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Our view of Sevenoaks School
This superlatively good school in Kent is one of the top
IB schools in the world with knockout facilities and a prime location within easy distance of London, Heathrow and Gatwick. With the academic results it gets, you’d expect it to have a higher profile but that’s not the way Sevenoaks rolls. Down-to-earth, with a cosmopolitan feel, it just gets on doing what it does, superbly well. Pupils are encouraged to be the best version of themselves in all different roles and to live their best lives, says head Jesse Elzinga: ‘There is no typical Sevenoaks student, they find their own thing and find their environment.’
Where is Sevenoaks School?
The setting is spectacular: a 100-acre campus backing on to the National Trust’s Knole House. Facilities are world-class and wouldn’t be out of place on a university campus – especially the most recent addition, the
RIBA award-winning Science and Technology Centre which has soundproofed glass classrooms and a Rolls-Royce engine in the foyer. The Space performing arts centre and the Global Study Centre are also noteworthy.
Sevenoaks is split into the lower school (Years 7 and 8); middle school (Years 9 to 11); and sixth form. The school is located south of the affluent town centre, a short walk from the High Street with its plethora of shops and cafés. Transport links are excellent, both by train to London, as well as to Heathrow and Gatwick. And school minibuses meet trains in the morning (day pupils travel in from the likes of Bromley and Orpington to the north and Tunbridge Wells and Wadhurst to the south).
School headmaster
Previously head of Reading Blue Coat School, Jesse Elzinga arrived at Sevenoaks in September 2020 and has been racking up achievements ever since: under his tenure, the sailing team has made it to the European Championships, the U18 hockey team have become national champions and the school has been recognised by the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools for delivering excellent leadership. Mr Elzinga, an American with a Harvard/Oxford education, certainly deserves the last gong. Energetic and super friendly, he’s passionate about social mobility (he told us the story of William Sevenoke, the school’s founder who was a foundling, adopted by a local landowner and eventually became mayor of London in 1418) and is conscious of Sevenoaks School’s obligations to ensure that this kind of education is open to all. To that end, he’s already increased the number of free and assisted places and as the school’s 600th year anniversary approaches in 2032, the Sevenoaks Foundation is gearing up to widen accessibility even further. He’s also working towards making the school carbon-neutral and we love the sound of the work he's doing with the
Harvard Human Flourishing Programme to ensure children develop ‘the synthesis of knowledge across all disciplines’.
School admissions process
Sevenoaks is highly academically selective, receiving around 1,500 applications for the 240 places that are available across the school every academic year. Points of entry are Years 7, 9 and 12 with very few places (if any) coming up in between. Director of admissions Lorna Dolan tells us that test results are important but character is too and they are looking for children who are kind, collaborative and involved.
Roughly 300 prospective pupils are invited to the school to sit tests in the January of Year 6 (a verbal reasoning paper with Sevenoaks maths and English papers); they also do group workshops and interviews and – for those particularly interested in sport – attend a sports day. This all comes together to form an overall score for the child. The requirements for entry into Year 9 are similar. There are 76 different nationalities at Sevenoaks and, with 40 per cent of pupils considered overseas students, the admissions team ensure an even balance of nationalities throughout. The higher the application rate from your country, the tougher the ratios are to get in.
The sixth form at Sevenoaks is a big cohort, with about 235 per year group. Around 70 to 80 students are new into the lower sixth each year and approximately half of the sixth form board. References and predicted GCSE grades are obtained from current schools, as well as a personal statement from the pupils. They also take tests (English, maths, general science, general history and a language) and participate in a group workshop. European, African or English applicants are expected to attend the test day on site at school; testing centres are run in Moscow, Dubai, Singapore and China for overseas applicants. Offers are unconditional, not dependent on GCSE grades.
At all entry points, Sevenoaks School runs a reserve list which allows for a fair degree of movement and places are often offered quickly to candidates after initial offers are sent out.
Academics and destinations
Academically, Sevenoaks School has always been something of a pioneer, becoming one of the first schools in the country to fully embrace the IB system. Lessons are taught at quite a pace. There is setting in maths and languages, but generally if you are there you are expected to keep up (this does uncover those children who have been heavily tutored to get in).
Pupils are bright and sparky; Mr Elzinga describes them as having a high level of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking as well as confidence. There is lots of support for those with
SEND or EAL – although anyone with an identified learning need still needs to be able to keep up with the rigorous academic life of the school. The department provides in-class help, individual support, peer support, study skills help and independent learning.
In 2024, 87 per cent of GCSEs were grades 9-7, with 15 pupils achieving 10 or more top grade 9s. In the sixth form, everyone takes the IB. Last year’s leavers achieved the outstanding median score of 42 points – this is around 10 points above the world average – with a mode of 41. Partnerships with other excellent IB schools around the world are growing, with summer exchange programmes and sharing of expertise all in place.
It’s no surprise pupils secure places at the best universities on the most competitive courses – in 2024, 21 out of the 23 pupils applying for medicine received offers. Last year’s cohort also received 165 offers at US universities, including Harvard, Brown, Yale, Duke and Stanford. ‘I continue to be amazed at what students go on to do,’ says Mr Elzinga.
Co-curricular at Sevenoaks School
Sport has an important role in this academically ambitious school, with many pupils competing at the top level. It is not unusual to see news items about current students playing for their county or even representing GB in their chosen sports. It’s part of the timetable for all year groups; even those in the sixth form have two afternoons of sport a week.
The
Sennocke Centre is a state-of-the-art leisure centre housing a 25-metre pool, fitness centre and sports hall. Outside, there are plentiful tennis and netball courts, rugby/football pitches and a running track. The sports on offer here are hugely varied and children are encouraged to try anything, from cross-country running to sailing. Sport scholarships are awarded from Year 9 and those pupils enter an elite athlete programme which is designed to assist them – not only in their sport, but also with nutrition, strength training and mentoring.
Music and art are equally excellent. The school organises an IB art exhibition in London where sixth-form artists are involved in curating and displaying their work, and there are professional artists-in-residence on site. The Sevenoaks School Theatre Company is open to all and focuses on ensemble work; it stages four major productions a year. Currently there are approximately 60 extracurricular clubs at this private school, many set up and run by the pupils themselves. These include everything from coding and curling to French cinema and go-karting.
Boarding at Sevenoaks School
Pupils can board at Sevenoaks School from Year 9, and about a third do, with numbers increasing in the sixth form. There are eight boarding houses, including three houses for boys, three houses for girls, a sixth form house for boys and a sixth form house for girls, which all sit around beautiful gardens. The boarding houses have a homely feel, with pupils being taught to cook in the lovely kitchens (where they build up to producing three-course dinners) – great training for when they leave (sixth formers also do their own laundry) as they’re used to juggling lessons, homework and chores. Pupils have a fierce loyalty to their house, especially when it comes to competitions and sports matches.
Boarding at Sevenoaks is great for cross-year socialising too as there is very little opportunity otherwise. There’s plenty going on at weekends – such as sports matches on a Saturday afternoon, Sunday brunch and organised outings – all well-attended as some 75 per cent of boarders stay on weekends.
Sevenoaks school community
The vibe at Sevenoaks School is friendly and delightfully open-minded – no fear of a public-school bubble here. This is partly due to the fact that students hail from over 75 countries, meaning that Sevenoaks is genuinely international in outlook while still remaining rooted in the local community – and packed with interesting people.
Sevenoaks runs on a tutor-group system. Years 7 and 8 are in tutor groups together; they then join a new group for middle school and sixth form respectively. The school's tutor system is robust, with tutors providing day-to-day support for their tutees, maintaining the academic and pastoral overview, as well as liaising with parents and other staff. Tutors get to know what makes their tutees tick, what excites them and what concerns them. As well as tutors, there are also divisional heads trained specially in pastoral care, mental health and safeguarding and each section of the school also has its own common room. Mr Elzinga takes a robust approach to mobile phones, telling us he wants to protect pupils from them: Years 7 to 11 have no phones during the school day and from September 2025, the school will issue new Year 7s with a phone that can only text and make calls – he’s written to all the parents of prospective pupils to ask them not to buy their children a smart phone.
There’s an active parents association, the Friends of Sevenoaks (FoS), which organises social events. Tons of concerts, plays and lectures are provided for parents too. Sevenoaks School runs a large outreach programme and all pupils are involved, with more than 400 children doing weekly placements in the local community, including helping out at local primary schools, visiting care homes and supporting teenagers at a school for those with special needs.
And finally....
A school that’s very happy in its own skin, Sevenoaks is unashamedly academic and successfully combines a truly international outlook with an English school atmosphere – but perhaps even more importantly, it allows individuals to thrive in a truly diverse and accepting environment, with staff steering them every step of the way.