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Our View
This all-boys senior school in the heart of London is now in its tenth year – and it just keeps getting better and better. Vibrant, cosmopolitan and academically rigorous, it turns out charming, high-achieving and well-rounded young men equipped with the kind of emotional intelligence that only the best educators know how to foster. New head Robert Garvey’s vision is for Wetherby Senior ‘to be the top choice of boys’ school in London over the next few years’ – and we have no doubt he’ll achieve his ambition.
Where is Wetherby Senior School?
Wetherby Senior School is spread across a split central-London site. The original building in Marylebone Lane is home to the smart sixth-form centre, the art and design departments, expansive science labs, gym and a clutch of classrooms. From here, it’s a five-minute walk to Hannah House, where everything else takes place. All pupils – from Year 7 and up – walk between the two throughout the day, gloriously surrounded by stimulating metropolis life. It’s a lovely environment to be in and superbly located for maximising on the enrichment offered by the capital. There’s a teeny bit of outside space at both sites (plus a balcony with table-tennis tables at Hannah House for boys to let off steam between lessons), while nearby Paddington Street Gardens is used for slightly longer daily doses of fresh air. The school also hires a local church hall for lunch breaks when a different year group every day has the chance to play indoor games, and boys are taken off site for a full afternoon each week for games, a short coach ride away. Transport links are obviously excellent, especially now the Elizabeth line has opened, so pupils have an easy journey to and from school.
Wetherby Senior School headmaster
Robert Garvey took up the headship here in September 2024, following eight years at Merchant Taylors’ School where he did stints as both head of the upper school and senior deputy head. He initially trained as a lawyer (he has both UK and French degrees in the subject), before he found his calling as a teacher, training at Haberdashers’ Boys’ where he rose to be head of house. He’s finely attuned to everything an all-boys’ school has to offer, both professionally and personally; he had a single-sex education himself and has two boys of his own, aged 18 and 17. He encourages parents to take a seven-year, not seven-hour view of their sons, and he practises what he preaches, treating each boy as an individual on their own unique journey. During his first term he shadowed a pupil from each year group for a day to experience what it’s like to be in that year. His study door is always open for both pupils and parents. During the pandemic he tells us he learned a lot about the importance of open communication and offering an empathetic ear.
Admissions
Selection at Wetherby Senior is based on academic merit, with entry points at 11+, 13+ and 16+. Around 50 boys join in each of Year 7 and Year 9, with 25 moving seamlessly from
Wetherby Prep and the rest leaping across from a broad range of prep and primary schools. All prospective pupils at both 11+ and 13+ sit QUEST by Atom, which is the school’s own two-part test that comprises English, maths, and verbal and non-verbal reasoning, followed by creative comprehension, a puzzle and problem-solving. They then have an interview, bringing their maths and English books so they can talk through their progress. For sixth-form, prospective pupils also sit the Atom English, maths, and verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests, as well as doing a creative comprehension in either science or humanities depending on what A-levels they want to study.
This is a popular place and although visitor mornings get booked up fast, there is a virtual tour available too – which is particularly handy for the handful of applicants each year from abroad. English must be up to speed before arriving, but (EAL) support can be provided through the SEND department if necessary.
Wetherby Senior academics and destinations
The school is divided into lower school (Years 7 and 8), middle school (Years 9, 10 and 11) and the sixth form (ages 16-18). Lower-school children are assigned a class tutor across both years for enhanced continuity and greater support, but are taught by specialist subject teachers throughout. The middle school focuses on developing the skills of managing your own time and workload alongside the academic requirements of GCSEs. All pupils will study English, maths, three sciences, a modern foreign language and a humanities subject and will then select two more of their own choice – the brightest maths sparks in the top set will also tackle further maths.
The school has lofty expectations of its pupils and employs high calibre and passionate teaching staff in order to get the very best out of the children (something which the boys themselves were quick to recognise when we chatted to them). There’s also a huge diversity of pupil interests and talents here. Boys study two languages from the get-go, there’s philosophy for Years 7 to 10 (it’s also offered at A-level) and a robust careers programme helps lay solid foundations from Year 7, with classes in crucial skills such as financial thinking, decision-making and entrepreneurship. Recent investment in educational technology means all boys from Year 9 upwards have their own devices and there are plans to introduce virtual reality into language lessons – for example, a headset will allow pupils to experience, say, a Spanish market during the lesson.
Almost everyone stays through to A-levels and all students take three subjects plus an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). In addition, the school provides an A-level Plus option where boys can study a subject that they may delve into at university or simply because it’s interesting – sociology, anthropology, German, ancient history and art are all on offer.
Career support is excellent and Wetherby’s central London location gives the school’s work-shadowing programme an impressively prestigious edge. Exam results are suitably strong for an academically selective school and the school has a reputation for leavers gaining places at top Russell Group and international universities, including in Milan, Madrid, Canada and the US (recent examples include Princeton, NYU and the University of Pennsylvania). We have heard nothing but praise for the sixth form team on hand to support and encourage US university applications, and two US university advisors based at the school provide one-to-one guidance on the lengthy application process and offer weekly group sessions on preparing application essays. Representatives from the top universities in the UK, Europe and North America frequently pop in to visit pupils, and Wetherby Senior hosts a very well-attended university fair in the spring, as well as a US university forum each autumn.
Co-curricular
Sport is an integral part of the Wetherby Senior experience, timetabled for two sessions a week and compulsory for everyone – and no one we spoke to had any objections. Needless to say, Wetherby’s inner-city location leaves no room for acres of Astros, but instead boys have weekly cricket nets at Lords, running club at a local park and exclusive access to a top-notch cricket pavilion and smart 4G pitches at Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club, a 30-minute bus journey away.
The boys punch well above their weight on the rugby front, and we hear nothing but good things about the director of sport who delivers creative and inclusive sport for all, particularly those who favour Boxercise, badminton, weights or spin classes over team games. Regent’s Park also plays host to the occasional sports practice.
Drama is big news here, with two dedicated drama studio spaces, timetabled lessons every week for Years 7 to 9 and drama on offer at both GCSE and A-level. There are upper and lower school plays every year (some of which see collaborations with the girls from Queen’s College), as well as the hugely popular competition that takes place between pastoral groups (known as ‘Tribs’). Pupils audition for both on- and off-stage roles and the auditorium and darkrooms are kitted out to West End standards. The main production of the year is held around the corner at RADA; on our visit they were polishing off dress rehearsals for Dracula. Pupils also regularly walk to the Globe to see performances.
Music is also woven into the fabric of the school with all Year 7 boys learning an instrument before using their weekly music lesson to study music genres in Year 8 and 9. The director of music is a brass specialist and all the peri teachers are world-class performing musicians. The recital hall, music tech suite and drum rooms are fantastic spaces, and there are plenty of rooms for members of the orchestra, rock bands, funk band, wind ensemble, string ensemble and brass bands to practise. Boys perform in assembly, as well as five or six times a year in a nearby church. The school is also part of the national youth prom at the Albert Hall.
The art and D&T rooms at Wetherby are very large and bright (in fact, the whole school has something of a Tardis-like quality) and a host of options from ceramics and sculpture to 3D printing and animation are all on offer - budding artists’ work is sometimes even displayed in the nearby Saatchi Gallery.
All the hard work is balanced out with a brilliant co-curricular programme (sixth-formers also have a lecture programme that is shared with a local girls’ school) with more than 70 clubs to choose from including Young Enterprise, Model UN, Barometer (the student magazine), DJ club and Greek. The boys also help out at Wetherby Prep once a week.
Wetherby Senior School community
As you’d expect from a central-London school, the community here is a real melting pot of nationalities and cultures. The catchment area is steadily growing – and now the Elizabeth line has opened, it’s getting even wider.
Full marks for the on-point pastoral care, which, for Year 7 upwards, includes age-appropriate workshops on issues around masculinity and gender stereotypes as part of the Beyond Equality Initiative – a fabulously forward-thinking and challenging programme utterly befitting of a diverse urban environment. This is bolstered by ever-growing links with girls’ schools Queens College and Francis Holland that start in Year 7. Sixth-formers also have a liberal arts programme of lectures and volunteering, as well as weekly PSHE afternoons that include discussions about university life, finance and career talks.
The school is small enough for every boy to be known – ‘London is vast, but Wetherby is not; you are not going to get lost,’ says Mr Garvey – and the Trib house system is, one pupil told us, ‘the catalyst for integration between year groups’. Older boys are trained as peer mentors and anti-bullying ambassadors, and anyone showing an extra effort at upholding the values of the school is awarded a Gold Note. We chatted to lots of the boys on our visit here, and community feel, teacher support and mixed-year group friendships were the most commonly cited positives for these delightful and self-aware young men – and something of which the school should be rightly proud.
And finally....
There’s a wonderfully tight-knit community at Wetherby Senior and a sense that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Staff are extremely dedicated (and talented), which they impart to pupils, who tell us the support they get is superlatively good. ‘Teachers go above and beyond,’ our guide tells us. ‘Wetherby does everything they can to make it happen for you.’ It’s no surprise the boys thrive when they’re there and absolutely fly when they leave.