Benenden has a boarding population of over 550 girls aged 11 to 18, as well as a limited number of day student spaces.

The school occupies a Victorian country house set in 250 acres of gardens and woodland in the Weald of Kent.

The earliest available records show the land in the possession of Odo, Earl of Kent, the man believed to have commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry, having been given it—among much other property in the county—by his half-brother William the Conqueror.

The house, which featured a prominent tower and was described as having "alarming vitality" was subsequently remodelled in 1912 by Herbert Cescinsky at the behest of its new owner, newspaper magnate and later Lord Rothermere, Harold Harmsworth.

The new school had a temporary home in Bickley for the first term while the three founders set about finding a new permanent site, requiring at least seventy bedrooms and large grounds.

In 1940, the school was evacuated from Kent, moving into the Hotel Bristol in Newquay, Cornwall, led by Christine Sheldon and Kathleen Bird, two of the founders.

On 3 August 1944, Jean Maridor, a Free French pilot, died when his aircraft crashed close to the school buildings and military hospital.

The school play, written for the occasion, A Great Company was performed at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket.

Claire Oulton, Head of St Catherine's Bramley and a graduate from Somerville College, Oxford, was appointed headmistress in 2000.

The following year the eco-classroom, a totally self-sustaining building, opened in the Victorian Water Gardens.

The new all-weather pitch and pavilion was opened by television personality Davina McCall on 10 September 2016.

Primarily for lacrosse and hockey, the new facility allows girls to train in all weather and in the mornings and evenings.

After their first season training on the new pitch, Benenden's 1st lacrosse team won the National Schools Championships.

Benenden is a full-boarding school, with a limited number of day places since 2021, and has a maximum of 560 girls.

There are six junior boarding houses (ages 11–16), consisting of Marshall, Medway, Guldeford, Echyngham, Norris and Hemsted.

Applications to Benenden exceed available spots, and parents seeking to enroll their daughter often register her years in advance.

[7] Benenden's stated aim is for its academic programme to encourage a lifelong enthusiasm for learning and discovery.

Younger students will take a mixture of all subjects offered, as well as sports, music and PSHE classes.

Pupils studying for their GCSEs must generally take 10 or 11 subjects, including Mathematics, Science and English and one modern language.

Drama and the Arts are popular; the school's annual play has on occasion been performed in London theatres such as the Palladium (Me and My Girl; 2002).

Productions since then have included A Christmas Carol, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Grimm Tales, Beauty and the Beast, Romeo and Juliet, Kiss Me Kate and Les Miserables.

Other activities include hockey, fencing, badminton, volleyball, golf, riding, judo, tae kwondo, trampolining, rounders, football, aerobics, athletics, rugby sevens (Kent Girls Under-18 Champions 2009) and squash.

Frida Leakey worked here as a French teacher before she discovered a gorge of human fossils in Tanganyika.