The Harvey Grammar School

The Harvey Grammar School is a place for an able, motivated boy who will throw himself into everything on offer and enjoy a mix of formality and friendliness. A selective day school for around 1,000 boys aged 11 to 18, it sits on its Cheriton Road site in Folkestone, where the main building has stood since the early 1910s. It is also one of the oldest schools in Kent, founded in 1674 in memory of William Harvey, the Folkestone-born physician who first described the circulation of blood, so a boy here joins a long line stretching back well over three centuries.

The school holds onto its traditions while keeping things up to date. Boys are encouraged to work hard, play hard and look out for one another, with the aim of helping each find his own strengths, whether in the classroom, on the sports field or somewhere else entirely. Sport runs deep: the school has reached more county football and cricket finals than any other in Kent. There is a wide spread of trips, music and drama too, from an annual pantomime to football tours in the United States. A nice touch of character is the naval thread running through the place, with four houses named Discovery, Endeavour, Resolution and Victory after a connection to Nelson's HMS Temeraire. At sixth form the school works closely with the neighbouring Folkestone School for Girls to widen the choice of subjects.

It is led by headteacher Scott Norman. For a parent, the appeal is a settled, spirited school where a son is encouraged to find what he is good at and to look out for the boys around him.