Somerhill Independent School | |
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Address | |
Somerhill Tudeley Road Tonbridge , Kent , TN11 0NJ England | |
Coordinates | 51°11′05″N0°17′57″E / 51.18468°N 0.29905°E |
Information | |
Type | Other Independent School |
Trust | Somerhill Charitable Trust |
Department for Education URN | 118960 Tables |
Principal | Duncan Sinclair |
Gender | Coeducational pre-prep with separate boys and girls prep schools. |
Age | 2to 13 |
Enrolment | c.620 |
Colour(s) | Green, Pink, and Blue |
Website | http://www.somerhill.org |
Somerhill Independent School (formerly known as The Schools at Somerhill) is an independent prep school in Tonbridge, Kent, located at Somerhill House and overseen by Somerhill Charitable Trust. The school is composed of three sections: Somerhill Pre-Prep (coeducational pre-prep for children aged 2.5 to 7), Yardley Court (for boys aged 7-13), and Derwent Lodge (for girls aged 7-11). [1]
Yardley Court was founded in 1898 in Tonbridge and moved to the Somerhill site in 1990 to expand. Derwent Lodge, established in the 1930s, moved to Somerhill House in 1993, relocating from their Tunbridge Wells town centre home, which they had outgrown. The establishment of Somerhill Pre-Prep followed shortly after in 1995.
The three schools operated as separate entities and were known as The Schools at Somerhill until 2018, when they integrated into one school with shared facilities, vision, and purpose.
Somerhill offers co-education and single-sex schooling [ citation needed ]. Boys and girls attend co-educational Pre-School and Pre-Prep from ages 2 to 7. Upon entering the prep side of the school, boys join Yardley Court, and girls join Derwent Lodge for single-sex classes in a co-educational environment, sharing facilities and opportunities equally.
The Pre-Prep section of Somerhill is for boys and girls aged 2 to 7, covering pre-school through to Year 2.
Yardley Court is the prep section for boys aged 7 to 13; covering school years 3 to year 8.
Boys attending Somerhill can leave following the 11+ and progress to the local grammar schools, particularly the Judd School, the Skinners’ School, and Tunbridge Wells Grammar. Alternatively, for boys leaving at 13+, Tonbridge School is the most popular destination. Others join Sevenoaks, Eastbourne, Bede’s, Hurst, Kings Canterbury, Caterham and Sutton Valence.
Derwent Lodge is the prep section for girls aged 7 to 11; covering school years 3 to year 6.
When girls leave the school at the end of Year 6, typical destinations include Sevenoaks School, Walthamstow Hall, Kent College, Mayfield, Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls, Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar, and Weald of Kent Grammar.
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is 21 miles (34 km) from Charing Cross, the traditional centre of London. It is the principal town of the Sevenoaks district, followed by Swanley and Edenbridge.
Tonbridge is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, 4 miles (6 km) north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles (19 km) south west of Maidstone and 29 miles (47 km) south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population of 41,293 in 2019.
The Judd School is an 11–18 voluntary aided, grammar school and sixth form in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It was established in 1888 at Stafford House on East Street in Tonbridge, where it remained for eight years before moving to its present location on Brook Street, in the south of the town. Founded by the Worshipful Company of Skinners, it was named after 16th century merchant Sir Andrew Judde, whose endowment helped fund the school. The Skinners' Company maintains close links with the school and makes up the majority of the governing body.
Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (TWGSB) is a grammar school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.
The Skinners' School, is a British Grammar School with academy status for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Established in 1887, the school was founded by the Worshipful Company of Skinners in response to a demand for education in the region. Today Skinners' remains an all-boys grammar school, recently awarded specialist status in science and mathematics in recognition of these disciplines' excellent teaching. The current enrolment is 1119 pupils, of whom around 326 are in the sixth form. The first headmaster was Reverend Frederick Knott, after whom Knott House is named. The current Headmaster is Edward Wesson.
A preparatory school in the United Kingdom is a fee-charging private primary school that caters for children up to approximately the age of 13. The term "preparatory school" is used as it prepares the children for the Common Entrance Examination in order to secure a place at an independent secondary school, typically one of the English public schools. They are also preferred by some parents in the hope of getting their child into a state selective grammar school. Most prep schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which is overseen by Ofsted on behalf of the Department for Education.
Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School (TWGGS), established in 1905, is an all-female selective school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, a town in Kent, England.
Tonbridge Grammar School is a state grammar school in Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom. The school was established in 1905 at the Technical Institute in Avebury Avenue Tonbridge, having only 19 enrolled students. Today, the school is situated in the South of Tonbridge, where there are approximately 1050 students ranging from 11 to 18 years.
Bidborough is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells and south of Tonbridge. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 958, increasing to 1,163 at the 2011 Census.
Weald of Kent Grammar School is a selective or grammar school with academy status in Tonbridge, Kent, England, for girls aged 11–18 and boys aged 16–18. Selection is by the Kent test.
The New Beacon Preparatory School is an independent all-boys preparatory school, located at Sevenoaks in the English county of Kent. It admits both day students and boarders aged between 4 and 13. The school also now offers a co-educational nursery for children 3 years of age and over. The school was founded in 1863, and has been on the current site since 1900. It had 62 students in 1913, and had grown to 400 students by 2008.
Hillcrest Grammar School in Cale Green, Stockport, Greater Manchester was a private day school with around 200 pupils aged 3 to 16. The school was founded as a boys' preparatory school in 1940 on Hillcrest Road in Bramhall. It became co-educational in the 1950s and also started to take pupils up to age 16 and added Grammar to its title. The school moved in 1983 to the former "Stockport High School for Girls" building built in 1910 in the Cale Green district of Stockport, close to Davenport railway station. The old part of the building is locally listed. A sports hall with four badminton courts was built in 1994 and a new pre-preparatory department in 2003. A new Preparatory Building with facilities for the Nursery was opened by Olympic Swimmer Michael Rock in October 2009. The school closed in July 2014 due to financial issues that began in 2007.
Yardley Court is a private day preparatory school for boys in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1898 by Arthur Bickmore and his wife Lilian. It now forms part of Somerhill, a public school in the British sense of the term.
Somerhill House is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion situated near Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom. It was built for The 4th Earl of Clanricarde in 1611–13. The estate was sequestrated by Parliament in 1645, and restored to its rightful owner in 1660. The building had become derelict by the mid-eighteenth century but was later restored. Somerhill was painted by Turner in 1811. It was bought by a member of the Goldsmid family in 1849 and greatly extended between 1879 and 1897, making it the second largest house in Kent, after Knole House, Sevenoaks.
Kent College is an independent day and boarding school from 3-18. Forest Explorers Nursery is for girls and boys from rising 3 years, boys can join Reception Class and Year 1, and from September 2023 Year 2 as the Prep School becomes a co-ed school. The Senior School and Sixth Form are girls only from 11-18.
North Kent College is a further education and higher education college in Kent, England founded in 2014. Its campus in Tonbridge offers numerous courses and qualifications at many levels, from GCSEs and A-levels to vocational routes such as BTEC or NVQ/VRQ Diplomas to work-based apprenticeships and degree programmes, validated by the University of Kent, University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University.
Arthur Frederic Bickmore, known as Eric Bickmore, was an English school teacher and cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club and Oxford University between 1919 and 1929.