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Cut-price online private school ‘a world first’

Students will be able to study for full-time international GCSE and A-levels online - Oli Scarff/AFP
Students will be able to study for full-time international GCSE and A-levels online - Oli Scarff/AFP
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

The world's first online school is being launched in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic to offer private education at a fraction of the cost.

King's College Online will give pupils access to more than 60 prestigious schools around the world to complement a new online learning programme.

Students will be able to study for full-time international GCSE and A-levels online, as well as having access to private school premises for sport and arts subjects.

Initially, lessons will be launched in China and New Zealand, with students invited to register from Wednesday for courses starting in January 2021. Rapid roll-out will then see courses available in the UK and northern hemisphere from September 2021.

The core King's College Online programme will cost £6,380 (7,000 euros), for a full suite of five international GCSEs and/or four A-level courses.

Students will also be invited to opt for an experience in a physical school or school camp at preferential rates.

Winter and summer camps will be run with leading partners in their field, such as sport with the Real Madrid Football Foundation, fashion with Missoni and performing arts with the Berklee College of Music.

The graphic below shows how private school pupils benefited from more intensive online tuition during lockdown:

The new hybrid education offer is being launched by Inspired, a co-educational, non-denominational, independent school group that already educates 50,000 children in schools across five continents and 20 countries. The group is not affiliated with King's College London.

The King's College school group comprises eight British schools in Spain, Panama and Latvia. Teachers have already been recruited from its current global network of schools. Pupils will not be required to wear uniform, but teachers will be in branded clothing as they deliver lessons from specially-built studios.

Students will learn through live keynote lessons, supported by personalised tutorial study groups and proactive weekly performance tracking, as well as co-curricular activities such as music, drama, art and coding. They will also have access to additional support, such as 24-hour pastoral care and university counsellors.

Nadim Nsouli, the founder and CEO of Inspired, said: "It is always a pleasure to launch a new school, and even more so to launch the first of its type in the world. Many parents have commented on the success of our digital offering during this pandemic, which motivated us to imagine an all-online school.

"King's College Online will be unique in that it is the first online school launched by a premium global group of schools, enabling its students to access prestigious physical schools around the world to complement their online learning.

"This new project enables even more children to access the best of an international curriculum and allows them to open the doors to the world’s best universities."

Inspired group schools currently enable 90 per cent of students to successfully obtain a place at their first-choice university, including those in the UK Russell Group and US Ivy League.

In line with the British curriculum being taught, students will be required to have appropriate proficiency in English. Entrance will be non–selective, but a number of scholarships will be on offer.

The Pearson Edexcel international GCSE and A-Level curriculum will be used, delivered via the leading Canvas learning platform, which incorporates the latest student and teacher dashboards, online assignments, and embedded artificial intelligence.