Kingsdale - positive experiences pls

[Joolz1000]

Hi! My child has been offered a full music scholarship for 2027 intake. I’m looking for direct positive experiences (or consecutive improvements ) if possible since I’m coming across some threads which a really down on it and it’s making me nervous.
i understand that schools will fit different children and to begin with I felt it would be too big for my son who has asd and inattentive adhd so i didn’t look into it that much. Now that he has a full scholarship it seems like such a good opportunity for him but we both need a little confidence boost about it.
i’m interested in hearing:

• how your child navigated the size of the school (noise and overwhelm), the change of people in each class. Even if they found it difficult to begin with did they come out the other end?
• anyone who has an SEND child, have you got any positive things to say about the help and support they might have received?
• my child is fine academically but not a high flyer (yet :-)) and prefers his electric guitar! Has anyone seen their child’s academics improve at the school, or has anyone been given extra support if the child is struggling?
• has anyone else gone in with a full scholarship? What have they benefitted from by having the scholarship?

this is definitely the bigger, bolder and more scary choice for him and whilst i have seen the negative comments: or people saying it’s not all it’s made out to be I would really love to hear some positive experiences from people with experience.

I am sure I can’t be the only one feeling nervous about this school and thanks so much for your time!

Mine was there on a full music scholarship and was very happy for 5 years. Only not there for 6th form because she went to a specialist music college, but still sees her friends from KFS.

She's very SEN - ADHD and severely dyslexic. Has stellar grades in some subjects and everything she needs for anything she wants to do in future in other. SEND is about as useless as my friends in other schools found theirs. We found them kind and nurturing but not much help for SPaG. Very on it with things like Access Arrangements for exams though. College have been even less useful on the SEN front.

School is huge, but year groups don't mix so it was like a school of 450 in practice. Huge numbers of options, extra curriculars and flexibility because of the size.

Staff were mainly great.

We had a lot of options because of music places, and I would happily make the exact same choice if we were back in Y6 today.

Music department was amazing. Cannot fault them at all. And they gave DD huge support - went well above and beyond.

Both my kids are currently at Kingsdale and both have had a very positive experience. No SEND or scholarship but both doing well academically and size of school feels like a benefit rather than a downside. Range of subjects has been fantastic, from year 7, at GCSE and now sixth form. There are many imperfections, like with any school, but I think Kingsdale get a lot of things right. Tonnes of extra curricular, great trips, and I personally have been impressed with how they track progress and manage gcse prep - options chosen a year early which gives more time in year 11 for exam technique and revision, plus they do 1 gcse in year 10. This system has worked very well for us. Overall, but especially at sixth form, I’ve found the school to be ambitious for the kids - aiming high feels like the norm, with a very ‘can do’ growth mindset approach, as far as I can tell.

Have a look at my previous posts and DM me if you want more details but in summary-

Son is full music and maths scholar at Kingsdale. He is also SEN (adhd with autistic traits). He got offered places at various private schools including Alleyns but ultimately we chose Kingsdale and so far (six weeks in) have been v impressed.

In particular, the size has allowed him to find other children like him, music provision is outstanding, class sizes are small, there are a private school-level number of extra curricular clubs and the senior leadership team is very impressive.

On SEN, it’s complicated. The SEN lead is not particularly impressive (a teacher who seems to be doing SEN as a side gig) but they have an absolutely brilliant SEN consultant, Charlotte Francis Finch, who is working there 3 days a week and is genuinely the best SEN advocate we’ve come across in state or private (and one of the reasons we chose the school - in contrast the Alleyns SEN lead talked to us about ‘naughty SEN kids’).

In terms of negative comments on Mumsnet I completely empathise; we were similarly nervous about them. What you quickly realised is the school is massively oversubscribed and there is a lot of bitterness from those whose kids either don’t get a music/sports scholarship or get in on the lottery. Added to this is a sense (partially true I think) that Kingsdale is using the scholarships to game the system and attract more middle class families. In my experience that’s where most of the negativity comes from. I’m on a huge WhatsApp group of 300+ Year 7 parents and most of them seem v happy with Kingsdale so far.

Hope this helps.

PS it is a huge achievement to get a full music scholarship as it is so competitive. Your son should be super proud.