History

597 AD. Canterbury.

The story of King’s begins in Canterbury, where St Augustine journeyed from Rome and founded a community of learning beside Canterbury Cathedral more than fourteen centuries ago.

In 1541, the school received a Royal Charter from King Henry VIII and became The King’s School Canterbury, a Cathedral school with fifty scholars.

From those earliest beginnings grew a school shaped by scholarship and a belief in the enduring value of education.

Today, The King’s School Canterbury is recognised as one of the oldest schools in the world, not simply because of its age, but because its purpose has remained constant across centuries.

A school that kept going

For more than fourteen centuries, The King’s School Canterbury has continued through periods of extraordinary change and challenge. The School survived the upheaval of the English Civil War and the Second World War, when it was evacuated to Cornwall. Despite this, learning continued.

This continuity is part of what defines King’s. Not simply longevity, but resilience: the conviction that education provides stability, purpose, and hope, even in the most difficult moments of history.

Junior King’s

Junior King's was founded in 1879, within the Cathedral Precincts themselves. In 1929 it moved to Sturry, two miles from Canterbury and was opened by Rudyard Kipling, the Nobel Prize-winning author.

It is Junior King's that comes first to Bengaluru in 2027 with a long-standing belief that the earliest years of education matter profoundly.

For nearly 150 years, Junior King’s has understood that childhood is not simply preparation for later life. It is the foundation on which confidence, curiosity, character, and learning are built.