Tunbridge Wells, Kent · Kent

The Skinners' School

Requires 40 points above Kent's standard threshold for most places — genuinely superselective, but not through any reserved quota for the Skinners' Company's own Freemen, which doesn't exist here.

Founded in 1887 with the Skinners' Company (a London livery company) as founding patron and continuing academy sponsor, this school requires most successful applicants to score 40 points above Kent's standard county-wide threshold — a genuine, documented superselective bar, not just reputation. Despite the Company link, there's no Freemen's-sons admissions quota: checked directly against the school's own history page and two years of Kent County Council's published criteria, no such category exists. Once a boy clears the +40 bar, places go by sibling link, then staff children, then distance — not further score-ranking, except for a small 16-place Governors' quota allocated by highest score alone.

Key facts

Gender: boys
Age range: 11-18
Region: South East
Local authority: Kent
Established: 1887
DfE URN: 140595
Website: https://www.skinners-school.co.uk

Admissions

Admissions authority: The school sets its own test and criteria
Entrance test board: The Kent Test, commissioned county-wide by Kent County Council. GL Assessment is consistently reported as the provider, though not confirmed in a directly-accessible KCC document.partly verified
GL Assessment is reported consistently across independent sources but Kent County Council's own pages couldn't be directly accessed during this research to confirm it in primary wording.
Test format: Two multiple-choice, machine-marked papers: Paper 1 combines English and Maths; Paper 2 combines Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. An unmarked ~40-minute writing task is also sat but used only if a headteacher-panel review is triggered.
Qualifying / pass mark: Applicants must first be assessed suitable for grammar school via the Kent-wide threshold (a recent cycle: 332 total, no component below 108). Above that, the school requires a score at least 40 points higher than the county threshold (roughly 372) for priority ranking across most of its 160 places (140 West Kent Area, 20 Outer Area) — falling back to all merely-'suitable' applicants only if too few clear that higher bar. A separate 16-place Governors' quota is filled purely by highest score, without the +40 requirement.
Superselective?: Yes

Catchment & priority criteria

A 'West Kent Area' (within 3 miles of the school, or one of roughly 49 named parishes covering Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Paddock Wood, Cranbrook and Brenchley) holds 140 of 160 places; an 'Outer Area' covering the rest of mainland UK holds 20. No reserved category exists for sons of Skinners' Company Freemen — checked directly and confirmed absent.

Looked-after and previously looked-after children assessed suitable for grammar school
Up to 16 West Kent Area places for Pupil Premium-eligible boys, ranked by score
Up to 108 West Kent Area general places for boys scoring 40+ above the Kent threshold, ranked by sibling link, then staff children, then distance (falling back to all suitable boys if too few clear the higher bar)
Up to 16 Governors' places for West Kent Area boys not otherwise offered a place, ranked purely by highest score
Up to 20 Outer Area places, using the same score-band and sibling/staff/distance ranking as the general West Kent criterion

Results

Year	Attainment 8	GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths	Progress 8	A*–A	A*–B
2025	—	—	—	—	—
18% grade 9, 60.5% grades 9-7 at GCSE (school-reported). The school's own self-calculated 'unofficial' Progress 8 estimate is +0.86, but DfE states Progress 8 wasn't officially calculated at all for this cohort — no KS2 baseline data nationally. DfE's own Attainment 8 figure for this school and year wasn't independently retrieved (DfE's site blocked automated access throughout this research).
2026	—	—	—	50% (school-reported)	75.5% (school-reported)
School-reported, provisional (not yet on DfE's validated tables): 16% grade 9, 62% grades 9-7 at GCSE. The school's self-calculated 'unofficial' Progress 8 estimate is +0.78 — this cohort's KS2 baseline was also disrupted, so no official DfE figure will exist for it either.

Ofsted

Rating: Under Ofsted's post-2025 report-card framework: 'Strong standard' in Achievement, Attendance and Behaviour, Curriculum and Teaching, Leadership and Governance, and Personal Development and Wellbeing; 'Expected standard' in Inclusion. Safeguarding met. The prior inspection (2021, old framework) rated the school Good overall.
Date: 27 January 2026
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/140595
2. Kent County Council — admissions criteria 2026-2027 entry — https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/199434/Skinners-School-admissions-criteria-2026-2027.pdf
3. Kent County Council — admissions criteria 2025-2026 entry (confirms +40 points wording) — https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/163632/Skinners-School-admissions-criteria-2025-2026.pdf
4. School's own admissions Q&A page — https://www.skinners-school.co.uk/40/questions-about-admissions
5. School's own history page — founded 1887, Skinners' Company's role, no Freemen admissions category — https://www.skinners-school.co.uk/19/history-archive
6. Ofsted report, inspected 27 January 2026 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50298209
7. School's own results page — https://www.skinners-school.co.uk/50/results

Last updated 2026-08-30. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.