Our 2026 summer term highlights: wrapping up an incredible year

Every summer term at King’s InterHigh brings a unique blend of achievement, farewells, and fresh starts, and this year was no exception. Between results days, graduation celebrations, and students taking their first steps toward university and future careers, our community had plenty to celebrate. Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights that made the past few months such a memorable close to the school year.

Outstanding IB results

For our senior school and sixth form students, there’s always something to look forward to at the end of the school year: results days. This term, we celebrated the first of 2026-27 with IB Results Day in July, and our learners once again have made us proud with their successes!

Scoring above the 2026 IB global average of 30.88 points, our Class of 2026 achieved outstanding grades this month, with several students receiving 40 points or more in their IB Diploma. And along the way, they’ve been able to enjoy incredible journeys thanks to online learning.

While we look forward to IGCSE Results Day and A-Level Results Day in August, take a look at some of our IB students’ stories over on our blog.

Graduations and celebrations

Back in April, we waved our Class of 2026 IB students off in an exciting ceremony built entirely in virtual reality. Between our IB Learner Profile Awards, the student-voted Golden Hooty Awards, emotional speeches, and fun graduation activities (including a photo booth, memory wall, and yearbook unveiling), our students and teachers enjoyed a wonderful send-off side by side.

We also said goodbye to our Year 11s this term as they headed off on study leave before their IGCSE exams. Teachers shared valuable advice for the exam weeks ahead, tutors paid tribute with a video reading of Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata, and the community even hosted a Kahoot quiz to guess their tutors’ childhood photos.

Finally, in July, we closed out the year with summer celebrations across our whole school. Teachers and pastoral staff shared reflections at a whole-school assembly for our students across the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where our Student Council representatives took the stage with poems, presentations, and stories of their own. Meanwhile, our primary school learners and their parents gathered for their own celebration event, complete with a graduation ceremony for our hardworking Year 6 students.

On the way to next steps

For our Year 13s in particular, the end of the school year is a major opportunity to step into what comes next. This year, King’s InterHigh’s graduating students have gone on to pursue their dreams (from acting to sports), take up apprenticeships and careers, and start exciting gap years. Many more, meanwhile, are getting ready to start their degrees at their top-choice universities. Our IB leavers are headed for bachelor’s degrees from mathematics to management, and we can’t wait to hear about our A-Level students’ next steps when they get their results in August.

Behind them, our Year 12 students also started the application processes themselves this term. Our experts have been laying the groundwork through assemblies and Reflect sessions, hosting no less than five dedicated Future Pathways events covering everything from UCAS and global university applications to employment and gap years.

Our very own virtual Careers Expo

We also know how important it is for our younger students to start thinking about their future goals, so this term, we brought our Year 9s a career exhibition of their own in VR. Working through their Reflect sections, learners took part in fun activities to learn more about where their future IGCSE subjects could lead them and left with a newfound excitement about their ambitions.

A landmark year for virtual reality

Our Careers Expo was just one of many VR sessions in what’s been an amazing year for virtual reality at King’s InterHigh. As a global school, virtual reality gives our students a shared space where they can interact, connect, and explore together with classmates and friends around the world. This year, that added up to 200 VR sessions across every key stage, from primary school playgrounds to middle school reflection sessions to co-curricular clubs.

On the academic side, VR kept pace across 66 exciting lessons. Through these immersive virtual environments, our students get to make abstract ideas concrete in mathematics and economics, go back in time for history or jump into books for English, practice their language skills in a realistic setting, and so much more. It’s just one of the many ways we take learning to the next level.

A virtual Project Week for Key Stage 2

One great VR experience this term was our primary school Project Week. Project Week is always a highlight for our students, giving them the freedom to put their knowledge to the test in unique ways. This year, Year 3 toured a virtual museum of the Wonders of the World to gather ideas for our mascot Hooty’s next adventure, while Year 7 explored a gallery of Yayoi Kusama’s work before creating their own self-portraits in her signature style. Year 5, meanwhile, touched down on the planet Terra Novalis to study space conditions and design astronaut suits fit for a Mars landing, and Year 6 closed out the week inside a VR careers space as part of their Past, Present and Future project.

Year 9 revisit their own VR project

Our Year 9s, meanwhile, took on one of our most exciting VR endeavours to date: evaluating a project they were part of themselves. Two years ago, over 300 Year 7 students took part in VR lessons to enhance their descriptive writing. This June, over 100 of those same students returned as Year 9s to critically assess how well it had worked. Drawing on their own memories of the experience alongside peer and teacher feedback, they came back with genuine, informed recommendations — a rare chance for students to help shape the technology used in their own education.

Taking care of egg babies

Experiential learning at King’s InterHigh also regularly happens beyond the screen, and one of this term’s most memorable examples was our A-Level Psychology egg baby project. As part of their studies on attachment and development, students each cared for an egg for a week (from naming and decorating it to bringing it along to lessons and daily routines), all before creating a multimedia diary of their experiences.

Board games and new friendships

And our in-person activities aren’t just limited to learning. For our primary school students, summer term kicked off with a visit to the Bad Moon Board Games Café in London. Working in small teams, our young learners tried their hand at classic favourites and new games, picking up strategy and problem-solving skills while building friendships and confidence in a comfortable setting.

Bowling from the UK to the UAE

Our bowling meetups have remained some of our most popular in-person activities this term, and it’s easy to see why. These low-pressure gatherings are built around fun games and friendly competition, giving students (as well as parents and caregivers) the chance to open up and connect with classmates. This term’s Hollywood Bowl trips took us from London to Liverpool, Carlisle to Cardiff, and we’re already planning our next set of meetups for the new academic year.

Across the world, our community of King’s InterHigh families in the Middle East also came together for an exciting year-end get-together at Dubai Bowling Centre. Being an online school means our community is spread across the world, but meetups like these show that learning online never means learning alone.

A day out in Manchester

April, meanwhile, brought one of our favourite trips of the year as students and teachers met up for a day in Manchester. The morning began with a scavenger hunt among the Northern Quarter’s street art for a fun icebreaker. After a break at the city’s Craft and Design Centre, the group then picnicked in Sackville Gardens beneath the blossoms. The amazing day ended at the Manchester Palace Theatre for a matinee of Matilda, where Miss Trunchbull’s famous cake scene stole the show.

A wonderful term for performing arts

We’ve also held no shortage of wonderful performing arts events online this term. From this year’s Stage Showcase 2026 to our King’s InterHigh’s Got Talent event, community experiences like these bring our students together across time zones to grow, perform, and cheer each other on as one audience.

18 films on the red carpet

In May, our middle school students took over the virtual red carpet for our Key Stage 3 Film Awards Evening. Screening 18 short films (spanning documentaries, animation, and teen movies), awards went out for story, cinematography, and editing. The standout entries put clever sound design and sharp editing on full display, and several pets even made guest star appearances.

Shining at our House Dance Finals

That month, our House Dance Finals also brought the same energy to the stage. 14 impressive students were recognised as winners and runners-up across categories from ballet and street dance to TikTok and musical theatre. Beyond the technical skill on show, our judges were especially struck by the storytelling and determination each young performer brought to their routine.

Celebrating a year of the arts

During June, our Drama and Music Celebration Evening opened with an incredible performance of Shakespeare on Trial from our Drama Club and Choir Club students. Then, a highlights montage took the audience through a year of primary and middle school drama and music classes, showing just how much our learners have grown in their skills and confidence throughout the year.

Our first-ever Night at the Oscars

Our Performing Arts Week in July then closed with our Night at the Oscars event, a live showcase spanning everything from rock guitar solos to polished short films. It took real work behind the scenes to pull off, so special thanks to our Performing Arts Team for making the evening’s talent shine!

Our annual ART INSPIRED showcase

From drama and music to art and photography, our online school students enjoy all the same hands-on subjects you’d find in a physical classroom. This term was a truly standout time for our young visual artists, and ART INSPIRED was one of the best examples.

Now in its fourth year, ART INSPIRED is our annual global art competition for students aged 14 to 16 across Inspired schools. This year saw 19 schools submit over 100 pieces, and we’re proud to say two King’s InterHigh students took home prizes! Ash won the Mixed Media Award for Reflections: a piece exploring identity through sewn-together photographs, praised by judges for the meaning within the stitches.

Fleur, meanwhile, won the Inspired Award for Intertwine, a graphite and watercolour piece on change and growth that judges called a genuinely inventive way to bring the theme to life.

Saving the turtles with our Junior Journalists

Our enthusiastic young reporters in the Junior Journalists club also published their fifth edition of the King’s InterHigh S-Cool Magazine this term. Every story was a testament to our students’ hard work writing and investigating, including “Saving Our Sea Turtles” by Jacob — a first-hand account based on his half-term break spent guiding turtle hatchlings safely to the sea.

If the summer term is anything to go by, our next term promises to be just as full of achievement, creativity, and community. Thank you to every student, caregiver, and teacher who made this year special. We can’t wait to see what September brings!