Westminster City School
Westminster City School is a state-funded secondary academy for boys, with a mixed sixth form, in Westminster. The school educates over 800 students. The current headteacher is Peter Broughton, while the current deputy headteachers are Jen Lockyer and Simon Brown.
The school became an academy in 2012. In March 2022, Ofsted rated it "good".
History
The charters and foundations of several historic charity schools were by Act of Parliament in 1873 incorporated into the Grey Coat Hospital Foundation and United Westminster Schools Foundation. UWS comprised the Westminster City School and Emanuel School, Wandsworth; the Grey Coat Hospital Foundation comprised the Grey Coat Hospital, Westminster and Queen Anne's School, Caversham. In 1910, the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers transferred the Sutton Valence School in Kent into UWS.Westminster City School is amalgamation of the former Brown Coat, Green Coat and Black Coat schools. Key dates in its history are:
- 1590: Lady Dacre petitions Queen Elizabeth I for a royal charter for a hospital in "this City of Westminster" and to provide "instruction of certain boys and girls".
- 1601: Queen Elizabeth grants order of incorporation for Emmanuel Hospital.
- 1624: Green Coat School Westminster opened.
- 1633: Charter of King Charles I for St Margaret's Hospital.
- 1654: A hospital, along with almshouses and a school, is founded by James Palmer in Westminster.
- 1671: Following a period of closure, Palmer's School is reopened as the Black Coat School.
- 1677: Bequest of benefactor Emery Hill to the Brown Coat School.
- 1688: Blue Coat School founded.
- 1698: Grey Coat Hospital founded.
- 1706: Queen Anne granted a royal charter to Grey Coat Hospital.
- 1736: Brown Coat School formally opened.
- 1847: Brown Coat school numbers increased to 60.
- 1873: Following a vote in Parliament, Queen Victoria approved amalgamation under United Westminster Schools.
- 1874: The school was formally opened.
- 1876: The 'foundation stone' was laid in Palace Street by Sir Sydney Waterlow.
- 1877: The new School building was opened by the Dean of Westminster, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.
- 1878–9: The Science and Art Department withdrew accreditation from headmaster Goffin on suspicion of supplying exam answers to students, a claim supported by a Parliamentary select committee. The school's governors retained Goffin in office, claiming he was only guilty of "over cramming".
- 1890: School officially named Westminster City School.
- 1901: The sculptor Frank Taubman placed a copy of the statue of Waterlow in front of the school.
- 1918: Education Act gives Westminster City grammar school status.
- 1939: Outbreak of the Second World War with school evacuated to Tonbridge, Kent area, amalgamating with the Judd School.
- 1940s: Westminster City School Palace Street building was badly damaged in an air raid during the Blitz.
- 1944: School moved from Tonbridge to Exmouth.
- 1945: With the end of the Second World War, school re-assembles in Westminster with numbers now down to 350.
- 1958: Golden jubilee year of the Old Westminster Citizens' Association. The school was used as a location for the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness starring Ingrid Bergman.
- 1963: 330th anniversary of the Charles I charter celebrated with a service at St. Margaret's Church, attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother who visited the school after the service.
- 1977: Westminster City School celebrates 100 years at Palace Street and becomes a four form entry mixed ability comprehensive school.
- 1983: Westminster City School and its Origins, by R. Carrington, is published.
- 2004: A teacher was raped by a pupil after class. The pupil involved was sent to prison and the teacher eventually won compensatory damages and legal costs from the school.
- 2018: £6 million Jack Pouchot Building officially opened by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. It improves music, art and drama spaces for pupils and is named after Jack Pouchot, a former pupil and the youngest man to be decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal in battle during the First World War.
Notable former students
Recent living alumni
- John Boyega is a British-Nigerian actor, known for the lead role in 2011 film Attack the Block and his main role in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
- Wes Streeting is the Labour Member of Parliament for Ilford North and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
- Andy Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, and radio dramatist.
- Terry Marsh is a former professional boxer who was an undefeated world champion.
Other notable pupils (from Westminster City Grammar School days)
- John Walter Baxter was a British civil engineer.
- Brebis Bleaney CBE FRS was a British physicist, known for contributions to electron paramagnetic resonance.
- Martin Broughton is a British businessman.
- James Dale Cassels was a British judge, journalist and Conservative politician.
- Stuart Davies was an aeronautical engineer, president from 1971 to 1972 of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and assistant chief designer for Avro during World War Two, contributing to the Lancaster, and Avro York, becoming chief designer from 1945 to 1955.
- Peter Galloway is an Anglican priest and historian.
- Andy Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, and radio dramatist.
- Sir Cyril Hinshelwood was an English physical chemist and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1956.
- Anatole Kaletsky has been an economics journalist for The Economist magazine and the Financial Times and The Times newspapers.
- Percy Edgar Lambert, was the first person to drive an automobile a hundred miles in an hour.
- John Auguste Pouchot was the youngest man to be decorated with the Distinguished Conduct Medal in battle during the First World War.
- Walter Layton, 1st Baron Layton, was a British economist, editor and newspaper proprietor.
- Brian Lightman, was general secretary from 2010 to 2016 of the Association of School and College Leaders.
- Roger Livesey, British film actor, perhaps best known for the feature film A Matter of Life and Death.
- Andy Mackay musician, best known as a founding member of the art-rock group Roxy Music.
- Edgar Mountain competed in over 800m distance at the Olympic Games in both 1920 and 1924.
- Tim Parks, author and translator, who has been resident in Italy for more than 40 years.
- Alan Francis Bright Rogers was an Anglican Bishop who held three different posts in an ecclesiastical career spanning over half a century.
- Denis Rooke was a British industrialist and engineer.
- Norman Rosenthal is an independent curator and art historian.
- Arnold Spencer-Smith was a British clergyman and amateur photographer who joined Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17.
- John Edward Tomlinson, Baron Tomlinson is a British Labour Co-operative politician. He is currently a life peer in the House of Lords.
- Christopher Warren-Green is a British violinist and conductor.
- Robin Le Mesurier was a British guitarist. He was the son of comedy actors John Le Mesurier and Hattie Jacques.