Are you considering Wetherby Senior School for your son? We've collated everything you need to know about entry to Year 7. Find out about key dates, what's covered on the entrance exam, and how to help your son prepare.
Contents
About Wetherby Senior School
Wetherby Senior School is a private day school for boys aged 11–18 in Marylebone, Central London. The school aims to provide an outstanding and progressive all-round education, preparing students for modern life and instilling a sense of responsibility and compassion towards others.
Boys who enter the Lower School at Year 7 experience a smooth transition into a safe, nurturing environment and enjoy access to approximately 70 activities on an extensive enrichment programme. Each year group has a dedicated careers programme where pupils are taught key employability skills including entrepreneurship, financial thinking, critical decision making and negotiating.
Pastoral care underpins everyday life at Wetherby. Pastoral groups at the school are known as Tributaries (or ‘Tribs’ for short) – named after London’s hidden rivers. These groups build vertical links throughout the school, creating smaller communities and opportunities for pupil leadership. Years 9 and above benefit from the school’s work with Beyond Equality, which aims to get boys talking about masculinity and gender stereotypes and provides age-appropriate workshops and lectures.
Boys leave Wetherby Senior School for world-class higher education institutions. The school offers strong preparation for US colleges and in 2022, 43% applied to study outside the UK, with students securing places at the University of Pennsylvania, University of California, McGill, Toronto University, Bocconi (Italy) and more.
Headteacher: Mr Joe Silvester
Address: Wetherby Senior School, 100 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2QU
London borough: City of Westminster
Age range and gender: 11–18, boys only
Number of pupils: 400+
National league table rank (Sunday Times Parent Power): 171
A level results: 79% A*–B
GCSE results: 75% 9–7
Key info for Year 7 admissions
Admissions contact: [email protected], 020 7535 3533
Open day: Saturday 7th October 2023 – book online
Overview of selection procedure: online assessment, interview and school reference
Registration closes: Friday 13th October 2023 at midday
Assessment date: November 2023
Wetherby Senior School fees and financial assistance
The school fees at Wetherby Senior School for the 2023–2024 academic year are £9,695 per term. Fees include the cost of day trips (with a few exceptions) and most clubs and activities.
Financial assistance
Wetherby Senior School is able to offer means-tested financial assistance to children who are offered a place but whose families would not otherwise be able to afford the school fees. These are known as bursaries, and are available from the Gold Standard Charitable Trust.
If you think your child would benefit from a bursary at Wetherby Senior School, you will need to indicate your intention to request a bursary on your child’s application form. You will undergo a detailed means test as part of the admissions process.
Wetherby Senior School term dates
The term dates at Wetherby Senior School for 2023–24 are:
Autumn term: 4th September – 15th December 2023
Half term: 16th–27th October 2022
Spring term: 9th January – 27th March 2024
Half term: 12th–16th February 2024
Summer term: 16th April – 3rd July 2024
Half term: 27th–31st May 2024
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Wetherby Senior School 11 plus admissions process
There are around 54 places available for boys applying for Year 7 entry to Wetherby Senior School each year.
The school also has a 13 plus entry point. If you would like your son to be considered for Year 9 entry, you will need to apply for this instead as you cannot apply to both 11 plus and 13 plus entry.
1. Visit the school
Before beginning your son’s application to Wetherby Senior School, it’s a good idea to attend an open event first. This is an opportunity to meet staff and current pupils and tour the school facilities.
The school holds visitor mornings on Wednesdays throughout the school year, which involve meeting the headmaster or director of admissions and touring the school with a current pupil. Larger open days also take place, with the next one on Saturday 7th October 2023.
Find out more and book a place at an open event on the school website.
2. Register for 11+ entry
To register your son for 11 plus entry, complete the online registration form. Registration costs £150 and will close on Friday 13th October 2023 at midday.
3. Online assessment
All children who are registered for 11 plus entry to Wetherby Senior School will take an online assessment during November in Year 6. Most candidates will take this at their current school, but if your child’s school is not able to facilitate the test, he can take it at Wetherby Senior School.
The online assessment is provided by Atom Learning. Assessments produced by Atom aim to improve typical entrance exams in English, maths, reasoning and problem-solving by providing an accessible, challenging, and enjoyable experience.
Questions are adaptive, meaning they become more difficult or less difficult depending on how your child is performing. This ensures children see questions at the right difficulty level for them, so they are stretched but not to the point where it becomes demotivating.
Maths: Children will answer questions on the topics they have learnt on the maths national curriculum up to the end of Year 5
English: Questions will be aligned to the English national curriculum up to the end of Year 5
Non-verbal reasoning: Questions will test your child’s ability to understand and analyse visual information
Verbal reasoning: Your child will be assessed on their ability to use logic and solve problems with written information
Problem-solving: Children will be tested on their ability to solve problems, form connections and think creatively through interactive puzzles and creative comprehension
Try some example questions
Have a go at some familiarisation questions for the Wetherby Senior School 11 plus exam.
4. Interview
In mid-December, Wetherby Senior School will let you know whether your child has been shortlisted for the next stage of the admissions process. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview at the school on Saturday 13th January 2024.
The school aims to identify boys with intellectual and personal qualities that will allow them to benefit from the academic education at Wetherby, and to contribute to the wider life of the school community. The interview is a good opportunity for your son to demonstrate his abilities and interests.
Learn more about private school interviews and how to prepare.
5. Offers
Wetherby Senior School will decide whether to offer your child a place based on his scores in the online assessment, his performance in the interview, and the reference received from his current school.
Offer letters will be posted on Wednesday 31st January 2024. If your child receives an offer and you would like to accept the place, you will have until Friday 2nd March 2024 at midday to send your response.
Top tips to prepare for entry to Wetherby Senior School
Wetherby assesses a variety of subjects for 11 plus entry, including content which is not traditionally taught on the national curriculum. Here are our top tips to help your child prepare for the selection process.
It can be tempting to jump straight into practice papers to prepare for school exams. However, this is not an effective way to learn and can cause children to feel demotivated.
Your child should have a good understanding of the content they’ve been taught in Year 5 before testing their knowledge with practice papers. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when recapping content is key, as our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. Experts recommend study sessions should last no longer than 30 minutes for children aged 10–11.
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We understand how important this next step is for them, and for you. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions you may have about applying to Wetherby Senior School or other selective schools.
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