Junior Kings Canterbury vs Haileybury

[Latay74]

I have a bright sporty dd age 10 who has been offered a place at Junior Kings Canterbury and onwards to Kings or do we go for Haileybury. She is good and loves sport and although Haileybury seems to have more of a focus on sport than Kings we worry about the academic. Can anyone give me academic comfort on Haileybury or sport comfort on Kings Junior and senior.

We have DC at King's and have been more than happy on the sports front. There are DC at King's who play sport at county, national and international level. The sports excellence programme is first class. But there are also great opportunities for students playing at school level and sport is taken very seriously by many students. There are also opportunities for those who just want to play for fun.
JKS takes sport seriously and does very well against other schools - girls hockey players were in the national finals a couple of years ago and netball is also strong.
Don't know Haileybury well but DS's rugby team play them and the games have been fairly evenly matched - so I have never thought it was much better than King's - but this will vary from team to team and year to year.
Many schools make a big thing of their sports players, but when you dig down, most playing at county level and above are doing so because of parental support and coaching outside school. The schools support them but they do not create them. If your DD is not at this level, the most important thing will be the opportunities for her.
Academics, drama and music are also great at King's. And children change. One of our DC who was sports mad at 10 and had to be forced to practice their instrument left the senior school still playing a lot of sport but also playing music and singing to a high level.
We were - and still are- very happy with King's. But all of these schools have a great offering and if I had my time over again I would be looking as much at logistics ( distance from home, type of boarding etc) as I would at sport etc.

I know a sports coach at Senior Kings, his results are fab (top five in the UK) he says it possible because the head is very keen to promote excellence in all sports not just the usual major ones; ruby netball etc. He also makes time for pupils to pursue their sports. Lots of sporty children at DS's prep choose Kings and the musical, arty and budding thespians.