Spring Term 2023

At Wetherby Senior, we encourage the ambitions of all our young people, with outstanding higher education and careers advice that starts much earlier than most schools. Our team of university advisors provides bespoke one-to-one guidance from Year 11 onwards, which is reflected in the ongoing success of our alumni, who are now at top institutions around the globe.

Throughout Spring Term 2023, our current Year 13 received responses to their own higher education applications, which means we already have seven boys holding offers at world-leading North American colleges (including an Ivy League institution) and our Deputy Head Boy accepted at Cambridge. Other boys in that cohort hold offers for top universities across the UK and continental Europe, and we are proud to be featuring profiles of these sixth formers on our website.

Our Head of Careers continues to ensure a packed, diverse, and interesting programme of careers events and guidance was available for all year groups. This term alone has included an event for current Year 11 parents to learn more about work experience and work placement opportunities, workshops on ethical leadership with Magnolia Tree (an internationally-renowned executive coaching and consulting firm that has a unique partnership with Wetherby Senior), our Year 12 Futures Day which saw boys undertake mock interviews and workshops with professionals from a range of fields, and our Young Enterprise team take part in the finals of the Young Enterprise Company of the Year Awards 2023.

Alongside academic studies, Wetherby Senior marked a number of national events during our Spring Term, namely World Book Day and National Science Week. For World Book Day, our younger boys enjoyed a visit from author Michael Mann, who talked about his writing career and judged entrants for our Inter-Trib Creative Writing Competition. There was further success in creative writing for Aditya, in Year 10, who was awarded first place in the prestigious ISA Poetry Competition. This annual competition, open to over 600 schools, is a brilliant opportunity for young people to showcase their poetry writing skills, so we remain very proud of Aditya’s fantastic achievement.

For National Science Week, events ranged from pupils building barometers (to analyse air pressure changes during the day) to pupils building gliders (which they then tested to see which worked best). In addition, Year 7 were joined by a group of Year 5 boys from Hill House School, who visited Marylebone to explore our state-of-the-art science laboratories. This also gave our current pupils a chance to build their leadership and communication skills, as they worked with younger peers.

Once again, our School made good use of our central London location. Speakers invited to our Marylebone home, to give talks or run workshops this term, have covered topics ranging from kindness to astronomy and from the management of our Marylebone home to gender equality. In addition, a huge number of trips and visits have taken place since January, including attendance at high profile lectures at the Royal Geographical Society, a tour of the Houses of Parliament, our Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions in the Chiltern Hills, Model United Nations conferences at schools across London, and an incredible amount of theatre trips, with boys watching productions as diverse as Lemons Lemons Lemons, Accidental Death of An Anarchist, and Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, to name just a few.

Staying with the stage, our Trib Drama production – Cockroaches – took place in our Marylebone Lane Drama Studio at the end of March. As an entirely pupil-led production, written specifically for Wetherby Senior, it enables boys to develop their dramatic skills whilst competing to win Trib points, since Cockroaches was judged by the Head of Drama at Francis Holland School.

In addition, current Year 7 pupil, Thomas, took the lead role in Stagecoach Fulham’s spring show, Shrek the Musical JR. As well as enjoying LAMDA lessons at Wetherby Senior, Thomas takes part in Stagecoach classes outside of school, so was delighted to get the main part in their recent production.

Our Music Department showcased the talent and hard work of our young musicians on a number of occasions this term, with our Spring Recital and our Spring Concert taking place at Hannah House. Boys enjoyed an all-day brass and wind event at the end of March, while our Year 10 woodwind quartet also entertained members of the local community, playing over lunchtime at the nearby Penfold Community Hub.

In sport, many of our older boys enjoyed a fantastic week on the Canadian ski slopes during our February half-term, while our younger boys will head to Italy during the Easter break. Our School’s sports teams (football and rugby) have enjoyed a packed schedule of sports fixtures throughout this term. and our U16 football team were victors in our annual Friday Night Lights Fixture in March. There have also been individual sporting successes in swimming, when Marty (Year 8) took home over a dozen medals – 12 gold and 1 bronze – in the county championship and Alexander (Year 7) was ranked fifth in Great Britain for his age in the 800m freestyle.

Finally, Wetherby Senior’s second sponsored spin became our School’s most successful ever fundraising event, collecting over £6,000 for West London Mission. Taking place in our Marylebone Lane spin studio, more than 100 pupils and members of staff cycled in 30 minute slots, over twelve hours, competing to be the first Trib to cycle the length of the River Thames. Congratulations to Walbrook, our winning Trib.

Mr Silvester, Wetherby Senior’s Headmaster, said: “As we reach the Easter holiday, it is timely to reflect on the achievements of our Spring Term, which have included success in academic studies, in our extensive co-curricular activities, and in our charitable endeavours. It is fantastic to see our boys building their own knowledge, skills and experience by getting so involved in so many wonderful aspects of life at Wetherby Senior.”