16+ KCL Maths School (Sixth Form)

Laptops are essential I think. My dc uses theirs everyday. Homework is often emailed in, especially for computing and for the EPQ.

The cafe is just a room with a vending machine and a couple of microwaves. There are places within easy walking distance to pick something up. But I think many take a packed lunch.

The walk from waterloo is really safe if you choose a nice route. Quick as well. You go out of waterloo the back way where the taxis are (opposite end to the river) and go right and eventually on to Lower Marsh. All crossings and no dodgy alleys if you plot it ok. There is one tunnel near by I wouldnt go down by myself.

Workload wise - just keep on top of it. There are very few free periods. They advise I think about 12-15 hours a week extra but my dc does nothing like that usually. Basically allow a couple of hours an evening and then a weekend morning, but be consistent! It must vary hugely on the child though.

Hi,

My DD is currently in Yr 13 at KCLMS. She loves it and will not have a negative word spoken about it! The school really does embrace the whole "maths and science are cool" philosophy and nerds, non nerds and maths geniuses and non maths geniuses alike feel comfortable at the school. There are some students who are basically studying all the maths modules because they love maths and are so good at it. There are also students who took GCSE Maths in Year 11 and didn't study GCSE Further Maths/Additional Maths. The school seems to do well by all its students.

My DD scored better than we hoped at AS - the school has definitely "added value" to her grades. The Maths teaching appears to be superb. She has the Head Teacher as one of her Maths teachers and tells me that there's nowhere to hide in his lessons. He's very enthusiastic and he makes sure that EVERYONE understands the work by the end of the lesson. She says he's her best teacher. They also have Maths Problem Solving classes which help the students to tackle problems that they're likely to see at STEP or in the MAT. These go "beyond the curriculum" and will stand the students in good stead for when they reach Uni.

The Physics teaching is very good. My DD found A-Level Physics difficult from week 1 but managed to pull an A at AS.

She had 3 different Comp Sci teachers last year and the school dropped the full A level Comp Sci for Yr 13's this year. Disappointing but it shouldn't affect her Uni options. She tells me that the Comp Sci dept got better results than the Economy dept at AS last year. The school are (rightly) proud of their excellent Maths/FM results but have yet to offer actual stats for their Econ/Comp Sci results.

Regarding Uni options - the school seem not to "over predict" when it comes to UCAS Application Predicted Grades. None of this BBB at AS leading to predictions of A*AA that you see all too often on The Student Room. DD asked for one of her predicted grades to be lifted by 1 grade to match some of the Uni's she's chosen but they refused (to be fair - students were given the predicted grades early in September and were told it was unlikely that any of them would be changed)

They also wouldn't let her see her UCAS Teacher Reference, however we did get to see it under the Data Protection Act by paying UCAS a small fee. It was a glowing reference and showed that they knew her well on a personal and academic level. The only issue was that they they omitted mentioning the numerous changes that my DD's Comp Sci class had (they had told her not to waste space in her statement since they would mention it)

The school had a good chunk of kids go to Oxbridge last year including one student who the school recommended should not apply. They seem a bit "private school" when it comes to these things but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. They took the students to Open Days at KCL (of course!), Imperial and Warwick at the end of Year 12. DD has indeed applied to KCL but it's not one of her favourites as she's now over familiar with the Uni since they do go there a bit and have people come from the Uni to the school for talks/teaching sessions quite a bit too.

They are surprisingly accepting of students who don't want to apply to Uni and will support them in applying for Apprenticeships/Employment. One girl last year went off to work at Dyson.

They support weaker students well - but towards the end of Year 12 will call those who look like they won't get at least BCC (I think) at AS level into a meeting and warn them that unfortunately they won't be able to start Year 13 unless they achieve BCC. Several kids from DD's cohort did not proceed to Year 13 but I think they do allow kids to repeat Yr 12.

One thing I noticed last year was that come AS exam time there was no study leave. Some days my DD would come out of an exam and go straight into revision classes to prep for upcoming exams. The students were also given individual timetables around this time so they only went to classes based on which modules they personally needed work on (but were welcome to sit in regardless)

The students have 4 set internal exam periods each year (Nov, Jan, March, May) and "predicted grades" are generated and updated based on the results of these with the benchmark "predicted grade" based on, I assume, how the student did at GCSE and on the school's entrance test. The school is very data driven in that respect. Each student also gets a suggested timetable for recap and review classes that take place at lunch time and after school, again based on each student's strengths and weaknesses.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

No problem! It is a new school, but I think it is settling into itself quite nicely. Certainly the teaching is outstanding and the pastoral support so far has been very, very good. Good luck to your dd.

Thanks alittlebitprivate!
Good to hear from somebody with experience - it's such a new school.

ok. I've a dc at KCL in Year 12 so I can't answer some of your questions. I can also only answer them from my perspective.

It's a brilliant sixth form if the subjects your dc would like to do are maths, further maths and physics and they absolutely love maths. They offer a lot more maths extension than any other sixth form we visited, in fact there are very few frees and the timetable and after school are jam packed with maths. They don't follow the curriculum in the traditional sense and ordinary maths lessons contain extension and STEP questions right from the first week.

They do try and make sure that dc are more well rounded than just maths though. They have to chose a sport which is done during the school day. They have to chose from a diverse range of clubs, with everything from latin to knitting to games club. They spend one term in their first year being taught a language.

As well as maths, fm and physics they choose between as economics or computing and do an epq.

A level choices are by definition narrowing. If those are the subjects your dc would like to do, then it's a good choice. If they want a different selection, then it isn't.

Just checking nc works.

Where could we get impartial advice on final two school options, particularly regarding university opinions on respective schools?

University opinions on respective schools? There aren't any.

University offers are based on A level grades (and extension papers like STEP for maths at top universities). Universities don't have opinions about specific schools. The KCL school offers a bit more maths extension than many other good sixth forms, but this advantage is probably balanced out by the narrow range of subjects and the lack of non-maths/science extra-curriculars etc.

I'd also love to know what experience anyone has of this school - DD has an interview!