Views on Westonbirt senior school

[val2020]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can give me some up to date views on Westonbirt senior school. We are considering for our DD starting in year 7.

She's quite bright but rather shy and needs to build her confidence. Their GCSE and A level results don't look great vs some other schools in the area, any experience of how much support is given to stretch the more able students? And any general thoughts on pastoral support etc.

Many thanks

I received an email from the school recently that they are admitting boys in Y7 from September 2019. I guess this is for financial reasons / demand.

You may want to consider the way this will change the dynamic of the school. Interestingly I can’t see anything about this on their website though.

This is from the school website about the introduction of boys.

I can see that as the only school in the group they've joined to have an established secondary it makes sense to take boys too. Especially when you think that Cricklade Prep used to be Prior Park Prep, and some of those families will have gone there thinking they had an automatic secondary to move onto.

I did a careers event there recently and there was a full range of girls, from those doing btecs to those wanting to study medicine. I'd suggest talking to them and asking. They bill themselves as being non-selective with excellent value added so probably worth trying to get stats for girls who enter at a higher level.

I have to say that every member of staff I've come across has been lovely, and the girls seemed nice too. But I don't have children there, so not 1st hand experience.

We have a few friends there, their children are extremely happy and are doing well, fresh faced wholesome girls that are enjoying their school life. It is, as you know, a beautiful school incredible grounds and well known for the kind and grounded teachers.

Westonbirt are good at 'value added' and getting the best out of your daughter, and they have a full range of capabilities so the results reflect this. I don't know of an unhappy child there, which is quite an achievement.

The head particularly is very well regarded.

Thank you all for your input very much appreciated!

A non-selective school (ie compared to selective schools that only accept sure-thing children who need very little actual teaching to be guaranteed to do well) will never do as well in the league tables but to be recognised as the 'best value added' means that they are actually achieving far more in terms of pushing pupils to achieve their best than these other schools- and I can vouch from personal experience that my dd, who is in the top set for all her classes, is pushed and encouraged every bit as much as the pupils who struggle. This creates a really strong and supportive learning environment.