Moving to TWs with 3 kids - primary & secondary advice

[RichTeaDunker]

I'm moving to the lovely Tunbridge Wells in 3 months and have 3 DCs (one in Y5, one in Y4 and the other in nursery). As you can imagine, getting them all into the same state primary is going to be a headache! I'd like to avoid if poss them going to a badly rated school - is it ridiculous to hope that they'll all get into a reasonably good (doesn't have to be super performing Grade 1 Ofsted!) school? My youngest isn't actually 5 until June next year so wouldn't have to start school at Autumn term (meaning he could hang around a few months for a place to come free).

Also, my 10 year old DS is going to need to apply for either Grammar or state secondary this Autumn. He's pretty academic (super-bright maths, good literacy) and would prob be Grammar school material, though he hasn't been coached. Is the lack of coaching a big problem? My daughter on the other hand will probably struggle to get into Grammar - bright again at Maths but really struggles with writing (esp spelling). I'd be happy with her/them both going to a state secondary, but I can't seem to find a good one in TWs! A couple of the estate agents we spoke to said a quite a few kids go by bus into a neighbouring county for secondary school. Does anyone know which one this might be??

Really appreciate any words of wisdom/nuggets of info as it's very difficult find out this info from the web. Thanks! :)

Marking my place...

Lol! Hi midnightexpress, just found your post. Have you moved to TWs yet?

No. We're in Scotland, but DP's work means we might have to relocate at some point and TW is looking like it might be an option, cost-wise. Because the school system is different up here, I'm always interested in these threads.

Hope your move goes well anyway.

Hi there,

Whereabouts in T Wells are you moving to? That will help with distances to schools - the catchments are fairly small. The better schools are very oversubscribed, and even our road which has been a 'banker' for St John's for the past 15 years was outside catchment this year, so you do need to be careful with which roads are in catchment - estate agents can be a bit vague/inaccurate depending on your point of view. The primary application deadline for Sept 11 entry was mid Jan this year - allocations will be made in March. I have no idea what happens if you move into the area between the deadline closing and the allocations - probably best to phone KCC and ask.

I can't really help with secondary as we aren't there yet - if you are CofE then Bennett Memorial is excellent, but most people will go to the Tonbridge schools or to Uplands in Wadhurst (East Sussex) or go private if they don't get the grammars. Almost everyone I know whose child took the 11+ this year was tutored - even those in the private sector - places at the West Kent grammar schools in particular are extremely fiercely contested!

With regards to primary - you probably want to avoid Sherwood, but most of them are ok.

HTH a bit!

Hi There

There are basically 4 boys schools - skinners and Tunbridge Wells Boys(grammars in tunbridge Wells) - Judd (grammar in Tonbridge) and Haysbrook (high school in Tonbridge. Additionally there are 2 church mixed schools (Bennett and St Gegorys) These are conprehensive schools and one mixed high school, hugh cristie in tonbridge. For girls there are 4 single sex schools as well Weald and Tonbridge Girls (Grammars in Tonbridge) and Tunbridge Wells Girls (Grammar in Tunbridge Wells) and also Hill View (high school in Tunbridge wells).

Judd, Skinnners, and Tonbridge Girls do not have a catchment area, you need to get very high marks in the 11+. 356 -420 is the pass mark but these schools need a pass of 410+.
All the other schools allocate spaces on distance. They all have there merrits and kids travel between tonbridge and tunbridge wells.

If you end up on the crowborough side of town you may end up with them travelling to school in crowborough in sussex.

Hope these help - at least you can google the schools to get a view. It really does matter where you live as to which school you are most likely to get so take care when choosing your new home.

Good luck Penny

Thanks panicmode. Not sure where exactly we'll live, that's what I'm looking into now. There are a few properties with potential (we'll be renting initially) so I need to establish which would be suit us most location wise. Good idea to call KCC, I'll do that rather than phone individual schools. Thanks for the nod re Sherwood and Wadhurst too.

Hi phorn, that's really useful info. You'd be amazed how hard it is to find this kind of summary on the web! I'll have a look at the catchment Grammars I think and also the school in Crowborough.

Thanks again to you both. Great stuff. x

Shout if you need any more help - I had lots of great advice when we moved down and it really helped.