Tonbridge School is one of the leading boys’ boarding schools in the country and is highly respected, both here and internationally, for providing a world-class education.
Our pupils are encouraged to be creative and intellectually curious to approach new opportunities with confidence and to learn to think for themselves while being mindful of the needs and views of others.
A superb house system at the heart of the school ensures that each pupil, whether a boarder or a day boy, feels fully at home and well supported. Our beautiful and historic campus provides space in which to think, breathe and grow.
Opportunities abound, thanks not only to outstanding facilities and an extraordinary range of activities but also to the dedication of our staff, who are committed to their pupils’ learning and growth both within and beyond the classroom.
Tonbridge is a school that celebrates the life of the mind but also enjoys putting knowledge into action. We are proud of our community partnerships both here and overseas, and of our pupils’ willingness to take the lead and serve.
Tonbridge’s mission encourages creativity, confidence, and compassion. In the words of the great novelist and Old Tonbridgian, E. M. Forster: ‘Only Connect’.
It’s why our ‘Excellence for All’ campaign is inspired to provide genuinely transformative education and to continue to widen access so that as many boys as possible can benefit from the experience that Tonbridge offers.
Tonbridge School has a formidable academic reputation. This is achieved by high-quality teachers, assisted by dedicated support staff, who together foster a broad curriculum for able boys, which seeks to:
- Encourage intellectual advancement, curiosity, and creativity in a stimulating, challenging but cooperative academic environment
- Develop boys’ love of learning, general study skills, and teamwork
- Provide opportunities for cultural, linguistic, scientific, and physical enrichment and an awareness of, and service to, the school, local, national and global community and heritage
- Prepare young men for entry to good universities, either in the UK or abroad
- Enable young men to enter the adult world with the knowledge and self-belief to fulfill their potential.
The Learning Strategies Department is responsible for ensuring that Tonbridge School is an educationally inclusive environment where the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes, and well-being of every pupil matter. Teaching and provision delivered by the LS Department are designed to meet the needs of pupils, including those with physical disabilities, those with special educational needs (including social, emotional, and mental health needs), those from all cultural backgrounds, and pupils with English as an additional language.
Pupils may have additional needs at different times and therefore a wide variety of strategies are used to meet these needs as they arise. Learning diversity is recognized and planned for, any barriers to learning and participation are challenged and removed where possible and all pupils are provided with equality of opportunity.
The Learning Strategies Department is located on the Lower Ground Floor of the new Smythe Library and parents are welcome to get in touch or arrange a visit.
Tonbridge School was founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judge, a distinguished member of the Worshipful Company of Skinners, which assumed the governance of the School after Judde’s death. The judge left the property in London as an endowment for the school.
Tonbridge occupies an extensive site of about 150 acres in North Tonbridge. The main buildings of the present school date from the second half of the nineteenth century, but there has been much further building in more recent years, including the magnificent restoration, completed in 1995, of the Edwardian Chapel, which had been severely damaged by fire. Its superb 4-manual organ, built by Marcussen of Denmark, is widely regarded as one of the finest instruments in the country.
For about 300 years, from 1553, the number of pupils at the school remained below a hundred. This number increased from 83 in 1843 to 447 by 1900.
A total of 415 Old Tonbridgians died in the First World War and 301 in the Second World War.
Numbers in 2018 stand at 787, of whom 486 are borders: the school has seven boarding houses and five-day houses. Whereas many other schools have become co-educational, Tonbridge has retained its all-boy constituency and is now one of the very few single-sex boarding schools in the country.
New subjects have been introduced into the curriculum in the last thirty years, such as computing and design technology, while opportunities for involvement in music, art, and drama have greatly increased. The traditional team sports of cricket and rugby are now supported by a much wider choice, and an iconic sports center enhances the superb outdoor sports facilities. The school has also opened itself out to the wider world with greater emphasis on community involvement, green initiatives, and sponsorship of The Marsh Academy at New Romney.
The Master and Wardens of the Skinners' Company remain the trustees of the school, though in the last ten years an independent Board of Governors has taken on responsibility for the governance.
