Westminster has always been a boarding school. Today about a quarter of our pupils board, which means that there is a lively boarding community of approximately 180 boys and girls. Most of them go home at weekends, but a few older boarders opt to remain at school, where there is the full support system of housemasters and matrons.
View our video, Boarding at Westminster on the home page.
The advantages of being a boarder at Westminster:
- It's fun and you spend lots of time with your friends.
- You don't have difficult journeys to and from school. (You can get up later in the morning!)
- There's supervised time for prep every evening.
- There are other evening activities, including sport as well as trips to concerts, the theatre and the cinema.
- You still get to see your family at weekends and you can go home for special occasions such as family birthdays or religious festivals.
- If you decide you don't like boarding, you can become a day pupil (as long as you live close enough, but most of our boarders live in London).
Making Changes
As long as a term's notice is given, a pupil's status can be changed from boarding to day, or from day to boarding, subject to a place being available.
Boarding Houses
With the exception of Purcell's, all the boarding houses are situated around Little Dean's Yard, which adds to the sense of community. College is the boarding house for the 40 Queen's Scholars. Grant's and Rigaud's are also boys only boarding houses; Busby's and Liddell's have boy and girl boarders. Purcell's, which is situated in near-by Barton Street, has girl boarders only. All houses have day girls and day boys with the exceptions of Purcell's having day boys only and College having day girls only.