King Alfred School was founded in 1898 by local parents who wanted an alternative to what was on offer in the educational world of North London. Their first leaflet was headed 'A Proposed Rational School', and this adjective is preferred to the later term 'progressive'; certainly K.A.S. has retained some of the characteristics of its founding years: it is co-ed; it is all-age; it covers a wide range of abilities; it is sternly uncommitted on religious and political matters and it is by modern standards small - though much larger than when it was founded. There are about 460 on roll: some 200 in the Lower School and 260 in Middle and Upper Schools. KAS offers at 16+ some 15 subjects, including Photography and PE, CDT, Music, Technolgy and Theatre Studies and both standard and less usual subjects at A level. The overall staff ratio is under 9 pupils to one teacher.
The school some years ago embarked on ambitious re-building and renovation schemes, of which the most recent phase has supplied the Lower School with five classrooms, a hall and a library. It is fortunate in its pretty site, a few minutes from Golders Green Station and on the boundary of Hampstead Garden Suburb.
The staff at The King Alfred School is unusually committed and relations between teacher and pupil are excellent. The focus of the school is very much on that relationship. It is a school which genuinely tries to practise what is implied by the cliche word 'caring'. In consequence the general atmosphere of the school is unusually friendly and welcoming to adults and children alike. There is no school uniform; and all are on first name terms. The school is effectively parent-owned (via membership of the King Alfred School Society) and the governing body is composed almost entirely of current parents.
Alumni - Old Alfredian Society, c/o Areta Hautman, King Alfred School, North End Road, NW11 7HY.
