Kingsdale - how do they get their results?

[Secondaryschoolblues]

Am curious how Kingsdale (in SE London) get their results. Do they funnel the kids into the subjects they are already good at? What happens to the kids who aren’t particularly good at anything?

I've heard that they take the top students from each band in the banding tests. Don't know if it's true....

Bands are random allocation within the bands and overseen by an independent adjudicator so doubt any truth there.

From what I can see from having a DD in Y10...

Huge emphasis on English, Maths and Science - by Y11 there are 6 hours a week of each.

Choosing options in Y8 and starting them in Y9 with a pre-GCSE prep year so the groundwork is laid before starting the GCSE courses. Good choice of options, SEN kids can drop languages or humanities after discussion with school, BTECs available as well as GCSE and they will facilitate you taking extra subjects if you are keen.

Music scholars have to take GCSE music (so they have enough for 3 separate classes as a result), Sports scholars have to take PE.

They set for pretty much every subject - but you are not stuck if it's not quite working.

Huge importance on being in the right set. DD is good at maths - once she's understood the concepts. She's on the slow side at that part, but once it's done then she's actually pretty good at maths. School picked it up really early on and tried 4 different sets before finding the right teacher, pace and peer combo. Now one of DD's favourite subjects.

They run Saturday schools and after-school groups for those who are behind in GCSE years, and teachers are really amazing at providing extra help - DD did an hour 1:1 after school last week as she was struggling with something for an exam she's taking outside school.

Art department picks up on talent in Y7 - art scholarships available with trips and extra tuition. Same for maths - loads of extra sessions for maths scholars, trips, olympiads etc. Music department run before school music theory classes, lunchtime dyslexic musicians sessions and huge number of ensembles, choirs etc.

The staff will also be on the phone to parents if there's a problem.

Their results are good but not outstanding. Their progress 8 scores are ever so slightly below zero so they have a brighter than average cohort who are performing just as well as you would expect them to.

They make admissions complex so they get an above-average intake, and then I think a virtuous circle really helps. It must help staff recruitment/retention, to be so shiny and successful, and so big means lots of career potential. Plus economies of scale. We were there last night for an open evening and I was surprised to hear from an English teacher that they’d invited Peter Tatchell in to talk to the children.
Another teacher boasted about a student who’d achieved 18 top grade GCSEs. I was happy to see that other parents’ faces looked more dubious than impressed at that!

@OhCrumbsWhereNow thank you for your perspective - it’s so helpful. My dd is doing well at her (small)primary, and she loved Kingsdale when we looked round. But I worry that because she’s a good all rounder she would never get noticed and never get that extra support

It's our closest secondary. We're not at the stage of secondary applications yet but from anecdotally talking to parents in the area they seem to very much cherry pick the kids that they take.

The ‘cherry picking’ can only happen legally by the way they use the scholarship system to attract a significant % of the intake.

The scholarships and the Lottery create hype and attract competition from aspirational parents, and the admission process demands placed on these parents is self selecting for a cohort who will be well supported in families who want the best from education.

The families I know who have had kids there are all happy with it.

The level of intervention mentioned by the pp with a child in Yr10 is pretty standard. I teach at another school in SE London and we all do massive amounts of after school, weekend and holiday interventions (whether we should offer so much is a different question, IMHO it creates lazy learners who don't learn to revise independently). Re. Kingsdale I think fundamentally it does well because it's the school of choice for educated middle class parents in that part of London. It's then a virtuous circle of exam success as they get all the kids from motivated and educated families. That also offers an explanation of why their progress 8 is poor. They get good results because they get bright kids.

My son is a music & sport scholar but dropped sport for GCSE and kept music by choice. Very happy with the school, small classes, year group don’t mix, son made plenty of nice friends. Felt too big for me while visiting but turns out to be a good choice