A message from the Head, Jude Lowson

“What a school!”  

This was the verdict of the guest judge at last night’s House Song competition at the end of the evening. It is easy to see why he was so impressed. From 90s West Coast Hip Hop to 80s synthpop and big musical numbers, House leaders chose an eclectic range of songs, with each House producing something truly unique, truly creative and truly pupil-led. As ever, the calibre of singing was superb and the comradery in each House was very evident. House Song sums up so much about King’s, with each House engaging wholeheartedly and showing great house pride, but with the contest being played out in great spirit and through friendly and mutually supportive competition. I felt enormously proud to witness it.   

It has capped a very busy and successful half term for the School. The weeks have flown by, with a large intake of new pupils settling quickly, and the school alive with activity in every corner of the site. I hope that you will enjoy reading a selection of recent highlights in this newsletter, and I wish all our pupils, staff and their families a restful half term break.  

Our Strategic Vision

At the start of the term, we were delighted to share our Strategic Vision 2024 – 29. This sets out our broad aims for developing King’s over the next five years, having drawn inspiration from consultation with staff, pupils, parents and OKS. It also details some of the projects that are underway or that we intend to undertake, to achieve these goals. We have been so pleased to hear such positive feedback from parents on these projects and proposals.  

The full document is available to read here. 

Settling In

Our new pupils have settled into King's exceptionally well and it is a delight to see them taking advantage of all that the School has to offer. Pupils have enjoyed social events including a 6b BBQ, Shell breakfasts, year group socials and, of course, the House Song competition.

The annual Shell Challenge Day saw the new King's Shell cohort compete against each other in a series of "It's a Knockout"-style team games. Conquering the giant inflatables, water, and foam pit at Birley's Playing Fields, this year saw Linacre House come out on top after a hotly contested day of challenges. The day of activities provides a great opportunity for pupil bonding, team building, leadership, and most importantly, fun as our new Shells settle in after a busy first fortnight at the School. 

Our new Shells have also had the opportunity to try something completely new each week through our Shell Activity Rotation. Each Wednesday afternoon, pupils have turned their hands to the likes of Lacrosse, Orienteering, Public Speaking, Escape Rooms and Origami, to name but a few.  

Exam Results

A Levels
Over the Summer we congratulated the King’s 2024 leavers on their excellent A Level results. These were achieved across a remarkably wide range of 32 academic A Level courses that are on offer at King’s.

Almost a quarter of grades achieved by our pupils this year were at A*, the second highest ever seen outside the pandemic-affected years (where grades were adjusted upwards), with the percentage of A* & A grades combined also a significant increase on 2023. Seven pupils achieved four or more A*s with 15 achieving three or more A*s, and 40% of the cohort earned at least one A*. 

Pupils are heading off to an impressive and exciting range of destinations from King's, including 9 to Oxford or Cambridge, 3 to St Andrews, 3 to Imperial, 20 to UCL, 19 to Durham, and 10 to King’s College London. In addition, 20 pupils have headed to US and European universities including Caltech, NYU, Berklee College of Music and Bocconi. 

We are very proud of the achievements of this talented cohort, who worked hard to achieve their excellent results alongside busy involvement in co-curricular activities and leadership roles building up to an outstanding King’s Week 2024 at the end of the Summer Term. 

GCSEs
This year also saw some remarkable achievements across all 29 subjects at GCSE level - a testament to our pupils’ hard work, resilience and enthusiasm, as well as to the dedication and support of their teachers and families. 

Results at the top end are particularly impressive, with over half of the year achieving five grade 8 or 9s (A* equivalent grades). 

31.6% of grades were at grade 9 level – with grade 9 being the most common grade across all results. 

53.5% of grades were at grade 8 or grade 9 level (equivalent to A*) 

Both of these are record results for the school.  

22 pupils achieved at least 9 grade 9s, with eleven gaining 10 grade 9s and four pupils an outstanding 11 grade 9s. 

Charity Fundraising

This term several houses have run activities to raise money for House or School charities.  

School House Charity Swim
School House took to the water at Whitstable once again for their cold water sea swim in aid of The Royal Life Saving Society UK, who deliver water safety education to prevent drowning and save lives. The School House team raised an admirable £1800. 

Bailey Open Air cinema
Over 80 pupils gathered blankets and bean bags to sit and relax in the surroundings of the Bailey House garden for the annual Bailey Open Air Cinema. With popcorn at the ready and Back to the Future on the big screen, the event raised over £500 for the School Charity of the Term, The Evie Dove Foundation. The Evie Dove Foundation exists for the benefit of sick children and their families, focusing on the advancement of children’s health and the saving of children’s lives and pastoral care of families going through traumatic experiences.

Galpin’s Hoops for Hope
The boys of Galpin’s House set themselves a challenge to score as many baskets as possible in a ten-hour window to raise money for Toilet Twinning, a charity that funds global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes run by Tearfund. The boys' target of 1000 baskets was surpassed in style, with a total of 2,870 scored and over £1700 raised for this worthwhile charity. 

Carlyon House cake sale
Carylon pupils spent the weekend whipping up delights for a charity bake sale. Over 40 different bakes, from cakes to cookies to a particularly good tiramisu, raised just shy of £800 for World Child Cancer, a charity committed to improving diagnosis, treatment and care for cancer sufferers in some of the world’s poorest communities.

Linacre Charity Dinner
Last week, Linacre hosted their annual charity dinner for Porchlight, a Kent-based charity supporting the homeless in the towns and cities of Kent. Pupils took the lead on preparing and serving the meal and running several money-raising activities including an auction and a raffle, raising an astonishing £10,000 for the charity.  

Harvest Collection
And finally, the whole school came together to collect food and goods to be distributed to local families in need by the All Saints’ Food Larder. 258 bags of goods were collected, more than the charity had ever seen from one institution. We are proud of and grateful to our community for their kindness and generosity.

The King's Association

This term we launched a new initiative: The King’s Association.

The King’s Association was established to bring together all members of the wider King’s community; current and former pupils (OKS), current and former parents, and current and former staff members. It exists to strengthen these connections through events, by sharing news and updates and by helping our community to link up with one another via the King’s Association website.

The King’s Association has its own website: www.kings-association.co.uk where you can read more about forthcoming events, such as the inaugural King’s Association quiz night. You can book your ticket or table here.

On Friday 11 October, we held our first King's Association Breakfast Networking event focused on media, marketing and creative careers.

The event took place in the event space at HubHub, located just around the corner from St Paul's Cathedral in London. Over 40 OKS and current parents joined us bright and early, starting the morning with pastries, hot drinks, and networking. After an interesting panel discussion focused on media trends, AI and tips for getting started in the industry, lots of emails and LinkedIn details were exchanged. One OKS told us: "This was the most productive morning of my gap year so far!"  We look forward to holding another breakfast networking event soon.

Music

The Crypt Choir has made an excellent start to the school year with outstanding performances in Evensong services from week one, and in particular, performed Edgar Bainton's beautiful 'And I Saw A New Heaven' at the installation of the Senior Deputy Head and the Admission of King's Scholars.

A week later, the choir performed a concert of light choral music at Stowting Church to a large audience of local parishioners and parents, raising over £800 for church funds. Meanwhile, the Friday@5.15 concert series launched after the first exeat, featuring outstanding soloists and small ensembles. We were treated to scenes from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro last week, performed in a semi-staged format by the 'Figaro Fifths' to a full house in the Old Synagogue.

Attention has turned over the last week to the hotly contested House Song Competition, when all members of the school take part in a house choir, arranged, rehearsed and directed by pupils. This year's winners were Linacre, with their rendition of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on the Hill’ earning praise for its sensitive use of dynamics and close harmony.

All our major concerts and our Friday@5.15 performances can be watched on the King's Music Dept YouTube channel.

Sport

Our sports teams have had a busy and successful start to the new academic year with some great performances against strong opposition. 

Our rugby teams have started the season well, winning the majority of their games across the year groups and beginning to find their groove as they settle into their new teams. Similarly, our hockey teams have picked up some good wins. Most notably, the U14As remain unbeaten so far, winning all five of their school fixtures.

In swimming, our congratulations go to Michael (Remove) who, this week, broke the 200m Freestyle Junior Record with a time of 2:18.22.

The fencers have been competing both at home and abroad and Jack (Fifth) has represented Great Britain in a match against Greece and Hungary in Budapest.

The King's Sailors competed at the KSSA Annual Regatta, hosted by Downs Sailing Club at Deal in September and were awarded the 'best school' trophy.

Our rowers and lacrosse players have been working hard under new coaches, ex-England Lacrosse star Chrissie Monaghan and Head of Rowing Luke Reiser.

Badminton, squash and basketball continue to develop at pace with inter-school fixtures now happening regularly. The top four badminton players have also had the opportunity to compete at county-run events. 

Our golfers are through to the regional semi-finals of the ISGA Matchplay competition, beating Sutton Valence in a very close match.

We are delighted to see increasing numbers of pupils able to take part in competitive fixtures across a greater range of sports and to see an improving trend in results and outcomes for our teams.

Image: MOD Crown copyright

CCF & Running Wild

King’s cadet, Noah took on Exercise SOLENT CHALLENGE, a weeklong army sailing expedition, navigating two ferocious storms and sailing through some very high seas.

Departing from Newcastle, the team sailed through the North Sea and across the Channel to France before returning to end their journey in Portsmouth, docking next to the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers.

Noah lived and worked aboard the 72ft racing yacht for the week, helping to crew the vessel in two watches day and night.

Jointly organised by the Army Cadets and the Tall Ships Youth Trust, the expedition was designed to explore the ocean environment while developing the leadership, independence and resilience of the cadet crew. Cultural visits in short harbour stops included an RNLI lifeboat station, a French navy submarine and breakfast from a French bakery.

CCF Training exercise
Leadership, resilience and self-reliance were all put to the test by the CCF in its recent training exercise at a military training area in the Hampshire countryside.

The cadets' training was put into action in a series of scenarios designed to test their ability to lead and plan under pressure. The two-day exercise involved supporting the government of a fictitious crown dependency struggling against illicit drug trafficking. Scenarios included providing emergency first aid to refugees, establishing vehicle checkpoints and conducting a night-time ambush of an enemy patrol.

Running Wild
Our Running Wild activity continued this term with a group of 33 Removes going on an overnight Autumn camping trip to the Medway area. The group spent the day hiking before pitching tents, cooking their own food, roasting marshmallows and enjoying a scavenger hunt the following morning.

Drama

The Drama department has been extremely busy this term with castings for two upcoming plays. Rehearsals for the Senior Play, Clue, are now underway ahead of three performances in late November.

Pupils have visited the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre to see Our Country's Good and A Raisin in the Sun and the Marlowe Theatre to see & Juliet. 

Our GCSE and A Level Drama pupils completed their monologue assessments. We were treated to a sharing evening from some of those pupils and enjoyed an OKS talk about Drama Schools and potential future careers in the industry.

Tickets for Clue are available via the Box Office: Clue Tickets, with performances running from Thursday 28 - Saturday 30 November at 7.30pm.

US, Canadian & European Universities Fair

As part of our growing provision and support for higher education guidance following the launch of our new Futures department, It was a pleasure to welcome representatives from US, Canadian and European Universities to King’s for the Universities Fair.

Staff from The University Guys, McGill University, EHL Hospitality Business School,  IE University, The Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland, Rutgers University- New Brunswick, CUNEF Universidad, The European School of Economics, Saint Mary’s University, Bishop’s University and High Point University were on hand to talk about studying abroad and answer any questions our pupils had as they begin thinking about their options after A Levels in the summer.

Further events will follow this year as we continue to develop this programme.

Award nominations

The school has been recognised in several awards and publications this term.

Classic FM Music Teacher of the Year Awards – Shortlisted for Best Music Learning Initiative
At the start of the academic year, Sounding Out, our groundbreaking programme providing free orchestral instrument lessons to children across all primary schools in Canterbury was shortlisted for the ‘Best Music Learning Initiative’ at the 2024 Classic FM Music Teacher of the Year Awards.

Sounding Out was developed to ensure that every child in Canterbury has the opportunity to explore the world of music, regardless of financial barriers. By offering free lessons in orchestral instruments, the programme aims to inspire a new generation of young musicians, foster creativity, and promote musical excellence throughout our community.

The recognition from the Classic FM Music Teacher of the Year Awards is a significant achievement for Sounding Out and reflects the dedication and passion of our teachers and partners involved in making music accessible to all.

Carfax Education Schools Index
King's has been named as one of the world's top independent schools in the fifth edition of The Schools Index by Carfax Education, the leading international index of the very best private boarding and day schools, which ranks the school as one of the top 25 in the UK. This follows on the back of inclusion in the Tatler Top Schools Guide and our recent Muddy Stilettos review. 

Independent School of the Year – Performing Arts Finalist
We were delighted to be named as a finalist in the prestigious Independent School of the Year Awards for the category of Independent School of the Year for Performing Arts. Sadly, King’s was not chosen as the winner on this occasion but reaching the final of these hotly contested awards is a testament to the wonderful teaching, opportunities and facilities we have at King’s.

The Charter Awards update

The Charter Awards Campaign is our mission to widen access to King’s to more talented and motivated pupils from every background by providing an additional 50 fully funded bursary places at the School, forever.

The campaign was launched 12 months ago at the Mansion House. Since then, we have been truly overwhelmed by the engagement and support of our community - whether OKS, current and past parents, or friends of the school. This support highlights the power of our community and gives us confidence in this endeavour as we strive forward.

Due to the generosity of our community, we have been able to welcome another three Charter Award Holders to Shell this September, bringing our total number to four. Donations have also raised the Charter Awards Endowment, funding these life-changing bursaries to over £6M, meaning that we have already achieved 73% our Phase 1 target (2023 – 2026).

If you are yet to support, you can donate online here or by reaching out to Jenny Grant, Director of Development, j.grant@kings-school.co.uk, +44(0) 1227 595623. 

Outreach at King's

This term has seen the return of Saturday Smarties and the introduction of King's and Things. These two fantastic initiatives involve pupils from King's working alongside local schools and community groups.

Saturday Smarties is a series of science masterclasses for Year 5 and 6 pupils from primary schools in and around Canterbury as part of the Canterbury Primary Science Partnership. Recently, pupils have been dissecting eyeballs to learn about how we see and discovering how fireworks get their dazzling colours through chemistry.

King's and Things is a venture involving our Sixth Form pupils umpiring, refereeing, giving talks, and delivering Q&A sessions at prep schools across the South East of England - most recently at Cumnor House.