Westminster School 2021 16+ entrance thread

Hi! I was on the other thread too
I’m thinking of applying but I’m not too sure about leaving home (I live pretty far away so I’d have to board if I went)
I’m thinking of doing either triple science maths or bio chem maths further maths

If it helps, I boarded (completely wasn’t expecting to, it just happened) and it was amazing - a really eye-opening and fun experience, as there’s such a strong house community in the boarding houses. Plus you have dedicated homework time, which was a godsend. Don’t let it put you off!

Hi This isn't to do with boarding, more about the houses in general, but are there only a few houses who are considered 'the best' and win most competitions or does every house have their own thing? Also, do you like the competitiveness? My school isn't very competitive at all but I feel like I'd much prefer to be in an environment where I'd push myself more.

Every house has its own thing - the house pride is intense! College (me) has being clever and "we won sports day in 2016", Grant's has face paint and "the best matron", Busby's has pool and a housemaster with a dog, Ashburnham has "at least we're not Mylne's", Mylne's has "at least we're not Ashburnham" and I could go on for a very long time... Personally I really enjoyed the competitiveness, I was ready to leave my old school and be challenged. That said, some people really do struggle and you need to have quite broad shoulders as the boys will push competition to extremes sometimes, so you need to know when to walk away as well.

Any tips of QS? I sorta wanna go for one but idk how hard it’ll be/ how much prep to do for exams and stuff and idk whether I realistically stand a chance or not 😅

Err... honestly it's kinda random. All you need is "at least one standout entrance exam" and then a bunch of teachers make the final decision after interview. Do your best, don't go crazy (it's probably more important to genuinely love your subject) and see what happens? It really is luck past a certain point, every year people are like "why is X a scholar Y is cleverer than them"!

Haha yeah I guess so
How do you find living in London for boarding in general
Like are you all allowed to go out and stuff?

Thanks for the insight Why is there a sort of stigma around Ashburnham? I've seen a few previous posts on different threads about it not being a popular house. My dad was in Ashburnham at his time at Westminster and finds the comments about the house quite amusing.

My dad said that there were quite a lot of rowers lounging around during his time haha. Milne's was not a house yet so he said that Ashburnham's main rivals were Busbys, Liddels or Rigauds in stuff like sports. Apparently, at the time (around the 80s I think) his house was the only one who would send 'fan clubs' and supporters whenever there was an inter-house competition, but now it looks like all houses are extremely invested in all competitions He said that he felt like the teachers were all watching over Ashburnham due to it not being in the same place as the other houses lol.

Hi everyone I'm currently in year 10 and have made this thread for anyone who is applying to Westminster School for entrance to sixth form in 2021. I'm hoping quite a few people will join and we could all help each other through this process. The subjects I'd be sitting the exams for would be in English, History, Theatre Studies and Chinese.

Does anyone know what exam board Westminster uses for Maths GCSE? Thanks!

Hi everyone I'm currently in year 10 and have made this thread for anyone who is applying to Westminster School for entrance to sixth form in 2021. I'm hoping quite a few people will join and we could all help each other through this process. The subjects I'd be sitting the exams for would be in English, History, Theatre Studies and Chinese.

Hi! I thought I might join in on this thread since it seems pretty relevant to me. I'm also in year 10 and I would be looking to sit exams in Latin, Ancient Greek (pretty niche ik, not expecting to have many people to talk about that with), English, and History. I completed 'The challenge' papers on their website pretty easily, only to realise that they were for 13+ haha.

A couple of questions:

1. Does anyone know if it's even possible to get some 16+ past papers?
2. What is the 16+ acceptance rate?
3. How big is each year in the 6th form?
4. Is there a written spec of sorts (like a vocab list, for example) for the entrance examinations?

Thanks!

Yay Classics person My Latin teacher (I'm an OW) has described your A level combo as 'the A levels of doom', btw - everyone ended up dropping one

1. Nope, they are well-guarded! (and don't have official mark schemes anyway)
2. From the prospectus: "We usually have about 550 applicants. We interview approximately 160 candidates and we offer between 75 and 85 places, with a waiting list."
3. About 160-85 - girls are about a third.
4. No. The entrance exams are designed to test basic understanding and key knowledge - the Classics ones are very 'we want to see you fail creatively at translating an original text you haven't seen before', and they'll ask how long you've been learning for to gauge you. The Prospectus has all the information you get on the tests: https://www.westminster.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Westminster-16-2021.pdf

Hope that was helpful

Thanks! - My stress levels are slowly increasing now that you've clarified acceptance rates and said that my choices are considered 'the A levels of doom'. How far do you think that the exams push you outside of the GCSE syllabus?