Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School

For a hard-working girl who wants high standards but also a school that genuinely looks after her, Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School is the sort of place parents describe in warm terms. Families talk about "an industrious happy culture" where "the pupils really champion each other", and the Good Schools Guide calls it a popular local school that "produces independent thinkers with a sound work ethic". The school's motto, "Give your best", runs through how it describes itself: high expectations balanced with support, and wellbeing kept at the heart of things so girls feel respected, included and happy.

Founded in 1905, the school sits on a compact site in a leafy residential part of the town, and its solid Edwardian buildings, with their wide corridors and high-ceilinged rooms, have been put to clever use over the years. Art is a real strength, taught in two studios pupils call "a hive of creativity", and there is a strong emphasis on sport, especially in year 7 to help girls settle and build friendships. A newer wellbeing suite is described by the girls themselves as an "amazing space".

Entry is by the Kent test, and the school is heavily oversubscribed, so a place is hard won and well kept. Led by headteacher Mrs Katie Marchant since September 2024, this is a friendly, local school that suits a girl who wants to work hard among others who feel the same, with plenty of art and sport to grow into alongside her studies, and where settling in and making friends is treated as carefully as the work itself.