He had 9 GCSEs - a mix of 7s, 8s and 9s - but AFAIK the requirements for his cohort were mainly 6s, with 7s in the subjects you wanted to take for A Level, and a 7 in maths if you were taking sciences including psychology, which he was.
Others may feel differently, but I was appalled by the ranking system they use throughout the school.
Additionally, when DS1 was there they didn’t have a full-time SENDCo, which for a school of that size was absolutely crazy! This may have changed since, but I haven’t heard good things about their SEND support from people I know with kids there.
I also found the size of the school very offputting, plus the focus in the main school on scholars in music, for example, at the expense of other students who may not have had the advantage of music lessons previously - these are obviously more of an issue up to GCSE, of course, but I really don’t understand how a school that size can really get to know and therefore cater for individual students.
The icing on the cake was that the night before A level results day, the school called students who had achieved particularly good results to get them in early for photo ops - which pretty much summed up the ethos and attitude of the school for me; I just thought it was a dick move.
I’m pretty local, so know a lot of people who love Kingsdale, but it absolutely was not for me when we looked around in a Y5/6 for many reasons, and my experience of DS1’s sixth form did nothing to dispel that.
DS3 is in Y11 now, so sixth form applications are just around the corner, and I’m so relieved he’s planning to stay at his current, very supportive and much smaller mainstream school, where they know him and his needs!