Harris westminister as a general

Hi! I received a conditional offer from Harris and I wanted to ask someone, who already goes to the sixth form, some questions. So on results day do you have to go or can you call the school to completely take your place? Also what are lessons like, are people using electronics like laptops ( r u allowed?), r the ppl nice like or kinda fake. I js wanna know basically what it’s like with those specific questions answered! Ty

hi ik this was 3 months ago but it may still have some relevance. idk about whether you can just call on results day but i went in person.
in lessons you’re defo allowed all kinds of electronics like tablets and laptops. the norm is actually to have a tablet tbh like most people do, and if you solely work on paper you’ll be the odd one out in fact. there’s nothing wrong w working on paper but it can be difficult to organise so tablets are quite encouraged. if you do a westminster subject, westminster school actually provides you with a tablet for the whole two years! but you have to return it back after a levels.
a lot of the resources like ppt slides are online obviously but if a teacher wants you to access sometning online and you work on paper, you can use your phone or teachers have spare printed copies of worksheets. oh yeah phones are allowed btw but obvs you can’t mess around on them and some teachers don’t allow them AT ALL and confiscate them until just the end of the lesson, but most other teachers are chill and let you place them on your desk next to you iyw.
tbh the ppl aren’t bad. the ppl are one of the best parts of the school even and make it more manageable so dw. there r some wannabe roadman boys but they’re still chill and academic. the girls are quite nice, even the ‘popular makeup vaping’ girls aren’t terrible. this is because of the strong academic environment and when everyone’s so focused on doing well, there’s not as much time for bullying although i personally did get bullied in y12 but it was only by one girl and my friends supported me so dw at all. anymore questions pls ask x

Hi. I’m going to Harris in September but the Dress Code is really uninformative. It mostly just says what not to wear rather than what to wear. I know boys are supposed to wear suits at special events but what do they typically wear on a normal day?

hi i’m a girl so maybe i don’t have 100% insight but regarding the boys dresscode, i typically see them wearing suits with a blazer on most days unless it's hot, or maybe a simple jumper with a shirt underneath and trousers + belt. there's not much else variety regarding what the boys wear tbh. i was actually surprised by the amount of boys that wore a suit everyday despite there being no assembly or event, but it seems that's just their norm. defo no jeans or cargo pants btw. no trainers either. imo the boys dress a lot smarter and more formal than the girls. some boys wear ties but most don't. there's one boy who came in everyday with a different super flamboyant tie and another who wore bright pink button up shirts so it's okay to wear fun colours - just not so much with the blazers esp if you're wearing it to assembly. anymore questions pls ask! and if you're wondering about a certain item of clothing then feel free to ask me about that too and i'll tell you if i've seen ppl wearing it or not.
btw i made a thread where people can ask me anything abt harris and you may find more info about things from my replies to other people x
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7621229&p=100839636

Hey Ik this is a bit random but with classes are there seating plans cause I’m js thinking like on my first lesson it’s awkward to not know where to sit so could you please give me and insight

most of the time there are seating plans but sometimes there aren’t like in society or cultural perspectives. i don’t think you should worry because i remember even since my first few lessons there were seating plans so i never had to worry about where to sit and it allowed me to get to know lots of ppl x

Okk thank you! But in terms of like UCAT or interview preparations how is the school. I’m not sure of what subjects you do and how relevant UCAT or uni interviews are to you but if not do you still have somewhat of an idea on how the school is at it

dw i have exp! i applied dent last yr so yeah i did ucat and was in both medsoc and dentsoc.
so in terms of ucat help given by teachers, the school actually had a ucat prep cultural perspectives class that you could sign up for towards the end of year 12. it was led by the head of bio last yr but he left, but if it’s still running for your year then i’m sure the school will get a teacher who is relevant in science/med to lead it. we would go through the format of the ucat and do practice questions as a class and individually. basically cultural perspectives are timetabled lessons that you will have twice a week in y12. it’s meant to be on fun interesting topics tho and you sign up for a different one every term. for example, last year i remember attending cps on medieval islamic inventions, classics, westminster walking and ucat (this one is less on the fun side and more academic as you can imagine).
in terms of help given more by the students, we have medsoc and it’s one of the societies you can sign up for to do every wednesday (everyone has to sign up to do a society on wednesdays as it’s a timetabled lesson). it’s run and led by students but there is always a teacher present so it stays on track. because there is no official dentistry society to sign up for, the official medsoc caters to ppl doing both med and dent. there are many medsoc classes as it’s quite popular and there are about 15-20 ppl in each one. in medsoc, the student presidents would do extensive ucat practice towards the end of y12 and interview prep. in my medsoc, the presidents set up mmi stations where students would rotate and take turns being the interviewer and interviewee. we did that for a couple months until everyone had finished their interviews. btw in the first part of the year like before ppl are doing ucat and interviews, everyone in the society takes turns doing a presentation on a medical topic and that’s like the bulk of the sessions.
we do still have a dentistry society though but it’s a student led lunchtime club so it’s less formal but still helpful. the bulk of the sessions throughout the year are on random dental topics the students wanna talk about, and there are sometimes fun activities to do like learning to suture. and again towards the end of y12, the presidents of that club will do extensive ucat prep via giving presentations on it and going through difficult questions. they may also do presentations on interviews and even mmi practice if there is time.
regarding interview help given by the teachers, everyone applying for med and dent had to sign up to do mock interviews with teachers towards the end of y12. basically we all had to stay after school or whenever our slot was and did a full mmi mock rotation with different teachers and there were the different stations eg maths, ethics, current affairs. we then got written feedback from each teacher. btw the interviewers were like bio/chem teachers w med/dent application expertise, the head of ucas guy, and the school even hired some external teachers to be actors in the roleplaying stations. i think this experience was v v helpful and made me feel more comfortable w interviews.
outside of school tho, it was also popular for students to sign up for interview prep sessions like the free event ones run by universities. for example, in y12 i attended one at st george’s, and in y13 i went to one at king’s. at those events the uni students gave some talks at the start w advice on the whole application process, then we did a full mock mmi rotation and got written feedback.
anymore questions pls ask! i have experience w both med and dent applications, wex for both, and ucat. i mentored y12s in my medsoc last year and sent them some resources throughout the year too

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Hi. I’m going to Harris in September but the Dress Code is really uninformative. It mostly just says what not to wear rather than what to wear. I know boys are supposed to wear suits at special events but what do they typically wear on a normal day?

hey! I go there now and I can say the dress code is quite relaxed (more so for girls than boys, unlucky), boys mainly wear formal shirts with tailored trousers. quite a few come in a suit every single day, but don’t worry about a tie, and blazers are only required on assembly days. jeans and informal trousers (joggers, meggins idk) are a no no, and theyre quite iffy about like long sleeve shirts or plain tshirts. stick to button ups and suit trousers + school shoes n ur good!

Hi I just wanted to ask about Harris westminister resources, and if you think I should buy my own textbooks. Does Harris give us everything we need or do we have to buy our own resources as well. Please lemme know

have you got the first day timetable. I lost it in my pack

Hi I just wanted to ask about Harris westminister resources, and if you think I should buy my own textbooks. Does Harris give us everything we need or do we have to buy our own resources as well. Please lemme know