Community Partnerships & Outreach

King Edward’s has a long history of supporting education for pupils with academic potential who have clear financial need through the provision of bursaries in the Senior School. This tradition stretches back to the School’s foundation in 1552 and remains at the heart of our ethos today. In the current academic year, the School has invested over £1.3 million in means-tested support, with around 20% of pupils in the Senior School in receipt of a bursary. 

Two Senior School teachers visit up to 4 local schools to deliver English and Maths support and stretch and challenge activities to Year 5 & 6 pupils. They support the primary school curriculum, provide suitable and relevant resources, and deliver specialist teaching to small groups of able pupils.

Pupils at Ralph Allen School in Bath are supported in their Oxbridge, Medical, Dental and Veterinary applications by attending the same interview practice and feedback sessions as those organised for KES Year 13 applicants. These sessions are organised by the School’s UCAS department and draw upon the expertise of the KES community, be they teachers, parents, OEs or friends of the School.

Every Thursday afternoon approximately 30 members of the Sixth Form volunteer at a variety of local organisations, including local primary schools, homes for the elderly, and the Royal United Hospital (RUH). Activities include helping in classrooms, serving refreshments on hospital wards and entertaining or talking to residents.

King Edward's School CCF is numbered among the oldest contingents in the country, establishing a corps in 1900. It is an army only section and, since 2006, has been proudly affiliated to the King's Royal Hussars and combines their unique 'brown beret' with our very own original cap badge.

Pupils can join in Year 8 and the broad function of the CCF is to develop valuable life skills such as leadership, responsibility, self-reliance, resourcefulness, endurance and perseverance.  The weekly syllabus is progressional throughout the 6 years, allowing cadets to move up the ranks and gain valuable life and leadership qualities.

Through a unique local partnership, we are proud to welcome pupils and staff from Beechen Cliff School to our cadet and officer ranks. Collectively, there is over a 100 cadets on roll in total.

A huge variety of fundraising events take place at KES each year, many instigated and run by the pupils themselves. Pupils are also responsible for selecting the main school charity each year, with a short list of charities put together by pupil charity representatives that the whole school then votes on to select.

Over the last five years we have supported the likes of Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK, Bath Welcomes Refugees, NHS Charities Together, Moving Mountains Trust plus many more.

King Edward’s Junior School regularly hosts maths challenges for up to six local primary schools for children in Years 4-6. Working in pairs pupils take part in a range of enjoyable maths challenges.

KES Art department is working with Three Ways School, a community special school in Bath, to support classroom teachers in the delivery of a series of creative workshops for pupils aged 11-12yrs and 13-14yrs. The summer workshop will culminate in an exhibition of the work created throughout the year.

KES Sixth Form pupils help to deliver the workshops alongside KES Art department staff, providing students with valuable life experiences.

Every Summer Term KES runs a week-long programme of workshops for over 200 Year 5 pupils from local primary schools in Bath. The workshops, run by KES teaching staff, take place on site and make full use of the School’s facilities.  Aiming to engage and inspire, the workshops cover most academic and co-curricular subjects, from Performing Arts to STEM and Sport to DT and Art.  In addition to the learning and experience, visiting pupils and staff are also invited for lunch each day which they really enjoy.

A collaboration with The Holburne Museum provided cultural experiences for KES historians and artists, alongside the Year 5 cohort at Bathwick St Mary Church School.  As a sponsor of the Museum’s Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition, KES was able to offer exclusive access to the exhibit to pupils at both schools, with an introduction by the exhibition’s curator, and a series of art-based workshops for KES artists and Year 5 pupils at Bathwick St Mary Church School, led by the Art department at the Senior School.

In conjunction with our partner of ten years, Bath Philharmonia, KES Music undertook a new community outreach project earlier this year where KES music staff and pupils, and members of the orchestra’s Creative Learning Team, organised a three-day percussion workshop with 80 pupils from St Martin’s Garden Primary School, including pupils from the Margaret Coates Centre who have a diagnosis from the Autistic Spectrum.

Inspired by Anna Meredith’s body percussion piece, Connect It, the KES/Bath Phil team worked with St Martin’s pupils to develop and record their own body percussion piece ahead of choreographing the piece into a final live performance involving all 80 children and the workshop team.