There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes with relentless excellence. Not the burnout of overwork, but the fatigue of watching a school top the same league table year after year and struggle to say anything new about it. King Edward VI High School for Girls – KEHS to those who know it – has been named the West Midlands Independent Secondary School of the Year for Academic Excellence by The Sunday Times ParentPower guide for the fifth consecutive time in December 2025. It is also once again the highest-ranking independent school outside London and the South East, sitting 11th nationally. At a certain point, the question stops being whether KEHS is the best school in the region and starts being why anyone still needs convincing.
A Record Year in Every Direction
The 2024–25 academic year was not merely good for KEHS. It was unprecedented. In August 2025, the school’s Upper Fifth delivered GCSE results that broke every record in its 142-year history: 71 per cent of grades were at the top mark of 9, up from 62 per cent the year before and 59 per cent in 2019. Ninety-one per cent of all grades fell at 9 or 8. Ninety-seven per cent were 9–7, the equivalent of the old A* and A.
“It is impossible to overstate how exceptional this year’s GCSE results are,” said Kirsty von Malaisé, Chief Master and Principal of KEHS and its brother school, King Edward’s School. “People will often ask how results such as these are possible, and perhaps assume wrongly that KEHS must be a ‘hothouse’. Anyone who visits the school knows that this is demonstrably untrue.”
The numbers behind that statement tell a wider story. The first cohort to sit GCSE Mandarin achieved 100 per cent grade 9s. Computer Science, only in its second year at the school, saw 67 per cent of pupils gain a grade 9 and 96 per cent secure grades 9–7. Greek was studied entirely off-timetable – pupils chose to take it in addition to their regular subjects – and achieved 100 per cent grades 9/8. In French, 79 per cent of grades were 9. In Geography, 100 per cent of grades were 9/8.
The A Level results, announced a week earlier, were no less striking: 43 per cent A, 78 per cent A/A, and 95 per cent A–B. Of the 89-strong Upper Sixth, 13 achieved straight As. All 12 pupils holding Oxford and Cambridge offers secured their places. Destinations ranged from Cambridge for Modern and Medieval Languages to Liverpool for Game Design, from Oxford for History to the London School of Economics for International Relations.
Best Value, Not Just Best
In July 2025, The Telegraph named KEHS the UK’s best value independent school – an accolade that cuts against the stereotype of private education as an exercise in exclusivity. The analysis measured 1,200 independent schools against fees, exam results and facilities, adjusting for local average income and whether a school offered boarding. KEHS came out on top.
Annual fees stand at approximately £21,435, below the average for comparable schools. But the value proposition is not simply about cost. KEHS offers Assisted Places and a range of scholarships – academic, music, sport and art – specifically designed to ensure that financial background does not determine access. The school’s mission statement is precise: it aims to provide “an unrivalled education to the brightest pupils in the West Midlands, irrespective of their social or economic background.”
“We have provided an outstanding and scholarly education to bright girls, irrespective of their social or economic background, in the heart of Birmingham for more than 140 years,” von Malaisé said when the award was announced. “Value means more than just affordability.”
Beyond the Classroom: A Sporting Renaissance
For a school whose reputation has been built overwhelmingly on academic results, the January 2025 announcement that KEHS had been ranked in the national top 30 for sport was something of a surprise – to outsiders, at least. School Sport Magazine compiled its list from results data covering more than 4,000 schools across 20 sports and 120 national competitions. KEHS made the top 30 for the first time.
The achievement was underpinned by a formidable 2024. National Finals appearances came in cricket, squash, tennis and badminton, with both the U14 tennis and badminton teams finishing third in the country. The U13 cricket team placed third at the National Indoor Finals at Lord’s – the top five out of 1,000 competing schools. In the term alone before the announcement, 97 fixtures were played, with over 210 pupils representing the school. The U14 netball team won their county tournament. The U14 badminton team won five of six matches to advance in the National Cup.
Individual achievements reinforced the team success. Indira joined the Warwickshire Women’s County Cricket Emerging Player Pathway. Gloriosa was selected for the British Fencing GBR Cadet Squad. Anoushka was ranked 11th in England for U17 women’s singles badminton and 35th nationally in the senior category.
“Sport plays an integral role in school life,” said Sarah Blanks, KEHS Director of Sport. “This recognition highlights the dedication, talent, and teamwork of our pupils, staff, and coaches.”
The school was also named among the UK’s Top 20 Girls’ Cricket Schools for 2026 by The Cricketer magazine – a listing that reflects the growing investment in girls’ cricket nationally and KEHS’s willingness to compete at the sharp end.
The Curriculum Keeps Expanding
What distinguishes KEHS from many high-performing schools is the breadth of its academic offer and its willingness to introduce new subjects. Over the past few years, the school has added A Level Politics, GCSE and A Level PE, GCSE and A Level Computer Science and Design and Technology, and GCSE Mandarin. Each has been met with strong uptake and strong results.
“It is incredibly rewarding to see our pupils thriving across such a broad and expanding curriculum,” said Dr Paul Arnold, Head of School at KEHS. “Our academic results reflect not just individual talent, but the impact of innovative teaching, modern facilities and a culture that encourages intellectual curiosity, resilience and ambition.”
The £3 million Design Centre, opened to support the new Computer Science and Design and Technology courses, exemplifies the school’s approach: investment precedes demand, not the other way around. The Classics department remains a particular strength – Greek and Latin consistently produce extraordinary results – and the decision to offer Greek off-timetable speaks to an institutional culture that treats intellectual ambition as its own justification.
In May 2026, Sir Ian Bauckham CBE, Ofqual’s Chief Regulator, visited KEHS, a recognition of the school’s standing in the national examination landscape. Lower Sixth pupil Lara delivered a TEDx talk at Tamworth during the Easter holidays, speaking on “Why The AI Age Belongs to the Teen Generalist” – a title that could serve as a motto for the school’s educational philosophy.
Growing to Meet Demand
KEHS has announced plans to grow, adding an extra form in Year 7 from September 2026 onwards. The move will extend access to more girls in Birmingham and the wider region at a time when demand for places is intense. Around 96 girls typically join Year 7 each year from a broad range of schools and backgrounds. The school does not accept international applicants; all candidates must hold a UK passport or relevant visas and be living locally with their family.
The main entry points remain Year 7 and Year 12, with occasional in-year places considered. Entrants sit a competitive entrance examination, and the school’s admissions process is designed to identify pupils who will thrive in its intellectually demanding environment. Fees for 2025–26 are set at £21,435 per annum, with means-tested Assisted Places available.
A Culture, Not Just a Report Card
The Independent Schools’ Inspectorate’s most recent full inspection, in October 2023, described KEHS as “highly successful in developing well-rounded, confident, skilled young people who are very well equipped for the next stage of their education.” The Good Schools Guide calls it a school that nurtures intellectual curiosity through “intellectual debate, with enrichment a given,” and notes “such a strong sense of community.”
Those phrases – community, enrichment, intellectual debate – describe something that league tables cannot capture. KEHS is a school where pupils study Ancient Greek for pleasure alongside their timetable, where a Year 12 student can stand on a TEDx stage and argue for the value of generalism in an age of specialisation, where sport is taken as seriously as Latin and both are taken less seriously than the development of character. The school sits within a broader landscape of high-achieving girls’ schools across England, from Norwich High to Putney High, each pursuing a distinct vision of what it means to educate young women well.
The ISI inspection highlighted pastoral care as a foundation for academic success, and the school’s emphasis on wellbeing is not decorative. In a culture that increasingly treats girls’ education as a pipeline to university offers, KEHS insists on the longer view: that the purpose of educating bright girls is not merely to produce bright graduates but to produce people who know what to do with their intelligence.
That is a harder thing to measure than a grade 9. But it is what five years at the top of a league table ultimately reflects – not a system optimised for results, but a community that treats excellence as a habit rather than an ambition.
King Edward VI High School for Girls holds its whole-school Open Day on Saturday 20 June 2026. For admissions information, visit kehs.org.uk/admissions. For the full Sunday Times ParentPower guide, visit thetimes.com/best-schools-league-table.
