Westminster School
| Westminster School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
Little Dean's Yard England | |
| Coordinates | 51°29′54″N 0°07′42″W / 51.4984°N 0.1284°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Public school Private day and boarding school |
| Motto | Latin: Dat Deus Incrementum (God Gives the Increase) |
| Religious affiliation | Church of England |
| Established | Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 |
| Founder | Henry VIII (1541) Elizabeth I (1560 – refoundation) |
| Local authority | City of Westminster |
| Department for Education URN | 101162 Tables |
| Chairman of Governors | Mark Batten |
| Head Master | Gary Savage |
| Staff | 105 |
| Gender | Boys Coeducational (Sixth Form) |
| Age | 13 (boys), 16 (girls) to 18 |
| Enrolment | 747 |
| Student to teacher ratio | 7:1 |
| Houses | Ashburnham Busby's College Dryden's Grant's Hakluyt's Liddell's Milne's Purcell's Rigaud's Wren's |
| Colour | Pink |
| Publication | The Elizabethan |
| Budget | £42,611,000 (2024) |
| Revenue | £42,535,000 (2024) |
| Affiliations | Eton Group HMC |
| Alumni | Old Westminsters ("OWs") |
| Website | www |
Westminster School is a private school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as documented by the Croyland Chronicle and a charter of King Offa. Continuous existence is clear from the early 14th century. Westminster was one of nine schools examined by the 1861 Clarendon Commission and reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868. The school motto, Dat Deus Incrementum, quotes 1 Corinthians 3:6: "I planted the seed... but God made it grow." The school owns playing fields and tennis courts in the centre of the 13-acre (5-hectare) Vincent Square, along which Westminster Under School is also situated.
Its academic results place it among the top schools nationally; about half its students go to Oxbridge, giving it the highest national Oxbridge acceptance rate. In the 2023 A-levels, the school saw 82.3% of its candidates score A* or A. The school is included in The Schools Index of the world's 150 best private schools and among top 30 senior schools in the UK. Among its graduates are three Nobel laureates: Edgar Adrian (Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1932), Sir Andrew Huxley (likewise in 1963) and Sir Richard Stone (Nobel Prize in Economics in 1984). During the mid-17th century, the liberal philosopher of the Enlightenment, John Locke, attended the school, and seven UK prime ministers also then attended, all belonging to the Whig or Liberal factions of British politics: Henry Pelham and his brother Thomas Pelham-Holmes, Charles Watson-Wentworth, James Waldegrave, Augustus Fitzroy, William Cavendish-Bentinck, and John Russell.
From September 2026 boys and girls may join the Under School at four, seven and 11 and the Senior School at 13 if they pass their examinations. Currently girls join the Sixth Form at 16 but may join at 13 from 2028 with the school becoming fully co-educational from 2030. About a quarter of the 750 pupils board. Weekly boarders may go home after Saturday morning school.