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.

Not at all.

She does extra curricular 2 days a week after-school at school, and also has music lessons on two other evenings a week outside school.

Lots of different train options to get home, and she uses the train time to do all her homework (guaranteed seat and good wifi).

I wouldn't say that it's ideal, and wouldn't suit every child... DD has a lot of energy! But our local options were dire and the closest was still an hour away so it made sense to have the big commute for a better school that catered to her interests. Her music lessons were already all in London so either way she'd have had to go in twice a week for those, so made more sense to already be there, and they are very close to school.

School are understanding about the issues with train cancellations, delays and strikes. From what I can see if we cannot get there because there are literally no trains (snow, strikes etc) they don't count it against her attendance.

Thanks

I’m quite impressed with Kingsdale so far. My youngest daughter had a guaranteed place at Charter East, as our other children go there, but chose Kingsdale instead. I was doubtful at first, but more enthusiastic now.

Comparing the two, Kingsdale appears much more organised. For instance, they hold frequent online meetings to communicate with parents. They offer a wider range of instruments for music and free tuition for music scholars (Charter offers paid tuition). They also have a better sports provision, including swimming, and a big range of after-school activities. If an after-school activity isn’t currently offered, Kingsdale will consider adding it if more than 5 children express interest. There are a lot of organised outings and some trips abroad. The only con for me is that they set too much homework.
In contrast, Charter seems more limited in terms of trips and artistic, music, or sports provision.
I would say both schools attract a lot of middle class families.
Some students attending Kingsdale travel from places quite far from school. As many take the train to and back, and smartphones are not allowed, they’ve installed a screen with live train departures info in the hall.
Both schools are very strict in terms of behaviour, so neither would be a suitable fit for children with SEN-related behavioural issues in my opinion.

@Parent8 I live near where Kingsdale kids commute.....they most definitely do have smart phones with them 😂

@Needmorelego 🤣

Hah! Yes I get the train with kingsdale kids every morning, they all have smartphones.

I was just wondering what all these DC perfectly content with their long commutes because they can use the good WiFi on the train and get their honework done were actually using to connect to it.

KFS's mobile policy is new, so it may depend on what year the kids are in. Those who already had smart phones were allowed to keep them until existing contracts finished and last year's Y11 were the last year who were allowed to operate under previous rules (phones in bags and not seen).

There will also be some kids with exemptions.

That said, I have no doubt that lots will have a smart phone and just keep it switched off at the bottom of their bag... which is basically the purpose of the rules anyway. We found the school to be generally sensible and pragmatic and more likely to turn a blind eye rather than seeking out rule breakers for the sake if it.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow personally I think "Switched off and at the bottom of your bag is fine".
To be honest what can the school do if some kid is on their phone while on the train heading home?
I also notice that Kingsdale don't seem that strict about the uniform. At least from what I observe. Personally for me that's a plus.

There was a 2 year amnesty as such from when the policy came in. It started with last year's Y7s, so at present applies to Y8 and Y7. All years above they as I understand can still have smartphones,though as before can't use them in school. There are definitely less kids in Y7 with smartphones than when our eldest started, but hard to know what the percentage is. I do know kids caught using phones in school have had them confiscated for 3 days, Inc over weekends.

Not sure what will happen next year to existing Y9s and Y10s who at that point should not have them, I expect they will check them less and it will become more normal from when the current Y8s get to Y11 with the same policy the whole way through.

Uniform policy is definitely lax in that kids often go in PE kit on days when no PE happening for them, but all things considered I can definitely love with that.

We have 2 children there now Y7 and Y10 and remain happy with it.

I think they are trying to be stricter on uniform.

My DD managed to only wear PE kit for about 2 years 😂

Again they were generally sensible. My ADHD kid managed 5 years with no detentions and single figure demerit marks.

I rarely see a Kingsdale kid in the blazer/tie combo.
Mostly they seem to wear PE polos and the sweatshirts.
I personally think they look much better that way.
I hate blazer/tie uniforms.