King Edwards School for boys, Birmingham?

[smashers]

Hi. I'm looking at private / grammar options for my son and would be really interested to hear parents views on KES (boys) in Edgbaston? We had a visit and I had a really great feeling about the place but nothing beats first-hand experience and it would really help to hear pros / cons from those with sons already there - does it offer good pastoral care? (I'm a bit worried about bullying - we had a problem with another son being bullied at his school). What is the workload like? Does it matter if my son is not sporty? Would really appreciate any feedback - thanks so much.

Very good school, but very competitive entrance exam. Also consider the KE foundation grammers, just as good educationally but slightly fewer facilities (although better than most schools)

Excellent reputation, over many, many years. I know a couple of lads that are currently there, and their families are very happy (including one who moved, after being bullied at a previous school), but of course that's not really data - 2 boys out of the whole school !
As caroldecker says though - very competitive to get a place.

May I suggest you go to www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewforum.php?f=11 which is the Birmingham region and there are 50 pages of threads about grammar schools in Birmingham. Quite a lot of the threads are about KES and how it compares to the state grammars - very favourably it seems. Many of the KES threads talk about scholarships and bursaries available, the exam, league tables, transport (or lack of) and how lucky the children are to attend. Happy reading!

Personally I wouldn't recommend KES unlike The Foundations other schools it is private, so tends to be a lot less selective, and chooses based on payment, I would check out King Edwards Camphill which is one of the best in Birmingham and maybe Five ways mixed, I attend the sixth form at King Edwards Aston, so I have had experience with grammar schools

thanks everyone for your comments and thanks RedVW for that link - will check it out. Much appreciated

Good luck to your ds, it's all pretty selective in brum. IMHO though, many sit for grammars and KES if the boy is very able. On the whole (again from my experience) not many decline a grammar place to take KES so, as previously alluded to in the thread the very brightest are probably at the grammars. However you really do get value for money educationally at
KES - the fees are modest ( compared to down south for instance)and the school is great academically.

KES offers some fee support and assisted places - used to be 50% assisted places funded by the govt until the Labour party stopped it under Blair - can't have the poor getting a decent education