Open all
Our View
This younger sibling of The King’s School Canterbury is ‘a confidence-building machine’ according to head of the senior school Jude Lowson, who tells us the two schools are closer than ever, with some 95 per cent of younger pupils moving up seamlessly. The transition hardly feels like one when the time comes, with pupils enjoying plenty of integration days and even taking part in projects that straddle Years 7, 8 and 9. Junior King’s has got a wonderful boarding culture too: flexi-boarding is thriving (and with on-the-day sleepover decisions possible, it’s easy to see why), as is the new 7.30am breakfast club for day pupils. It’s a lovely, tight-knit community and it’s no surprise it’s becoming an increasingly hot ticket with Londoners wanting to swerve the intensity of the capital and take the stress out of senior school next steps.
Where?
Junior King’s is two miles from the centre of Canterbury and it enjoys 80 luxuriant acres of lawns, orchards (with chickens), fields and sports pitches, with the River Stour meandering right through the middle of all of this gorgeousness. One of the most handsome schools we’ve visited, the Milner Court in the village of Sturry comprises a picturesque Elizabethan manor house, breathtaking tithe barn and accompanying stables. Bertie the tortoise hangs out in pre-prep.
In Junior King’s former incarnation as choir school to the King’s School, the boys were housed in the Precincts of the Cathedral and known as Parrots due to their twittering voices. With a nod to this history, Junior King’s day houses are still named the Cockas, the Kakas, the Keas and the Macaws.
Pupils come from around the county and seven bus routes take the pressure of the parental commute. There’s also an accompanied train service – known as the Train Party – which sees assistant tutors taking the train with pupils between Wye and Sturry.
Head
Head Mark Brotherton retired in December 2025 and has handed over to deputy head Rob Stonier, who will be interim head for spring and summer 2026. Mr Stonier has served as deputy head (academic) at Junior King’s since 2014 and continues to teach mathematics, geography and games. Mr Brotherton leaves the school with a robust three-year plan in place, and The King’s School head Jude Lowson’s initiatives to bring the prep and senior school closer together are continuing apace.
Admissions
Most children join at the lower end of the school in nursery or reception, although there is a growing intake into Year 3 (the school gets bigger as the year groups go up, so there are four forms by Year 8). Entry into Year 4 and above includes an interview, plus testing in English, maths and non-verbal reasoning.
Best get in early, we say – entry into Years 7 and 8 is much more competitive as families move from local preps to Junior King’s for a solid two-year preparation for The King’s School (pupils can sometimes receive a through offer which includes a place at the secondary school), and boarding places are getting snapped up particularly quickly. Scholarships and bursaries are both available.
Academics and senior school destinations
Head of pre-prep Camilla Webster has introduced her own Junior King’s Adventures curriculum under the headings of wellbeing, community, wildlife, creation and expedition; the children have access to their own area in the woods known as Mini Forest where they learn bushcraft, nature awareness and fire building, and the area is big enough for little people to go on exploring adventures. Her mantra, ‘anything but a worksheet’, sees pupils learning in the most practical way possible and taking the lead where they can – for instance, they put their own work up on the display boards now, rather than the teachers, and if it’s upside down, then that’s just fine.
Years 3 and 4 are tucked into a separate building – they have their own library and changing rooms, offering a gentle step from pre-prep to upper school. The pre-prep has its own space as well – the Oast – that has themed classrooms, a hall and a lovely library (reading every night at home is encouraged). Children go up to the main school for sports and other activities. The Harvest Festival is popular: pre-prep children run a festival shop for parents and decide the prices.
This is a broad church academically, welcoming boys and girls of all levels of ability. Classes are no bigger than 18, with three forms in each year from Year 5, and then four classes per year in Years 7 and 8. French is taught from nursery, and everyone studies Spanish from Year 5 and Latin from Year 6. Scholars learn ancient Greek too. Science is split into separate classes for physics, chemistry and biology from Year 7. Computing and D&T are taken seriously, there is at least one lesson each week from Year 3 upwards – and its success is clear: the D&T scholarship to The King’s School has been bagged by a Junior King’s pupil every year. Much of the SEN provision is provided in class; EAL children are taught in break-out groups (the school finds that children learn fast and it’s not usually an issue for long).
Common Entrance has been dropped in favour of the school’s own assessments and bespoke skills-based curriculum for pupils in Years 7 and 8. The school is conscious that children in the top two years are secondary school age, so they are taught and treated accordingly, given a number of special responsibilities and perks, plus their own tutor to keep an eye on their progress. One of their courses, global perspectives, even continues into Year 9 if they head for The King’s School. This year, 95 per cent did, many with a scholarship. Other destinations include Eton, Harrow and Charterhouse.
Co-curricular
While Saturday mornings are still very much the domain of lessons, the afternoons are filled with matches, activities and clubs. Sport includes hockey, netball, rugby, football, tennis and cricket, and the school is victorious at national and regional levels in hockey, swimming, fencing and biathlon. Recently, they’ve been climbing the tennis ranks too. A large galleried sports hall, tennis courts, Astro, outdoor pool, huge fencing hall (fencing is strong here) and the use of facilities at the senior school mean that young sportsmen and women are well catered for.
Pupils can row from Year 8 and squash, sailing, riding and golf are also on offer. Unusually (and very much welcomed by some), competitive matches are not obligatory – if moulding clay in the pottery studio or helping paint a mural on the side of one of the school buildings rather than rolling in mud on the rugby pitch is more your thing on a Saturday afternoon, that’s fine as well.
A stunning music school holds more than 350 individual music lessons a week, in addition to loads of ensembles, bands, trios, choirs and a chapel choir for Years 6 to 8. Everybody sings in Canterbury Cathedral three times a year and several children win music scholarships to The King’s School most years (a number are part of the National Youth Choir and Orchestra too). Drama is popular, takes place in the fantastic Tithe Barn and is part of the curriculum from Year 3 with pretty much every child involved in productions and LAMDA lessons on offer. One of the drama teachers used to work at The Globe, and pupils make use of The King’s School’s amazing Malthouse Theatre and dance studios in town.
An outdoor classroom is the focus of environment education and there are plans to develop an area where pupils can learn about wildlife. The plan is to put this on the curriculum and also to spearhead an outreach programme with local schools.
Afternoon activities provide lots of scope for children to try something new; riding and basketball are especially popular, as is the Year 3 and 4 playground which is full of lovely natural wood climbing frames.
Boarding
Boarding starts from Year 4 (there are younger boarders, but they are rare) and weekly, full or the extremely popular flexi boarding are all on offer. Parents can book occasional boarding stays on the day. ‘We have opened the door to be flexible to a fault,’ says the head and, he continues, it’s had ‘a positive effect on boarding houses to even up the nationalities, which works for both international and domestic pupils’. Up to 90 can board at any one time – flexi boarders can opt for one to four nights a week – and there are currently 45 full boarders and 26 flexi. The two boarding houses (situated on two floors within the main school building, one for boys, the other for girls) have recently been revamped with new bathrooms and refurbished dorms and social areas. There are pool and air hockey tables, computers, comfy sofas, jigsaws, pianos, a Wii Fit, a PlayStation and an Xbox. Most pupils stay in for the (very fun) weekends when there is lots on offer to keep everyone busy – from trips to Bluewater, London and the theatre to paintballing or visits to the beach. Onsite fun includes movie nights, games of foxes and hounds and swimming. Pupils have also set up their own football and basketball leagues.
School community
With a deputy head pastoral and a head of each section, form teachers and a SEND head, Junior King’s has pastoral care wrapped. This – together with pastoral oversight from the boarding heads and a pastoral welfare committee that feeds into a traffic light system for pupils – means that nothing is overlooked. There is also a school counsellor and nurse on site. All children, right up to Year 8, see their form teacher every morning and afternoon (Year 8 pupils also have a personal tutor). A new Zen room designed by pupils in the FREDIE group (a rather sweet acronym for Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Emotional connections) is proving popular, as are the kindness benches in the Year 3 and 4 playground. New footpaths and a quiet shelter have also been added, and throughout the school there are more quiet spaces to sit and chat, including in the orchard and junior house area.
And finally...
Don’t think of this as just a junior school to King’s, Canterbury – although ties between the two are strong, this is a fantastic, lively prep school in its own right, with its own identity. Junior King’s provides an authentic full-boarding experience alongside masses of weekend activities, a good mix of international boarders and a broadly academic, pastoral and creative atmosphere.