Congratulations to our Year 11 students who achieved outstanding scores in the recent Maths Competition for Girls, a national competition arranged by the UK Mathematics Trust. How would you do?

*Match report - written by a student* Year 9 Boys’ B Football Team English Schools Cup: Kingsdale v Royal Russell School. Congratulations to the Year 9 Boys’ Football B Team who beat Royal Russell School 5 - 0 in the English Schools Cup last week. It was 1-0 to KFS at half-time with a great goal coming from Andres. In the 2nd half, the Kingsdale boys came out flying at Royal Russell with 2 quick goals from Samuel and Morgan. To cap off a very good day for Kingsdale, Andres scored 2 more to mark his hat trick. A special mention goes to Maksim who made his first appearance for Kingsdale in goal during the 2nd half. Both Maxwell and Maksim kept a clean sheet. Final Score: Kingsdale 5-0 Royal Russell School Goal Scorers: Samuel (1), Morgan (1) and Andres (3) Player of the Match: Andres for his 3 goals and non-stop battling

What does it take to launch a new drink for Costa? This year, our Year 11 and Year 13 students had the chance to find out. As part of the Rise Programme, run with @RAPP_UK for five years, students spend two weeks working in teams on a real client brief. They research the market, build a strategy, design their ideas and pitch them to the client at the end. Working to a real brief and presenting to professionals ties in beautifully with what we want to offer students through our careers programme. Thank you to Rapp UK for making it possible. If you work in marketing, branding, design or any other industry and would be happy to give a careers talk to our students, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us a message and we'll arrange a time that suits you.

Year 13 Spanish A level Revision and Culture Málaga Trip This September our Year 13 Spanish students enjoyed an enriching week in Málaga, combining academic revision with cultural experiences and career exploration. Alongside their revision lessons, students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in Spanish culture, discover potential career pathways, and visit some of Andalusia’s most iconic landmarks. “I loved visiting La Alcazaba in Malaga centre, the sun was blinding but the views and architecture were amazing, and it was so interesting to see the layers of the city’s history, with the ruins of a Roman theatre next to the Moorish fortress.” Lucy, Year 13 “¡Hola! Malaga was a great trip which really helped to improve my Spanish not only through our daily classes, but also just from immersing myself in the culture for a week. I particularly enjoyed visiting La Alhambra and seeing in person a place we have studied and looked at in class.” Tilly, Year 13

What a fantastic game for our U-14s Girls’ Netball team against Bromley High School GDST on Tuesday 15th September. We got off to an amazing start and kept that momentum finishing the second quarter 16–3. The final quarter saw some brilliant teamwork, fast passing and determined defending as everyone gave their all right until the final whistle. A huge well done for an amazing team performance. Final Score: Kingsdale 29-8 Bromley High School Teamsheet: Kitty, Ava, Adwoa, Vedika, Mia, Iris, Nell, Lily and Vy

The Under-15s Girls travelled away to the first round of the @sistersnsport Cup match against The @FitzWimarcPE School last week. They were a tough opponent for us, with a high level of play. The girls performed really well and some parts of the game were controlled by us where we managed to get 2 goals by Ellie. However, the opponents were too strong and Fitzwimarc won with a significant margin. Participation isn't just about winning and the team demonstrated their solid resilience in such a tough defeat. Final Score: Kingsdale 2-59 Fitzwimarc Player of the Match: Lyra Teamsheet: Sophia, Lyra, Ellie, Poppy, Charlotte, Flora, Zara & Annalise.

The Kingsdale Family International Culture Day raised roughly £5,000 for Mind this year. The event was planned by a student committee, run with parent volunteers and staff, and joined by local Dulwich businesses. Families brought art, music, dance, drama, food, and crafts from more than twenty countries. Japan, China, Spain, India, Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria, Mexico, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and many others. One parent's verdict: "This should be a staple in the school calendar." Thank you to everyone who turned up.

Chessington. Oxygen Trampoline Park. Activate Interactive Gaming. Also two weeks of lessons with Kingsdale staff, sport, languages, music and drama. All of it in the school holidays. All of it for a Year 7 cohort that had not started yet. They arrived as Year 6 students and left with friendships already made. kingsdalefoundationschool.or…

28.3% of A Level grades in England this year were awarded at A or A*. At Kingsdale, over half were. More than 350 grades, and eleven students with three A* grades or more. Four took A* Further Mathematics. They go on to Engineering at Cambridge, Mathematics and Statistical Science at UCL, Computer Science at Warwick and Finance at LSE, degrees that assume the content from week one. At least eleven hold Oxbridge places. 75% of the year group's applications were accepted by Russell Group universities. Full results and destinations: kingsdalefoundationschool.or…

A working economist's job is to answer questions about money. Last week, our Year 10 Economics students got to be the ones asking. They visited the @boemuseum, learned how counterfeit notes are spotted, tried to lift a £1.3 million bar of gold, and sat through a seminar from one of the Bank's economists on monetary policy and inflation. The conversation made the trip.

A national tour is the same show performed differently every night. Year 7's Blossom Rolston-Williams just opened one. She's in the touring cast of @AnnieMusicalUK. The run started in Birmingham last week and ends in Aberdeen, with Plymouth, Cardiff, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Liverpool in between. Well done, Blossom. We'll be watching.

Mount Etna has erupted multiple times in the last few years. Each eruption rewrites a bit of the landscape. In April, Year 9 went to read the rewrites. They hiked the volcano. The faculty walked them through recent eruption features. The rest of the week covered coastal landforms and the towns built around them. A textbook can show you the diagram. It can't put you on the rock.

A school's community is hard to put on display. Last July, the Art and Design Faculty tried. They invited students, staff, and families to a Family Culture Day, started with a question (what connects us?) and built a weaving out of the answers. Drawings. Textiles. Photographs. Ceramics. One piece, many stories. @The_Big_Draw , an international art charity, gave it the Drawn Together Award. The piece now hangs in the school. What connects you to where you went to school?

Four games. Four wins. The Kingsdale Girls T1 Rugby Team played four matches in their latest round of fixtures. They won every one. Whoever they played, the answer was the same. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because the squad trains for days like this. A clean sweep, and a day worth keeping.

Empanada, it even sounds tasty. Thirty Year 8 Spanish students designed Latin American food posters this term. Each teacher picked a winning group. The winners got lunch at Chacarero on Lordship Lane. Argentine empanadas, two flavours each. Chimichicken. Flank steak. Spinach. A breakfast version with egg and ham. Qué rico. What tasty words do you know in other languages?

Where does our food come from? That's the question this bake actually asks. For World Fair Trade Day on 9 May, Beth in Year 7 baked a Fairtrade cake and entered it into our House Cooking Challenge. Then she shared the recipe so other students can repeat it. Fairtrade ingredients pay producers a guaranteed minimum price, return a community premium to their cooperatives, and give them more say in how the money is spent. The cheaper alternative is cheaper because the cost lands somewhere further up the chain. Usually on the producer. We'd rather Year 7s know that before they pick up a measuring spoon.

A good learning ecosystem changes up the classroom. On 7 May, 27 Year 7 French students took their class at the BFI. Morning: three French short-films with language exercises drawn from each. Afternoon: Le Petit Nicolas: Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux?, a 2022 animation tracing how writer René Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé built the character together. Two hours of native-speaker French does what a textbook can't. Rhythm, prosody, idiom, slang, humour timed correctly. Vocabulary lands attached to images and emotion. What's your favourite non-English language film? 📽️

The @Caecilius_CLC Ovid Competition turns 10 this year. Brief: listen to an Ovid myth, produce an original response in an art form. Open to Year 7 students at schools that teach Latin. KFS submitted 4 entries. 1 won its category. 2 came second.

Isabelle Prempeh has been training with the @twiindance Company for six years. In July, Isabelle, a Year 7 student at Kingsdale, will compete in the Junior Hip Hop Division at the @worldofdance Summit in Los Angeles. She is joined by three other KFS students: Rahniyah Cato (Year 9), Phoebe Charalambous (Year 8), and Lillian Johns Whiddett (Year 8). The team will face competitors from 25 countries. Isabelle has battled illness all her life, spending long periods of time in hospital before starting at Kingsdale and in recognition of her amazing resilience The Voice, the national newspaper, is following her and the team on their journey to LA. We wish all four students the very best of luck. Support Isabelle and the team here: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/…

25 Year 12s in Oxford and Cambridge this month. Lab practicals in biochemistry and materials science. Personal statement guidance. And former KFS students Ben and Rosa, there to answer the question every applicant asks: do people like me study here?