Westminster School

Westminster School traces its educational lineage to the monastic school of Westminster Abbey, which is recorded as operating from at least the year 1179 — making it among the oldest continuous educational institutions in England, an 847-year history. The school was re-founded by royal charter of Elizabeth I in 1560 as "The Queen's Scholars of the Royal College of St Peter at Westminster" — and is for that reason often called "Queen Elizabeth's foundation". The school sits today in the medieval precincts of Westminster Abbey, on Dean's Yard in central London, immediately behind the Houses of Parliament and the Abbey itself — the most architecturally distinguished school site in the United Kingdom. The Head Master is Dr Gary Savage.

Westminster is boys-only ages 7-18 with around 779 pupils, with a substantial boarding population. The Sixth Form (Years 12-13) has been co-educational since 1973 — Westminster was the first major HMC boys' school in England to admit girls. The school was named in the Clarendon Commission of 1864 as one of the "Nine Great Schools" of England. The school is consistently ranked among the very top one or two UK schools by A-Level results and Oxbridge offer rate, often as the highest-performing UK school by Oxbridge offers as a fraction of leavers.

Westminster has produced seven British Prime Ministers — including Henry Addington, John Russell (Whig PM 1846-52 and 1865-66) and others — and a remarkable concentration of major figures in seventeenth-century English intellectual life. Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and around fifty City of London churches built after the Great Fire of 1666, was a Westminster boy. John Locke, the philosopher whose Two Treatises of Government (1689) is the founding text of liberal political theory and whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding established empiricism as the dominant English philosophical tradition, was at Westminster. John Dryden, the Poet Laureate from 1668 to 1689 and the dominant English literary figure of the Restoration period, was a Westminster boy.

In music, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber — the most commercially successful composer of musical theatre in history, whose Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera (the longest-running musical in Broadway history) and Evita have grossed several billion dollars at the global box office — was a Westminster boy. The Pogues frontman and lyricist Shane MacGowan, whose Fairytale of New York (1987) remains among the best-selling Christmas singles in UK chart history, was a Westminster boy. In politics, Tony Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate — the Labour Cabinet minister who renounced his peerage in 1963 (becoming Tony Benn) and who served as the defining figure of the post-war Labour left for forty years — was at Westminster. The Oscar-winning actor and writer Sir Peter Ustinov KBE — Spartacus, Topkapi, the Hercule Poirot films of the 1970s — was a Westminster boy.

The school operates a substantial bursary programme via Queen's Scholars, the descendants of the original Elizabethan royal endowment.

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At Westminster, we want every single pupil in our care to enjoy their time, and to flourish and to take advantage of all the opportunities available to them, and we take this responsibility extremely seriously. Underpinning all our work is an excellent system of safeguarding and pastoral care centred around each child: Housemasters, tutors, matrons, school counsellors, a School Nursing Sister and a Chaplain all work to guide them throughout their time in the School. Everyone is welcome, and all are valued and nurtured here.

Westminster is an ancient boarding and day school with a unique sense of place. It is, in fact, the only long-established school to remain on its original site in the centre of London. The School’s origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Its continuous existence is certain from the early fourteenth century. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII personally ensured the School’s survival by statute. Elizabeth I, confirmed royal patronage in 1560 and is celebrated as the School’s Foundress.

For several hundred years the School continued to be joined with Westminster Abbey, forming one collegiate foundation, until the 1868 Public Schools Act established the school as an independent body. The School still enjoys a close relationship with the Abbey and the Dean of Westminster is an ex officio member of the School’s Governing Body.

Additional subject and programme notes

Listed education pathways

School-life notes