I’m an actual current parent at WK, so thought I’d offer a slightly less apocalyptic view from the trenches. Can obviously only speak from our own experience, but we could not be happier with the school. My son absolutely loves it. And so do we.
The idea that the school is somehow in financial distress just does not tally with what we see day to day. It feels like a thriving, happy, very well-run school, with excellent teachers, very engaged parents, and superb 7+ outcomes.
We joined because of a recommendation from a close friend whose son went on to King’s at 8. She said Emily, who was then Head of Academics - had made a huge difference. Leading upto his exams, Emily would send WhatsApps in the evening about what her son had found difficult, and how to help him at home. A small anecdote but it's entirely consistent with my experience as a parent.
The new Head, Ms Playford, is excellent too. She is clearly very well respected and, having seen her in action, you can sort of see why. There is a calm seriousness about the place without it becoming some joyless exam factory. Boys are stretched, but they are also known and cared for. That combination is not as common as it ought to be.
On the girls point, I’ll be honest- we did not expect it. But personally, I am very happy with it. I went to a single-sex school myself and, speaking as a survivor of that particular social experiment, I would rather my son learned early how to behave around, work with, and coexist naturally with girls and women.
And to be sure, this is not quite the same as a boys’ school staffed entirely by men suddenly discovering girls- Westminster Under taking girls at 7, for example, is a rather different exercise. The teaching body at WK is already overwhelmingly female. The boys are already taught by women every day. So the idea that the school will now be unable to understand girls feels a little dramatic.
Of course parents are entitled to ask sensible questions about how the transition will work. That is completely fair. But the suggestion that this must be a desperate measure, or that the school is somehow in trouble, is very far from the reality we experience as current parents.
From where I sit, WK is an amazing school. The teachers are superb, the academics are strong, the boys are happy, and the results speak for themselves.
Just sharing one parent’s perspective, but we simply could not be happier here.