What a Difference a Day School Makes
School life and home life. It's about balance.
It’s a balance. On the one hand, we are fostering the critical connection between teachers, students, and families; on the other, we are supporting the increasing independence of middle and upper school students who are eager to prove themselves on their own. They aren’t mutually exclusive; the key is for one to support the other.
Both Kingswood School and Oxford School were intentionally created as day schools in the early 1900s to rival the boarding school academic experience but with the express idea of balancing school and home life, a true partnership between families and the school. That remains as true today as it did when the schools were founded.
As a day school, Kingswood Oxford creates and fosters a unique community that includes the most important people in each student’s life—teachers, advisors, coaches, friends, and family. This balanced approach to support gives every student the widest possible range of resources to ensure academic success and emotional health. Teachers and advisors know their students well and are always ready to meet specific needs, while students benefit from 360 degrees of daily perspective and just the right amount of guidance. As parents cheer from the sidelines and applaud from seats in the theater, you won’t find them stepping on the increasingly independent toes of adolescents; rather, they help create the inclusive family that makes KO KO.
Growing independence shows up in how kids manage their time, in the choices they make, in the friends they keep. It shows up in how they help themselves and how they help others.
“I decided that I wanted to be a day student at a day school rather than at a boarding school. I like the fact that I can go home at night, and I know that not everyone else is on campus without me. I don’t have the fear of missing out. I like being able to go home and talk to my parents at dinner and have the weekends where I reach out to my friends in my community as well as my KO friends. I have the best of both worlds.”
Charlotte, senior