Hundreds come back for Kingsley School anniversary

Former Kingsley students travelled from all over the UK and Europe to attend the event. In some families three generations have been pupils at the girls-only day school.

Headteacher Heather Owens said: “Such a turn out is true testament of how Kingsley carves a special place in people’s hearts and how those associated with this very unique community never really leave.”

Some alumnae hadn’t returned to Kingsley for over 30 years and there were whoops of delight when they met up with fellow students from 
yesteryear.

Beauchamp Hall, the senior school building, was filled with people looking around and hunting out their old class rooms and places they remembered from their schooldays.

In welcoming the guests to the garden party, Ms Owens paid tribute to the school’s founder, Rose Kingsley, who had the vision to set up a small school for the young women of Leamington in 1884. Originally called Leamington High School for Girls, it began at 19 The Parade with just 17 pupils, moved to Beauchamp Hall in the 1920s and was renamed The Kingsley School in 1949.

She said: “Kingsley has seen changes in its location, its name and its leadership and we have modernised considerably in the last four years especially, but the core values of striving for personal and academic excellence and the aim to foster a strong sense of community and responsibility, as well as qualities such as kindness, good manners and confidence, remain the same.”

A cake was baked to celebrate the anniversary and all pupils in prep, senior school and sixth form were given a specially commissioned enamel brooch in the shape of a cornflower - Kingsley’s emblem – to mark the occasion.

On Kingsley’s actual anniversary on Tuesday, prep pupils attended school in Victorian dress and took part in lessons and activities appropriate to the era. This included a tour of the original parts of the senior school, which was once a grand Victorian house.