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Welcome from the Deputy Head Academic
WELCOME FROM DEPUTY HEAD ACADEMIC
I am delighted that you are reading this information pack and considering applying for a Scholarship Award at Kingswood School. For us, scholarships represent an intertwining of two of our core priorities: outstanding education and bespoke pastoral care. We choose to identify and award scholarships because we believe that by doing so we will be better placed as a school community to nurture talent. The availability of both ‘Special Talent’ and ‘Academic’ scholarships speak to our commitment to holistic education; it is our desire that each student in our school develops their unique talents and gifts, and that they are celebrated and challenged in the right ways while they are here with us.
As you would expect from a school of our calibre, the standard for scholarships is very high. We have a large number of outstanding applicants for places at Kingswood each year, and all the more so for coveted scholarship awards. For academic scholarships, we look for both exceptionally high academic ability and genuine enthusiasm for learning. An academic scholarship award brings both privilege and pressure – we seek to stretch and challenge our academic scholars in all lessons, but we also expect them to lead by example in their attitude towards learning. Similarly, our cocurricular scholars are expected to perform at a consistently outstanding level, representing the school in fixtures, concerts and exhibitions with enthusiasm and dedication.
Clearly, high-expectation can also bring a feeling of pressure and responsibility. It is very important to us that our scholars are nurtured pastorally as well as challenged academically. As part of our provision for scholars, we pay close attention to wellbeing, knowing that high performance may come with a level of personal cost. We are very experienced at meeting the emotional and psychological needs of our scholars, so that their school experience is as much about happiness as it is about achievement.
Identifying and awarding scholarships can be a difficult task. Whilst we do everything we can to identify our most talented applicants, the nature of any assessment window means that sometimes students do not demonstrate their true capabilities in the moment. We therefore keep scholarship under review as students progress through the school, and, if it is clear that a talented student has been missed, the Headmaster may choose to award scholarships retrospectively.
I hope that the following information in this pack helps you to understand our scholarship process at Kingswood.
