Kingswood School vs Prior Park College - Bath

[Gogothorn]

Hello! Looking for advice on schools as we are moving to the Norton St Phillip area this summer.
We like both schools for our children (my son is very academic and daughter very creative) and are looking for somewhere that would suite both of them. We like that Kingswood would give them the option to flexi-board so curious if anyone has any experience or advice about their children boarding there.
I don’t know anyone at Prior Park so I’d be very grateful for any opinions and/or experiences of the school. Thank you!!!

Good luck with the move! We don’t have direct experience as our kids are too young, but Prior would be much more convenient from NSP (I don’t think there are that many Kingswood families in that area, though happy to be corrected!) Have you ruled out KES because of not offering boarding? Also know people who love Monkton

Thanks @VaVaFrome! The only reason we ruled out KES is because my daughter isn’t terribly strong academically. We’d love to find a school that offers flexi-boarding but would rather a day option than weekly or full boarding… which is why we also stopped considering Monkton.

Congrats on the move! Pick Kingswood—it stretches high-achievers for your son, nurtures creativity for your daughter, and offers easy flexi-boarding in a friendly community. And for a smooth move, simply hire a trusted man-and-van and you’ll be settled in no time.

Prior park is more of a international intake like KES is academic. Kingswood is small and down to earth and everyone i know who goes there really enjoys it.

That makes sense! Though I’m pretty sure Monkton has a day option (know families with day kids there who use flexi-boarding, though I think they’ve cut school buses from the south of Bath route).

Have heard good things about Kingswood so won’t argue with the replies recommending it. However, you should think carefully about the school run as NSP to north Bath will be brutal at rush hour. We have ruled out the north Bath prep options for that reason, though of course that’s mitigated if you flexi-board. You’ll love NSP in any case - it’s a great village

My children are down to go to Monkton and it definitely has day pupils (which they will be) and flexi boarding options. The fees are day, 3 nights a week, 7 nights, and full termly boarding. You can however, book in ad-hoc nights subject to availability and the senior school includes a few nights each term in the day fee. The day fee from year 7 also includes breakfast and dinner if desired, and day pupils are welcome all the way up to bed time, and at weekends.
We chose Monkton for many reasons, but one is that it operates in such a way that means it has lower prep, years 1-4 , upper prep, which is years 5 to 8 inclusive, and senior, which is from year 9. I don't know how old your children are, but this means that 11 year olds who are still children, aren't in school with young adults etc. The senior is also small, with around 400 pupils. It may well be worth you visiting the school to at least discuss your wishes, especially given where you are planning to live. You would obviously need to visit both the prep and the senior if your children are younger than year 9. I agree with others who have said that going across the centre of Bath in rush hour is hell, it is! I hope this helps a bit.

Thank you to everyone for your very helpful comments. We are super aware of the cross city traffic issue which is why we are considering Prior Park too. I completely appreciate comments and suggestions re KES and Monkton, but for our kids and their different abilities, we’re not sure either will suit both of them. Does anyone have direct experience at Prior Park? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks so much!

Re Prior Park
After some online furore, I thought it necessary to clarify my last post. All schools are a mixed bag and opinions and experiences will vary greatly. I thought I'd provided a balanced view and highlighted many positive attributes. If I'd wanted to re-post hackneyed stereotypes, conjecture, and "dinner party" chit chat, I'd have filled 30 pages, but that sort of information is irrelevant, unhelpful, and can be unfair. I chose to share (perhaps unwisely) strictly my OWN experiences and those of two close friends/parents who confided in me as they were in the same position. I have a newly diagnosed neuro-divergent child and had recently received the "Prior Park" heads-up (i.e: warning that other independent schools would be unlikely to accept my child) via a formal meeting at my child's current independent school. This appears to be standard procedure in cases like this as others in the year group have received similar warnings.

As a parent - whether of a neuro- typical or neuro-divergent child - I thought this information might be helpful to others. Obviously every school is made up of hundreds of highly diverse children. No single "type" exists.

Platforms like this can be a source of rumours and plain nonsense - but also healthy, robust debate and helpful information. My intention was the latter. My post was based on valid and recent personal experiences.

To end on a positive note:
Interestingly, both other sets of parents I mentioned earlier who initially felt forced into considering another school were delighted after their visit to Prior. They're still raving about the staff, pastoral care, "launch pad" system, and more. It's clearly highly recommended, by current parents too. It also comes with some of my very favourite teachers, parents, children - and general humans - and I would be extremely proud of I could send my child there.

I think there is a spectrum here between Prior, Kingswood and KES.

Prior has the better pastoral care but lower academic results. KES has the better academic results but this is largely due to peer pressure (no one wants to be seen as academically weak).

Kingswood sits somewhere in the middle on pastoral vs academic results. It is the more sporty but is also the largest and getting more popular compared to the other two but still losing numbers due to the VAT issue (which to be fair is impacting all private schools).

Currently I have two children at Prior, one has an academic scholarship and the other an art scholarship. They were both offered places at Kingswood which we turned down on the basis that the diversity of the extra-curriculum activities were broader, the pupil is treated as an individual and there's a genuine feeling of enthusiasm for the children which we didn't feel at Kingswood. (We wrote off KES early on as we didn't feel it was the right fit for our children).

Flexi-boarding is an option at Prior too.

Please DM me if you'd like to talk more!