families choose 3–13 preps because they want the 13+ independent route (Tonbridge, Bede’s, Eastbourne, etc.). None of this is a value judgement. Different school structures support different pathways, and parents naturally prepare according to their preferred destination, and I was offering this as a potential explanation for why Kent Test results may differ between schools, rather than them being "less academic".

On the 11+ point, the 2024 FOI Kent Test data really illustrates why I’m cautious about using raw pass rates as a proxy for “how academic” a school is. Several local primaries come out ahead of The Mead on percentages alone:

The Mead: 15 out of 21 = 71.4%

St Peter’s (TW): 15–20 out of 20 = 75%–100%

Bidborough: 14–19 out of 19 = 74%–100%

Claremont: 38 out of 49 = 77.5%

If we treated these pass rates as the sole indicator of academic strength, we would have to conclude St Peter’s, Bidborough and Claremont are all “more academic” than The Mead which clearly isn’t a fair or complete picture. It just shows how much these numbers are shaped by tutoring, who is entered (and who isn’t), and family priorities, rather than teaching alone.

FOI link for reference:
www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/2019_2024_kent_test_11_data#incoming-2670062

Ultimately, parents choose schools according to their own priorities. For some that’s 11+ and grammars; for others it’s 13+ independents; and for others it’s a more holistic, lower-pressure environment. There isn’t one single “right” model, and the OP is lucky to have several decent options to visit.

But I’ll leave it there, as I think we’re simply approaching this from different angles.