Westminster School

Westminster School
Coat of arms
Address
Little Dean's Yard London, SW1P 3PF[4][5] England
Coordinates	51°29′54″N 0°07′42″W / 51.4984°N 0.1284°W / 51.4984; -0.1284
Information
Type	Public school Independent day and boarding school
Motto	Latin: Dat Deus Incrementum (God Gives the Increase)
Religious affiliation(s)	Church of England[1]
Established	Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
Founder	Henry VIII (1541) Elizabeth I (1560 – refoundation)
Local authority	City of Westminster
Department for Education URN	101162 Tables
Chairman of Governors	Mark Batten[3]
Head Master	Gary Savage[2]
Staff	105
Gender	Boys Coeducational (Sixth Form)[6][7]
Age	13 (boys), 16 (girls) to 18
Enrolment	747
Houses	Ashburnham   Busby's   College   Dryden's   Grant's   Hakluyt's   Liddell's   Milne's   Purcell's   Rigaud's   Wren's
Colour(s)	Pink
Publication	The Elizabethan
Alumni	Old Westminsters
Website	www.westminster.org.uk

Westminster School is a public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as documented by the Croyland Chronicle and a charter of King Offa. Continuous existence is clear from the early 14th century.^[8] Westminster was one of nine schools examined by the 1861 Clarendon Commission^[9] and reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868. The school motto, Dat Deus Incrementum, quotes 1 Corinthians 3:6: "I planted the seed... but God made it grow."^[10]

Its academic results place it among the top schools nationally;^[11][12] about half its students go to Oxbridge,^[13] giving it the highest national Oxbridge acceptance rate.^[14] In the 2023 A-levels, the school saw 82.3% of its candidates score A* or A.^[15] The school is included in The Schools Index of the world's 150 best private schools and among top 30 senior schools in the UK.^[16] Among its graduates are three Nobel laureates: Edgar Adrian (Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1932), Sir Andrew Huxley (likewise in 1963) and Sir Richard Stone (Nobel Prize in Economics in 1984). During the mid-17th century, the liberal philosopher of the Enlightenment, John Locke, attended the school, and seven UK prime ministers also then attended, all belonging to the Whig or Liberal factions of British politics: Henry Pelham and his brother Thomas Pelham-Holmes, Charles Watson-Wentworth, James Waldegrave, Augustus Fitzroy, William Cavendish-Bentinck, and John Russell.

Boys join the Under School at seven and the Senior School at 13 if they pass their examinations. Girls join the Sixth Form at 16.^[17] About a quarter of the 750 pupils board. Weekly boarders may go home after Saturday morning school.^[18]