The Knole Academy is a secondary school in
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England that was opened in September 2010, as a result of the
amalgamation of the Wildernesse School (for boys) and Bradbourne School (for girls).
The site
The former Bradbourne site was selected for the new academy. This had to be a sensitive development as the site lies right at the edge of the
metropolitan Green Belt
The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...
.
The location of the new building was selected to respect the overall use pattern of the site, and to enable construction whilst the existing buildings remained in use. The site had an existing building footprint of to which would be added – which makes up 8% of the total site area. There is of general recreational space with of sports pitches and viewing areas. There is of landscaping and of parking and service roadways.
To the north of the three-storey new building are two sports halls and the music teaching accommodation. To the south set at an angle that follows the contours of the site are the specialist classrooms, toilets and office space. Art has the top floor, science has the middle floor and construction and technology on the ground floor. General classrooms are in the existing building.
The sites of the previous schools were used during the construction of the new Academy buildings which weren't completed until 2015. On merger, not all of the students from Wildernesse moved over immediately; the merger of students was only completed in September 2011. Since then, the site at Knole East (Wildernesse) has been used to site
Trinity Free School, Sevenoaks and
Weald of Kent Grammar School Annex.
Academics
The school is currently rated 'Good'.
Previous schools
The Wildernesse School was a single sex
high School
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
for boys aged eleven to nineteen. It had Specialist School status for Mathematics and Computing. Other than the English motto taken from a letter to
Sir Philip Sidney
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
from his father, the school had a Latin motto: ''
Non Nobis Solum'' (English: "Not for ourselves alone").
The school closed in July 2010, becoming part of the Knole Academy at the start of the autumn term in September 2010.
The Bradbourne School was a girls 11–18,
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
with a 6th form that hosted about 860 students. It closed in 2010.
Former pupils
* From Wildernesse
**
Anton du Beke
Anthony Paul Beke (born 20 July 1966), known professionally as Anton Du Beke (), is a British ballroom and Latin dancer, and television presenter, best known for being a professional dancer and later a judge on the BBC One celebrity dancing sh ...
, choreographer
**
Jerome Flynn
Jerome Patrick Flynn (born 16 March 1963) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his roles as Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the ITV series ''Soldier Soldier'', Bronn in the hit HBO series '' Game of Thrones'', and Benn ...
, actor and singer
**
Murray Lachlan Young
Murray Lachlan Young (born 14 March 1969) is a British poet, stand-up performer, broadcaster, playwright, screenwriter and children's author. He came to prominence during the Britpop era of the mid-1990s, when he became the only poet to sign a rec ...
, broadcaster
**
John Salako
John Akin Salako (born 11 February 1969) is an English football coach, former professional player, and sports television pundit.
Born in Nigeria, Salako played as a midfielder from 1986 until 2005. He played in the Premier League for Crystal Pal ...
, footballer
**
Matthew Wilson
Matthew Wilson (born 29 January 1987) is a British rally driver from Cockermouth in Cumbria. He is the son of M-Sport boss and former World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson. Wilson competed in the WRC for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team. ...
, garden designer and broadcaster
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Secondary schools in Kent
Academies in Kent
Schools in Sevenoaks