Girls Boarding School in Kent, UK

Kent College Pembury:
Kent College Preparatory School & Kent College Pembury is a leading independent girls' boarding and day school with a Senior School (ages 11-18) and Prep School (ages 3-11) sharing the same site in Kent, in the south-east of England. As well as providing an excellent learning environment, Kent College offers a secure and happy home for boarders.

- Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 are usually aged 11 to 14 years old. The curriculum is planned with due regard to the Key Stage 3 (KS3) National Curriculum, although we provide a greater variety of subjects.

- Students in Years 10 and 11 are usually aged 14 to 16 and follow the two-year GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) course with public examinations at the end of Year 11.

- Sixth Form - Most students study four subjects in the first year (AS level), and continue with three of these in the second year (A2 level). Public examinations are taken at the end of each year and success in these will give students a qualification of three A-level subjects and one subject at AS level.

Kent College is a vibrant and exciting place with a strong sense of community and fantastic pastoral care. The reason it has always been so is because we are, at our core, a boarding school. Boarding schools specialise in looking after children 24 hours a day so they have to offer a thriving extra-curricular programme and need to provide excellent care and support.

Boarding Houses
At Kent College there are three boarding houses, two for older girls and one for younger girls, each with its own housemistress and assistant. We keep the number of boarders in each house relatively small so each house really feels like a big family. Upper Sixth Formers all have their own room, while other girls from the older years tend to share with a friend. The youngest boarders are in bedrooms for three or four girls and have a lot of fun together.

An International Community
Our boarders come from the UK, from British Services families, expatriate families and from over 20 different other nations. Our core aim is to maintain a good balance of British and overseas boarders in the houses and teaching groups. We are a small, global community learning to respect and understand each other.

- Most girls are full boarders who stay at weekends, whilst a number of local girls are weekly boarders who go home on Friday evenings. If you are away on a business trip or if your daughter is taking part in drama performances night after night, she can be a flexi-boarder where you pay on a per-night basis.

- The way we run boarding encourages the girls to appreciate the values of a community life. It engenders team spirit, helps girls learn to accept each other’s failings and to support each other in times of difficulty. Boarders at Kent College learn to respect their own and other people’s property, the importance of being kind and courteous and taking responsibility for one’s own actions. In an increasingly individualistic world, these qualities will stand our boarders in good stead.

Activities for Boarders:
At the weekend and during the week after lessons, there are a whole host of activities that are arranged primarily for the girls who board. Weekend activities might include a visit to a theme park, cinema or skating rink, a cycle ride or a trip to London for shopping and galleries, craft activities and multi-sport competitions, suited to the age and interests of the girls. The girls are rarely bored and, we are fairly sure, they don’t watch anything like as much television as they would at home