Headmaster’s blog 01/09/2023

Today saw Years 7 and 9, plus our Sixth Form prefect team for 2023-24, bustling around Marylebone. Our newest pupils met their form tutors, made new friends, and began to learn their way around our two School buildings. Here, they were helped by our prefects, who welcomed our new boys and led tours of both sites. Our sixth formers further settled into their new leadership roles with prefect training via workshops on leadership and teamwork, making it a valuable and successful morning for all.

While we welcome the rest of our School community back on Monday, I thought it timely to send a short newsletter today. In particular, I’d like to highlight our wonderful A Level and GCSE results this summer, plus the outstanding list of university destinations for our Class of 23. It goes without saying that I am very proud of our outgoing Years 11 and 13 for achieving such excellent results in their respective exams, and I am delighted to see our new alumni joining top universities around the globe.

I’d also like to thank parents and staff – particularly our team of personal university advisors, who provide bespoke advice much earlier than most schools – for their continued support in ensuring our boys achieve their higher education ambitions. Indeed, our School’s hard work in this area has just been recognised with a shortlisting in the “Support for Life Beyond School” category of Talk Education’s Awards for Innovation in Education. This follows the fantastic announcement, at the end of last term, that Wetherby Senior has been shortlisted for London Independent School of the Year by Independent School Parent.

It’s always great to start a new academic year with positive news about the success of our young people and our School, and we love to hear about the achievements of our boys. So, if your son has any exciting accomplishments to share from this summer, or any further good news during the coming year, then please contact our Marketing Manager so we can feature his success on our website and in future newsletters.

Before the holidays, parents were sent a staffing update for the coming year and I’m delighted to outline two further internal appointment that may have been unclear from this letter (and my apologies to those members of staff). Firstly, Mr Searle is now Head of Mathematics, replacing Mr Astbury-Palmer. Mr Searle joined Wetherby Senior last September and I am sure he will do a great job as head of our successful Mathematics Department. In addition, Ms Holmes is taking on the role of Head of Economics and Business, as Mr Wingrove steps down. Many of you will know Ms Holmes from her amazing work as our Head of Careers, so will be relieved to hear that she is retaining this role and has great plans in place for the career development of Wetherby Senior pupils.

I trust everyone had a relaxing holiday and I look forward to seeing all boys and staff on Monday.