Wetherby School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wetherby School is a private school for boys in Notting Hill, London.
Its best known former pupils are Prince William and Prince Harry, who were sent there by their mother Diana, Princess of Wales while they were living at nearby Kensington Palace. Other former pupils include the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Oscar winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes; the actor Hugh Grant also attended the school.
Wetherby School was founded in 1951 as a pre-preparatory school for boys aged 4-8. In 2004 it opened a preparatory department (known as Wetherby Prep, and intended to be a separate school) in a nearby building, allowing boys to stay on until age 13. The pre-preparatory school had, in 2005, 233 boys on its roll, including 29 under the age of 5.
The school's original building, in 1951, was in Wetherby Place in south Kensington (hence the name, Wetherby School) but in 1971 it moved to its present building in Pembridge Square, on the other side of Kensington Gardens. The school building is a white stucco double fronted Victorian house in the Italianate style typical of Notting Hill and Holland Park architecture, constructed in about 1850. It is on the south side of Pembridge Square, a private garden square with keyholder-only access which the boys use as their playground.
Pupils are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis (which, in practice, usually requires parents to put their child down for the school very soon after birth) and operates, therefore, no entrance examination, test or interview. The result is that the school caters for boys of many different abilities and talents.
However, because fees are charged (and, to a lesser extent, because of the smart neighbourhood in which it is located), the boys tend to come from a fairly narrow professional family background. It is also a single sex school, although it is in the same ownership as Pembridge Hall, a similar school for girls which is also located in Pembridge Square. There are no formal joint activities between the two schools, but many children in each school have siblings at the other school.
It is a day school, and 75% of its pupils walked to the school during a "Walk to School Week" promotion, which shows that at least that proportion live within walking distance. However, boys go on to a range of schools, including other London preparatory schools and also boarding preparatory schools outside London.
The boys wear a uniform of grey shorts, grey blazers with red trim, white shirts and plain red ties; and a grey peaked cap. The school logo "WS" in red is on the cap and on the breast pocket of the blazer.
