Any experience of Kings Maths School vs LAE for 6th form?

[JusteanBiscuits]

My son has applied to KCLMS for 6th form and also to LAE Stratford.

He wants to study Maths at University, and truly loves the subject. His heart is set on KCLMS, but as that is entirely maths / physics, I wonder if going to LAE (his second choice) would be better for the all round experience? Meeting a wider variety of people, a much wider selection of extra curricular clubs etc. I worry the excitement at 16 of being immersed in maths might wear off, and being somewhere with a wider curriculum might be better?

Any experience would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks! Indeed the journey time is important. CMS is about one hour by train but ICLMS is also only accessible via limited public transport. So I would say door to door commute wise we are looking at 90 mins for CMS and 60 for ICLMS. It’s not ideal - but DS is willing to do a bit of a commute for a maths school.
I guess the OxBridge offers are more of an impact study or rather quantitative measures of the schools - I totally agree that if DS is bright enough this won’t matter and also I do not know if he wants to go to OxBridge at all.

Even though my son said he was happy with a longer commute, I put my foot down at an hour door to door maximum as a life outside of school is, to me, a priority.

My son has offers from both schools. Clearly, we won't know till their first A-level results what their outcomes are like, but as another poster said, your child is likely to do very well at any of these maths schools. The established ones like KCLMS, Exeter and Liverpool, all score highly on value add/progress scores post-16.

IMHO, there are some differences to consider though, such as:

If you want to do a 4th A level, CMS offers CS as standard. ICLMS gives you wider options of doing so with Woodhouse College next door. Computer Science, Music and Economics are the most popular choices there for the ICLMS students.

CMS has a smaller intake of 40-50 students which makes it feel a small school. ICLMS has 70 students per year and again with the Woodhouse link, this might provide the feel of a larger school with the associated extra-curricular activities available

CMS is close to the train station but in my experience, the train service is not the most reliable at times. I used to commute there by train but one advantage was the trains out from London were not too busy, so you could normally get a seat and work if you want.

Depending on where you live, ICLMS may need a bus for part of the journey which increases the risk of delays if also using train/tube.

ICLMS seems more geared up towards engineering than CMS. CMS seems better geared up for Computer Science with links to the large tech company cluster in the city plus they seem to do well in Physics – they had quite a lot of students win gold awards at the recent Physics Olympiad.

One thing that really stood out for my son with CMS was they seem to have a more flexible learning structure based on an individual pupil’s needs compared to ICLMS or KCLMS. E.g. your tutor might suggest doing some other project work instead of coming to the math lessons for a week. CMS also have a lot of flexibility in their problem solving sessions, so more able pupils can do the harder questions. I believe KCLMS do this too, but they have a kind of streaming into top, middle and lower streams.

Good luck in your child’s decision!

Going back in the conversation quite a while.

You can do a SAR to find out how many points your child scored in exam and interview, and how many points they gained / lost with widening participation criteria.

I wonder how they manage the Attainment 8 score of current school part, as those at private schools wouldn't have that - but there is no mention of private schools.

Thanks - that’s very helpful. I guess if we had to prioritise commute time we would go for Imperial. The only thing that’s making us think is - DS loves computer science and what we hear from one of the current student is - Computer Science at Woodhouse college isn’t that great!

A lot of secondary schools struggle to attract good CS teachers. The CS lead teacher at CMS seemed a good guy though.

If you look on The Student Room you might be able to find some current CS students to ask their opinion.

If your son wants to do CS later at university, most of the top ones don’t ask for CS A-level, they prefer maths. ICLMS might be better for him with the shorter commute. I’m guessing he does coding and other projects at home so he can still pursue that even if the Woodhouse option isn’t the optimum choice.

Thanks!

Can anyone from Autumn 2024’s application process to KMS remember when the whole application process kicked off?
Were there in person open days prior to application or just ‘online visits’.
Currently their admissions page says closed for 2025 entry - I’m worried I will forget to check back in time for 2026 entry visits

The open evenings were announced around July 20th and there was one in early October and a second in early November.

Both were online as far as I remember and booked up quickly. There were about 500 people on the one we joined.

There was also the option of children joining a taster session at the school but places were very limited and there were certain criteria applied with the expected demand being greater than the number of places.

Just to add, the Kings application process is quite quick and efficient, certainly compared to Imperial which took about two months longer from start to finish.

Rough timeline was:

Online application process opened - towards the end of September, closed early November.

Inivite to the entrance exam sent mid-November.

Entrance exam held first week of December.

Interview invite sent about a week after the exam.

Interviews during late January.

Offer - A week after the interview.

Really appreciate the details @Dangermouse999 - thank you so much
Skim reading this thread for core info it seems the exam is sat at the Excel centre - is that right?
Interviews at the school or online?
Does the current school have to provide a reference. I don't particularly want to alert current school to the slim possibility of moving as they have been incredibly supportive of neurodivergence but DC desperately wants to be with other mathematicians.
Finally is the application process just an admin exercise or is there an element of personal statement to it...do they want to know how keen student is about maths when applying or is that sort of thing covered at interview?
So many questions but I can see how being unprepared can catch one off guard when the process is quick & efficient!

Also has the expansion plan been stalled or is it full steam ahead.
On their website it states that they are taking in additional students this September and will be offering an extended choice of A/AS levels to include full CS A level and Philosophy AS level but I am not sure whether that's actually happened.
Many congrats on your son securing an offer - very impressive.

Yes, there is a morning and afternoon sitting at the Excel centre. It can seem a bit daunting to the kids, there were 1300 taking the test. But many will have applied to several other top schools and Kings may not even be their first choice.

The interview is in two parts and takes place at the school. My son had his on a Saturday. Feedback I got was that it was not too formal, they are genuinely trying to gauge your passion and motivation as well as knowledge, not catch you out.

Funny that you ask about a reference, I had a concern this would be taken up early in the process and I contacted the Kings school about this as we didn’t want my son’s school to be aware too soon that he had applied. I suggest you do the same during the application process.

The application process is definitely not a box ticking exercise. I believe it deliberately mirrors the same application process for the top universities. So there is a personal statement, from memory it was about 400 words.

All the maths schools have pretty much the same end to end application process.

Feel free to DM me for anything else.

There is an offer holder parents session with the school in July where I hope to clarify the school’s future plans.

Offer holders received an email recently saying that some expansion/amendment of the curriculum had been delayed due to the government funding not being obtained as expected. E.g. Computer Science won’t be available as an A level in Sept 25.

The bit I’m not quite sure about is the building expansion. This has been delayed for several years as the school was due to take over the GP surgery building next door. I guess the building expansion is partly dependent on the pupil expansion which is dependent on increased funding.

I’ll update this thread if I find out more in July.

Expansion Back On Track | King's Maths School they are hoping the building work will be complete for Sept 2026

I'm wondering whether, if he doesn't end up with a place this year (on waitlist) whether he can reapply next year, for year 12 entry if he decided he wanted to? As, being waitlisted, he likely would have got int his year if the expansion work had been finished...

You asked the same question up thread on 24/02/2025 13:15 and posters explained why that might not be a good idea. Did you ask the school about it?

Did I?! LOL Menopausal brain! 😂 I'm lucky to remember my name most days at the moment.

He is still just very keen - not so much for the teaching per se, but for all the other opportunities it offers for research and working with the university. And much nerdier extra curricular clubs than he would get at his current school!

Interestingly, his current school offer advanced support for those wanting to study medicine, engineering or go into finance, but don't offer anything additional for those looking toward Oxbridge or similar high level courses.

Presumably as your son already applied, he’s now in Year 11? Are you thinking of him retaking a year before re-applying? That doesn’t seem a good idea if so.

I joined the offer holders parents session a few weeks ago. I was still not completely clear about the future expansion plans. The building is one thing, ongoing budget for more pupils/teachers is another. With the government looking closely at academy schools (Durham maths school has been delayed another 2 years till opening), I’m not sure you can be guaranteed that the school will add the extra places.

Yes, year 11 waiting his GCSE results!

Not retaking a year.. I don't actually know what an option could be. Because even he went to his current school for a year, he would be recovering the maths / further maths / physics syllabus.

Eldest child so not experienced any of this before. I do remember people changing their a levels after a year and redoing year 12 though which is where the thought comes from.

What does your son think about doing an extra year at school? Could his current school facilitate it - what would he be studying? A levels?

IIRC your son is already on an excellent super-curricular programme with Oxford uni. Maybe focus on that and other similar activities rather than spend an extra year at school with no guarantee of a place. You could ask the KCLMS Admissions team what they say.

Yes, he is on COMPOS. There are plenty of summer schools etc, but they are all £££ and vastly out of our reach and he also has a weekend / holiday job now too :D

I don't think KCLMS is worth an extra year of school and I don't think they let people transfer in mid way through

I agree.

Yes, you get the weekly problem solving session with a PhD student, a few lectures at the university and the project which is presented at Kings. But that is unlikely to be enough to justify a year’s delay IMHO.

I don't know if you are aware but Surrey Maths school has recently posted online that they are interested in hearing from applicants on GCSE results day who didn't apply in the last admission cycle.

The school is in central Guildford close to the train station, about 30-40 mins train journey from Waterloo.

Might be worth investigating for your son? I've read positive things about it from current students.

Surrey Maths School Late Applications