Co-Educational FROM 2025

From September 2025, we will be extending co-education from the Prep School, welcoming boys into the Senior School and Sixth Form. Boys will initially be integrated into Years 7 and 12.

Uniquely Kingsley; Uniquely Co-educational

students in a canoe

Everything that Kingsley has to offer – academically, pastorally, outside the classroom and alongside our sibling schools in Warwick Schools Foundation – will now be available for your son as well as your daughter.

‘Find your wings’ – Pastoral Care

Happiness at school is essential if the innate gifts and talents in every pupil are to be fulfilled. Kingsley is renowned for the care and attention we give to each one of our pupils, putting their wellbeing and welfare – individually and collectively – at the heart of our school. This focus creates confidence and self-belief, making for a happy, safe, enriching, and respectful school community, where the highest standards are achieved every day, inside and outside the classroom.

Students sat on a branch

In addition to our expertise in supporting girls, we also have significant expertise in supporting boys. Members of our senior team have recent co-educational experience and we can also draw on the expertise of our colleagues at Warwick School, with its fine tradition of boys’ education, as well as the wider Foundation.

Our outstandingly successful approach to pastoral care will now be available for your son as well as your daughter.

"Pupils have an excellent understanding of how their decisions have an impact on their success and wellbeing."
ISI inspection report, June 2023
students looking at a graph

‘Flying colours’ – Academic Success

We are proudly an academically selective school. Year after year, our pupils excel, achieving outstanding results and leaving for a wide range of higher education destinations which serve to illustrate their diversity of skills and interests. We are even more proud of the ‘value added’ – among the best in the county – which enables each pupil to achieve often well beyond their expectations.

Just as with our pastoral programme, our pupils will benefit from exceptional staff with exceptional expertise gained from enabling the best possible outcomes in a range of settings: girls, boys, and co-education.

Our outstandingly successful approach to academic fulfilment will now be available for your son as well as your daughter.

"Pupils achieve excellent skills, knowledge and understanding, evident in their high levels of success in public examinations."
ISI inspection report, June 2023
"Pupils progress to a wide range of opportunities in the world of work and higher education, including universities with competitive requirements."
ISI inspection report, June 2023

‘Launchpad for discovery’ – Co-curricular

Be it in music, sport, drama, outdoor pursuits, or academic enrichment – Kingsley has a fine tradition of nurturing the diverse interests and talents of our pupil community. In a play, in a concert, on the sports fields, Kingsley pupils excel. However at Kingsley, we do not stand still. We have recently announced new partnerships and activities to further enrich our pupils’ time at school:

Round Square

Round Square Talks. Click here to read about the inspiring speakers visiting Kingsley. Round Square Awards. Click here to read about the award and diploma programme.

8billionideas

This is a partnership which develops enterprise, entrepreneurship, and career-focused skills. Click here to read more about it.

Investment in Sport
The Foundation has recently announced a major investment in sports across its schools, developing facilities at Kingsley and on the Warwick Campus. This enables every pupil to have access to exceptional sporting opportunities. Read more about this development here.

These dynamic future-focused and life-enhancing opportunities will now be available for your son, as well as your daughter.

"Pupils achieve excellence in a range of academic and other activities, notably creative arts, outdoor pursuits, and games."
ISI inspection report, June 2023
"Pupils attach a high value to creativity…as exemplified by high levels of participation in music and drama and outstanding displays of pupils’ art…"
ISI inspection report, June 2023
"Contributions to the lives of others within their school community is excellent."
ISI inspection report, June 2023

‘Reach for the stars’ – Foundation +

One of the greatest benefits of being part of a group of schools is the opportunities this creates for pupils to work together, offering an even greater range of activities and experiences for all. Our pupils work together in areas such as music and charity fundraising, and benefit from sharing facilities such as Bridge House Theatre.

WSF Logo

In music, this means, for example, that pupils have the opportunity to play in a full Symphony Orchestra, performing major orchestral repertoire, of a scale and standard simply not possible for a single school.

At Sixth Form level, these opportunities include:

  • Oxbridge preparation
  • Preparation for specialist university pathways
  • Overseas universities applications

From September 2024, it is our intention for Kingsley pupils to enjoy the Warwick Campus Friday Afternoon Activity Programme. This changes year on year, with this year’s available to view here.

See our Foundation strategy which explains our educational philosophy in more detail.

We describe the educational experience for our Warwick Campus pupils as being the ‘best of both worlds’ – single-sex schools whose co-location means pupils can work together meaningfully as they progress through the year groups.

With a fully co-educational Kingsley School, we will offer the ‘best of all worlds’.

All of these opportunities will now be available for your son as well as your daughter. 

Questions and Answers

Warwick Schools Foundation is proud of all its pupils in each of its schools. We strive to ensure that all are supported as best they can be in their educational journeys and as well-prepared as well as possible for life beyond school. Our pupils learning to work side by side with those with different interests, gifts and talents is an important skill. We believe that it is therefore important for all pupils, regardless of whether they are girls or boys, to able to interact as part of their school experience. On our Warwick Campus, this is able to happen in a 'best of both worlds' environment, where girls and boys have numerous opportunities to work together. We have considered carefully how this approach could be extended to Kingsley and have concluded that the logistical obstacles are simply too significant. We also believe that offering a selective, co-educational school as part of the Foundation's charitable activities, offers even greater choice to parents.
Kingsley's ethos and values will continue to set it apart. It will also be the only selective, fully co-educational independent school in the Warwick Schools Foundation family of schools. We want the school to mean as much as it can to children who will benefit from learning here. Our values are universal, and are as important for boys as well as girls. What is sometimes less celebrated - but we know is important to current and prospective families - is that the results the girls achieve in their public examinations individually are exceptional, and collectively their achievements outshine many other independent schools, including locally. We hope that this will be better understood, as it is an important feature which marks Kingsley out from many other schools.
We believe September is the right time to communicate this important and exciting news. It gives everyone in the current school community time to consider the changes, and also gives parents whose children are currently applying to the school plenty of notice, so that they can make fully informed decisions.  Giving almost two years’ notice also means that parents with children in Year 5 can now consider Kingsley for their sons as well as their daughters.
Governors and senior executives, including Mr Mercer-Kelly and his team, have been considering this for some months. The outcomes of a recent survey have been part of this information-gathering exercise, where it was apparent that for the majority of those who completed the survey - current and prospective parents - the single-sex offering was not the decisive factor in their decision-making process. It is important to say that leadership of the school is enthusiastic about this development.
No.  We know that the individual care and attention to each of our pupils currently - girls and boys - is rightly prized. This will not change.
Over the next two years, we will be preparing to welcome boys into the senior school buildings. There will be no disruption to current pupils' education.
This will be done in a steady, planned, and phased way. We will admit boys into Years 7 and 12 from September 2025. This means that girls currently in Year 10 will be the first to experience co-education. Should there be enquiries for entry into other years groups, we will consider each on a case-by-case basis. A co-education transition team has been formed, led by Ms Dawn Morgan, Director of Sixth Form.
We are committed to Kingsley as a nurturing, family school with high standards pastorally and academically. We envisage that over time, class sizes in the Prep will be around 16, in KS3 and KS4 around 20 (as they are currently) although ultimately, we aim to have three forms rather than two, and total numbers in the Sixth Form of around 60. In the relatively recent past, Kingsley’s roll has been significantly larger, at over 500. However, we do not feel that being a school this size would not suit its ethos, nor the estate in Leamington.
Our aim is that over time, the school is fully co-educational: 50% girls, 50% boys. We know this will take time to achieve.
Rightly, our staff in the senior school are experts in teaching girls. However, all teachers have co-educational experience as part of their training, and we also have many staff who have significant expertise teaching in a co-educational setting. In addition, we have exceptional knowledge of educating boys, given the expertise at Warwick School. This means that we have a unique insight into ensuring that both girls and boys flourish, and have the best possible experience pastorally, academically and in their co-curricular programme. 
We will be reviewing the curriculum so that it is accessible and appropriate for all. This includes PSHE. We will also be reviewing our subject offer, expanding where appropriate, including subjects at GCSE and in the Sixth Form, with a view to increasing choice for all.
Some rearranging of facilities, such as lavatories and changing rooms, will be required. All pupils will have appropriate welfare provision.
We will need to request a 'material change' inspection from ISI (the Independent Schools Inspectorate) who will be commissioned to undertake a review of readiness and fitness to accommodate boys, on behalf of the Department for Education. The Foundation has significant experience of successful material change inspections, most recently to enable King's High to admit boarders. 
The sports the girls love will still be taught and played. There will be new sports for boys and girls, and some sport will be co-educational. In short, there will be more sporting opportunities for the girls, as well as plenty for the boys. The sports facilities development announced recently may be found here. This will provide unrivalled access to the highest-level facilities for both girls and boys.
As announced at the start of term, we are already developing the co-curricular offer. This will continue.  Please see this brochure outlining our planned developments.
We are committed to pupils across our schools working together meaningfully. For example, it is our intention to extend Friday Activities from September 2024. Whilst these activities change from year to year, a flavour of the activities on offer may be found here. We expect opportunities for Kingsley pupils to make the most of being part of a family of schools to develop further in the months ahead.
No. The ‘best of both worlds’ provision on the Warwick Campus is well-established and very successful, the co-location of schools enabling pupils to work together meaningfully as they progress through the year groups. By admitting boys to the Senior School and Sixth Form at Kingsley, we will be offering parents a real choice: co-education at Kingsley or ‘best of both worlds’ on the Warwick Campus schools. Overall, we believe this offers the ‘best of all worlds’.





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      The Kingsley School
      Beauchamp Hall
      Beauchamp Avenue
      Leamington Spa
      Warwickshire
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