Loftier Heights at Knightsbridge School

At the start of the academic year Knightsbridge School (KS) proudly opened its new building at 24 Elvaston Place. This extension means that pupils can remain at the London day school until the age of 16, where previous they would have left after year eight.

Definitely an extension rather than an addition, the new facility is now the base for the first ever KS year nines, who, by 2022, will be taking their GCSEs at KS, having organically risen through the ranks at the school.

Shona Colaço, the headmistress, explained the school’s growth as KS fundamentally remaining the same, ‘just growing at the top’. Interaction between the seniors at Elvaston Place and the younger pupils at the 67 Post Street is critical. Ms Colaço wants the younger children to see and aspire to be like her eldest charges. Her initial concept was for there be a defined fluidity between the pupils in the different buildings, coming and going between the two. This vision is still real, although currently on hold due to coronavirus safety measures.

The building at Elvaston Place has been used as a school for years, so KS were able to move right in, with minimal internal changes to the building’s structure, although naturally KS has put its own spin on it. One of the most exciting decorative changes in the pipe line is to happen in the dining room. Instead of seeing plain white walls, KS saw an opportunity – a blank canvas no less. Being the first of the senior cohort it is only fitting, thought Ms Colaço, that the year nines should make their mark on the new building. In this way they are going to design and decorate a mural for the dining room walls.

A school that is a safe space for everyone, where mental health first aid is taught and children are motivated to learn because they have the control to do what they enjoy. Where yoga is practised every day and the ISI have ‘never seen such an overwhelmingly positive response from the parent feedback’, it is not surprising that KS is growing. Pupils want to stay there, and KS is simply accommodating this.

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