Westbourne School, Penarth

Coordinates: 51°26′17″N 3°10′30″W / 51.438°N 3.175°W / 51.438; -3.175

Westbourne School
Established 1896
Type Independent Boarding and Day School, Nursery, Prep School, GCSE and IGCSE, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Headteacher Dr Gerard Griffiths
Founder Caroline Ferris
Location 4 Hickman Road
Penarth
Vale of Glamorgan
CF64 2AJ
 Wales
Staff 24
Students 200
Gender Co-educational
Ages 2–18
Houses 3
Colours

Black and Red

         
Former Pupils Old Westbournians
Fundraising Society Friends of Westbourne
Website Westbourne School Website

Westbourne School is a small coeducational independent day school, nursery and prep school for children between the ages of 2 and 18 located in the holiday resort town of Penarth, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales 5.2 miles (8.4 kilometres) south west from the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.

Traditionally the school was strictly boys only. However, in the mid 1980s the decision was taken to also accept girls and become a coeducational school. There are currently 162 pupils on roll. Westbourne School opened its 6th form for the Autumn term of 2008. The school introduced the speciality of the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate Organisation.

The school is housed within two buildings, approximately half a mile apart. The first houses the Nursery and Prep, the other the senior school and sixth form. Class sizes remain small, varying from a maximum of 20 in the senior school down to as low as 8 in some subjects. The academic results are consistently excellent and Westbourne School is nationally recognised as a high achieving school. Westbourne School achieved the highest grading of excellent across all categories in its 2018 Estyn Inspection. The school is now owned by the Montague Place Group of Independent Schools.[1]

History

Foundation

The school first opened in 1895 at Ebenezer House on Westbourne Road, Penarth. However the school's foundation is deemed to be during the following year in 1896 under the headship of Mrs Caroline Ferris. Mrs Ferris renamed Ebenezer House as Westbourne House and the school was therefore retitled as Westbourne House Preparatory School for Boys.

In 1901 the school relocated to the large corner property at 13 Stanwell Road, which still forms part of the current school building.

Expansion

In 1975 the adjoining property at 4 Hickman Road was also purchased and the combined properties were developed as Westbourne Senior School. The school opened a junior college for children aged between 9 and 11 years of age. It was decided to make the additional purchase of the struggling independent St Alma’s Girls School located in Victoria Road and, with the purchase, the combined school became coeducational.

The school today

The school in 2009

Organisation

The Victoria Road facility now houses the Nursery and Prep School. The Senior School and Sixth Form are located in the main school building on the corner of Stanwell and Hickman roads.

Entrance assessments and taster days are available throughout the year. GCSE examinations for Years 10 and 11 and Common Entrance examinations for Year 8 are held in May and June.

Westbourne School also benefits from the expertise of occasional visiting teachers and tutors from local Cardiff schools, colleges and universities. School facilities include gymnasium, IT suite, library, science laboratories, sports hall as well as access to high quality local sports facilities including athletics track, Penarth RFC rugby pitch and the International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay.

Sixth form

The Autumn term 2008 saw the establishment of the school’s first sixth form, housed in a new Research and Media Centre with its separate sixth form common room and roof terrace, ICT and Computing Department.

The school offers the internationally recognised Diploma Programme of The International Baccalaureate Organisation.

The school consistently ranks Number 1 in the UK for its results, small school league tables, Daily Telegraph, Best-Schools, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Inspection

The school was last inspected in 2018 and was awarded the highest achievable grade of Excellent in every inspection category. The latest inspection report by ‘’’Estyn’’’ [2]

Results

Results in GCSE and IGCSE exams remain consistently high. In 2018 40% of pupils achieved A*, 20% of which, at the new higher grade 9, the school out-performed the national average by 5 times. 55-60% of pupils consistently achieve grade A*-A at GCSE/IGCSE. Results at Sixth Form consistently secure Westbourne as the top small IB school in the UK. In 2018, more than half of students achieved 38+ points and 2/3rds of IB students achieved a fully bi-lingual IB Diploma.


Notable former pupils

References

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