The Norton Knatchbull School

If your son is academically able and wants a real challenge, but you also want him looked after while he meets it, The Norton Knatchbull School is one of the long-established selective choices in East Kent. It is a boys' grammar of around 1,290 pupils, with a sixth form that takes girls as well as boys, and it has the calm, grounded feel parents tend to describe rather than the pressured one. Best of all for many families, it offers that academic stretch without the fees of the independent sector.

The school sits on Hythe Road in Ashford and takes its name from Sir Norton Knatchbull, a seventeenth-century politician whose family founded it. It was known simply as Ashford Grammar School until 1973, and its character today is unfussy and academic. The Good Schools Guide describes a strong pull towards science, maths and technology, alongside a settled pastoral structure that parents single out. There is plenty going on outside lessons, with rugby, football, basketball, table tennis, chess and debating, and teams that compete at district and national level. The school is happy for boys to follow their own interests rather than a fixed path. Mutual respect, compassion, integrity and trust are the values it keeps returning to, and they show in the tone of the place.

This is a good fit for a curious, capable boy who wants to be challenged in a setting that feels steady and kind. Most leavers go on to university, a fair number to the more competitive ones. Under its current leadership the school holds firmly to that mix of academic ambition and genuine pastoral care, which is what most parents say drew them to it.