Is Kingsdale Foundation school as amazing as everyone makes out??

[Girlmamax3]

My DD got offered a place In year 7 at Kingsdale school really late off the waiting list and had already started the secondary school she got into, because of that I declined Kingsdale but ever since then I can't help but wonder If I made the right decision as I know its like winning a golden ticket getting into that school... and was always our first choice based off its reputation and visiting the school etc
She currently attends Harris Academy....Should I have picked Kingsdale??

Thanks

It maybe depends on which Harris Academy but I think they both have a similar take no prisoners vibe. (And that will be right for some kids and not so great for others.) (NB I've only gone on tours of the school and talked to parents but not at any great length so thats really just based on a very superficial reputation of teh schools)

I know several children who attend or attended Kingsdale.
It's nothing special to be honest. No better or worse than other schools in the area.
I am totally baffled why parents send their children there when they live miles away (see the amount who commute by train) and think the lottery system is terrible because those miles from home pupils can take places from kids who live next door and just want to go to a 'local' school.

Friend hated her time as a teacher there. Did not warm to the headmaster.

Ah, Kingsdale. Friends of mine with kids there are mostly very happy with it. I think their provision for lockdown was very good in terms of remote lessons from what I heard. It is VERY big. I get the feeling it's a bit more whizzy than the girls' school my children are at (local but not a Harris) and offers an exciting number of options - things like economics and politics at GCSE which are rare elsewhere. Trips seem good too.

When I looked at all the data in terms of how it would suit my children, 'prior high attaining' children made better progress at our local comp (which has no scholarships or any way of gaming the intake), but there are more high ability children at Kingsdale - so results look better but progress worse.

DD2 quite fancied it but her half scholarship wasn't quite good enough to get her in. I was relieved as I think she's better off at the more local option, although it doesn't have the same shiny aura and she would like to have felt like she'd 'won' her place rather than just got in because she's a sibling at the local school!

Some of the local Harris's here have a fab reputation and offer really exciting stuff, and others are less like that so I think it would depend on which one, for me. Pros and cons, but it didn't excite me.

DD is there on a full music scholarship and we are very, very happy with it.

Lockdown provision was brilliant, extra-curricular and music better than we hoped, academic provision way exceeding what I expected for DD (SEN).

It's not a school that would suit everyone, and it is big (although it doesn't feel too big). I'm impressed that they picked up on something DD is very good at (not music or performance related) and have now offered her extra classes after school to encourage her. Teachers and tutor all seemed to have understood her and strengths and weaknesses (despite so much time spent in lockdown or isolating last year) and feedback in reports and parents evening was constructive and sensible.

Haven't heard from the HT since his speech at the open day (which probably puts as many parents off as it encourages).

We applied for kingsdale too but our place on the waiting list is in the 200s.

My daughter is also year 7 and at a Harris academy now which has been great and she's made lovely friends

I have heard mixed reviews about kingsdale. I don't see anything special about it personally though compared to other schools. It all depends on the child as each school suits each child differently.

I would say as long as you are happy with your daughters school and she is doing well, don't worry about it.

Just to add, kingsdale was out second choice and if we were offered it now we would probably decline also based on being happy with our current school

We turned down an offer day place at Kingsdale for our eldest DC (which would have meant all our DC got in) as, ultimately, we didn't think it was the best school for any of them.

This is practically heresy in some local circles, and I don't think it's a bad school at all, just there is an inherent smuggery among local parents whose children get a place that their children are somehow better than other local children that left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth.

Careful now as parents aren't allowed to talk about Kngsdle on social media. They sign what amounts to an NDA. You may find this thread disappears.

We were very unhappy with it. We moved in year 8, without a tear. The SEN support was poor, they didn't address bullying, they were trying to make every parent buy an ipad on the back of a massive sales pitch from a private company, they are self satisfied (every communication from the headteacher made me seethe), and when our child moved schools, they ignored repeated requests from his new school to send over his records or have any sort of dialogue with them - he was on an IEP so pretty important to be helpful. We had to complain to the Governors before they sent any information, and it was incomplete.

I have friends who are happy with it. So I will offer that as a balanced view.

@Doubleraspberry

Careful now as parents aren't allowed to talk about Kngsdle on social media. They sign what amounts to an NDA. You may find this thread disappears.

We were very unhappy with it. We moved in year 8, without a tear. The SEN support was poor, they didn't address bullying, they were trying to make every parent buy an ipad on the back of a massive sales pitch from a private company, they are self satisfied (every communication from the headteacher made me seethe), and when our child moved schools, they ignored repeated requests from his new school to send over his records or have any sort of dialogue with them - he was on an IEP so pretty important to be helpful. We had to complain to the Governors before they sent any information, and it was incomplete.

I have friends who are happy with it. So I will offer that as a balanced view.

Sorry you had a bad experience - I'm a firm believer that not all schools will suit all children, and I hope your DS is much happier at his new school.

I don't know how long ago your child was at K, but we haven't been asked to sign anything that remotely looks like an NDA, and no mention of social media.

Also not been asked to buy an iPad - only a handful of kids have laptops/ipads in class for SEN purposes. and we had to provide DD's.

While central SEN support was pretty minimal in Y7 this was mainly down to Covid, however the individual staff have all been very helpful.

Not seen a single communication from the Head since open day.

Glad to hear it's better on those fronts.

As I said, I have friends who are happy with it.

I know families with children there who are happy with the school. I think it is better for kids who are in the top, like sports, music, etc.

I don't think it is for everyone though, especially if your child is behind or needs additional help or have issues with behaviour. I its a a very big school, some people really like it and some don't. You have to see it and go with your gut feeling.

I think it must have been really hard picking schools in the last 2 years with nothing more than virtual open days or looking at the website.

I looked at at least 12 schools for DD back in 2019, and - as was the case with Primary too - I had a rough pecking order before I started based on all the data you can find online, the Ofsted reports etc.

But the visit in person was what really made the difference. Schools I had at the top of my list turned out to be ones I didn't even bother taking DD to see, and ones that I had been meh about based on playground chat I really liked in person. One school DD and I actually ran away from the open day we disliked it so much.

If you have an actual choice (some areas don't really) then worth going to see and having a bit of a check-list of what you want. Ask lots of awkward questions and see how they react.

With KFS, I think it's probably best suited to reasonably confident, outgoing children who are interested in doing extra curricular stuff and want to be in the teams, orchestras, art scholars groups etc. A lot of this is after school, so it wouldn't suit someone who wants to be home by 4pm every day. (Although homework is very, very manageable in terms of quantity and time given to do it).

Is the head still there? I heard he'd gone?

@minisnowballs

Is the head still there? I heard he'd gone?

I must admit that I haven't seen or heard from him since we looked round in 2019...

Just asked DD if she had ever seen him and she said no... but Covid...

His name is still on the letterhead though. I found it a little strange that he never seemed to feature but just assumed he was kept busy fundraising or something and wheeled out on open days to talk at the prospective parents.

How strange. Well, if he has gone, the HoLs and Deputy HT seem to be doing a great job in terms of none of us noticing!

We certainly heard quite a bit from him, although noticed that any ‘difficult’ messaging came from the deputies.

Blimey.

twitter.com/rogershistory/status/1442183300127264770?s=21

I was shown round Kingsdale last week by two super confident girls. My son wants to go there and I am still trying to understand the draw. Everything I think is negative he changes to a positive. I like the fact they have school buses to drop kids home and that the after school clubs are all free. I am still not sure how they help children who need extra support - I just see my son getting lost. Ofsted states SEN children do well but their report is from 2017. I was told that most classes except maths and English only have 20 children but did not see that. Government website puts Progress 8 score below average - and GCSE results above England average. Not really sure why Progress 8 is below average if GCSE results are good. I also visited North Dulwich Charter but I will have to go back because an open day is so busy and no one really has time to talk.

I can explain the progress 8 thing (I think!).

The measure looks at where children start and where they finish (I think just using Sats results and GCSE grades) so if progress 8 is zero, every child would make exactly the average progress that a child with their sats score makes towards GCSEs. If it is positive then the school has 'added value' - the children do better than suggested by their starting points when coming into the school. If it is negative, the children do worse than they should have done - theoretically they would have done better at the 'average' school.

So if a school has a high percentage of higher achieving children, perhaps because it is selective in someway (music and sports scholarships perhaps), or because it is in an affluent area or has a difficult entry process, it can get higher than average GCSE results but still have children making negative progress, because they should have done even better based on the cohort.

It's a pretty broad measure though.

minisnowballs thanks for explaining. I am worried that progress 8 is negative particularly since they admit quite a lot of children with SENs - how do they progress?

There's definitely a SEN parent further up this thread Ruby - she seems happy - hope she can help you!

I wouldn't say they 'admit quite a lot of children with sen'. My experience is pretty much the opposite.

@Legoisthebest

I wouldn't say they 'admit quite a lot of children with sen'. My experience is pretty much the opposite.

Kingsdale mention learning support quite a bit but you are correct their intake is average according to Ofsted. It is North Dulwich Charter who have above average and also well above average Progress 8.

Jumping in as we looked at it this week. Impressed by the 'sparkly' bits of the school but keen to know what's beneath the surface i.e. they claim it's a super friendly school and that the kids look out for each other but as the intake is massive I found that a little surprising. Is it very strict? Heard positive and less positive things about pastoral care so hard to get a clear picture on that. We have an average child but slightly concerned that if you're not one of the scholars or 'gifted and talented' you might feel a bit inadequate. Don't want to send them to an us and them school... Can anyone shed any light on that at all?

Not sure why you think your child will feel inadequate if he/she is not a scholar. With 3,000 (or is it 2,000?) children I am sure there will be lots of different children who are not scholars and opportunities to make friends. There will also be lots of good things and perhaps not so good that come with the size of the school. You have to go with your gut feeling.