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THE KING’S SCHOOL is a leading independent co-educational boarding school, situated in the heart of the historic cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. The precincts of Canterbury Cathedral are part of a world heritage site, a centre of pilgrimage and study, and host to over one million visitors each year from many different cultures. This international dimension deeply influences the life of the city and the school.

The origins of King’s date back to the arrival of St Augustine in 597 AD and the school’s Christian tradition remains at its heart although pupils and staff subscribe to many different faiths and beliefs and none. Embracing this diversity, there is a desire to foster fairness, tolerance, courage, perseverance, mutual respect and understanding. The Benedictine tradition of developing mind, body and spirit within a community given to hospitality still influences the life of the Cathedral and the school lives out its life in that context. Thus, academic excellence and scholarship take their place alongside the school’s commitment to physical and cultural endeavour. Sport is strong, with a number of boys’ and girls’ teams at national level. Music and drama are outstanding, both having the finest traditions and producing performances of the highest standards. King’s Week, the school’s own Festival of Creative and Performing Arts, offers well over 100 events and attracts thousands of visitors each summer.

The curriculum at King’s is based upon strong academic roots. It emphasises and relies upon what is best in traditional school education: scholarly excellence, supported by a caring pastoral and tutorial system, and a wide-ranging co-curricular programme. The curriculum is continually adapting and reacting to the changing demands of modern education: new subjects are added, new teaching techniques adopted, and there is an increasing awareness of the need to provide programmes of study that match individual needs and skills. The school does not gauge its success by exam results alone but by broader measures of educational attainment and personal development, helping pupils to achieve their potential and equipping them to play an active and responsible role in society as young adults.

Our family of schools comprises The King’s School, Canterbury (KSC), The Junior King’s School (JKS), and the International College, all in Canterbury, with an international school in Shenzhen opened in September 2019. At KSC there are over 860 pupils, split 50-50 boys-girls, of whom about 80% are boarders. There are six boys’ boarding houses, seven girls’ boarding houses and three mixed day houses. Junior King’s occupies a fine rural site on the banks of the River Stour, in Sturry, two miles from Canterbury. There are over 350 pupils at Junior King’s of whom 20% are boarders.

The King’s School occupies various sites around the Cathedral and its precincts. Many teaching departments and the majority of houses are in the beautiful ancient buildings around Green Court and Mint Yard on the north side of the Cathedral. To the east of the Cathedral the St Augustine’s Abbey site is home to five boarding houses, a medieval refectory, and the magnificent neo-Gothic school library containing over 30,000 items. There are two major sites for sport: Birley’s, and the Recreation Centre, both within walking distance of the school, with rowing at Westbere Lakes in Sturry. The King’s School Malthouse Theatre opened in April 2019 with a 350-seat auditorium, studios, teaching, dance and rehearsal spaces.