Good Schools Guide Review of Westminster Tutors

Aug 8, 2017

This year the Good Schools Guide came to visit us as it was a while since our last review was written. The Good Schools Guide occupies a unique position as it is the only guide which chooses which schools or colleges to include (ie it is not possible to pay to be included!), and parents also love the spirited and informal tone of the reviews which give a lively image of what is on offer at the school in question. Our full review can be found on the Good Schools Guide website but here are a few highlights of what our review said about us:

Our teachers

“The school may be diminutive in terms of pupil numbers but in the quality of its staff it rates as a Titan. The teachers tend to be stars in their fields with a level of letters after their names that would make most of their profession blush…”

Our monitoring and results

“They efficiently combat the lure of Xbox and Netflix by constant communication with parents so that even potentially wayward students switch from sci-fi movies to science homework…The net result of this highly individual (in every sense) and carefully monitored approach is results that exceed those of their competitors in the tutorial field and are impressive by any measure…”

What our students and parents say

“The students all praised the teaching and describe the tutors as being ‘really on top of it’ and one parent described it as ‘brilliant across the board, all A*s’. Parents liked the ‘old-fashioned, comprehensive reports that offer an accurate assessment with no false promises’ and felt ‘confident that we know where we are’…”

“A parent told us that they had chosen the school over similar options because the alternatives felt like ‘crammers and were run on military lines’… Last year 56 per cent went to Russell Group universities. Parents agree that they are ‘on the money’ about university choices and come up with good suggestions to add to their children’s ideas.”

About our founder, Miss Freeston

“Although it has the legal status of a school and has to abide by the same rules as its much larger competitors, the head is happy that there is not a ‘schooly atmosphere’. This is hardly surprising given the nature and appearance of its founder. Miss Freeston inhabited a smoke-filled den in Victoria, giving the distinct impression that there might be a bed hidden under either the piles of books launching an attack on the ceiling or the ancient, smelly dogs on the hairy sofa. You might have thought she was just a parody of a mid-20th century female academic, particularly as she always wore a mid-calf, much sat in tweed skirt and layers of doubtful moth-eaten cardigans. However, you would have been foolish to underestimate her ability to understand people as well as texts.”

About Westminster Tutors today

“The school has kept the same ethos and atmosphere despite its move to South Kensington and the current building is still more of a rabbit warren than a conventional educational space. It might not impress parents or students looking for a polished, modern environment and it is not for teenagers needing wide open spaces.”

Characters from the Mad Hatters Tea Party

“Students are shoehorned into tiny classrooms, reminiscent of the dormouse being stuffed into the teapot at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and there is definitely an element of the unusual in the workings of this place but there is also an academic wizard at play here. The headmistress may hanker after a swimming pool but the students lack for nothing in the level of teaching or encouragement in learning how to learn.”

All quotes above are from the Good Schools Guide 2017 review of Westminster Tutors.

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