Views on TWGSB

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MARC1
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:20 pm

Views on TWGSB

Post by MARC1 »

Hi, I just wanted to know of parents views on TWGSB. Particularly those whose children go to the school. I personally liked the school but was wondering if i was just blown away with the fact that a lot of money has been spent on the place ( at both Tunbridge and Sevenoaks sites) and so it looks amazing with very modern facilities etc. The headteacher was great and represented the school very well. I hate to be 'that parent' so to speak but the stats for the school ( lower attainment 8, lower English and Maths GCSE grades etc) are quite low compared to other grammar schools so was wondering if peoples actual experience was a good one compared to the publicly available stats. Oddly the girls school (TWGSG) has very good results.
Fmmg
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 4:29 pm

Re: Views on TWGSB

Post by Fmmg »

I have asked a similar qu. this year on another thread. I wonder if anyone can provide any insight or thoughts on twgsb - are they happy with it, class sizes, why the historic results are not as impressive as other grammars in the area.

We liked the school, but are finding it difficult to choose between there (with an hour walk/ train/ walk journey) and a local non-selective school (short walk). My son liked both equally but isn’t keen on the earlier wake up call required for twgsb!

We are not ‘grammar above all else’ but given he got a high score in both kent and bexley (we are in Bromley) we feel perhaps he would benefit from a more academic setting.
Sorrel
Posts: 616
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:56 am

Re: Views on TWGSB

Post by Sorrel »

I'd think the results q is similar to that for Wilmington, as explained in this thread - not to do with the school so much as the influence of nearby schools on its intake: https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum ... 19&t=63785" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . So not saying anything about how a particular boy would be likely to do there as opposed to another school.

Tunbridge Wells has two boys' grammars and one girls' grammar (Tonbridge is the other way round). At the time last year's Year 11 (most recent set of GCSE) were admitted, Skinners' didn't have an inner area and selected purely on score, so TWGSB would tend to pick up boys who passed but didn't get Skinners' (which has more history and probably prestige locally). Judd in nearby Tonbridge is also a superselective for boys. In recent years Skinners' policy has changed and until this year it's had a flat rate cut off of 360 marks, which led to most of its boys coming from TW itself. As a result, Judd's inner area score has shot up and TWGSB will v likely have been picking up lots of boys in Sevenoaks etc who didn't score quite high enough for Judd but aren't close enough for Skinners'. Skinners' has tweaked a bit this year to try to get back to higher scorers from a wider area but no evidence yet on effect.
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