My Guardians is situated not far from Tonbridge – an historic market town well known for its culture and heritage. Tonbridge has been a market town since the Middle Ages. The Normans chose it for their splendid mote and bailey castle, which dominates the town to this day.
Tonbridge School is one of the leading boys’ boarding schools in the country and highly respected internationally.
It was founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde, under Letters Patent of King Edward VI.
Tonbridge School is a member of the Eton Group, a group of the leading academic schools in Britain. The Good Schools Guide describes the school as “truly excellent”. It is not one of the nine public schools mentioned in the Public Schools Act 1868, but it is just as old as, or older than, five of those which are. It is among the 25 boarding schools mentioned in the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889, and is one of the founding schools of the HMC. It is one of only a very few of the ancient public schools not to have turned co-educational, and there are no plans for this ever to take place.
There are currently about 770 boys in the school, aged between 13 and 18. The school occupies an extensive site of about 150 acres on the northern edge of the town of Tonbridge, and is largely self-contained within that site. Since its foundation the school has been rebuilt twice on the original site.
Tonbridge’s fees are among the highest of all the public schools in Britain, at around GBP 30,000 per year in basic fees for boarders (higher than Eton or Harrow for example). However, bursaries and scholarships are available, including the Foundation Award.
