Sutton Valence School

Sutton Valence tends to suit the child who will have a go at things without needing to be the best at them: sporty or musical or neither, but happy to be busy and known by name. It is an independent, co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 11 to 18, on the hill above the village of Sutton Valence in Kent, with the younger end of the foundation housed separately at Sutton Valence Prep in Chart Sutton. Boarding is flexi or full, across three houses.

The school was founded in 1576 by William Lambe, Master of the Clothworkers' Company, who left it in the Company's care for three centuries; girls arrived in 1983. Little of that feels heavy now. Buildings are strung along the village street rather than shut behind a gate, so the walk between lessons is a walk through Sutton Valence itself, and art and photography are taught in Gulland Hall, a converted church in the middle of it. From the top of the site the ground falls away across the Weald of Kent, the view most children remember. The sports centre carries the name of Sydney Wooderson, the former pupil who held the world mile record.

Parents quoted by the Good Schools Guide call the place 'earthy not stuffy', and talk about pupils with an honest charm and no side to them. Pastoral care rests on vertical tutor groups, so a new eleven-year-old shares a tutor with sixth formers from the first week. It suits a child who would rather be part of something small and friendly than one name among hundreds, who likes being outdoors, and who grows in confidence when someone asks them to join in.