Westminster City School

[AmandaJami]

Does anyone have a child currently in, or recently attending Westminster City School? We were just offered a place there, and it is very hard to find current feedback from parents. Most discussions on forums are from a long time ago and I believe the school has improved in the last few years. I'd love to hear any honest feedback, positive or negative, from parents who recently / currently have boys at WCS.
Thank you

Interesting that there's been no one on here with any feedback at all, I wonder why?

Late to this, but simply to say that we've been very happy with WCS! My impression is that things have improved significantly over the past 5 years or so with change of Head. Very happy to recommend the school

OP if you search I saw a very positive review in another thread.
(It was my son’s favourite of the state secondaries we looked at.)

Thanks for this, my son is currently in year 7. What year is your son in?

Yr 9... I hope it's going well for your son!

Did he apply there? Where else did / will you apply?

@AmandaJami yes we’ve got it as our number 2 choice in the CAF. After Graveney. My son don’t prep for the Wandsworth test (i thought it was like SATs) so his score was only 221. So Westminster City is our likely offer and actually our preference.

However we’re hoping for an offer and bursary from Dulwich tomorrow. 🤞🤞🤞

Best of luck to you and your son!

Hey there,
Also late to the conversation but, I just wanted to add my experience so far. My son is also currently in year 7 and our experience is good. We love the opportunities that my son are exposed to.

We also appreciate the lessons being learnt as a result of their discipline and support structure that's in place.

Communication with staff has been good too, which is reassuring for me.
WCS was first choice for me and my husband but, second choice for my son as he thought he'd prefer a mixed gender school at first.

When it was confirmed that he had a place at WCS, we were elated. When we visited, we got a good feeling about the school and the interactions since with staff, from the reception to teachers, confirmed it for us.

From the four schools we visited, the experience we had with WCS came up at the top of the list.

I hope all's going well so far for you and your son too?

I just wanted to update with some info.

While my son is going to Dulwich, he did get offered a place to Westminster City on Monday. Yesterday a pack came in the post welcoming him to the school. My son said he almost wished he could go to both schools because looking though the welcome pack we were both impressed.

Unlike many other state school options the extracurricular options seem quite good and available to any boys who are interested. What stood out was the offer of music lessons whether beginner or expert (rather than gatekept for a select few). And there are music scholarships for even more tuition for 5 students.

i also was impressed by the individual 1:1 meetings they have in April with each student (and parents) to get to know them and set out the year ahead. That’s on top of the 3 day summer games camp/induction to help the boys get to know each other.

I just wanted to share some of these points as I think it’s a real gem of a school that folks don’t know about.

Hi, I am just seeing this and I am sorry I couldn't warn you earlier. If you want to have a good future for your son make him LEAVE, now. I am in KS4, about to sit my GCSEs and I can assure you I should've left once I got the chance... The amount of bullying and "normal" kid faces here is CRAZY, and the worst thing is the teachers will not do anything about it.. and infact reward the kids doing the worst (including spitting on Year 7 children.. yes) Teachers buy snacks, and drinks for students who behave poorly - as an "incentive". Your child may come home saying that had the "best day" deep inside, they've probably been bullied throughout the day.

Staff retention is TERRIBLE, every single department has an open vacancy and classes are having to merge etc. Quality of learning is terrible, as the school takes on trainee teachers in the bid to get more government funding. Thank god, I am naturally smart as I would've failed like half of my year during this crucial time period. I will be going to a good Sixth Form, but no thanks to WCS. The few good teachers they have are burnt out, due to toxic staff culture (yes staff swear and eachother in the halls) and refuse to actually teach good lessons. For example, multiple teachers instead of teaching just put up a powerpoint or give you a worksheet whilst they go on their phone

DO NOT COME TO WESTMINSTER CITY SCHOOL. PRIVATE MESSAGE ME OR ANY MORE INFORMATION.