Our approach is defined by supportive academic excellence and the exploration of life skills to develop students’ self-confidence and self-assurance. We do this by delivering a focus on the individual and offering a broad curriculum based on Three Pillars. Academics is at the centre of our approach but is also complemented equally by Performing Arts and Sport. This rich curriculum ensures that every student can discover their passions and develop their skills. Students are encouraged and supported to excel across all areas, even those they find more difficult.
Our Three Pillar Approach
Academics
Central to all of our schools, our core of academics teaches our students critical and lateral thinking to inform the understanding and application of a wide variety of disciplines. At King’s College School, we follow the British Curriculum to Year 11 and then the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme to Year 13.
Sport
Inspired’s sporting pillar stands for health and wellbeing, fun, motivation, self-discipline and self-esteem. Whether involving students in team sports or introducing them to individual pursuits, we aim to provide an athletics programme to suit every student. King’s College School students can get involved in football, tennis, basketball, athletics and swimming.
While some students in each school go on to achieve national and international honours, all students benefit from the fitness, enjoyment and a life-long interest that sport can provide. The physical exercise involved also contributes to mental alertness necessary for successful study.
Performing Arts
The arts help to instil confidence and self-assurance within our students to nurture and develop their interests for life. This confidence is derived from performance, the appreciation of the arts as fundamental to the human experience, and a creative approach to all that our students do.
From drama lessons and public speaking, to instrumental music lessons and the visual arts, King’s College School students get to experience it all as part of the core curriculum.
A Holistic Approach
Academic results are vitally important, and lead to the qualifications that open up the world beyond school at university and the world of work. But Inspired schools do not teach students to simply pass tests. Instead, students reach their academic potential when they are engaged in the learning process, their self-confidence is strengthened, they are empowered by learning to think critically, and when their approach to study is ignited by outstanding teaching. This creates a love of learning that lasts a lifetime.
Challenge and Extension
Central to our principles is the importance of nurturing the unique individuality, talent and passions of all students. We wish to develop every child’s potential and to allow them opportunities to undertake work which moves forward their learning and allows the development of higher-order thinking skills. That’s why we offer students access to our Challenge and Extension programme – available to all students, regardless of ability.
The foundation of the Challenge and Extension programme is the development of a ‘mindset for learning’, incorporating the ideas of resilience, effort and the understanding that success is in the hands of the individual.
Assessment and Exam Preparation
We take a cognitive research-based approach to testing with our Cycle Test Programme. This is a weekly test (of all academic subjects on a rotational basis) under examination conditions for all students in Years 4 upwards. The function of these tests is to provide a snapshot of what a student has achieved, to embed the learning they have done, and to reduce the stress associated with high-stakes assessment through ongoing familiarity with the process. They are also used as diagnostic tools to let teachers know what has been learned by the students and to flag further areas needing consolidation.
Students also undergo two mock exams, known as ‘double trials’. This combination of mocks with cycle testing prepares students for public exams better than any other system.
Online Learning
Students from Inspired schools across the world have achieved outstanding and record-setting results, despite the extraordinary circumstances triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inspired’s online, live and continuous e-learning system stepped in seamlessly during the Covid-19 crisis, ensuring their learning was uninterrupted, and students’ ambitions and university aspirations achieved.
