Tonbridge Grammar School

If your daughter is bright and well-rounded and you would rather she felt cheerful at school than under constant pressure, Tonbridge Grammar tends to make a strong first impression. The Good Schools Guide calls it "a highly successful selective academy with a track record of innovation", and found the atmosphere "relaxed, welcoming and focused, with girls moving about cheerily" and keen to say hello. It is a girls' grammar in Tonbridge, Kent, with a co-educational sixth form that has welcomed boys since 2002.

The school has a charming start. It opened in January 1905 with just nineteen girls on the top floor of the town library, taught by a single teacher, Miss Taylor, who gave the school its motto, "Courage and Honour". It moved to its present hilltop site at Deakin Leas in 1913. For many years it was one of the country's leading International Baccalaureate state schools, and although the sixth form moved to A levels in 2026, that all-rounder spirit of breadth alongside depth still runs through how it teaches.

Parents and pupils describe the head, Rebecca Crean, as "calm" and "serene", someone who "really understands the ethos of the school" and is "a superb advocate for girls' education". It is a purposeful but unpressured place, where working hard sits alongside a genuinely friendly daily feel. Tonbridge Grammar suits a curious, capable girl who wants breadth as well as strong results, and who will be happiest in a school that lets her be both serious about her work and entirely herself.