i went to hwsf AMA

hi so as the title says i went to hwsf!
i know hwsf isn’t the most conventional sixth form like they have a lot of diff rules and therefore things can get complicated. and there’s also their partnership with westminster school which can be tricky to get your head around if you’re doing a westminster subject. (i did one btw so feel free to ask me about how that works if you’re also doing one!)
just wanted to create a space for people to ask me any questions they have because i realised a lot of people are curious and confused about a lot of things. also feel free to pm me instead if there are any questions you don’t want to post publicly xx

This question is slightly more frivolous, but also, what is the dress code actually like? And what do people actually wear?
On the website it’s very vague, but could I theoretically turn up in anything that’s smart business wear?

hey dw if it sounds frivolous, ask anything you like
okay so i personally think the dress code isn’t too bad, yeah they want you to dress smartish which makes sense as it’s still school, but people wear all sorts of things. for example, simple long sleeve t shirts, plain jumpers (NOT hoodies though or things with big logos), button up shirts, suits, waistcoats, smart pants, skirts (some girls wear rly short ones too), wide legged pants (some girls even wear super tight grey/black yoga style trousers which i’m surprised they didn’t get dress coded for 😭) etc.
maybe at the start you can wear typical smart clothes to be safe but once you get a feel for what other people wear and what’s acceptable, you can be more adventurous. for example, i started out wearing a white button up shirt with a blazer and black trousers and a belt. for a girl that’s way too formal to wear everyday for sch tbh (a lot of guys normally wear suits tho). i later started wearing like jumpers and different coloured shirts with bell sleeves and very wide legged pants or even flares and boots.
you can wear any sort of jewellery really e.g lots of rings and stacked bracelets, and have dyed hair and piercings, even nail polish.
the biggest thing they care about is wearing trainers, like that’s a BIG no, and also the fact that you must wear a blazer every time there’s assembly. if you break dress code, they give you warnings and it’s not too deep but if you keep breaking it they may give detentions. hope that helps x
btw my form tutor always told us if we were wondering about a certain piece of clothing, we could show her a pic and ask if it’s okay for school or not so that’s nice ig

Do you actually get 14hrs of homework a week or is that an exaggeration, if so how do you actually cope with it all? Do you have a timetable or just go with it, if so what’s your timetable like?
Do you genuinely have time for things you enjoy other than studying during the school term? Or do those have to wait until the holidays?
On the website it says holidays should be spent productively, what does this mean? Do they have lots of expectations of things you should be doing?
Do they give you lots of homework in the holidays?
Do you commute far (mine would be an 1hr 10min), if so is this tiring and does it make things harder?
Do the teachers put a lot of pressure on you?
If you’re not doing as good in a subject as you should be, are they supportive or do they expect you to figure things out by yourself?
Are the people nice? (I go to a grammar school right now and I find that some people are stuck up and arrogant as they see themselves as smarter than others)
And especially when you go for a Westminster subject, do the Westminster students look down on the Harris ones?
Sorry that’s a lot xx

1. hi so it’s acc meant to be 16hrs a week lol but tbh i think it’s slightlyyy exaggerated? so it’s 4h per subject and what the teachers normally do is set you a worksheet or booklet that may take 1-2h and they say for the other 2-3h of your hw slot, they want you to do independent revision and submit some evidence of that revision eg flashcards. a lot of people do make timetables and the school ALWAYS encourages us to make timetables and they even made different timetable templates for us depending on whether you’re a night owl or morning person. i didn’t have a timetable but i did keep a list of all the things i had to complete and id complete all my hw in my free periods so i could have spare time when i’m at home. it’s a lot at first honestly but you get used to it. if you don’t complete your hw, most teachers give you a detention while some others just tell you off and ask you to give it the next day.
2. i personally didn’t find much time for fun or relaxation but maybe that’s just me because lots of my friends would go out to eat or hang back after school and study together. we’re superrrrr encouraged to join clubs and extracurriculars even outside of sch, so you may find a few hours to do that stuff if you’re organised. i mean if other people manage to do it then i’m totally sure you can as well, so long as you’re disciplined and motivated to work when you need to. also if you’re healthy and don’t have severe depression or anaemia etc (like i did 😭🙏) then you should be fine too. i will say that the school *expects* us to do several hours of independent work after sch everyday but they can’t rly enforce that apart from just giving lots of hw and tests to revise for.
3. in terms of holidays, one of their favourite sayings is ‘read, rest, review’. so they expect you to do those three in equal measure. they even calculate it for us sometimes eg if we have two weeks off, they’ll say ‘okay guys so that’s 14 days off. you should spent about 4.5 days studying, 4.5 reading and 4.5 resting’ or some bs. again, no way to really enforce that and a lot of people just rest and study despite the school HEAVILY encouraging us all the time to read. sometimes in form time they make us go down to the library and each borrow one or two books to read over the holiday but again, no way to make sure we’ve really read them so it’s fine.
4. my commute was about 40 mins but i defo knew lots of people with 1-1.5h commutes so you won’t be the odd one out. for my secondary sch tho i did commute 1.5h each way and it was exhausting but again, i was depressed and anaemic and the journey itself was terrible like i took a bus then national rail then walked 15 mins uphill. if you’re healthy it shouldn’t be tooo bad esp if the journey is somewhat easy, and you can use that time to read or chill or finish last min hw haha
5. the teachers defo expect a lot and do get kinda unimpressed if you’re consistently doing bad (like they consider a B to be bad) and i personally hated the pressure, but i have to admit, some teachers really do intervene and help if you ask them for it which a lot of people do. for example they’ll sit with you for 5-10 mins after some lessons and explain things to you and even during the lessons when everyone is doing silent work, they’ll walk around and explain things to students. also some teachers are kind and help make revision timetables with you and give you study resources. they’ll never rly just say ‘figure it out on your own’ although some will say generic stuff like ‘do more questions’ or ‘revise this topic more’ or ‘focus on exam technique’
6. so i also went to a grammar secondary! and i also thought a lot of ppl were stuck up and rude at my old sch but tbh one of the best things abt harris is the people and friends you can make. everyone will be new because it’s only a sixth form so you’ll have a clean slate and be able to get to know lots of ppl. it won’t be the case where everyone already knows eachother and has friend groups. most of the girls are chill and kind apart from some that vape in the toilets all the time but even they’re cool ig. there are some popular bratty ones but they stick to themselves and even they’re somewhat nice. regarding the boys, they’re also fine and stick to themselves. some are goofy and funny and sweet. there are some roadmen types but everyone is too focused on academics to rock the boat too much yk? also i haven’t heard about much harassment or huge drama going on. i don’t think there’s a huge bullying problem either although i did get bullied by one girl in y12 but that’s not rly the norm and people disliked her for constantly being mean to me. also she ended up becoming nice and apologising later so yeah. the school is very very diverse so there’s not much racism. there’s a prayer room too and for ramadan last year the school allowed students to organise iftar (the meal when you break your fast) in the canteen
7. the westminster students are pretty chill although a lot of them may know each other already, but i still made some friends in my class. as expected, they are rich and perhaps posh too but most aren’t arrogant or twatty and they’re quite funny and ‘normal’ and down to earth. also the teachers are rly clever, funny and sharp, and more chill than the ones at harris even, because they know we’re all smart and capable so they really treated us like adults and we had a nice back and forth and banter with them in lessons. i don’t think the students looked down at me a lot but it was incredibly hard for me personally to keep up with the class and teachers and i had to get a private tutor to help me. i’d get kinda nauseous every time i’d go to my lesson because i barely understood the stuff and felt intimidated by this big private school. but on the other hand, all my friends and other people i knew who did westminster subjects were happy and thought it was a super cool experience and very fun so dw. they do loads of trips btw! like museums, galleries, plays, italy, greece, germany. the westminster kids are very clever btw as expected lol but they never rubbed it in bc for them that’s just their norm.
anything else pls ask

Hi - would you say people like their time at Harris Westminster in terms of friends and extra curricular activities? I'm not too worried about the work - just keen to ensure i make good friends and get to do interesting things outside of A level work. Are there lots of trips? Do students get time to chill out together in the day?

Hey
I was one of the students that was on the waiting list at the lowest priority and I managed to get in yesterday because of my GCSE results... I'm guessing. I was really settled by going to my sixth form and my world has been completely flipped in the past 2 days.
I feel incredibly sad that I am leaving my friends in my current school as they are really dear to me. I'm a type of person who is terrified of change and even though I don't mind meeting new people, its just stressful for me to find myself friends again who I truly trust and love. Does the school organise events or like trips where you get to bond with these completely new people? When I was applying to kings college maths school (unfortunately I didn't get in) they said that at the start of year 12 they have a week long camping trip to get to know each other and make friends. Is there similar things in this school?
Yesterday, I went to the school and it was really intimidating about how strict and posh the school was, especially by the 'Welcome Pack' 😅. Can anyone please tell me if the school is really this strict when it comes to: being ill and missing school, uniform, homework etc. ? I usually get ill quite often and I don't know what the school will say about it, since I don't have a diagnosed medical condition or anything.
Another question: does the school not have a cafeteria or provide lunch? Because on the Welcome Pack it stated that you can go out to eat, but the school is in Central London, wouldn't that be extremely expensive for students? Should I just bring my own packed lunch at this point, or does anyone know some cheaper places we can go out to eat?
The A levels I'm choosing are Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I saw someone say that the school allows you to drop an a level at the end of year 12, so is this like an AS level or do they just fully drop it? Because I would love to do an EPQ but I don't want to fully drop chemistry. I know that the a level is very hard so I don't want to do the full a level, imo. Has the school allowed students to do AS levels?
Thank you so incredibly much for putting this much effort into answering everyone's questions, it really does genuinely help and makes it feel less like i'm just plunging myself into darkness.

hi i’d say there is defo time to hang out w friends during the school day. in free periods you can go in whatever classroom you want so you can meet w friends who have the same free period slots as you and study together or chill. there’s also break time which is from 10:40-11:05 and lunch times and form times. after school ppl hang out too bc it’s the middle of london so there r lots of nearby places to go to. also i said in a comment above that most people - boys and girls - are actually nice and just keen on doing well, meaning there’s not much time for major drama.
in terms of activities, there are like a million and one clubs including an anime club even, and every wednesday there’s ‘society’ which is mandatory. so it’s a timetabled 40 min slot but dw it’s somewhat fun bc there’s a range of societies like classics, chemistry, medsoc etc and you choose which one you wanna attend for the year.
there are many trips and activities. off the top of my head i remember there’s charity basketball, olympiads, linguistics deciphering, networking events esp for law and apprenticeships and there’s lab time every tuesday where you can either study independently or attend a lecture by guest speakers that the school brings in every week from any field eg historians, engineers, businesspeople, chemists. ofc there’s ‘sport’ too which is mandatory and timetabled and tbh a lot of ppl don’t like it bc it sucks being forced to do a sport every week if you’re not rly interested or busy or tired (and the sch takes attendance for it VERY seriously like immediate detentions if you’re even one minute late to it), but ig some other people find it relaxing and fun. there’s lots to choose from but you may not end up doing the one you pick on the form as it may be oversubscribed that term, but it’s fine because you can change every term so you’ll get other chances to do the sports you want. they offer walking, running, dodgeball, yoga, boxfit etc

hi so as the title says i went to hwsf!
i know hwsf isn’t the most conventional sixth form like they have a lot of diff rules and therefore things can get complicated. and there’s also their partnership with westminster school which can be tricky to get your head around if you’re doing a westminster subject. (i did one btw so feel free to ask me about how that works if you’re also doing one!)
just wanted to create a space for people to ask me any questions they have because i realised a lot of people are curious and confused about a lot of things. also feel free to pm me instead if there are any questions you don’t want to post publicly xx

Do you actually get 14hrs of homework a week or is that an exaggeration, if so how do you actually cope with it all? Do you have a timetable or just go with it, if so what’s your timetable like?
Do you genuinely have time for things you enjoy other than studying during the school term? Or do those have to wait until the holidays?
On the website it says holidays should be spent productively, what does this mean? Do they have lots of expectations of things you should be doing?
Do they give you lots of homework in the holidays?
Do you commute far (mine would be an 1hr 10min), if so is this tiring and does it make things harder?
Do the teachers put a lot of pressure on you?
If you’re not doing as good in a subject as you should be, are they supportive or do they expect you to figure things out by yourself?
Are the people nice? (I go to a grammar school right now and I find that some people are stuck up and arrogant as they see themselves as smarter than others)
And especially when you go for a Westminster subject, do the Westminster students look down on the Harris ones?
Sorry that’s a lot xx

Do you actually get 14hrs of homework a week or is that an exaggeration, if so how do you actually cope with it all? Do you have a timetable or just go with it, if so what’s your timetable like?
Do you genuinely have time for things you enjoy other than studying during the school term? Or do those have to wait until the holidays?
On the website it says holidays should be spent productively, what does this mean? Do they have lots of expectations of things you should be doing?
Do they give you lots of homework in the holidays?
Do you commute far (mine would be an 1hr 10min), if so is this tiring and does it make things harder?
Do the teachers put a lot of pressure on you?
If you’re not doing as good in a subject as you should be, are they supportive or do they expect you to figure things out by yourself?
Are the people nice? (I go to a grammar school right now and I find that some people are stuck up and arrogant as they see themselves as smarter than others)
And especially when you go for a Westminster subject, do the Westminster students look down on the Harris ones?
Sorry that’s a lot xx

Hey
I was one of the students that was on the waiting list at the lowest priority and I managed to get in yesterday because of my GCSE results... I'm guessing. I was really settled by going to my sixth form and my world has been completely flipped in the past 2 days.
I feel incredibly sad that I am leaving my friends in my current school as they are really dear to me. I'm a type of person who is terrified of change and even though I don't mind meeting new people, its just stressful for me to find myself friends again who I truly trust and love. Does the school organise events or like trips where you get to bond with these completely new people? When I was applying to kings college maths school (unfortunately I didn't get in) they said that at the start of year 12 they have a week long camping trip to get to know each other and make friends. Is there similar things in this school?
Yesterday, I went to the school and it was really intimidating about how strict and posh the school was, especially by the 'Welcome Pack' 😅. Can anyone please tell me if the school is really this strict when it comes to: being ill and missing school, uniform, homework etc. ? I usually get ill quite often and I don't know what the school will say about it, since I don't have a diagnosed medical condition or anything.
Another question: does the school not have a cafeteria or provide lunch? Because on the Welcome Pack it stated that you can go out to eat, but the school is in Central London, wouldn't that be extremely expensive for students? Should I just bring my own packed lunch at this point, or does anyone know some cheaper places we can go out to eat?
The A levels I'm choosing are Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I saw someone say that the school allows you to drop an a level at the end of year 12, so is this like an AS level or do they just fully drop it? Because I would love to do an EPQ but I don't want to fully drop chemistry. I know that the a level is very hard so I don't want to do the full a level, imo. Has the school allowed students to do AS levels?
Thank you so incredibly much for putting this much effort into answering everyone's questions, it really does genuinely help and makes it feel less like i'm just plunging myself into darkness.

Hi - would you say people like their time at Harris Westminster in terms of friends and extra curricular activities? I'm not too worried about the work - just keen to ensure i make good friends and get to do interesting things outside of A level work. Are there lots of trips? Do students get time to chill out together in the day?

hi so as the title says i went to hwsf!
i know hwsf isn’t the most conventional sixth form like they have a lot of diff rules and therefore things can get complicated. and there’s also their partnership with westminster school which can be tricky to get your head around if you’re doing a westminster subject. (i did one btw so feel free to ask me about how that works if you’re also doing one!)
just wanted to create a space for people to ask me any questions they have because i realised a lot of people are curious and confused about a lot of things. also feel free to pm me instead if there are any questions you don’t want to post publicly xx

Heyy ,
1.Do you have to do 4 a-levels and can an epq count as one so bio chem English lit and an epq.
2.Do you think those subjects are manageable.
3.And is it true you can get a free iPad you have to give back and if you do how do you qualify for it.
4.Do you have to complete any presentations in lesson.
5.Can you leave in Lunch?
6.Did most people get 8/9 in their chosen subjects?
7.What did you write on your initial application to Harris ,like did you put your mock grades and stuff and do you have any tips to doing it
Thanks