The Skinners' Kent Academy


The Skinners' Kent Academy is a secondary school with academy status in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The academy is rated outstanding by Ofsted.
Tunbridge Wells High School became The Skinners' Kent Academy in September 2009, when the school became an academy, and independent of local authority control.

History

In the five years before becoming an academy, the school was consistently ranked in the top 5% nationally for adding value and was the top secondary school in West Kent based on CVA scores.
In September 2014, it was on the shortlist for the 2014 Kent Design Awards.

Curriculum

The school offers the International Baccalaureate syllabuses.

Buildings

The old buildings were replaced in 2010 with an award-winning design. The contractors were Willmott Dixon. It is based on a four-storey hub buiulding with three three-storey rectangular teaching blocks set at 45’ to each other, and a further large sports block opposite.
The school required extra capacity to host its new one form entry, 3-11 primary school. They worked closely with KCC and the appointed contractors, Baxall Construction. It is a bespoke two-storey timberframed, sustainable, offsite, factory construction. The building was designed using 3D CAD software, by Willmott Dixon in discussion with the staff. The components which included the floors and the walls with the windows already in place, were all delivered at the same time as flat packs on lorries.

Non-Selective Entry Criteria

The Skinners' Kent Academy is the only one of the five secondary schools in the borough of Tunbridge Wells that does not impose any entry criteria other than the child living within a reasonable travelling distance to the school.
The three local grammar schools select their Year 7 intake according to the child's academic achievement or aptitude as measured in the "eleven plus" examination. In the case of the two other local secondary schools: Bennett Memorial Diocesan School requires to provide evidence that their family regularly participates in an act of collective Anglican worship and St. Gregory's Catholic School selects its pupil intake mainly from nearby Catholic feeder primary schools.