Any experience of Kings Maths School vs LAE for 6th form?

@Nost Not sure what else has been said on Discord - I'll ask my son but he's not normally that forthcoming with information or conversation 😅

My son is in the middle of mocks next week, so no interview prep at all! He'll be coming straight from school in uniform.
What else has been said on Discord?

@JusteanBiscuits My son is on a Discord server chat which has a few kids on who got interviews - not sure if your son can join that too? It also has one or two current pupils on too. One of them said the non-maths interview was short and you definitely aren't expected to go into lots of detail about things.

My son will definitely be wearing smart jeans, smart tshirt/jumper and trainers. I don't think they need to be formal at all...?

I think the hardest part is that non-maths interview isn't it, as it's the first time interviewing for most of them I bet. My son is really good at maths and computer science, okay at Sciences and English and really trying to scrape a 5/6 in other subjects. So he's going to concentrate on the opportunity Kings would give him with the Maths specialism. He's unlikely to get into other schools like LAE or NEC given his grades are so varied, so feels like Kings really is the best fit for him. He's also attends cadets so will talk about that a bit and things he does there...
Hope this helps?
I honestly think they're looking for the right fit at this stage, so it's mostly out of their hands apart from overcoming their nerves and presenting themselves in the best way possible 🤞🏻🤞🏻☺️
Wishing you lots of luck!!

I doubt whether the school's Ofsted rating will influence anything. According to this FOI response (answer 1a) the measure they use is the school's Attainment 8 score: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/kings_maths_school_admissions_po/response/1521347/attach/html/2/Ben%20Appleby%20FoI%20response.pdf.html

We're the Friday afternoon too 😊

Good luck to the interviewees (and hope those without aren’t too fed up about it - the pre-Christmas timing is a bit brutal). The interviews - at least when my kids did them 5-ish years ago - are very maths focused, as in ‘how would you tackle this maths problem. How about this one’ and so on. Unless things have changed a lot, the interviewers won’t be expecting lots of impressive chat about holiday jobs or volunteering or DofE awards.

Interview end of Jan 😄

We also had emails today ☺️

My son and his friend had emails today to advise result. I also received the email this time, which is the first time I've been contacted throughout the process 🙂

Last year we heard on 19 Dec (rejection).

Does anyone know when results are communicated? Interviews are I think in January - so I wonder if we'll hear before the end of term?

DfE guidance on Relationship & Sex Education can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education

This note on page 10 applies to KCMS and similar scools:

"Sixth form colleges and other 16-19 institutions that provide education for 14-16-year olds under an agreement with
the Department for Education or its agencies are required by that agreement to follow guidance which covers a number
of areas including the curriculum. The current guidance sets out the need to include the teaching of sex and relationship education in accordance with sections 403 and 405 of the Education Act. From September 2020, these
institutions will need to teach the new subjects of Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education and to follow this guidance." (my bold)

So if I were a concerned current parent (I'm not) I would calmly check what my child was being taught against this guidance and, if necessary, raise it with the school.

I know that some external providers of RSE have been called out by campaign groups, and it sounds like the provider used by KCMS may be one of them. If the school has heard those concerns and decided to continue with that provider then presumably they have some trust in them. Individual parents will need to make up their mind if that's a deal breaker for them - if the school is following the guidance, then all the information about the provision should be on the school website. (And if they are not following the guidance then it can be grounds for a complaint).

I for one really appreciate any firsthand feedback on the school, even if I take it with a pinch of salt.

NCed but regular poster

I am a parent of a Year 11 who has applied for Kings and did the exam yesterday.
The OPs original question was something along the lines of:
My DC loves maths and is interested in Kings but given Kings is quite small and heavily focused on maths (obvs), would LAE - more subjects, more students - be a better option?
My views on this are, in no particular order:
As a PP said, this may be an academic problem - literally - because for Kings OPs DC first has to pass the test, the interview and get an offer. But anyway I think the DC themselves will have strong feelings about what feels right if and when they get as far as an interview. In other words, if they go to an interview and this feels exciting they may want to say yes irrespective of whether, on other (parent) criteria, LAE would be a better choice.
I think the real issue here is how the parents of kids who are interested in Kings (or any other selective school) but when it comes down to it don't get in, explain that it will be just as good attending LAE or their second choices etc and help their kids feel better about this. It will be one of many knock backs through life, just like when you don't get that promotion or job. The majority of parents with DC who attended the Kings exam yesterday are going to have to have that conversation ... because there were at least 1000? sitting the exam for 120 places.
That would be an interesting separate thread.

And of course to set it all in context we are talking here about DC who have sixth form choices that are the top of the top and are likely going to do well wherever they go.

On the sex education at Kings. Gosh. Taking the very wide view, it was interesting to hear something about the internal workings of this - in the end - very small specialist school and how they are tackling the curriculum beyond maths. Presumably every DC that eventually attends Kings will have had some sex education already - mine has been through the whole PSHE routine at their comprehensive school and seems to know what end goes where ... and also quite definitively what their gender pronouns are.

On whether to spit or swallow (!) - there were all sorts of porn memes coming through on my DCs WhatsApp groups from Year 8 as I recall (many of them sent by girls). So unless they have been in a social media free bubble all this time, I expect the question has already occurred to them, even if they are not doing it already (which some of them will be). That's not to say that parents don't have strong beliefs about what sort of sex and moral education is ever appropriate. I expect they have PSHE at all state sixth forms, right? (I'm speaking from a position of ignorance here - I don't actually know). So they are going to get some sort version of the spit or swallow discussion wherever they go.

Good luck to everyone who has taken the exam.

Thank you - yes I have emailed them to ask. They haven’t responded yet.

@PilarT @Antigrooming You should email MNHQ and ask about the deletions. Neither of your posts seem to me to have broken any site rules. It shouldn't be up to the OP to have posts deleted on a whim. This is important info that ought to be on the thread for people to see, it's not like anyone has attacked the OP. Everyone is being balanced, calm and thoughtful.

Strange turn of events.

I posted because I live near the school and have watched its foundation and development with interest. I also know a couple of people whose kids went there and then onto Oxford and Cambridge respectively.

I was that kid who always came top in maths, often by quite a margin, but in a school where the support was not there. I did not want this for DC and they went to a very selective private school where it was cool to be clever and which had a strong maths department. 90% of the year took maths A level and a high proportion took double maths, with a sprinkling of peers involved in international maths Olympiads. The problem there was slightly different. Great teaching, great preparation for University, but being an average fish in a very talented pond can mean a lack of confidence in your ability.

Being able to go to a school where there were others with a similar academic profile to me would have been life changing. It is important that kids now have that opportunity within the state system, and that talent is not being lost.

Looking back at some of the brightest of the brightest that DC came across during their primary and secondary school careers, things were not always straightforward. A couple, at different stages, had resorted to selective mutism when unhappy in previous schools. A couple of others went through stages of inappropriate anger, partly due to frustration. Exceptional talent can be akin to special needs. The right school, with experience and understanding, can make a huge difference.

And this is probably why posters are concerned. The Safe Schools Alliance has done a lot of work in highlighting inappropriate or unsafe sex education in schools. A proportion of pupils at KCMS may well be suggestible, vulnerable, or literal. Their academic abilities may have left them feeling socially isolated, and wondering why they feel so 'different'. If I were the parent of such a child, I would absolutely want to know what they were being taught.

I agree, what me and other people are saying is not controversial or rude to the OP.

@JusteanBiscuits I’m really surprised you had my factual post deleted. I am a parent of a child at the school and I stated facts about the school. No-one has been rude to you. Your child doesn’t even go to the school.
It’s strange you wanted the whole thread deleted just so that people don’t say things about the school that you don’t like.
It can be discussed on a different thread, anyway.

I think it’s obvious for anyone reading the thread that there’s only one person being abusive on here.

I stated my opinion — an opinion shared on the link above, about the sex education charity employed by KCMS. My view is that the extreme and explicit content of their lessons is abusive, bordering on grooming. My 16 year old DC doesn’t need to be party to an adult discussing whether to spit or swallow. That’s nothing to do with “how to have sex safely”.

Stating this very mainstream view has so enraged the OP that they’ve had my comment removed and wants to have this whole thread deleted.

Parallel to my question, why doesn’t the school tell the parents what happens in sex ed classes? Is the question, why does the OP object so much to my opinion that they want to have the thread deleted? If my view is so rubbish, why not just counter it instead of censoring it?