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

Wow that is a lot of extra study!

He's also on COMPOS which is a 2 hour webinar each week and 4-5 hours of study!! It's A LOT but he is loving it. He is very very different me 😂

Good luck to those sitting the exam tomorrow.

Bloody DLR to Excel is closed tomorrow if you don't already know - you might need to allow extra time!

@KnottyAuty I am not talking about ethnic diversity - I am an ethnic minority myself, I am not white, I am female and my father is an immigrant and my parents were low income. So when I say it’s very woke that’s not what I mean.

They have a strong woke agenda, I can give some examples.
They teach sex positivity: class discussions on sex include things like whether you should spit or swallow when someone ejaculates in your mouth, what sexual activities you would like to try and what you are going to do about it. They say they want to break down the taboo about sex and make it so nothing is inappropriate to discuss with them, eg. BDSM.
They also have classes to challenge the norms of monogamy and being in a relationship at all.
They teach gender theory, that gender is fluid and you can explore and decide what gender you are. They seem to not be doing this now, I assume because of the government guidance issued on it earlier this year, but 2 years ago they were sending out an email to students in the first term asking if they want to change their pronouns, with an online form to fill in asking what pronoun and name you would like used at school and what pronouns and names you would like the school to use with your parents, so that your parents don’t find out.
In one lesson, the boys and girls were separated and the boys were given a lesson on how to be less assertive so that they don’t make girls uncomfortable. An example of things they shouldn’t do is write too high on the white board because it might upset girls. Personally, I think boys can be shy and can need to learn to be more assertive so I find this gender stereotyping very unpleasant.
There is a lot about racism from a critical race theory angle. How it’s not enough to not be racist, how you must be antiracist, etc. Classes on how it’s racist that maths used Pythagoras theorem a lot, for example, because that’s European.
When the teachers went on strike a couple of years ago, an email was sent out explaining the motive behind the strike from the viewpoint of Marxist philosophy. That term was literally used, so at least some of the teachers must think of themselves as Marxist.
I have loads of documents showing all this and more. These are just a few examples.
All this is fine if it aligns with the parents values, but if it doesn’t then the aggressive pushing of it is unpleasant, and it is not made clear to parents that that is what they are doing, particularly not before joining. I do not agree at all that this is typical of most sixth forms, I think this is much more extreme, the school seems to me have a strong political motivation.

@PilarT thanks for this. A lot to think about there! And useful to know before signing up as you say.

When do they fit all these lessons in?! They're not shown on the example time table.

They’re in the PD lessons, personal development. In the first term they have 2 a week. There’s also assemblies, etc.

Does anybody know how many students sit the entrance test and how many places are available next year?
Good luck to all!

You don't understand why disadvantaged kids may need extra support to excel?! Seriously??

If this turns into a "woke bashing" thread I will ask for it to be removed. I have no interest in people accusing the school of grooming kids because you obviously have no idea what that actually means and you're taking away from those actually groomed.

Son said there were about 400 sitting test with him this morning, and there were 3 exam slots..
And the open evening said they would be taking between 100 and 120 pupils for next intake.

They said about 20% of those sitting the exam go forward to interview, and then a out 50% of those interviewed get offered a place.

@KnottyAuty How did it go for yours? Having to be there for 9.15, with DLR not running and this storm was... Interesting! But he said it was a pretty good exam and found the problem solving questions interesting.

No idea when we find out if they have got an interview or not.. but I'm more stressed than son I think!!!

@JusteanBiscuits There are extremely valid reasons to take issue with "woke" sex Ed, and it would be a real shame to remove an informative thread just because you don't like people disagreeing with your personal opinion.

He came out fairly happy having tackled almost all the questions - did say he enjoyed it 🤣 crazy lad! Not sure if nearly finishing is a good sign or not…. 🤣 Just glad it’s all over and we can do no more - we apparently find out “late December”. Esp as DS announced last night that it was possibly his top choice having done not very much prep 🙄 had I known I might have tried to make him focus. Ho hum… will be repeatedly checking my email in the last week before Xmas break!! Good luck to your DS!

Happy for disadvantaged kids to get extra support. But the school admissions policy expressly discriminates against boys because they are boys. Seems pretty sexist to me.

As a survivor of CSA I am acutely aware of what grooming is. Having people in positions of authority speak to minors about explicit sex acts, without the knowledge or consent of their parents, definitely ticks a box, as does breaking down a young person's natural reticence around sexual matters. Encouraging "secrets" between an adult and a child is another red flag. If what they're doing is fine, why don't they inform parents?

If you are happy with all this then that's your prerogative. But you asked for opinions of the school, and you got them.

As someone who was truly groomed by a teacher, your assertion that the school are basically grooming by teaching how to have sex safely is incredibly fucking rude. Ok?

I've asked for the thread to be deleted now.

@JusteanBiscuits Except I never asserted that. Get your posters straight before making accusations.

It's quite selfish and silly to request thread deletion in a fit of pique when a lot of info here is likely to be useful to others.

I think it’s obvious for anyone reading the thread that there’s only one person being abusive on here.

I stated my opinion — an opinion shared on the link above, about the sex education charity employed by KCMS. My view is that the extreme and explicit content of their lessons is abusive, bordering on grooming. My 16 year old DC doesn’t need to be party to an adult discussing whether to spit or swallow. That’s nothing to do with “how to have sex safely”.

Stating this very mainstream view has so enraged the OP that they’ve had my comment removed and wants to have this whole thread deleted.

Parallel to my question, why doesn’t the school tell the parents what happens in sex ed classes? Is the question, why does the OP object so much to my opinion that they want to have the thread deleted? If my view is so rubbish, why not just counter it instead of censoring it?

I agree, what me and other people are saying is not controversial or rude to the OP.

@JusteanBiscuits I’m really surprised you had my factual post deleted. I am a parent of a child at the school and I stated facts about the school. No-one has been rude to you. Your child doesn’t even go to the school.
It’s strange you wanted the whole thread deleted just so that people don’t say things about the school that you don’t like.
It can be discussed on a different thread, anyway.

Strange turn of events.

I posted because I live near the school and have watched its foundation and development with interest. I also know a couple of people whose kids went there and then onto Oxford and Cambridge respectively.

I was that kid who always came top in maths, often by quite a margin, but in a school where the support was not there. I did not want this for DC and they went to a very selective private school where it was cool to be clever and which had a strong maths department. 90% of the year took maths A level and a high proportion took double maths, with a sprinkling of peers involved in international maths Olympiads. The problem there was slightly different. Great teaching, great preparation for University, but being an average fish in a very talented pond can mean a lack of confidence in your ability.

Being able to go to a school where there were others with a similar academic profile to me would have been life changing. It is important that kids now have that opportunity within the state system, and that talent is not being lost.

Looking back at some of the brightest of the brightest that DC came across during their primary and secondary school careers, things were not always straightforward. A couple, at different stages, had resorted to selective mutism when unhappy in previous schools. A couple of others went through stages of inappropriate anger, partly due to frustration. Exceptional talent can be akin to special needs. The right school, with experience and understanding, can make a huge difference.

And this is probably why posters are concerned. The Safe Schools Alliance has done a lot of work in highlighting inappropriate or unsafe sex education in schools. A proportion of pupils at KCMS may well be suggestible, vulnerable, or literal. Their academic abilities may have left them feeling socially isolated, and wondering why they feel so 'different'. If I were the parent of such a child, I would absolutely want to know what they were being taught.

@PilarT @Antigrooming You should email MNHQ and ask about the deletions. Neither of your posts seem to me to have broken any site rules. It shouldn't be up to the OP to have posts deleted on a whim. This is important info that ought to be on the thread for people to see, it's not like anyone has attacked the OP. Everyone is being balanced, calm and thoughtful.

Thank you - yes I have emailed them to ask. They haven’t responded yet.

NCed but regular poster

I am a parent of a Year 11 who has applied for Kings and did the exam yesterday.
The OPs original question was something along the lines of:
My DC loves maths and is interested in Kings but given Kings is quite small and heavily focused on maths (obvs), would LAE - more subjects, more students - be a better option?
My views on this are, in no particular order:
As a PP said, this may be an academic problem - literally - because for Kings OPs DC first has to pass the test, the interview and get an offer. But anyway I think the DC themselves will have strong feelings about what feels right if and when they get as far as an interview. In other words, if they go to an interview and this feels exciting they may want to say yes irrespective of whether, on other (parent) criteria, LAE would be a better choice.
I think the real issue here is how the parents of kids who are interested in Kings (or any other selective school) but when it comes down to it don't get in, explain that it will be just as good attending LAE or their second choices etc and help their kids feel better about this. It will be one of many knock backs through life, just like when you don't get that promotion or job. The majority of parents with DC who attended the Kings exam yesterday are going to have to have that conversation ... because there were at least 1000? sitting the exam for 120 places.
That would be an interesting separate thread.

And of course to set it all in context we are talking here about DC who have sixth form choices that are the top of the top and are likely going to do well wherever they go.

On the sex education at Kings. Gosh. Taking the very wide view, it was interesting to hear something about the internal workings of this - in the end - very small specialist school and how they are tackling the curriculum beyond maths. Presumably every DC that eventually attends Kings will have had some sex education already - mine has been through the whole PSHE routine at their comprehensive school and seems to know what end goes where ... and also quite definitively what their gender pronouns are.

On whether to spit or swallow (!) - there were all sorts of porn memes coming through on my DCs WhatsApp groups from Year 8 as I recall (many of them sent by girls). So unless they have been in a social media free bubble all this time, I expect the question has already occurred to them, even if they are not doing it already (which some of them will be). That's not to say that parents don't have strong beliefs about what sort of sex and moral education is ever appropriate. I expect they have PSHE at all state sixth forms, right? (I'm speaking from a position of ignorance here - I don't actually know). So they are going to get some sort version of the spit or swallow discussion wherever they go.

Good luck to everyone who has taken the exam.