Surrey Homes | SH109 | February 2024 | Education Supplement inside

The Priceless
The Priceless Education Supplement
Reaching
OUT
Kat Portman-Smith, Tonbridge School’s Director of Community
Engagement, takes a look at some of the initiatives and partnerships
that form part of their students’ all-round education
Tonbridge School
“Working with
the charity
RefugEase...
boys [are]
learning more
about the global
refugee crisis”
istockphoto.com/ o-che
At Tonbridge we ensure our
students are connected to the
wider world: an important part
of the education we provide is for boys
to develop a strong sense of belonging to,
and serving, their communities.
Our aim is that boys leave us as wellrounded
individuals who are grounded,
socially aware and compassionate, and
who will make a positive contribution
in many walks of life. Our many
partnerships with schools and community
groups are key to this. We have strong
partnerships with ten local primary
schools as well as secondary schools, SEN
schools and charitable organisations.
A long-standing partnership is with The
Marsh Academy. We share facilities for
academic sessions, as well as combining
for study and revision days, sports
coaching and the annual ‘Marshterchef’
cookery competition. We also help advise
with Marsh’s Oxbridge applications – this
year its first place at Cambridge, for a
student to read Classics, was confirmed.
Our Tonbridge Community Action
programme sees more than 120 boys
volunteering each week, assisting with
primary school mentoring and afterschool
clubs covering languages, art
and sport. Boys also help out at SEN
schools, supporting autistic children with
swimming and football.
For more than five years we have run
a scheme for KCC’s Unaccompanied
Asylum-Seeking Children, who play
football and cricket with Tonbridge
boys, sharing conversational English
and learning about respective cultures.
Working with the charity RefugEase, boys
have sorted donated goods and staged
fundraisers, while learning more about the
global refugee crisis.
The highlight of the primary schools
partnerships is our annual Giving Day,
when hundreds of visiting children
enjoying a huge variety of different
sporting, artistic and academic activities
here. Meanwhile our Second and Third
Years spend the day at primary schools –
this year creating gardens, running sports
festivals and helping to create costumes
and sets for school productions. Others
headed to Haysden Country Park to
tackle bank erosion.
Our Science for Schools programme sees
local children visiting our laboratories over
a three-week period: our students organise
and supervise hands-on, fun activities,
presenting pupils with new, exciting ways
of learning. These sessions also help our
boys to gain leadership skills.
You can find out
more in the Community
section of our website.
tonbridge-school.co.uk
87