Westminster Under admission to the Great School

[User749098562]

Can current WU parents and others in the know please help me with some information?
DS is sitting 7+ and I’m narrowing down the schools we apply to. We have decided not to sit more than 3 exams. I know some parents are applying for up to 6 schools but we don’t want to put him through that.

DS is

• summer born therefore younger than peers
• quirky to quote that overused phrase. would rather be coding a computer than running around playing football
• socially awkward, bless him
• sweet natured, gentle, needs a lot of nurturing
• very academic, exceptional in maths. At his school he and one other boy in the year do completely different work to the rest of the year
• less keen on English. Loves reading but reluctant writer
• traits of dyspraxia but not diagnosed
• not sporty, learning piano but doesn’t seem particularly musical

We plan to sit one “stretch” school plus 1 or 2 realistic ones. We want to choose our target school carefully and focus on that. The stretch school is between St Paul’s or WU. We don’t want to sit both, the exams are usually back to back. Our Head reckons WU is a good fit (any SP parents reading this who reckons he would fit in well at SP please shout!). I’ve heard it said SP is very maths focused whereas WU value maths and English equally - any views on that?

My only reservation with WU is having to sit the 13+ to get into the Great school. SP have no entrance exams as all boys guaranteed entry.

WU parents - how does the process work? Do you have to sit 11+ pretest plus the 13+? Do many boys get declined admission ?

Many thanks

I'd just add to this that sometimes parents are too worried about the number of exams their children sit. Many children find that a few more exams spread the stress - making each one less pressured - and they happily get into the rhythm of trotting from school to school. Of course, it depends on the child!

I have also heard the HM of the Under school refer to Westminster school as "The Great School".

Teachers call it the great school.

Yup, it is a much used term within the enclave

Thanks so much for all the posts and sharing your insights! Very helpful indeed.

Can I ask WUS parents please - the pretest in Year 6 what does this entail exactly. Ordinarily this is the year one would be doing 11+ if still at prep school and that's usually written papers (maths, english, reasoning) plus interviews. For boys already at WUS would they still have to sit all those papers and have an interview? That just seems strange, being interviewed by teachers at your existing school who know you well.....and sitting written exams when the school already know what you are capable of!

They aren’t interviewed by teachers who know them well - they are interviewed by and at Great School. Preselextion is a computer test of comprehension, maths and reasoning (have a look on the ISEB website). It isn’t a big issue - it doesn’t dominate the curriculum the way 11+ does. The boys are given some reasoning papers to practice in half term and otherwise the curriculum continues as usual.

Virtually everybody at WUS calls Westminster 'The Great School'. Virtually nobody at Westminster calls it that.
I agree with pp about the transition exams. CE is already of little importance as it is the pretest that weeds out the (few) boys who are not considered to be on track for Westminster. These boys all tend to go on to excellent alternatives. Of course, boys with a conditional place are still expected to work to the expected standard and I can't imagine that St Paul's or a CE-free Westminster would be much different.

Thanks very much for the insights. Appreciated.
Wouldn’t it be great if WUS also abandoned the 11+ pretests? St Pauls have managed to do that - to me it says we have full confidence in our boys who have been well taught by us and will thrive at the senior school. If a few boys simply lack the intellect to cope as they progress through the prep school then the Head should flag this early with parents. The pretests seem unnecessary. What’s the value add?

One major difference is that WUS prepares its students for ALL secondary schools, not just the Great School, so the 11+ pre-test serves this purpose. They don't EXPECT you to go to the Great School hence the preparation. In addition, just because a boy was emotionally and academically advanced at age 6 (for 7+) or 7 (for 8+) doesn't mean he is as academically able at 13+ to enter Westminster.

Don't be under the false illusion that SP Junior doesn't have their own internal exams in Year 5 to weed out weak internal candidates who are asked to consider alternatives. You can call 'pre-test' or whatever name you want. Plus, if you decide to leave at 13+ after being there since Year 3 because you don't want to spend 11 years there (11 years at a school!), you are on your own to prepare for the pre-test. That's the 'value-added' at WUS.

I agree the flexibility to move later is very attractive but I looked at the destination schools from WUS and everyone goes to the senior school anyway with a few exceptions to Eton or Winchester. Other destination schools are rare. Hence it doesn’t seem like the pretests and 13+ are used by many to change schools unless they want to board so why bother in the first place? Boys who want to leave now have to prepare for the 13+ independently themselves if the stories above are true so what’s the point of the 11+ ?

I guess what we don't know is how many boys have leave or are encouraged to leave after 11+ pretests as that isn’t published.

Interesting point about St Pauls. There’s more to this than we assume!

There are always between about 6-8boys off to eton each year and 0-3 to Winchester.(so this is out of 40 so not inconsiderable)

In the past three years I think about 2-3 boys in total over those years have left because the transfer to great school wasn’t on for them. I would be surprised if paul’s has managed out fewer than that from those years over the period. When selecting at 7/8 it is impossible to be 100% correct at predicting performance at 13 and one surely wouldn’t want to force a child into an upper school that didn’t suit them.

Hello
I am not sure if there is a more suitable thread but I found this interesting.

My 15 y daughter is considering Westminster for 6th Form. She currently attends a top Surrey school. She would apply for a music scholarship as this is the music program that really interests her and she more than fits the criteria.
I am keen to have any advice/feedback. Also she had a good school report but it’s not her best one ( she had a bit of wobble after her very good friend was hospitalised) but is back on top of things. I am concerned that one report is not representative of her potential. How much do you think this matters? I would hope and assume the exams/assessments count more??

Very grateful for your comments.

Thanks !

@clarand you should start a new thread in a secondary because many posters with experience with Westminster sixth form entry may well not even be looking on the Primary board.

Many thanks, really grateful for your reply. Tried a different thread, hopefully better luck.