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 KAS 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 470 on roll: some 210 in the Lower School and 260 in Middle and Upper Schools. KAS offers at 16+ some 15 subjects, including Photography and PE, CDT, Music, Technology and Theatre Studies and both standard and less usual subjects at A level. The overall staff ratio is under 10 pupils to one teacher. This school is on a particularly pretty site a few minutes from Golders Green Station and on the edge of Hampstead Garden Suburb. Some facilities are cramped; but gym and Computalab are modern: the main classroom block was recently rebuilt. A major re-building programme for Lower School was started in Summer 1991 and the first two classrooms and a junior library have now been commissioned. 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 parent-owned 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.
