Moving to Kent

Feeling part of the school community can sometimes be hard when you are 40 miles away, so we use a careful mix of on and offline communications so that our parents can keep up to date with what is happening at school and rejoice in the achievements of their child from afar. 

An exceptionally friendly school where everyone is quickly made to feel part of the community 

The Good Schools Guide

We understand that for commuting parents there will always be occasions when they need to stay up in town outside of normal office hours. In that way, a rigid pick-up time can add unnecessary stress to an already demanding working week, so in addition to our excellent Flexi-Boarding provision, parents can also take advantage of our extended day from 7.30-6.00pm for all ages, enabling children to access over 70 different kinds of after-school clubs throughout the year, many of which are free of charge. 

If expectations for the daily commute and the perfect school are met, securing a home that not only best suits the needs of the family but also represents great value for money is often the final missing piece in the jigsaw.  With so many wonderful senior schools in Kent, to include several excellent grammar schools, it is hardly surprising that demand for both sales and rental properties in key school catchment areas is high.  The first decision is often to buy or rent. Moving is expensive, especially with stamp duty at its new levels and so many families want to move out, get the children settled at school and then decide where to buy.

Hawkhurst is in the Cranbrook School catchment area, however owing to our 11+ and senior school entry success rate, many of our pupils go on to other grammars and high profile independent senior schools all over Kent and the South East. Once the potential of a child begins to emerge, schooling plans beyond Marlborough House often become clearer, so for many parents new to the area, this presents the perfect opportunity to revisit the location of the family home.  By keeping senior school options open, in the short-term new parents are able to widen their property search area and at the same time take full advantage of all Marlborough House has to offer their child.  

Property Turner is a local Property Search Agency that has successfully helped many Marlborough House School parents find their rental or forever home over the years.  It is run by Helen Turner who qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and was a partner at Knight Frank for many years.  She and her team have excellent local contacts and knowledge, often finding houses before they hit the open market. 

Marlborough House School is positioned neatly between two mainline train routes into London; the Hastings line and the Ramsgate and Dover Priory lines via Ashford. The nearest station to us on the Hastings line is Etchingham and is just under six miles away from the school. Alternatively, travel to Staplehurst which is nine miles away from school. Some of our parents prefer to drive to Tonbridge where the frequency of trains to London is better.

We currently run minibus services, two of which begin their journey in the rural villages of Wadhurst (for the Hastings line) and Pluckley (Ramsgate line). 

Hawkhurst or 'Hawk-Wood' if you take the literal translation from the Old English spelling, is a pretty country village  in the Weald of Kent and the Borough of Tunbridge Wells.  Hawkhurst is really two villages joined together, with the Moor at the older end and Highgate with its two-hundred-year-old, listed collonade building, local shops and digital cinema at the other. 

Wherever possible, the Marlborough House catering team try to source produce from local suppliers and we are lucky enough to have the award-winning  Weald Smokery and Hartley Dyke Farm Shop practically on our doorstep.   In addition to Waitrose and Tesco supermarkets, the Hawkhurst community also supports local independent traders with a butchers, bakery and grocery store, all of whom trade in the colonnade just a few minutes walk from our school.

Housed in Victorian hall, the village is also home to the “Kino”, the U.K.’s first all-digital cinema.

When it comes to wining and dining, we are really spoiled for choice. There are many fabulous country pubs in the area to include the Great House, Queens Inn and Smugglers Ale House in Hawkhurst, The Milk House at Sissinghurst and The Bell at Ticehurst. Michelin- starred, The West House is just 15 minutes drive away from Hawkhurst, just around the corner from Kent's oldest commercial vineyard. The area has many vineyards including Hush Heath Winery, Lamberhurst vineyard and the award-winning Chapel Down winery near Tenterden.

Family time is easily spent in The Kentish Weald and Marlborough House sits within a ten-mile radius of many wonderful National Trust properties to include the glorious Sissinghurst Gardens, Bodiam Castle and Rudyard Kipling's home at Batemans. Bedgebury Pinetum is 4 miles away from us with many parents holding annual membership passes as it has over 10kms of family cycle tracks through the 2000-acre forest, a junior and adult Go Ape course, wonderful walks through the Pinetum and in the summer, as part of Forest Live, the site plays host to a series of live music concerts.

 

Nearby Cranbrook Rugby Club is a bustling hub of sporting activity with  boys and girls across the whole community playing competitive rugby (and meeting their Harlequins Club and England team heroes) throughout the season with cricket training available in the summer. 

At Marlborough House, we also run our own parent clubs on site for netball, table tennis, yoga, pilates and cricket enthusiasts, with the dad's football and mum's netball clubs proving particularly popular.

We also have excellent links with junior sections of other local clubs to include Marden Hockey, Sissinghurst Cricket and Wadhurst Football clubs.