A new private school specialising in blended learning has launched today in the UK for students across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
King’s College Online is a global institution and part of Inspired Education, a group of online and bricks-and-mortar schools educating over 50,000 students worldwide. With bases already operational in Asia and the Pacific region, the latest outpost of Inspired Education will begin enrolling full-time GCSE and A-level courses starting in September 2021 from today.
The new online school shares its name with the chain of day and boarding co-educational British-curriculum international schools in the King’s Group, which was absorbed by Inspired Education two years ago. The King’s Group operates 15 English-speaking King’s College schools in Spain, Latvia, Germany, Panama and the UK.
King’s College Online will cost €7,000 per year for full-time international GCSEs (eight to ten subjects) and the same for AS and A-levels full-time (up to four subjects). The school said its fee structure gives it a competitive advantage over traditional independent schools, which charge on average nearly three times more.
We want to break away from the Victorian model of education, which was designed to produce workers for factories. King’s College Online aspires to empower individuality and ambition – Mark O’Donoghue, King’s College Online
“King’s College Online enables students between 14 and 18-years-old to experience the best of online and offline schooling, plus the opportunity to attend one of Inspired’s 70 prestigious schools around 20 countries and five continents,” the school said.
“Each student is also assigned a personal tutor for regular success coaching, as well as pastoral care and access to university counsellors,” it added.
The curriculum is to British standards and includes extra-curricular activities. Online schools like these are popular with young people pursuing a career in sport, entertainment or music and whose schedules do not fit traditional timetables. The school hopes to attract those who frequently relocate or could not afford traditional private schooling.
Mark O’Donoghue, chief executive of the new school, said: “King’s College Online is a whole new approach to learning in secondary education, which is innovative, challenging and enriching. It is closer to the approach higher education has been using for a while, combining live lectures with smaller learning groups, but all embedded in a virtual campus.
“We want to break away from the Victorian model of education, which was designed to produce workers for factories. King’s College Online aspires to empower individuality and ambition.”
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