Kingsford Community School, a coeducational secondary school based in East London, stands as an example of inclusion, resilience, and aspiration. Serving one of the most diverse populations in the UK, where as much as 80% of students speak English as an additional language and more than 50% qualify for free school meals, the school’s achievements exemplify its belief that every child can aspire, succeed, and excel.
Established in 2000, Kingsford Community School became the first school in the UK to introduce compulsory Mandarin Chinese lessons, reflecting its early commitment to global learning. It has been recognised as the world’s Best Confucius Classroom for its Mandarin programme and for consecutive years held the British Council’s International School Award.
Kingsford’s pioneering work in Mandarin education has gained national and international recognition. The school received the Hanban (now CLEC) Award for Best Confucius Classroom in the World in 2012. In 2016, Kingsford was selected as one of the first 14 schools in the country to join the government-led Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP), becoming a national hub supporting schools across England to expand high-quality teaching. Kingsford pupils have repeatedly excelled in national Chinese language competitions.
The school has also developed long-standing partnerships with leading Chinese institutions, including Tongji University, Shanghai and Peking University, Beijing. These collaborations support cultural exchanges, academic mentoring, and international immersion opportunities, enabling students to participate in joint lessons, visits, and extended cultural programmes in China that broaden perspectives and build cultural capital.
Renowned for its inclusive “family” culture, Kingsford has earned the Inclusion Quality Mark Flagship status and was named National Inclusion Champion 2023–24. A recent review praised it as “an excellent, inclusive school providing high-quality education.” In the latest Ofsted report, it was noted that pupils at Kingsford Community School are taught to articulate their views sensitively with respect, and are guided to become ambitious, confident, and thoughtful individuals.
Balancing Academic Rigour and Student Well-Being
Kingsford Community School places equal importance on high standards and pastoral care. The school cultivates a “supportive Kingsford family” ethos where every pupil is known, valued, and nurtured. A local safeguarding review highlighted this culture, describing Kingsford as “a school where any pupil…can truly thrive and be successful, cultivating their goals…within a family ethos of support, challenge, nurture and guidance.” This warm and caring environment, in return, empowers students to feel safe, confident, and thrive.
The school’s never-ending commitment to student well being has earned national recognition, enabling it to be shortlisted for the National Pastoral Care Award 2025. Kingsford’s staff constantly go above and beyond to support pupils and their families, from providing extra help for refugee students to adapt to life in the UK, to mentoring those facing diverse personal challenges.
Additionally, the school’s robust network of pastoral programmes supports academic success. Kingsford Community School provides extensive safeguarding and counselling support, character education, and enrichment activities to keep students engaged and healthy. In response to challenging issues such as the high crime rates in inner city, Kingsford’s team offers coaching, assemblies, and emotional support to help students deal with the trauma some experience because of this.
Empowering Aspirations
Strategic Partnerships with elite institutions lie at the heart of Kingsford’s mission to raise student aspirations and unlock new opportunities. Through its flagship Scholarship Aspiration Programme (SAP), the school mentors high achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete for fully funded places at top independent sixth forms. These partnerships include collaborations with prestigious institutions, including Wellington College, University College School, and Eton College.
The impact of this initiative has been profound, and this year Kingsford students gained sixth-form scholarships collectively worth £3 million. By progressing to prestigious partner schools for A-levels, these students gain access to cultural capital not previously accessed, extensive resources, and clear pathways to top-tier universities.
Kingsford builds cultural capital in multiple ways – through international travel, leadership programmes, high-level debating and public speaking competitions, and enrichment experiences that broaden students’ horizons far beyond the classroom.
Kingsford’s visionary head teacher, Joan Deslandes OBE, has been pivotal in building and sustaining these transformative partnerships. She sat on the Department for Education’s Independent/State School Partnership forum and the “100 Group” of influential school leaders for several years. Through these networks, Kingsford played a key role in establishing the London Academy of Excellence (LAE) in Newham, a state-of-the-art sixth form co-founded with Richard Cairns, the principal of Brighton College to propel the borough’s brightest into Oxbridge and Russell Group universities. LAE and other similar collaborations provide Kingsford alumni a direct bridge to leading higher education, proving how partnership can drive social mobility.
Beyond traditional academic pathways, the school also cultivates partnerships with universities, corporations, and industry leaders to provide students with a first-hand experience of the professional world. The school’s relationships with Bloomberg and UBS via work experience, or Ciena in STEM mentoring, provide students with role models in high-status fields.
In October 2025, a group of ten student leaders travelled to Vienna, Austria, to attend a UN Youth Peace Ambassador Symposium. During this visit, they were appointed as UN Peace Ambassadors, they joined young people from across the globe to develop leadership, diplomacy, and conflict resolution skills, engaging directly with international peacebuilding discourse.
Celebrating Diversity
Kingsford Community School celebrates diversity by honouring the cultural and linguistic heritage of all its students, ensuring that every individual feels valued and included. The school’s annual Culture Celebration Week showcases its students’ national dress, traditional foods, music, and customs.
Kingsford places a strong emphasis on values-based education that promotes unity and respect. The school explicitly teaches that inclusion, equality, and diversity are opportunities for learning and growth, not barriers. Its students hear a consistent message of respect, integrity, and teamwork through assemblies and the curriculum. This, in return, ensures that students develop a common identity around empathy, fairness, and school pride, regardless of their cultural background, and become allies against racial, homophobic, gender-based, and disability-related discrimination.
The school also actively ensures every child, including those with special needs or new to English, participates fully in mainstream school life. Additionally, classroom teachers differentiate support to ensure academic success, and a variety of clubs bring students together around shared interests.
Kingsford also regularly hosts and visits partner schools overseas. Recent exchanges with Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School and Beijing Normal University High School have allowed pupils to collaborate in joint lessons, take part in buddy programmes and share cultural traditions, fostering empathy, curiosity and a genuinely international outlook that extends far beyond the classroom.
Kingsford’s global citizenship approach ensures pupils develop acute global awareness, cultural competence, and compassion. Through international exchanges, diversity celebrations, and global issues education, pupils learn to listen, collaborate across cultures, and approach international challenges with open-mindedness and respect.
Kingsford also emphasises the communications and language skills required of global citizens. Whether through Mandarin study, European languages, debating, or public speaking, pupils are taught to articulate ideas clearly and respectfully. Multilingualism and cultural literacy are seen as key assets, preparing students to represent themselves — and their communities — confidently on the world stage.
Harnessing Technology to Enhance Learning
Kingsford prioritises digital literacy for students, ensuring they regularly use online platforms for learning and future planning. The school utilises Unifrog, a comprehensive digital careers portal, to help students independently explore post-16 courses, universities, and careers. Each student has an account and logs key skills and interactions, fostering self-driven career learning. The school has also integrated technology into its co-curricular and enrichment activities. STEM clubs use robotics kits and programming software to teach problem-solving, while the media club employs digital publishing tools to create online articles and videos shared with the school community. These experiences demonstrate the power of technology for creativity and advocacy.
Additionally, the school has embraced AI to improve education, and treats it as a tool for teachers and operations, not as a replacement for educators. This balanced approach models for students how to engage with AI in their work lives. Kingsford also champions STEM as a pathway to social mobility, offering various initiatives to encourage students, especially girls, to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math.
Picture of the Future
One key future initiative for Kingsford Community School is to extend the international experiences that have proven so transformative for its students.
This commitment is already evident. In 2025, Kingsford enabled 150 Year 10 pupils to undertake two-week international work experience placements in France, Spain and China. Students immersed themselves in settings ranging from Bordeaux vineyards to kindergartens in Xi’an, gaining independence, cultural fluency and valuable insight into global career pathways.
The school is expanding its network of international partnerships to drive social mobility at scale. A strong relationship with Peking University is already taking shape, with further initiatives in development to offer pupils unparalleled access to international exchanges, personal development programmes, and global scholarships.
In line with its inclusive ethos, Kingsford also has plans to continue pioneering in equity and outreach. The Head Teacher, Ms. Deslandes, co-founded the charity Education4Change (E4C), which trains educators to tackle racism and bias in schools. Going forward, Kingsford will maintain leadership in such initiatives, hosting training hubs and sharing best practices.
