Kingsdale Foundation School

[WhatILoved]

What's so great about this school? I'm navigating choices and have been to visit this one we and others in the area. It is massively over subscribed and people really want their kids to go there. It feels huge. If I'm honest I didn't get a real feeling for it, probably hampered by fact I could only visit in a Saturday whilst other schools I've seen in action during the week. However whenever I ask local parents of older children there if they recommend it I very rarely get outstanding recommendations for it. I've had at worse "don't even think about sending your child there!" And at best " yes my kids have done really well but it's not all that"
I'd love to know therefore why it has waiting lists that go to infinity.

I know loads of people with kids there, and have done for years over the generations. It was on our list, but not first as the journey was longer than our other good S London comprehensive.

It’s a good comprehensive. S London is full of good comprehensives but Kingsdale offers hope to those who have less chance of getting into the others due to distance.

All my friends kids have thrived. It’s a good school. A good school, not a magical Establishment of Wonder and Miracles.

Thanks for the detailed replies

Oh that's frustrating to hear about the sibling policy! I thought from what a pp had said that they'd finally changed that inappropriate rule.

THIS.
It’s a perfectly good, standard school, with children making exactly average progress. Their exam results are in-line with the cohort. Apart from free music lessons, nothing they offer stands out as something unusual. Lots of children travel a very long way to get to the school, so quite rightly, parents try to justify the travel. It sounds like the school has plenty of happy parents and children, just like at other local schools.

It is either a hate or love relationship. I didn’t like it when I went to see it, my friend loved it,

It is good for kids who are at the top, good academically or sports or music. I hate they exclude children who are giving them problems and send them to a separate building alone where they don’t learn; but they don’t remove them as they need the funding

It’s a perfectly good, standard school, with children making exactly average progress. Their exam results are in-line with the cohort

They normally have a much higher % of dc who score 5 or above in English & Maths vs lots of the other schools. I think they only better ones are Catholic & Charter ND.

Yes, but they manage to have a much higher percentage of high achievers from the start. Progress at the school is in line with the average.

Agree with this. If you go on the .gov page and compare % of those getting grades of 5 or more at GCSE and filter by prior attainment it's similar to other schools locally (well the 3 other schools that were options for us).

Not sure there is anywhere you can compare the % getting grades 7-9 or 6 though (and I have no idea how they compare on that at all).

There are some things that stand, but it all depends what's important to you or your child.

For us it was:

Co-ed. Only one other school near us was not single sex, and our child wanted coed. That year we were out of catchment for our nearest 15.minite walk Co-ed.

Being able to do 2 languages and choose them was not an option at any of the other schools we had a realistic chance of getting in at.

Being such a large school and the advantages that brings in the wide array of subjects that can be studied, both GCSE and extra-curricular clubs. You can do some of these at different schools of course, but I didn't see any near us where you could do all of them eg.it would be good tech or woodwork, not both.

The Art program looks amazing and was far above what other schools we saw offered.

For the record, I preferred Forest Hill Boys after open days and would have been happy with either. Kingsdale has worked out brilliantly so far for us and all his friends are happy also, that's our reality, and that's not trying to justify anything re journeys and I don't think most people are.

The extra curricular activities are phenomenal. My non-sporty DC has done cycling at the velodrome, archery, swimming, art, film making club, science club, music ensembles, drama and Model United Nations. Yes, we put down for horse riding and didn’t get it, but they did warn that there weren’t many spaces which really is not surprising. I would like my DC to do well academically but what I love about the school is that the music and drama are exceptional. The breadth of the provision is outstanding, and you do not need formal lessons or a scholarship to take part: if you show an interest you can join one of the ensembles and if you have or develop an aptitude, you can become a scholar after you join the school. They also do a lot around electronic music. I have found them to be very inclusive that way.

They do put on lots of trips, and some of them are very expensive, but they also do end of year day trips, free art and theatre trips and UK or cheaper adventure trips.

I am happy with my DC’s experience of the school. They have some lovely friends. There are a lot of quirky, funny, individual children and yes, many of them are very clever and talented.

The school is massive but I would agree that this means that eventually you find your tribe, and they split the year into two so it doesn’t seem as big. At first you might feel that your child is lost and that the teachers don’t know much about them, but this does not last long.

I do not recognise the comments about teachers not wanting to answer questions. When we were shown round on an open day, they answered lots of questions, and I find the teachers to be very well qualified and impressive. Yes, they have had shortages in certain areas, and sometimes DC ends up getting a few supply teachers each term, but I don’t think this is unusual unfortunately.

As for rules, I found my DC’s primary school to be very rules based, and have not noticed Kingsdale to be particularly rules based. If anything, I would say they are too the other way. Not sure they do the behaviour ranking any more - at least I can’t see it, not that it ever bothered me. It’s just positive and negative points given. I don’t see the big deal. I don’t think the children ever saw it as it’s on the parents’ app. Funny what people whose children are not at the school get a bee in their bonnet about.

Yes, the design of the school means the rain on the roof is very loud and like other many-windowed buildings it can get hot in some areas, but they have just done a lot of building work to improve a lot of classrooms, with new science labs, and the parents have contributed their skills a lot to the outside spaces, so there are a variety of gardens, a wellbeing garden, an outdoor amphitheatre and more.

I like that the school listens to parents’ views and is very adaptable.

I would prefer to have more in-person contact with teachers, but overall I am very pleased with the school.

We went to view and we hated it! It looks like a prison and the teachers were….to be frank, quite bizarre.

And yes, very very shabby school. I was quite shocked by the state of it.

It’s oversubscribed just due to the fact literally anyone can apply - on another thread someone said their child commuted an hour and a half….so if you don’t have a good school nearby? Might as well apply.

I live nearby and I don’t know anyone who put it down as first choice in the end.

I dunno. Its progress 8 score is average and its other scores are all above average. It’s definitely on our list. It’s an interesting school but always a long shot because of the lottery.

@urbanbuddha so why has it made your list?

@Floofypuppy I know several parents who put it on their list simply because it's the nearest school. That corner of Southwark is a bit empty of alternative schools.

I don't live too far away and only know one parent who has put it top. I wonder if the building works etc did them a disservice on visiting days? I'm sure it'll still be very oversubscribed

It wasn’t the building works - there weren’t any when went. It was the mute pupils who looked totally disinterested ‘showing us’ around and the teachers - who honestly were a bit odd in a few cases. It wasn’t just us who thought that. A number of people asked to leave before the end. Plus we didn’t actually ‘see’ anything. Just walked the prison corridors and tried to get glimpses into run down classrooms. At other schools they welcomed us in and they seemed warm and nurturing. This, seemed impersonal and processed. I have no doubt if I lived near to no good schools then I’d put it down, am sure the education is good, but if you have a choice….no.

it’s almost like they’ve hyped themselves up by presenting themselves as the option for those that have no good choice,. With no catchment. And they claim they’re massively oversubscribed. Strange that

Yeah I agree. My ultimate take home was that in other schools we went to passing teachers in the corridor knew the tour guide pupils' names but in Kingsdale it was clear they didn't. Also was only school we were not allowed in the classrooms

@Floofypuppy you have described our sentiments exactly. Other than we had two mute pupils and two horribly behaved show offs leading the tour we were on. Teachers (with the exception of Geography and Art) were unenthusiastic and looked like they would rather be anywhere else on earth. PE HoD particularly disappointing both at the ‘scholarship’ morning and Open Day. DC plays their sport at the highest level possible in Y6 but we didn’t bother going to the specialist sport assessment as a consequence. Classrooms a mess, facilities run down other than the admittedly impressive Music building.

That said I know a Y9 pupil who travels past two very strong Academies and the much lauded Graveney (& would likely have got in) to get there so maybe it’s just a bit Marmite!

I know a few people who’ve children have gone there, some have thrived and a couple have taken their children out (for bullying and the other for SEN daughter not getting enough support). My daughter went to Sydenham girls and came out with same results and was really happy and I also know some people whose kids have done well at Kingsdale. I think it’s a good a school but at the end of the day doesn’t really offer much different to other schools.

I think this was the salient point for me. I've had kids in several secondaries for various reasons and Kingsdale does a lot of talking about offering things that, really, quite a lot of schools also do. And I do speak as someone who was a Kingsdale parent so I have direct experience. It has this weird exceptionalism that grated on me! It felt quite smoke and mirrors, unnecessarily, although part of that is also the admissions policy which perpetually confuses people. And its seemingly ever-growing size is a factor that really won't suit some kids, who would be better off with perhaps slightly fewer subject choices and extra-curriculars for the sake of a smaller school.

Yeah I agree. My ultimate take home was that in other schools we went to passing teachers in the corridor knew the tour guide pupils' names but in Kingsdale it was clear they didn't.

This made me laugh as the only time our mute pupil spoke was to tell the teacher he’d got his name wrong when he introduced him! It was awkward as teacher was clearly pretending he knew him well….

Why do they not let you in the classrooms. Because they all so generic? The ones I peaked into just had basic tables and chairs and nothing else to make it an inspiring/ homely/ enjoyable environment to learn in.

One of the teachers thought he was a comedian but most looked like they wanted to go home. They told us nothing we couldn’t read on the website/ brochure. Example being Languages where all they told us was you could learn 2 languages if you want (🤷🏼) and what they were. English department told us some of the books they would read (standard ones) It was so generic.

There are 400+ kids per year, and the tour guides are kids who volunteer to do it from multiple Year groups, so there is a good chance teachers will never have taught or possibly even met some of the kids doing the tours. If you want a school where all the teachers know all the kids in the school by name for sure this isn't the school for you or your child, and a smaller school would be more suitable.

You clearly don't like Kingsdale, so which local schools are you putting down instead?

Well go for Sydenham. Loved it there.

@LondonHOPDad I think the point of this thread is that Kingsdale just isn't anything amazingly special. It's just a very large "meh" comp and it's a bit of a mystery why children travel very long distances to go there.
Pretty much all the kids I know that go/went to Kingsdale had it on their choice list simply because it's the nearest school. They/their parents pretty much all say "it's alright I suppose" when talking about it. The kids are generally happy, come out with a bunch of GCSEs etc but it really is just a school that's no more amazing than the other schools in the area.