New structure at King’s

The junior school has, for many years, taught boys aged 7 to 13. These boys would then join the senior school at 13. Today’s decision means that boys in the junior school will, from 2021, move across to the senior school at the start of year 7, not at the start of year 9 as has historically been the case. The new structure is one shared by almost all day schools in the UK. 

King’s already has a lower school that takes an entry of about 60 boys from local primary and prep schools at the age of eleven, and these will be joined, from September 2021, by their peers from the junior school, creating an expanded lower school of about 280 boys aged eleven to thirteen in years 7 and 8. King’s will continue to accept about thirty boys every year from prep schools at the age of 13, so the 13+ entry remains a key feature of the school’s admissions.

Head master, Andrew Halls, said: “I think we have one of the very best junior schools I have ever seen. Teaching is bright, imaginative and compassionate. The same is true for the teaching of boys in our parallel lower school. Now is the time to bring the two cohorts together.”