Schools in Maidstone

The river shaped the town's early fortunes as the commercial centre of the Garden of England, with human settlement reaching back before the Stone Age. Penenden Heath and Barming extend the western residential belt.

Where the River Medway curves through the North Downs, Maidstone stands as the county town of Kent, around 32 miles east-south-east of London. Today around 100,000 people live across the borough, its economy long since shifted from heavy industry towards light industry and services. Bearsted is widely regarded as one of Maidstone's most school-competitive postcodes for primary places, while Sutton Valence draws families competing for grammar and selective school entry across the town's south-eastern edge. Maidstone East station, on the Chatham Main Line, links the town to London Victoria in around an hour.