As we mark 50 years since Sevenoaks became co-educational, we are delighted to have been selected as a finalist in the Independent Schools of the Year 2026 awards, Co-ed Independent School of the Year category.
Our student body of 612 boys and 623 girls represents more than 75 nationalities. We encourage them to develop strong cultural awareness, a determination to be an influence for good, and a capacity for work, leadership and collaboration.
Diversity is embedded in every aspect of school life. Our aim is for Sevenoaks students and staff to act as role models of equity, diversity and inclusion and agents of positive change both in our community and in their lives outside.
Founded as a grammar school for boys in 1432, Sevenoaks admitted girls to the school roll for the first time in September 1976, when seven intrepid young women joined the Sixth Form, in a school of 850 boys. In September 1977 we opened GIH, the Girls’ International House, for Sixth Form boarders, and in 1984 the school was opened to girls at Year 7 and Year 9 entry, becoming fully co-educational. In his history of the school, Mike Bolton describes this as ‘the most significant change to the school since it had become independent after the Second World War’.
We continued to expand our provision for girls, opening new boarding houses in the 1980s and 2020s. In 2002 Katy Ricks was appointed the first woman Head of the school in 570 years, and in recent years we have welcomed two co-educational preparatory schools, Solefield School and Bickley Park School, to the new Sevenoaks Family of Schools.
It is a pleasure to be recognised by the Independent Schools of the Year for our 50 years of transformational co-education.
