2026 sees the start of one of the most significant and exciting set of changes in the almost 500-year history of Westminster — the introduction of girls into all years, and a new pre-prep.
- September 2026: Girls and boys will join a brand new pre-prep in Reception year at Westminster Under School
- September 2026: Girls will also join boys at Westminster Under School in Years 3 and 7
- September 2028: Girls will join boys in Westminster School’s Year 9 Fifth Form
- September 2030: Every year — from Reception to Year 13 — will have both boys and girls
The road to co-education
The move to educate both boys and girls across both schools is rooted in our long-term strategic desire to enable children who would flourish at Westminster to study here. What they will continue to need is a passionate love of learning and the ambition to pursue that passion, with superb teachers, in a unique setting that is both ancient and deeply progressive.
Co-education is, of course, based on demand — the number of parents, pupils, staff, alumni and interested outsiders asking about this has grown year-on-year. But, above all, it comes from a desire to make the schools available to as many children as possible, in part through increasing bursaries, to fully reflect the community we serve, and to shape that community in turn by educating brilliant young men and women with a commitment to making a difference.
The past and the future
Westminster School is a historic school in Dean’s Yard, an ancient site, a part of Westminster Abbey from the 1300s, re-founded by Elizabeth I in 1560, before becoming a fully independent ‘public’ school following the Clarendon Commission of the 1860s.
For over 400 years the School educated only boys before, in 1973, its sixth form became co-educational. Westminster Under School was created as a prep school distinct from Westminster School in 1943. Initially based in Dean’s Yard, for 30 years it was then next to Victoria Station, before moving to its current home on Vincent Square in 1981.
Whilst Westminster has a long history of adaptation and change, one anomaly remained: that the two schools are boys only until age 16.
The two school have worked together to reach a point at which these changes can be made, without changing the academically successful nature of the schools, or altering their ethos, or any element of what makes them special.
Changed yet unchanged
The ethos of Westminster is long-established. Both schools will remain academically selective and proud of their excellence in sport, the creative arts, opportunities beyond the classroom, pastoral care, and preparation for examinations, university, the workplace and life beyond school.
Crucially, both Westminster School and Westminster Under School will remain highly academic schools where individual and institutional excellence are expected and promoted in an atmosphere of open-minded enquiry without dogma, prejudice or unthinking conformity.
There will also be no shift in the way the two schools work with each other. Whilst we are part of the same charity, sharing a wider strategy, Governing Body, administrative staff, and best practice, each school will retain its own senior leadership team and make its own day-to-day operational decisions.
Not a boys’ school, not a girls’ school, just Westminster School
Girls have been integral to Westminster School since 1973. Hundreds of young women have studied for their A Levels in that time, many of whom wished they had had the opportunity to join earlier.
The move to educate girls of all ages is a continuation of the co-educational project started 50 years ago. The whole community will benefit, as will the new girls and boys who will receive a Westminster education alongside each other.
Much work is already in progress, in readiness for younger girls arriving at the Under School in 2026 and Westminster School in 2028. This will be most visible in changes to the physical estate to create equal facilities. Both schools will also focus on classroom teaching, sport, the arts, the co-curriculum, boarding and pastoral care to ensure the most suitable provision in all areas.
We are clear that the fundamental strength and excellence of our education, and the opportunities that education helps create, are not a result of it having been a boys’ school, but instead of it being Westminster School. This is an environment in which young girls will thrive, just as young boys have.
Our offer to girls
Westminster is mature and collegiate, an inherently grown-up place of learning at the centre of the world’s foremost liberal and progressive city — a global superpower of political, cultural, scientific, sporting, economic and diplomatic influence. Renowned museums, galleries, libraries, theatres and churches are just a short walk away. Great people create exceptional things here.
Within this setting, our pupils thrive — experiencing new ideas regularly, and learning to think independently at an early age. This in turn continues to boost a long-held global reputation for scholarship, reflected through examination results, peerless outcomes in terms of top university places, and an ever-increasing list of noted alumni.
This is the opportunity that awaits girls in the future, whether aged four, seven, 11, 13 or 16: to join one of the very best schools in the world with its urban campus, superb teachers, and wide ranging curricular and co-curricular opportunities.
Any girl who is excited by this prospect is certainly a future Westminster.
Prep school to 13
Westminster Under School’s teaching to age 13 marks it out as a traditional prep school, just as Westminster School’s teaching from age 13 defines it as a traditional public school.
We know that many girls would look to join a senior school in Year 7 (aged 11), yet believe there is much to enthuse them about a Westminster Under School prep education to age 13, before then moving to Westminster School.
The prep school model is widely seen as being able to offer pupils a two-year boost. At Westminster Under School in Years 7 and 8, class sizes remain small and teaching becomes increasingly specialist. Pupils learn skills to help with resilience, leadership, self-esteem, independence and thinking outside the box, and are offered positions of responsibility, including Heads of School, School Council members, Enterprise Ambassadors, House captains, and sports team captains.
By the time they leave to embark on studies leading to their GCSE examinations, pupils have a clear awareness of their strengths and skills, developed within a secure and friendly environment.
With co-education and pre-prep has also come a large new building, Chapter House, which is light and spacious, with modern facilities, designed with girls and boys equally in mind. This new space, which includes social areas, will provide the perfect environment for girls aged 11 to 13 to explore new ideas and activities — with the chance to set up and run clubs and societies — before the move up to Westminster School (or indeed another senior school) aged 13.
Chapter House adds to the feeling of Westminster Under School being part of a broader campus, with excellence in teaching spaces, the sporting provision of Vincent Square and Lawrence Hall, and access to the facilities of Westminster School.
This additional 13+ option in London means girls now have the chance to stay at their existing prep school until the end of Year 8, before joining Westminster School aged 13.