King's High School

Aspire, Achieve, Enjoy, runs the motto, and for a girls' school founded in 1879 by 22-year-old Miss Mary Fisher and her first 22 pupils at Landor House, that ambition has held its shape for well over a century. King's High School is a selective independent day and boarding school for girls in Warwick, now settled on the green Warwick Schools Foundation campus it moved to in 2019 after more than 140 years on Smith Street in the town centre. Around 820 girls are on roll, taught alongside the wider Foundation of Warwick Prep and Warwick School. Under Head Master Dr Stephen Burley, appointed in January 2021, the school ranks first in Warwickshire for both GCSE and A-level results and sits in the top few per cent of schools in England at GCSE. Its 2024 inspection met every standard and singled out one strength as rare. Fees are around £7,655 per term.

King's High is unusual among girls' schools in how physically new it feels. The £45 million campus, opened in 2019, was described by the school as the largest single investment in girls' education in the country, and it gives the school purpose-built teaching, music and sports buildings rather than the adapted Victorian rooms many of its peers still occupy. That newness sits on top of deep roots: the school has taught girls in Warwick since 1879 and remains part of the Warwick Schools Foundation, whose origins trace back centuries through the associated King Henry VIII endowment.

The tone is confident rather than pressured. The 2024 inspection identified kindness, respect for individual differences and transparency as core values, and found that pupils across the school demonstrate independence, responsibility and respect. What gives the place its particular character is a strong outward-facing streak. Girls are encouraged to act as changemakers, taking on community service, sustainability work and global citizenship projects, and inspectors judged the promotion of social responsibility and global awareness a significant strength of the school.

Being a single-sex school on a shared Foundation site shapes daily life. Lessons and pastoral houses are girls-only, while the Sixth Form Centre and some sport and social spaces are shared with Warwick School next door. For families that suits it well: the academic and pastoral core is unambiguously a girls' environment, with a co-educational feel available at the edges by the sixth form.

The school's reach shows in its former pupils. King's High counts among its alumnae the actresses Sophie Turner and Gemma Whelan, both of Game of Thrones, and Nadia Parkes of The Spanish Princess and Domina; the indie and folk singer-songwriter Lucy Rose; the historian and former Cambridge lecturer Helen Castor; Julia Slingo, the former Met Office Chief Scientist; and Barbara Ansell, a founder of paediatric rheumatology in the United Kingdom. It is a spread that runs from the performing arts to the sciences and public life, and it fits a school that treats creative and academic ambition as equally serious. Leadership has earned outside recognition too: Dr Burley was named Best Head at the Tatler Schools Awards, a marker of the profile the school has built under him.

The headline numbers are strong. At GCSE, King's High ranks 124th of 3,895 schools in England for academic results, which places it in the top 3.2% (ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). That is well above the England average and among the strongest performances in the country. On the proprietary FindMySchool overall measure, which blends results with an inspection score, it ranks 177th of 3,887, and it stands 1st of all schools in Warwickshire. These are FindMySchool rankings built from official data.

The grade profile explains the standing. In recent GCSE results, 57.8% of all grades awarded were at 9 or 8, the equivalent of the old A*, and 78.4% reached grade 7 and above, the old A and A* band. In other words, roughly four in five exam entries landed in the top three grades. For a selective intake that is the expected territory, and the school delivers it consistently.

At A-level the picture is a rung lower but still clearly above the England average. King's High ranks 324th of 2,562 schools in England for A-level results, the top 12.7%, and again 1st in Warwickshire; on the blended overall measure it sits 412th of 2,561. In the most recent results, 44.4% of A-level entries were graded A* or A, comfortably ahead of the England average of 23.6%, and 71.7% reached A* to B against an England average of 47.2%. The gap between a top-3.2% GCSE position and a top-12.7% A-level one is worth noting for sixth-form families: the school is exceptional at 16 and very strong at 18, rather than exceptional at both.

Breadth sits alongside grades. The sixth form runs the sciences, mathematics and further mathematics, computer science, geography, English language, German, music, drama and physical education among its A-levels, and it adds an Extended Project Qualification that stretches independent research; over 90% of EPQ candidates achieved A* or A in summer 2024. The school also offers its own King's High Baccalaureate, accredited at Levels 2 and 3 by EduQual, as a wider framework around the core A-level programme.

Teaching leans on subject enthusiasm and real-world framing. Lessons are planned effectively with real-world applications, and teachers' enthusiasm and rich subject experience drive girls' motivation to learn. The curriculum is broad and enriched by co-curricular provision, with girls guided through subject choices and supported by personalised learning pathways rather than pushed down a single track.

Support for different starting points is structured. The academic support programme, Boost, provides targeted learning strategies, a student-led learning forum and core-skills workshops, coordinated by Senco Lucie Harris, and the school runs online assessments in Year 7 to identify emerging difficulties early. Sixth-formers have their own academic mentoring programme. Provision for additional needs follows a graduated assess, plan, do and review cycle in line with the national code of practice.

One honest caveat comes from the school's own inspection. In a minority of lessons, pupil participation was found to be limited, and leaders were asked to strengthen monitoring so that more teachers create opportunities for girls to share their thoughts and ideas. It is a narrow point against an otherwise positive teaching judgement, but a fair one for prospective families to weigh.

Sixth-formers move on overwhelmingly to higher education. Of the 2023/24 leaving cohort of 93, 74% progressed to university, with a further slice moving into employment and small numbers into further education and apprenticeships. The school reports that a large majority each year secure places at their first-choice and Russell Group universities, and that between a quarter and a third of the cohort apply to Oxford or Cambridge.

Oxbridge outcomes are steady rather than large in raw terms, as befits a sixth form of this size. In a recent year, 14 applications to Oxford and Cambridge produced 4 offers, an offer rate of around 29%. Competitive professional routes feature too: the school reports 5 to 10% of leavers each year heading into medicine and allied sciences, and degree-apprenticeship destinations with employers such as Deloitte, Dyson, Santander and Barclays. Creative and performing-arts progression is a genuine strand, with recent destinations including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Central Saint Martins and RADA, alongside international places at institutions such as McGill and the University of British Columbia. The shared Sixth Form Centre houses a Careers Hub, which supports applications across this unusually varied set of routes, from conservatoire auditions to medical-school interviews and degree-apprenticeship assessments. Taken together, the destinations read as a genuinely mixed picture rather than a single well-worn track, which suits a cohort with interests as broad as the school itself.

King's High is academically selective, with entrance assessments at the main entry points of Year 7, occasional mid-year places, and the sixth form. Prospective Year 7 girls sit entrance tests, and the school offers a virtual experience for families exploring from a distance. The most direct feeders are Warwick Prep and other local preparatory schools, though the intake draws widely across south Warwickshire and beyond.

Sixth-form entry is conditional on GCSE performance, with the school setting subject-specific requirements for A-level courses and expecting strong grades in the subjects a student intends to continue. The school's own Year 11 students progress into Year 12 on meeting those requirements, and the sixth form also recruits externally, so Year 12 brings a fresh cohort of new girls alongside those continuing from Year 11.

Because places are competitive and assessed, the practical advice for families is to register early and prepare for the relevant entrance assessment. You can use the FindMySchool map search to gauge travel time from home to the Warwick campus and the local hub tool to compare King's High side by side with other Warwickshire options before committing to an assessment date.

Boarding is a small, homely part of the offer rather than the centre of it. Girls board at Way House, a refurbished on-site house that accommodates 16 King's High boarders in spacious double-occupancy bedrooms with study and relaxation space, a sitting room, a boarders' kitchen and bathrooms. Boarding is available from Year 9 upward in full, weekly and flexi forms, so families can use it for full-time residence, a Monday-to-Friday pattern, or occasional nights to cover travel and activities.

The advantage of the arrangement is proximity: boarders sit at the centre of the campus, with the school's facilities and those of the wider Foundation on the doorstep. The boarding environment is nurturing and its provision secure, part of an overall wellbeing picture that is a clear strength. Families wanting a large, traditional boarding community should note the scale, but for those seeking flexible boarding attached to a strong day school, Way House does the job. The flexi option, in particular, gives day families a practical way to cover late fixtures, rehearsals or a parent travelling for work.

Wellbeing is treated as a leadership priority, not an add-on. The 2024 inspection put it plainly: pupils' wellbeing is central to leaders' and governors' decisions, and inspectors credited strategic initiatives and innovative curriculum design with keeping it there, alongside a habit of gathering pupils' own views to improve the school experience. Personal, social, health and economic education and relationships and sex education are delivered through a structured programme, backed by accessible counselling and mentoring.

Confidence and resilience are built deliberately through mentoring schemes and a wide physical-education offer, and girls report feeling able to raise concerns. Safeguarding met every standard at the 2024 inspection, with thorough recruitment checks, regular staff training and clear reporting routes, and inspectors described pupils as confident to report concerns. The changemaker ethos feeds back into pastoral life too, giving girls a sense of agency through community service and global-citizenship projects that the inspection rated a significant strength.

The co-curricular programme is genuinely large, with more than 260 activities documented across the week, and it rests on strong music, drama and sport alongside an unusually deep menu of academic societies.

Music is a flagship. The purpose-built Music School houses an auditorium, a rehearsal studio with an organ from the Birmingham Royal Conservatoire, a keyboard suite running Cubase and Sibelius, a percussion studio, 14 practice rooms and a music library. That infrastructure supports a long list of ensembles: the orchestral King's Sinfonia, King's Strings, the Big Brass Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble, jazz groups graded by ability from the advanced Big Band down through the Bluetones to the open-access Bluejays, several choirs including MadriGals a cappella and a Senior Chamber Choir, and award-winning Baroque chamber ensembles. Girls who reach a high standard can play in genuinely specialist groups rather than a single school orchestra.

Drama has its own spaces and pathways. Productions and junior performances use Bridge House Theatre, and the programme runs from lunchtime junior clubs through the award-winning A.C.T. Club to Altiora, a physical-theatre group formed in partnership with the professional company Motionhouse. A LAMDA department prepares girls for acting, verse and prose and public-speaking examinations, and there is a Sixth Form performance award and a Saturday Foundation Youth Theatre for the most committed.

Sport is well resourced on the new campus. The Sports Centre includes a fitness suite and a sprung-floor gymnasium for gymnastics and trampolining, with eight netball and tennis courts and two Astro Turf pitches outside, and access to the Foundation's Bridge Sports Centre, its swimming pool and a 3G rugby pitch. Beyond the timetable, girls can take up rowing, fencing, climbing, water polo, clay-pigeon shooting, martial arts and more, and a Talented Athlete Programme run with Athlete Evolution offers three performance tiers from Aspire to Elite for those competing seriously.

The academic and enrichment clubs are where the school's intellectual ambition shows. Alongside Duke of Edinburgh, a Combined Cadet Force and Young Enterprise, girls can join Medsoc, a Dissection Club, Model United Nations, a Senior Debating Society, Cafe Philo and Cafe Scientifique, and language societies spanning Greek, Mandarin, Italian and more. A dedicated Friday-afternoon enrichment slot widens the choice further, into cyber security, furniture making, sailing, canoeing, a Student Investor Club, the Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award and beyond, so the timetable itself protects time for interests outside the exam syllabus.

Tuition is £7,655 per term for the main school in the 2026/27 year, which places King's High in the mainstream band for Midlands independents rather than at the top of it. Boarding, where taken, is charged inclusive of tuition at £18,773 per term for full boarding and £15,284 for weekly boarding, with flexi-boarding available from £50 a night. A non-refundable registration fee of £120 applies (£210 for boarding applicants), alongside a £500 acceptance deposit.

Financial support is layered and worth investigating early. Means-tested bursaries can substantially reduce or eliminate fees for eligible families, with the CV34 Award open to Warwick-postcode households earning up to about £99,025 and the Foundation bursary aimed at households earning up to about £69,000. On the merit side, academic scholarships and subject scholarships in art, drama, music and sport are each worth up to 10% of fees, the King Henry VIII Scholarships for local CV34 residents usually carry a 10% discount, and the King Henry VIII Choral Award typically reduces fees by around 20%. Scholarships recognise talent; bursaries respond to family income, and the two can be combined.

King's High sits on the Warwick Schools Foundation campus on Banbury Road, sharing a Sixth Form Centre and Careers Hub with Warwick School. The school does not publish its exact daily hours online, so confirm start and finish times directly, particularly if you are planning around travel.

Travel is well catered for. A significant number of students come by train, with roughly a 15-minute walk from Warwick Station to the campus, and the Foundation runs dedicated coach services: a Coventry Express route introduced for 2024/25 brings students in from Coventry in under 45 minutes, and an Express Bus from Solihull train station makes the run in about 40 minutes, leaving Solihull at 7:45am and departing school in the afternoon. Between rail and the express coaches, the school is realistically reachable from a wide arc of the West Midlands.

Fees and the cost commitment. At around £7,655 per term, with boarding well above that, King's High is a significant financial undertaking. The bursary programme, including the CV34 Award for local households earning up to about £99,025, materially changes the picture for eligible families, so the practical question is whether you qualify, not just whether you can pay the headline figure.

Entry is selective and assessed. Places at Year 7 and in the sixth form depend on entrance tests and, for the sixth form, GCSE grades meeting subject requirements. Securing a place is the first hurdle; families should register early and prepare for the relevant assessment.

A-level standing trails the GCSE position. The school is in the top 3.2% in England at GCSE but the top 12.7% at A-level. That is still well above average, but sixth-form applicants choosing King's specifically for A-level outcomes should read the destinations and results as very strong rather than exceptional.

A narrow teaching point. The 2024 inspection asked leaders to help more teachers draw quieter girls into classroom discussion, having found participation limited in a minority of lessons. It is a small, honest flag against a positive overall judgement.

King's High School is one of the strongest girls' schools in the Midlands: top of Warwickshire and in the top few per cent of England at GCSE, housed in genuinely modern buildings, and backed by a co-curricular programme wide and specialised enough to let real talent develop, from Baroque chamber music to elite-tier sport. Its 2024 inspection met every standard and rated its changemaking ethos a rare strength, and its pastoral culture is confident and outward-looking rather than hothouse. It is best suited to academically able, motivated girls whose families want a high-achieving, single-sex education with strong music, drama and sport and a genuine social conscience, and who can meet the fees or qualify for the well-developed bursary support. The main caveat is entry: places are selective and assessed, and the education, though excellent, follows a competitive place at Year 7 or in the sixth form.