New Wetherby Pembride school

Thank you for getting back to me, great to hear you and your daughter are happy with it. The children I spoke to certainly all seemed happy there. How does she find all the languages? I was surprised to hear they study 4 at the same time in the lower years.

My daughter started this year - in-year admission. I haven’t met anybody that wasn’t happy. Great teachers, great academic support but especially a tightly knit student body.

Evening all, sorry to drag up an old thread but I visited WP today and I was interested to hear from any current parents on their experiences with the school now that they are in their second year. We are considering it for our DS going into Y7 next Sept. Any feedback very much appreciated. Thanks so much!

With 11+ results out today (good luck to all!), perhaps someone could eventually post how many girls from Pembridge actually go on to attend WetherbyPembridge? Of course we will not know for many weeks as families go through their preferences

Inspired group has changed how they report metrics to disguise that basically everyone who applied was accepted by WP, but effectively no one elected to attend

“several teachers were teaching multiple subjects.”

This would ring warning bells for me. This is classic Inspired Education practice. At one IE school I looked out (a Prep) they prided themselves on their specialist provision but had a maths teaching taking games. It’s all
about cutting costs for IE.

Also interesting is the potential for a conflict of interest. Will alpha plus preps be as motivated to fully prep children for other more academic schools, given the broader group will inherently benefit from Wetherby pembridge and prep being safety net secondary schools… will be interesting to see how this evolves

so I can help u with that our sports round is like 20-30 mins away but its nice

Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate any insights from parents familiar with either of these two new senior schools.

I visited WP recently and found it difficult to get a true sense of the teaching quality and academic rigour. The facilities are absolutely pristine (my wife described them as almost “sterile”), and because the school is so new, it was hard to gauge what day-to-day school life is actually like.

A few things stood out: the library was basically empty, the faculty felt very small, and several teachers were teaching multiple subjects. One member of staff was also working part-time on reception. It gave the impression that the school was still in the process of being set up, although this was based on a one-hour visit, so I may be completely misreading it.

On the positive side, the headmaster was extremely impressive with a strong track record, and that is a major draw. He speaks very convincingly about the school’s vision and ambition. My assumption is that, because academic success is so critical for a new private school to grow, they will be highly motivated to get things right.

We also visited Thomas’s College, which opened this year as well, but it felt much more complete and established. The head there is equally strong, and the campus (out in Richmond) has a more settled feel; it's unfair to compare central London to Richmond. They absorbed an existing school, which means classrooms are full and the environment already feels lived-in.

I’d love to hear any experiences or perspectives from other parents considering these options for Year 9. What have you observed regarding teaching quality, academic focus, and overall school culture at either school?

Your welcome. I think WP would be a perfect place for your daughter. Everyone is welcoming and the students interact throughout the year groups in their house groups too which is nice. There are also 1 or 2 students who have moved back, after some years abroad and they have settled in fine. Feel free to ask any other questions, I am happy to help.

Thank you for sharing your experience - it is really reassuring to read your positive feedback, especially regarding the environment. We are due to return to London after many years abroad; our daughter is very strong academically ( she would be looking at an in-year intake ), hoping for a welcoming environment and we would definitely prefer an academically oriented co-ed school rather than single-sex for a multitude of reasons. WP seems to tick all the right boxes for us.

My son is currently a student at the school and he is very happy with everything down to the teaching, environment and facilities. All the teaching staff have excellent credentials and are currently doing an amazing job. They also track their progress weekly with short cycle tests to see if they are struggling with anything that they have learnt. There’s a lot of extra curricular activities too. Definitely worth considering.

.

I was wondering if there is any feedback from parents of children that have already started there? It would be so great if you could share your impressions so far!

@RatherBeOnVacation hope you had a good summer! I can see your logic, but the girls do attend co-ed schools such as Latymer and ASL, and you can see that despite so many acceptances to all girl schools such as the two FHolland schools and QCollege, that very few even accepted those places...

so logically, wetherbypembridge ranks below all those options given probably zero attendees out of 24 ph acceptances. that near zero value is probably why the inspired group business that runs all these schools for profit has started to hides/doesnt share the final school choices

From this year onwards, in addition to Latymer, Westminster will also be a co-ed, so there are definitely outstanding academic options out there

@W11Parent Although there surely has to be an element of parents preferring single sex (given they have already done so for prep). Acceptances for previous years would back this up.

There’s not that many coed schools in London vs single sex so I would imagine will be an attractive option for those that do want mixed at secondary level.

yes - PW will be fine as a business, there is more than enough demand in central London.

Was saying near zero demand from Pembridge Hall despite 24 having been accepted

They have 3 full year 7 classes, which was confirmed by the head teacher last month.

It will be close to zero (at least from PH)

perhaps someone who arrived late to PH or very recently to U.K.? I doubt they will show the PH data as one can very logically assume it will highlight essentially no internal demand… probably reinforces why they have now changed the format and cannot afford to be transparent

Simple observation; what little historical data that PH offers shows that Queen’s College and the 2 FHolland schools are the “safeties” for PH given how few girls end up accepting the spots offered to them... QC - 29 offers but zero accepted a place; FHSS - 24 offers, of which only 4 accepted … FHRP - 36 offers, of which only 4 accepted… granted, there is probably a lot of overlap in those offers… so perhaps someone who is considering an offer at QC this year will take a WP slot as it has no real opportunity cost

WetherbyPembridge business will then presumably become the safety of safeties (for PH at least) but there is presumably enough transient demand from families seeking a central london spot in what looks to be a lovely new building

Also yes… all inspired ( ex alpha group) are doing this… I wonder why…

to be honest, I’m interested to see how many girls will attend these schools. But still this is crazy

Wow.. 44 applicant to Godolphin only 15 offers, and 12 applicants to SpSG and only 3 offers and LU 22 applicanats and 4 offers!!!

Am I The only one who thinks this is so crazy and it’s so much pressure on the kids…

www.pembridgehall.co.uk/education/school-destinations

24 girls applied… 24 were accepted… almost zero will attend this new business

Let’s see if PH publishes a final number of WP attendees pre September…. Currently they only want to show ‘applications vs offers’…. Historically they have always shown “offers vs acceptances” (they still do on their 2023-2024 tab)

I believe the school is taking the academics
to a high level as 2 children I know didn’t pass the second lot of exams. Only time will tell. The school is accepting years 7,8 and 9’s.

@Educationpony they are accepting year 7,8 and 9 at the moment.

Following with interest - are they only accepting year 7 2025 at this stage?

im curious how academic this school is - and how hard it will get in further down the line at 11+!

you can find a sample timetable on the website. I think it’s under curriculum policy