King Edward V1 Grammar (KES School - Stratford Upon Avon)

[Hillingdon]

Could anyone help me. I am looking at the above school for my DS to do his A Levels. We are in the catchment area and he currently attends a very well known private boarding school. He has done very well there, however he has asked us to look at other options luckily well in advance of actually applying.

I have looked online but can only find a OSFTED report from 2006!

He needs 54 points and he should be able to achieve this but its a big decision and I am fact finding at present.

Many thanks in advance

What is it about his boarding school that he doesn't like?
My knowledge is a little out of date but KES was/is a great school. It takes girls in the 6th form and I believe is extending its site into old council offices across the road.

I can't comment on SonA Grammar but have a more general comment. When choosing a secondary school you want to know what it is like across the board but when choosing a sixth form you mostly only care about the subjects that your DC will be studying e.g. the school may boast that it sends half a dozen pupils to Oxbridge every year but if they are scientists and your DC is a Historian then that's not much use to you. Look at the detail (grades for each subject) for A Level - I see that they have it on their website. It's good to see that they run some courses when they only have a tiny uptake of pupils.

Looking at the admission criteria, catchment doesn't come into it for sixth form; it's all about the best eight GCSEs. academic achievement.

My DS was offered a place for sixth form starting last September. In the end he decided not to go because of the travel. Why not go through the application process? If he's good enough he'll be invited to the induction days. You don't need to decide until GCSE results come out, but you do need to decide quickly then. For what it's worth, we really liked the feel of the school.

Thank you both. I have downloaded the achieved grades for A Level last year. We are just within catchment but I noticed that it doesn't make any different in the 6th form. There is a local bus though so that area is taken care of. I work full time so would stuggle to get him to school every day. What I really need to find out is how many pupils are taken on in the 6th form ONLY. With girls being admitted they are likely to up the grades achieved so I guess I need to see what the average points were - they might be higher than the effective pass mark.

I do believe that DS will achieve the points based on GCSE's and his chosen subjects for A Level are likely to be around Maths, Ecomonics etc.

If we leave his current school we have to give notice and if he doesn't get into KES then he will effectively be without a school for A Level's. His current school wont keep his place open. They have a waiting list and are a popular choice for A Levels.

Reasons behind the move are partly financial and partly that we now live too far away to effectively pick him up every weekend. Having said that his current school is fantastic and there are only a few more years to go.

Difficult decision.....

Hey bells - thank you. Do you know how many places were awarded to pupils for 6th form entry only?

DS is likely to get a few A* a number of A's and maybe a B. He is doing 9 IGCSE's.

The admissions policy is here
They expect the Y12 cohort to be 140, with 56 of those being externals (could be higher if existing pupils don't say on). Of those externals, up to 25% will be girls.
The school get the predicted grades ahead of time and only invite those who are at the top of the list to Induction. So you can assume that no invitation means that you are unlikely to get an offer, although if your results on the day trump others then you still get a place despite not having been to Induction.

Are you also applying to Alcester Grammar?

I know someone with a child currently in the 6th form there. He is thriving and parents are very happy (mum is a teacher elsewhere). He has a bit of a journey in but manages to juggle extra-curricular activities & a decent social life.

What senua said!

It's really worth going to the open evening if you are interested to find out more about how they run the sixth form, number of A levels they can take and extra-curricular stuff. There were a lot of people there when we went. My DS also had to take entrance tests and I think they used those as well as GCSE predictions to decide who to invite to the induction days.