Tonbridge, Kent · Kent
The Judd School
No stated policy sets a bar above Kent's threshold — but the school's own published outcomes show the actual cutoff running 60-70 points above it, and rising.
Judd's own determined admissions policy doesn't impose any school-specific score requirement above Kent's county-wide threshold — it simply ranks already-qualified applicants by score within a fixed 180-place intake. What makes it genuinely superselective is demand: the school publishes its own actual last-place-offered scores, and for September 2026 entry these ran to 389 out of 423 in the Inner Area and 403 out of 423 in the Outer Area — 57 to 71 points above Kent's 332 qualifying baseline, and higher than the year before. This is outcome-driven selectivity, not a stated policy bar, so the exact cutoff moves every year with demand.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- South East
- Local authority
- Kent
- Established
- 1888
- DfE URN
- 118843
- Website
- https://www.judd.online
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- The Kent Test ('PESE'), commissioned county-wide by Kent County Council. GL Assessment is named on Kent County Council's own preparation guidance as the paper-setting body, though not named directly in Judd's own admissions policy.partly verified
GL Assessment is named on a Kent County Council preparation page but not in Judd's own admissions policy document.
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice, computer-marked papers sat in one sitting: Paper 1 combines English and Maths; Paper 2 combines Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. A separate unmarked writing exercise is also sat, used only for borderline moderation.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No separate minimum is published beyond the Kent-wide grammar-qualifying threshold (a recent cycle: aggregate of 332, no component below 108). Because the school's admission number is fixed at 180 (157 Inner Area, 23 Outer Area) and it ranks strictly by aggregate score, the realised entry bar runs far higher: the school's own published last-place-offered scores were 389 (Inner) / 403 (Outer) for September 2026 entry, up from 371 (Inner) / 398 (Outer) the year before.
- Superselective?
- Yes
Confirmed through the school's own disclosed admissions outcomes, not just reputation: last-place-offered scores of 389 (Inner Area) and 403 (Outer Area) out of a maximum 423 for the most recent completed cycle, 57-71 points above Kent's 332 qualifying baseline. The school's own policy sets no separate higher threshold as a matter of stated rule — this is pure oversubscription against a fixed intake, and the cutoff moves each year with demand, so any specific number should be treated as a dated outcome rather than a fixed policy.
Catchment & priority criteria
An Inner Area (157 of 180 places) covering named postcode sectors across Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and parts of west Kent, and an Outer Area (23 places) covering the rest of England.
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children who achieved a grammar assessment
- Up to 5 Inner Area places for Pupil Premium-eligible boys, ranked by score
- Remaining Inner Area places (up to 152) and all 23 Outer Area places, ranked by aggregate score
- Tie-break: distance to school, then random allocation
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 78.4 | 98.4% (98.9% at grade 4+) | Not calculated by DfE — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | ~70% | ~90% |
| EBacc average point score 7.37, EBacc entry 67.7%. A-level (school-reported, not independently cross-checked against DfE, whose 16-18 pages errored during this research): 269 A* grades (28.6% of entries), 53.9% of students achieved 3+ A grades. | |||||
| 2024 | 78.5 | 97.4% (98.4% at grade 4+) | Genuinely uncalculated for this year in the sources checked — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap, so a real DfE figure likely exists, but couldn't be independently retrieved. A ~+0.85 estimate circulates on secondary sites without a confirmed year and isn't reported as fact. | 58% | 83% |
| A-level (942 entries): 22.8% grade A* alone, ~47% of students achieved 3+ A grades. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding in all five judged areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. Safeguarding effective.
- Date
- 11-12 March 2025
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/118843
- 2. Determined admissions policy for September 2026 entry — https://www.judd.online/attachments/download.asp?file=1856&type=pdf
- 3. Kent County Council — Kent Test qualifying threshold — https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/school-places/kent-test/kent-test-results
- 4. School's own Year 7 admissions outcomes page — published last-place-offered scores for 2025 and 2026 entry — https://www.judd.online/y7-joiners
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 11-12 March 2025 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50275757
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/118843/the-judd-school/secondary/results-over-time
- 7. School's own exam results page — https://www.judd.online/about-us/exam-results
Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.