New Good Schools Guide Review of KES

 KES DECLARED 'BATH'S ACADEMIC A-TEAM' IN NEW REVIEW BY GOOD SCHOOLS GUIDE

Just before Christmas the Good Schools Guide (GSG), renowned for their fearlessly frank and unrivalled reviews of more than 1,400 state and independent schools, visited King Edward’s to undertake a new review of the School. 

As well as praising King Edward’s ‘top level teaching’ and 'great creative and extra-curricular opportunities’, the visiting reviewer found that KES is 'proud to remain academically pacy but equally proud that it’s also an enriching and nurturing school in which pupils thrive.'

Published today (10 February 2025), the new review follows a two-day visit to KES by an independent assessor which included meetings with staff, pupils and parents.
Commenting on the Senior School’s academic record, the new review notes that KES remains ‘Bath’s academic A-Team’, adding that ‘All we spoke to said that KES pupils are genuinely interested to learn and this, combined with a teaching staff that push themselves to deliver top notch lessons, means that outcomes are excellent.’ Lower down the age range, in our Junior and Pre-Prep Schools, the reviewer found that ‘the culture that learning should be a joyful experience’, is firmly entrenched and that pupils are indeed, ‘having fun, yet we were in no doubt that they’re also learning.  A lot.’

Writing that ‘KES ticks all the boxes as a very alluring option in Bath’, it is no surprise that the arts and extracurricular provision at KES was a highlight of the reviewer’s visit, who comments that ‘Beyond the academics, life at KES is rich and full of opportunity.’  The creative arts are deemed to ‘pack a real punch’, with the reviewer ‘blown away by the music provision’.  Over 75% of pupils in the Junior School receive individual music lessons, such is the enjoyment of music at KES, and the reviewer notes our partnership with Bath Philharmonia, and our own Resident Composer as indicators of the commitment to Music in the Senior School. Elsewhere, the new review comments that the School’s Drama provision ‘successfully blends creativity and intellectual challenge’ and that ‘Art is impressive’, with the Pre-Prep benefitting from specialist teaching and the Junior School having its own kiln on site. It also noted that many of the teachers in the Senior School Art department are artists in their own right. Reviewing the School’s sporting prowess, GSG notes that ‘KES are strong contenders to win trophies amongst local competitors’ and that specialist sports coaching starts in the Pre-Prep. 

Opportunity and breadth of experience are watchwords of the extracurricular programme at KES, with one pupil in the Junior School joyously declaring that ‘If the School was a colour, it would be a rainbow because there’s so many different things to do.’ 

On the School’s pastoral provision and inclusivity, the new review notes that ‘Pastoral care at KES has been boosted in recent years with several worthwhile innovations’, including the Learning for Life programme which tackles teen issues such as vaping, cyber security, consent and racism. ‘Pupil voice is celebrated, and school council brings about real change’, notes GSG, going on to say that KES is ‘a welcoming and accepting’ school.

In summary, the new review concludes that ‘KES states that it’s a school for ‘adventurous minds’ and we agree. The engaging curriculum, wide creative arts offering and host of clubs, trips and academic competitions, should kindle curiosity and a love of learning in all pupils.’

Martin Boden, Headmaster of King Edward’s, believes that the Good Schools Guide visit to KES really got under the skin of the school and offers families a realistic and informed view of the School.  ‘We are delighted that the many facets of life at KES were recognised by GSG in such glowing terms, from the candour of our pupils and their freely expressed enjoyment of life at School, to the commitment of my colleagues to provide an enriching and supportive education that successfully prepares our pupils for life beyond KES.’

You can read the new review in full below.