kent Grammar schools location advice.

[everfor0071]

This year my son will be taking the Kent Grammar Test and we plan to move closer to his school. In two years, my daughter will also take the test, so I want to choose a location where she won’t have to travel far when it's her turn. Could you recommend the best areas in Kent with top grammar schools, whether co-ed or separate boys’ and girls’ school located near each other?

The majority of grammars are single sex .Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells are well rated but also more competitive as take out of catchment.East Kent ones tend to be less so.

Are they both a shoe in to pass?

atomlearning.com/blog/best-grammar-schools-in-kent

Dartford has both a girls and boys grammar (and they're apart two minutes apart) but no idea what they are like these days. I went to DGGS about 35 years ago. Dartford was a bit meh as a town. I think Gravesend also has boys and girls grammars but again, have heard it's quite run down these days as a town.

Pretty much anywhere in Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and the surrounding villages will put you in catchment for:
Tonbridge Grammar School (girls, coed sixth form)
The Judd School (boys, coed sixth form)
Weald of Kent (girls, coed sixth form)
Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for boys (boys, coed sixth form)
Tunbridge Wells Grammar for girls (girls only)
The Skinners School (boys, sixth form coed from 2026)

I linked to this info for skinners and Judd in this post:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5265903-is-matfield-tunbridge-wells-in-catchment-for-the-grammar-schools?reply=141870197

You can see what postcodes are in inner and outer catchments on school websites. I think you may be able to find out furthest distance offered from KCC. Not sure though. Things to bear in mind though… travel between TW and Tonbridge can be a bit of a nightmare generally. Buses v busy and can be unreliable from villages. Having said that if you can be waking distance to a bus stop or train station (loads of kids come in by train) then commute should be fine. My own DS walks 10min to bus stop on main road then it’s about 20mins traffic depending to school. He can walk if needed, about 35-40mins so worth thinking about walking as an option. Also note Judd, TGS and Skinners are superselectives so take top scores (Judd, TGS) or have a high pass mark than Kent test pass mark (Skinners).

Cranbrook is co-ed all the way through (rare in Kent). "Top" grammars - Dartford, Judd, TOGS etc - require your child to be in the top 5% of their cohort - is that likely for your children?

I'd say Broadstairs is possibly your best bet for co-ed. Make sure you are within the correct catchment. There is a co-ed in Canterbury (Barton Court) but they are nearer the bottom end of the grammar school rankings - alongside SL Boys and Girls which are around the 320 mark nationally, so you may as well go outside of a grammar area (cheaper houses!) to attend a better choice of state schools if you are happy for that level.

Most of the Kent grammar schools operate on the system of a pass in the Kent Test, then allocation according to various oversubscription criteria (much like the criteria for the non-selective schools). The admissions policies for all Kent secondary schools are on the KCC website - one document detailing the policies for all the KCC-maintained schools and in another section, the policies for the own admission authority schools listed individually (last time I looked, there were grammar schools in each category, that is, some are under LA control, some are academies).

Few, if any, allocate all places purely on a score order basis, so your options for gaining a place in advance of moving into the area are likely to be limited, although as a pp has indicated, higher in the less pressured areas of the county (with the the schools less targeted by out of catchment applicants, but on the flip side, 'less desirable', league table wise).

You really need to pick a school or area and take it from there . Where do you live now as simply passing the Kent test won’t guarantee you a place if you are out of area . Dartford boys for example have changed their admission criteria in recent years to take more children with Dartford postcodes and less from out of county - and rightly so .

I would recommend Sevenoaks/Tonbridge/Twells. Then you have a selection of grammars including those which are not super selective (so you will get into if you pass).

Judd - in Tonbridge - boys superselective
Skinners - T Wells - boys superselective
TWBGS - TWells and Sevenoaks annex - Pass Kent test
Tonbridge grammar - girls Tonbridge - superselective
Weald of Kent - girls - Tonbridge and Sevenoaks annex - Pass Kent Test
Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar - T Wells - Pass Kent test but smaller catchment area so need to live near T wells

Lots of people ask questions about how to get into these schools so they all have clear admissions policies on their websites, including postcodes in the main catchment areas.

Maidstone has two girls grammars, invicta girls and Maidstone girls grammar school (mggs)
Two boys grammar schools are Maidstone grammar school (msg) and Oakwood park grammar school.
The catchment area for these gets smaller as the town gets bigger.

Cranbrook school is mixed and catchment area is roughly within 5 mile radius.