Kingsdale foundation school

[Mari5]

Hi,
Anyone at Kingsdale Foundation school in Dulwich, please help.
We did not get a sports scholarship place. Kingsdale was our first choice bit we don't know what to do now.
My daughter loves sports and is on Gifted and talented scheme at our primary school. She loves sports and we are doing quite a lot outside school.
If we get place at Kingsdale would she get a chance to participate in competitions and other sports events or is it only for scholarships kids?
We don't want to waste our first choice and of she could not do any extra in sports it is no point applying.
Please help.
Thank you.

Hello
My son is in Year 8. You definitely don't need a scholarship to be included in the afters school sports activities, nor do you need a scholarship to join and compete in any of the school teams.
I hope that helps.

My DD is in year 7 and has a half sports scholarship, in the 2nd week all year 7s were given a list of 15-20 sport clubs to choose from.

The list was quite diverse, it included standard sports (football, netball, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, etc) and other activities like fencing, horse riding, dance and zumba.

All the children have to try out for any of the teams - sport scholars (scholarship pupils) are not guaranteed a place. Also as far as I have seen, sport scholarship pupils aren't treated any differently than those without a scholarship.

Hi Maz
Just wondered if you're DD got her place through the lottery or scholarship waiting list? We have received a letter saying that our DS had reached half sports scholarship standard. The letter states that approximately 50% of applicants that reach half scholarship standard normally accept a scholarship place by 1st September. However when I phoned admissions, I was advised that no one with a half scholarship was offered a place last year. I'm totally confused - emailed the school but still waiting for a reply.

My dd got a full scholarship place.

Funnily enough though she, and many kids of a sImilar standard (competing at junior elite level nationally and internationally) don't participate in school sports at all, they have a full training and competition schedule outside school, and simply don't have time.

My understanding was that scholarships get you a place, get you some additional help with sports generally- day courses and the like, but school sports are run the same as any other.

Hi Brockleygirl46,

I personally believe my DD got her place because of the sports scholarship - as we didn't get the place in first round and was told 2 weeks later our position on the band & scholarship waiting list. Then a week later we got the letter offering the place and at that time there were other people last year on this forum year that weren't many places behind us on the band waiting list and they did not end up getting a place.

Also, another reason why is because the oversubscription policy states that available places are offered in a particular order:

children in care,
on the scholarship waiting list,
siblings,
children of staff,
children with medical need,
and those in randomly allocated in the band.

The oversubscription policy is the only reason why I had my daughter try out for the scholarship.

I think your DS has a good chance of getting a place on the sports scholarship waiting list.

Hi Maz

Thanks for taking the time to reply. That was my understanding of the oversubscription policy. However speaking to Admissions it felt like a half scholarship was highly unlikely to get him into the school. I felt quite despondent on Friday but hearing that your DD got a place last year has given me a ray of hope. My understanding is that the scores are ranked. Was this fed back to you? Is your DD enjoying Kingsdale? Are you happy with the school?

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thank you all. It is a little bit clearer now, but I still have questions.
So if every pupil have chance to participate in different kinds of sports and competitions and there are so many sports clubs, why are the scholarship kids different? Why do they have to have these scholarships at all?
Also if my my daughter will get a place at school, can she get a scholarship later?

I believe the sport scholarship students will have access to additional coaching/training sessions.

The scholarships allow the school to select up to 15% of students on aptitude in a particular area (sport & music).

I did hear the Sports Director saying to other parents that students are able to gain a scholarship after joining the school.

Thank you very much. This is very helpful. I don't get the whole idea of these scholarships. How can they possibly judge if the child is good or not at sports after 2 hours assessment? It all depends how you perform on a day but what if you were unwell? There were too many children for just 4 assessors. My daughter has done really well and we still cannot get over the shock of not getting anything. I cannot believe that she has done so bad that she did not get at least a half scholarship and not even a G&T place.
It is so hard to decide.

Brockleygirl46, I wasn't aware of any scores or ranking.

I'm not sure why admissions would have told you that no one got a place with half scholarship.

My DD loves the school even though the year 7 is so big. My DD told me there are 13 tutor groups... her tutor group has 25-28 children.

I am happy so far, although some parts of the administration could be a bit better.

But I do get a sense that the teachers care about the students making progress and they've are willing to engage with parents no matter how small the query.

And I especially like the fact that they do keep the class sizes small in core subjects.

Thank you very much. I think we will put it as first choice and we will see what happens. It is over subscribed and the chances to get it are very slim. If we get it we can talk to them. May she will be able to get scholarship later.

Another plus I forgot to add, is that the children do not stay with their whole tutor group for all lessons - set for Maths & I think also English and their MFL choices.

But they are also mixed up for all other subjects - only a handful of the children in my DDs tutor group are in any of her lessons.

Ds1 tried for sports scholarship and music. Got a full music one but no sports offer. He's in year 8 now, VERY happy (after being miserable for most of year 7). He's on the G&T for sport but isn't actually bothered about participating outside of lessons (so good call by them not offering him a sports scholarship!). He loves PE at the school and is thriving in those lessons. I think there are some really enthusiastic PE staff there and the PE curriculum is well delivered.

"And I especially like the fact that they do keep the class sizes small in core subjects"

My ds is in year 8. His Latin class at Kingsdale has 4, yes 4! children in it.

Hi there,

Sorry for crashing into this discusion. My daughter has been offered a full music scholarship. Minifingerz or anyone else, what does this mean once you are at the school? Do the Scholars have to take their music lesson at school?

Hi Little
Both my boys have full scholarships and both have lessons in and out of school. Ds1 has continued with his piano teacher outside school doing classical piano and has lessons in improvisation/jazz piano in school. He's been with his outside school teacher for 6 years and we were keen for that relationship to continue. His teacher in school is a working jazz musician and ds is very impressed with him.

Ds2 does trumpet in school and saxophone outside school. Again, I was keen to keep him with the teacher he'd established a good working relationship with outside school. Trumpet is his scholarship instrument, but he'd already started with saxophone when he'd applied to Kingsdale. Ds1 started with percussion, though piano was his scholarship instrument - we wanted him to do jazz piano but the teacher didn't have an opening. I'm really happy he's switched to jazz piano now.

Minifigerz, thank you for quick reply. That all sounds great. My daughter plays violin and viola and her out of school teacher is amazing, so we are hoping to keep him. If we get in we will hopefully be able to get to some sort of arrangement with the music department. Are there lot of concert opportunities for the scholars? On the scholarship page it says 'workshops with professional musicians'. Is that so?