Kensington Prep diversity?

[Elrond]

Hi all, I am considering Kensington Prep for reception for my daughter, but a bit worried about the school environment having seen Porsches doing pick ups! Wanted to hear from current parents on diversity at school, whether girls feel any peer wealth pressure, and make friendships regardless? How would you compare the school to other GDSTs in South West or other privates (Broomwood, Newton...?)

It's a private school in an affluent neighbourhood with fees over £20k per year, wealthy parents are obviously the norm.

As to whether there's ethnic diversity, no idea.

The wealth seems to not be flashy as some London preps but shows in the level of tutoring in academic, sport and music. So girls on Grade 7 and 8 in music with conservatoire’s level teachers with instruments at £1500 plus, tennis coaches in private clubs, and creative writing courses in the weekend. Year 3 to Year 6, some get top tutors with top prices to get to school of preferences. Parents and school doesn’t say it but their kids are more open and says they do maths camps, English camps, mock test centres. This would be thousands of pounds on top on school fees.

If you're after economic diversity, then west London prep schools are not going to provide it! As a PP said, between fees, extra-curricular and a lot of extra tuition for 11+, it's not a cheap option. That said, my experience wasn't that people were flashing wealth around at all.

My DD left last year, and the majority of parents were very unhappy with KP: teaching was hopeless, the 11+ prep was non-existent and most parents completely lost faith in the school. Tutoring was rife. One parent told me that they'd spent over £20k on 11+ tutoring, and they weren't an outlier. The leavers' destinations are held up entirely by parents paying for tutors. Last year, I don't think any girls would have got a place at SPGS if they hadn't been tutored outside of school.

Do you have any other 4+ options? If you do, I would seriously consider them.

Having had a daughter who left a few years ago and one still at the school I completely agree with the greatoutdoors23 - spot on in every comment. The school is a shadow of its former self with a head who has lost 90% of all teaching staff last year and turnover is extraordinary which leads to some very shoddy teaching . Feedback is not welcome at all and so much awful bullying is swept under the carpet. If you have Putney junior or elsewhere I’d deff be leaning to another school .

Yes, I second everything @parker2809 says re hopeless head, rife bullying (that goes completely unchecked) and staff turnover (last year they lost the heads of science, music and sport all at the same time. All the best teachers have left since the new head arrived, replaced by people who just aren't up to the job). It's such a shame - a few years ago it was a wonderful, vibrant, academic, happy school. It's incredible how quickly bad leadership can destroy a school.

I am so shocked to hear! We had considered Kensington Prep for our daughter a few years back (as their academics results looked so strong with 12 to SPGS the year we did 4+) but ultimately decided on Falkner House. Felt like we dodged a bullet.

At all the West London preps, you have both the very wealthy and the professionals. We are slightly uncomfortable with the level of wealth some parents have but it’s never bothered my dd (she has lots of friends) and there is no preferential treatment by staff towards the wealthier parents at FH.

TBH I think most that end up at SPGS from these top girl prep schools get tutoring. It is the same at a well-known feeder prep school to SPGS. All the girls have tutoring from a young age, extra classes and workshops all to boost their 11+

"All the girls have tutoring from a young age, extra classes and workshops all to boost their 11+."

Simply not true. Maybe a small minority at SPGS (or any other top London day school) have been tutored for years. Most haven't. I agree that most children will do some level of tutoring to get into London private and grammar schools in Y5 and 6, whichever prep or junior school they go to. But I think it's important not to make future applicants to senior schools think they've got to tutor for years to get their child in.

The broader point is that the teaching at KP was so underwhelming that a significant amount of tutoring was needed to make up the shortfall of what other prep schools were doing as standard.

I do not recognise the school that the posters above are describing. OP, I would recommend that you explore for yourself. Lots of very happy parents and girls at the school. Teachers move around, that’s London for you. We love the school and our girls do too. Brilliant community and the girls are nurtured without it feeling hot housey. Check it out for yourself!

Let me guess your daughter is in the lower years? They’re not bad up to about year 3 , but it all falls apart later on.

Yes, we didn't realise how bad things were until end of Y4 / beg of Y5.

There used to be an outstanding team of three teachers who oversaw the 11+ process and worked in collaboration with all the teaching staff. The new head manage to alienate them all, and replaced all three with a single head of 11+ who knows less about the 11+ process than the average parent.

I can only speak to my own experience but the vast majority of parents in our year were furious about the way KP had mismanaged upper KS2. Many very bright girls didn't get the senior school(s) of their choice because the academic prep had been so lacking. In our year, two girls didn't get any senior school offers at all, and in the previous year it was five girls. That would have been unthinkable under the previous head. Parents in our year who'd had older girls in the school were taking their daughters' workbooks into teachers and asking why the English and maths that their younger daughter was doing was of such a lower standard. It's a real shame and hopefully one day KP will be a great school again but right now it's not.

Putting SPGS and GL aside, I can see the 2024 cohort got a large number of offers for Francis Holland, Putney, Wimbledon, City. All very good senior schools. But are you saying that to get offers to these schools the parents needed to use a tutor?

What’s lead you to be comparing KP to Newton and Broomwood? Those are 3 quite different schools that aren’t even particular close to each other. One thing they have in common though is that there’s not going to be much economic diversity at any of them.

Absolutely. I knew of only one girl who wasn't doing extensive work with either tutors or parents outside school (and they initially didn't get any offers at all).

Obviously it depends on the girls and their ability. Many would have got into FH with a bit of Atom practice. But the English and maths teaching was nowhere need good enough for papers at City or WHS. For Atom-based exams, Atom practice was set for homework, but there was no help with weaker areas (and a refusal to engage with parents on what those weaker areas were and how parents could help). VR / NVR was never "taught" - the girls were just given Schofield and Sims books and told to get on with it themselves. So either you had a natural ability for it or you didn't.

DD used to report that many of her friends were doing 2-3 hours extra work every night with tutors or parents in Y5 and first term of Y6. The absence rate in the first term of Y6 was comical - about 40% every day as girls was just working at home on prep that parents or tutors had set. There was zero faith in the school by that point.

I should say, our DD got the outcome she wanted for senior school, so this isn't bitterness about our 11+ results. But not everyone in our year did, and upper KS2 was genuinely dreadful at KP. I wish I'd know in Y4 what was to come, and I'd have tried to move her to another school.

An update for parents considering Kensington Prep:

The Head announced yesterday that she's stepping down at the end of this academic year (good news for the school).

They're only just beginning to recruit her replacement so I doubt that will be announced until Easter.

In reality, it will take four or five years to rebuild the school academically and reputationally. First they have to get rid of all the terrible teachers the current Head has employed, and then they have to convince great teachers to be part of the mission to make it a good school again. And that's all assuming the GDST want to invest the effort to make it a great school again, or just rely on the fact that there's enough affluent parents nearby who'll pay the fees even if the teaching and the pastoral care are poor.

Acceptance date for offers is usually early Feb, so if parents are currently considering Ken Prep, it's worth bearing all this in mind.

Thanks for the information @TheGreatOutdoors23 who is gonna be the acting head for time being?

Current Head is staying until the end of the academic year, so they should have a proper replacement by the time she goes. But as I say, I doubt that will be announced before Easter (so this year's prospective parents have to make a decision without knowing).

I've been informed in the past that SLT are usually on two full terms' notice, so there's a decent chance any new head won't be able to start until January next year.

Is the head moving to pastures new?

Her email was pretty vague. Going to do something for Inspire Education in Portugal. But not taking up a great headship or leadership role at another top UK school...

We just got the offer email, she included in there with very vague explanation which tbh only raises a big red flag for new parents. I really liked the girls there and after reading this thread I am not sure how I feel about the school.

@YellowBathView Well, congrats on the offer at least! Do you have other offers? And is there an offer holder's session where you can ask questions?

Last year at the offer holders' morning, apparently the Head was telling parents that Ken Prep "isn't an academic school" which sent many parents running for the hills. That would be fine if it was offering something else - great extra curricular, an amazing rounded education, wonderful pastoral support etc. But all those are severely lacking too.

I think the Head thinks that "academic" means "hot house" which is of course absurd. Clever kids want to be stretched. Mine was bored senseless for the last two years. And it was so frustrating having teachers tell us they'd explicitly been told by the Head not to stretch the girls at all. And also having a Head of 11+ who didn't have a clue as to the standard required to get places at good London secondary schools.

Just as an example of the pitiful academic standards, our DD's Y6 class were praised (including in school reports) by the new Y6 teacher for knowing the continents. They'd known the continents since Y1. It would be funny if it weren't so depressing. The gulf between what Ken Prep thinks is "academic" and what every other decent London prep school deems academic is very wide indeed.

The trouble now is that the current Head got rid of all the amazing teachers and replaced them with (sorry to say) very mediocre (at best) staff. So it will take quite some time - and incredible leadership - to turn the school around.

My daughter was traumatised in Ken Prep by the bullying by kids and a couple of teachers and sadly the head didn’t have any interest to address it. She just denied that there was a toxic atmosphere at her school. Most of the good teachers left after the new head took over and they lost some of their assets including the wonderful music teacher who had created an outstanding music department.
I moved my daughter at y5 to a lovely school where she felt nurtured and appreciated.
my biggest regret is not having moved her earlier. Our year group was not very pleasant and there was a lot of clickiness going on between parents and kids. Personally I don’t like the culture at Ken Prep as it doesn’t promote kindness.

I'm so sorry you went through this too at Ken Prep. I think what I find most upsetting and enraging now is that the Head flat-out denied to us that there were any wider bullying issues in the school. She made out that we were the only people who had ever complained about it. If only I'd know that there were countless others (there are plenty just on threads on Mumsnet, let alone those that don't post on here) I'd have been much more robust with her about it. She appeared just to blame the "entitled" parents for it and took no responsibility for the culture at the school. She was clearly terrified of upsetting parents by tackling widespread bullying. And every other teacher we ever spoke to about it just brushed it under the carpet.

Well done for moving your DD in Y5. We didn't realise quite how toxic things were (aside from the terrible academics) until late in Y4 by which time it was too late to move DD. I fear it will have scarred her - in terms of friendships etc - long term.

For a school that bangs on and on about kindness - pretty much every nauseating assembly was on kindness - it's a profoundly unkind and toxic environment that outright refutes any child's experience of bullying. If I had my time again, you literally couldn't pay me to send DD there.

@TheGreatOutdoors23 I’m also sorry that your daughter also suffered there. Mine still has the scars after 4 years! But her second primary school then, and her secondary school now have been wonderful in helping her find strength again.
like you, when I complained at Ken Prep they made me feel like my daughter was the only child complaining about bullying and that she was just making things up! In reality, there have been many families suffering. My next door neighbour’s daughter was so bullied by the teachers at Ken Prep that she didn’t want to go to school towards the end of Y6. I also know a mother whose child had to be homeschooled as she was severely scarred at Ken Prep. At the time I really wanted to gather parents to file an official complaint. Perhaps I should have!