Feedback on Kingsdale Foundation School

[BB100]

There has been lots of murmurings about Kingsdale in the past few years recruiting the middle classes but if you listen very carefully to the Head's speech he wants children who want to learn and parents who are interested in their child's education rather than children who come from a middle class family. Educational research suggests it is those children and parents that improve a school, not families' socio-economic status.

Isn't it middle-class snobbery to assume only the middle classes care about their kids education, give them instrument lessons and take them to football on sat mornings? Kingsdale offer their scholarships to a range of abilities and potential, not just the best.

[JessicaCT]

My daughter is also v happy at Kingsdale, the children are genuinely lovely, there is a huge energy about the place, the facilities are amazing, the music incredible, the standards high, and the staff seem to be on call 24/7.

Do put it down.

re banding, yes they band from day 1 but this can actually be a drawback as they don't know the children yet. The criteria for banding do seem rather haphazard as to who gets put where and is not based on either SATs results or school reports. And even though they are selling themselves on offering two languages (french, german, spanish and/or Latin from yr 7) this is only on offer to higher bands so even if you have got straight Level 5s and have studied certain subjects at your previous school, you could have a fight to be allowed to continue.

[Msgee]

Kingsdale used to test the kids in the first week and then band accordingly if I remember correctly- don't know if that's still the case...

they do move children up and down and are pretty flexible- so don't wory about bands being set in stone

[Dorothy]

I went to the open morning today and was rather disconcerted by the "hard sell" of the deputy head's talk. The school is now very much over-subscribed, I understand, and I do wonder if their open mornings could be better spent explaining the admissions criteria and answering questions like how come they can keep class sizes so small in a more open and transparent manner.

[Curmudgeon]

I like the look of Kingsdale and liked my chats with the students and tour of the facilities. I absolutely did not like the way the teachers I spoke to or listened to fudged the basic questions such as 1) does a 'scholarship' guarantee a place and 2) where does the money come from. I think I know the answer to both 1) no and 2) standard budget repackaged

I feel starting a relationship with parents by fudging the answers to basic questions is a concerning beginning. I would like to have an honest relationship with the school my children go to and not be treated like a 'consumer'

That said I would probably be interested despite the above concerns

[Dorothy]

Quite. We are not exactly awash with state secondary school choices in this area, so we will probably all apply to Kingsdale. If anything, though, I found the open day slightly off-putting for the same reasons as you Curmudgeon. I think thats what I was saying in my post above, come to think of it.

[prickle]

Miniprickle was offered a music 'scholarship' two years ago. The offer letter was very ambiguous and left us with the impression that she had a place but to our disappointment she was not offered a place. They give out far more 'scholarships' than available places so many children are disappointed. Also at the auditions, each child is asked where they will be putting Kingsdale in their list. This is definitely not kosher.

Pls beware of this if you are going through the process at the moment. Do not build up the hopes of your child if they receive a scholarship letter - you only really know if they are successful in March.

[tiddles]

yes it was not always clear, but it seems that if you get a scholarship, and you are placed there by the local education authority, then you will have the chance to have those additional music/sports or maths sessions once you are there.

[MGolden]

tiddles Wrote:

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> yes it was not always clear, but it seems that if

> you get a scholarship, and you are placed there by

> the local education authority, then you will have

> the chance to have those additional music/sports

> or maths sessions once you are there.

I have heard that this year they have had 900 scholarship applications. There is no way that everyone who achieves scholarship standard will be offered a place. My understanding is that a very small percentage will be automatically offered a place if they are incredibly talented (don't know what the criteria is) and others will be awarded scholarships if they are offered a place at the school. In my son's case he has a full sports scholarship which was confirmed once he had been offered the place.

[BB100]

prickle Wrote:

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Also at the auditions, each child is

> asked where they will be putting Kingsdale in

> their list. This is definitely not kosher.

My child wasn't asked this and was offered a scholarship.

[Queenie23]

Kingsdale is a good school but I think that it is getting to the point that many parents think it is the ONLY good school out there which is not the case. I was put off last year by the hard sell and Kingsdale are NOT transparent. For example how they advertised their results this year. They were not as wonderful as they pretended. I'm not knocking Kingsdale but I do get irritated by the propaganda.

[tommy]

Hi there, all very new to this but on their website Kingsdale state that distance to the school plays no part in securing a place. In that case is it down to a lottery or does stating that the school is your first preference play any part?

I'm discounting the fact that my child would get any scholarship.

also, will the change to academy status make any difference?

thanks

[BB100]

Yes it is done by lottery not on distance.

If you look at some of the local grammar schools websites they are opting to be academies because they know they will be financially better off. But I'm sure there are others on here that can add other views to this.

[Dunamis2011]

Hi Eliza, an old post, just came across it and it has answered all of my questions and queries before the real experience in September 2011. Thank you so much.

[eliza]

You're so welcome!

[garymax]

Hello Eliza.

Just found this old Thread and wanted to thank you.

Has been great hearing what parent's have had to say about Kingsdale.

Hope some more parents will read the thread and give some more information on how their child/children's year 2010/2011 has been.

Am looking forward to visiting Kingsdale next week with my Daughter and a few of her y/6 friends.

:)

[prickle]

Has the exam cheating incident been resolved now? It would be good for parents visiting the school in the next few weeks to know where the school is regarding these allegations.

[BB100]

On the Voice post some are saying the children have received their results and results will be published on Open Day which is highly irregular. All I can say is my previous post last year about some unprofessional teachers seems to have proved itself.

[Curly]

.

[chrism]

My son (now year 10) was a Kingsdale pupil and did experience some nasty behaviour from mainly older pupils when he started. It was dealt with very well by the school but unfortunately did leave him with lasting anxiety. I imagine by now the intake of the school has very much changed so probably this isn't a problem anymore.

My other gripe with Kingsdale is communication and administration, which I found incredibly poor. It's great that they have the parents forum but if you can't attend they you cannot even receive a copy of the minutes. Emails and other communications are sporadic and are often sent a day before you need to reply.

I found some teachers good, others less so. In years 8, I didn't get to see any work that my son did in several lessons because the teachers kept the books. I assumed, wrongly, we would be given their work at the end of the year but this didn't happen. In year 9 my son left as we moved house. I wrote several times to his tutor asking for his work so it would give us (and his new school) a sense of what he was achieving but again, only a couple of teachers bothered to send us material. I could go on for a long time about poor record keeping from the SEN department, TAs who themselves couldn't spell, plus other errors (we even got a report that had been 'cut and pasted' with comments about another child that we should never have seen. That said, many other parents seem to have nothing but good things to say, so maybe we were particularly unlucky. However, I felt obliged to pitch in to present a less rosy experience.

[sillywoman]

Hmm, not to dismiss your experience in any way chrism, but I must say that all sounds like standard 'state comp' stuff. We've experienced similar over at 'the other school', & asking around complaints about communication, a mixed bag of teachers, and record keeping seem to be common gripes from those at state schools (and sometimes those paying too).

[chrism]

It may well be true to some extent, but in the case of my child (who has some learning difficulties and has an ASD), close monitoring and feedback are crucial, and I found the lack of both frustrating and detrimental to my son's learning.

[sillywoman]

You have my sympathies chrism. We have similar issues elsewhere.

[garymax]

Thanks for feed back off to visit school this morning.

From what I hear it is not just Kingsdale who have Good and bad Feedback.

Every parent I have spoke to so far has had one good and 10 bad thing's to say about most secondary school's in southwark and lewisham areas.

I guess it is a case of we find the right school and hope our child/ children have a good experiance and education that is both fun and gives her the best education.

Still up for any feed back , good or bad still have Many, many schools to visit.

Good luck to all the other y6 parent's

M

[eliza]

I've now got two kids at Kingsdale. I had only one last year! They're quite different children - one very high ability, the other more average and a bit of a coaster! I'm still really happy with the school, it has suited both of the children in different ways. It's not the case that anything negative about Kingsdale is automatically deleted, but it is the case that libellous comments and ones with direct reference to the exam investigation are removed, as they should be. I've found communication with the school to be pretty exemplary bar problems with a computer virus. A new website should be up and running soon. I've also found the school to be unusually receptive to comment and criticism from parents. I was unhappy with one of my childrens teachers and the matter was looked into and my daughter was moved to another class. The Head does have very high expectations of the staff.

I'm not worried about the investigation - there is very much more to it than meets the eye.