Kings' Education to open sixth form Kings' College by 2019

Kings' Education is looking at opening a stand-alone sixth form Kings' College by 2019, the school operator's director of education Alan Williamson told Education Journal Middle East.

As enrolment across Kings' schools continues to grow, particularly the secondary phase at Kings' Al Barsha, Williamson said Kings' will open a dedicated sixth form Kings' College on a plot near the Al Barsha school.

"Our original business plan was to build a primary and foundation, secondary IB and A Level school here, and then build a Kings' sixth form college.

"The capacity at Al Barsha is probably around 2000. But we've actually been granted more land before Dubai Hills and so we have additional land capacity to build Kings' College, which will be a dedicated sixth form college. However, that will come when the huge numbers in primary come through into the secondary," Williamson said.

"I think we'll be looking at [opening Kings' College in] 2019 because we're bringing in 174 Year 7s at Al Barsha in September to make it 1700 students, plus another 164 the year after. I think the existing capacity at Al Barsha can only take another two years of expansion," he added.

Kings' School Al Barsha will open its sixth form from September 2017, offering A Levels and a Kings' Diploma.

A Levels qualifications will include subjects such as product design, music technology, physical education, and theatre studies, which will be complemented by more traditional study areas such as business and economics.

Williamson said: "We're dedicating a part of the massive secondary school at Al Barsha to sixth form. We've opened the sixth form for around 40 children – a mix of children who have been with Kings' and a substantial interest from other schools, which we were surprised at. We've really pushed the boat out in terms of our finances and bringing in a huge number of subject areas – psychology, sociology, business studies, economics, photography, politics, music technology, all the known academic subjects. I suppose it shows we're not playing it safe, we're going for sixth form in a very ambitious way with huge investment, lots of top teachers from top schools in the UK delivering a really wide variety of subjects."

The school will also introduce the Kings' Diploma, which will involve several wider academic awards, including the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification), Duke of Edinburgh Award (to Gold Level), work experience via Dubai-based business placements, charity work, community support and leadership challenges and qualifications.

Read the full interview with Alan Williamson in the September issue of Education Journal Middle East.