King Alfred's School Hampstead - any thoughts?

[GeorginaLS]

I would be very interested to know what anyone here thinks of KAS. Would be sending a son at y7. Don't know it other than website and anecdotally. Very grateful for any opinions or insights at all - thank you.

Has he got in? There is very few places available at that age and there are a couple of bulge years at the moment. There are up to date recent threads on here, the school is a bit like marmite so I would urge you to research it yourself, check the policies for bullying, homework etc and see if it is somewhere you’d be happy to send your son. We did the admission process for y7 this year and from my experience people on here either love it almost religiously or absolutely hate it and have pulled their kids out.

Malmontar, thank you. Marmite is the word for it. I didn't see any very positive threads on here will search again! We will go and visit it in September. Yes, looked at website which is very sensible sounding - but you have to have kids in a place to really know.

I liked it a lot but felt DD needed more structure/convention. She didn't get a place at Y7 anyway, they are like hens' teeth

Use "advanced search" on a computer. The school is unusual so must be visited. Few places heavily oversubscribed at year 7 but does not select on academics. Sorry to be short. My DC is very happy and firing on all cylinders. "Risk" is kids can slack off - it is not victorian discipline!

And there are few open days, so plot in Thursday 19 Sept in your calendar now and book your attendance online:
kingalfredschool.fluencycms.co.uk/Open-Days

Warning: This school can be addictive (for kids) so you might find that their enthusiasm for other schools drops off a cliff after KAS-exposure...

has a reputation for being very lax, loads of celebs, kids who will get a job due to their family connections so school isn't important.

The KAS kids in a group are rowdy and badly behaved in my experience and little input from their teachers to improve that.

Marmite is absolutely the word for KAS!

@GeorginaLS I have 2 at KAS - in lower and upper school - eldest was somewhere else for primary and has SEN, both very happy there (but agree most kids love it at first due to comparative lack of homework in lower & middle school, lots of fun extra curriculars etc). It's a very small school in comparison to other NW private options - fantastic in that by GCSE most tutor groups are under 10 students, but I think this can be at the centre of the Marmite issue - if a child is having trouble fitting in with their peer group, or at worst being bullied, there won't be many alternative friendship groups on offer. In my view although it's non-selective at year 7, staff put a GREAT deal of thought into how that child potentially would fit in with existing peer groups, and this is 'probably' at the centre of their somewhat obscure year 7 selection process.
Please DM me if you'd like to know more about SEN provision there.
Many if not majority of the parents I know are KAS alumni - this speaks volumes about their school experiences if they then send their kids there. There are also many alumni amongst teaching staff and it's a very friendly community. I'd agree with previous posters about having a really good look at it - meet the teachers of the subjects your DS is interested in and talk to students.

I knew someone who worked there and had two children who were pupils. I went there a few times for functions, wasn't aware of celebs but they aren't in the majority anyway. It was a very progressive school which managed to achieve good results, I liked it.

Thank very for the feedback and support.