Tonbridge / Sevenoaks prep

[StarTravels]

We are looking at local preps with a view to my son hopefully going to Sevenoaks School. We are based in Tonbridge but would travel 30mins each way for the right prep. Which are the main feeder schools we should be considering? Thanks for your help.

Hi, Russell House in Otford does well with Sevenoaks. It's a small school and many go the grammar route but of those applying to Sevenoaks they have a great success rate and scholarships in recent years.

Coombe Bank or St Michael's

I would suggest Sevenoaks Prep and Solefields (the latter is boys only). Yardley Court has an excellent reputation (although does tend to feed into other schools rather than Sevenoaks and the extremely well regarded head is retiring in a couple of years), as does Hilden Grange (but I don't know how many go on to Sevenoaks) and St Michael's sends quite a lot of children to Sevenoaks but is probably wrong side for you (as is RH). New Beacon tends to feed into Tonbridge.

My son went to Sevenoaks Prep and onto Sevenoaks. The Prep sent 7 boys and 1 girl to Sevenoaks last year in year 7 (1 boy and 1 girl in year 9), the previous year it was about 8 again in year 7 (mainly girls, with 2 boys) and 6 in year 9 (3 with academic scholarships although that was an unusually gifted year!). Bearing in mind Sevenoaks only takes 80 in year 7 (30 boys/50 girls) this is about 10% (I believe Granville and St Michael's were the other big feeders sending similar numbers in my son's year).

Please bear in mind how difficult it is to get into Sevenoaks and take into account other factors in choosing a prep school!

We were very happy with Sevenoaks Prep.

Thanks for all of your feedback, I will look into all of these schools! So far we have been looking at Yardley Court and also Rose Hill in TW, as we liked the schools on their own merit, rather than focusing specifically on feeders into Sevenoaks.

NKffffffff90cdc617X111196fec0d it will be a good few years for us before my DS will be applying for Sevenoaks, but what is the selection criteria like? What can we do to increase his chances of being accepted, if it's that difficult to get into the school?

Thanks

I would choose a school that you think will suit you and your family, rather than focusing at this stage on secondary schools.

Sevenoaks selection process includes english, maths, verbal reasoning tests and a group exercise (it used to be an interview but recently changed). They are looking for academically strong team players I believe.

Different schools in the area have stronger links with different secondary schools (and will specifically prepare children for the entrance exams for these schools), but none of them should preclude going on to Sevenoaks.