The King's School Canterbury, Shenzhen International

Established 1400 years ago in the 6th century, the King’s School, Canterbury is thought to be the oldest continuously operating school in England and Europe. In the early centuries, the School was attached to Canterbury Cathedral and it still occupies buildings which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The School was re-founded by King Henry VIII in 1541 and hence it was given the name ‘The King’s School’. It received a new Royal Charter from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1946.

The famous ‘King’s Week’, the festival of music and drama at the end of the summer term started shortly thereafter, in 1952.The School has continued to evolve and modernise to meet today’s educational demands. Its new International College opened in 2018, and the first stage of the Shenzhen campus opened in 2019. It is also planning to open a sister campus in Cambodia in 2023.

The School has enjoyed a distinguished reputation and excellent academic results. It is labelled ‘outstanding’ in regular independent inspections. Every year 99% of its graduating class go on to world class universities. The King’s School Canterbury UK is not interested in multi-franchise arrangements but in a small number of quality overseas branch schools. In this way, it will be able to keep a much closer connection between both Canterbury and the overseas branches, but also between the overseas schools themselves.

Our Shenzhen school is King's first overseas school and will always have a very special connection in terms staffing, staff training, resources, policies, summer programmes, inspections and, in due course, exchanges.

Our Pre-Prep is blessed with the wonderful green backdrop of the Da NanShan – the Nanshan mountain – and the children enjoy very generous outdoor space as well as extremely well-fitted classrooms. In addition, there is an excellent library, art maker-space, a mindfulness room, a large music hall and an indoor play area. The curriculum is based on the UK’s EYFS (Early Year Foundation Stage) which allows children to learn through exploring the world and playing. Everything we do is in two languages and all classes have two teachers, one international and one Chinese and at least one TA.

Our main campus which opened in Autumn 2022, 4 kilometres away from the Pre-Prep, is designed specifically for the Prep School (Grades 1-8, UK Years 2-9) and Senior School (Grades 9-12, UK Years 10-13). State-of-the-art in every respect, it is modern in appearance and modern in the way it will meet the needs of today’s children. There are open learning and break-out spaces, both indoors and out, alongside bright and flexible classrooms with specialist laboratories, common social areas, sports, music and drama facilities. It also has a sizeable five-days-a-week boarding community.

Some of the ‘signature’ spaces include: library, health & well- being centre, robotics lab, performance halls, theatre, recording studio, sports hall, swimming pool, a martial arts room and outdoor sports and play facilities.

Our exciting pedagogy merges the best practice from the UK with that from China and comprises a strong emphasis on ensuring that academic depth and breadth, together with many co-curricular opportunities, supported by the highest standards of pastoral care.

Senior school students prepare for global university entrance through Cambridge IGCSEs and International A Levels.