Another year of Westminster School’s Platform programme has ended, with children from 22 different primary schools set for their move to secondary education.
The final session of 2021’s Platform saw the children come together for a Saturday of learning and fun at Westminster Under School in November, with English, maths, drama activities and science experiments all on the timetable for the day. To mark the end of the year-long programme, all children were then received a certificate at a special celebration ceremony to mark the occasion.
Platform is a programme for Year 5 pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds with intellectual ambition and academic potential. Across a number of sessions children enjoy a rigorous, challenging and eye-opening educational experience – a preparation for future opportunities and success. At the end of each year boys and girls may choose to sit the entrance examinations of selective state schools, academies or independent schools where full bursary provision is available.
Westminster Under School’s Director of Platform, Danielle Jones, said:
It was fantastic to see another group of children come through Platform with such positive experiences and new chances ahead of them. The final day was great for everyone with football, table tennis and the chance to keep chatting and getting to know each other better. It was lovely to see many of the children exchanging details and numbers so that they could keep in touch in the future. Many also asked if they could come back to Platform next year! We have reached out to our partnership primary schools and are now looking to them for nominations for next year’s cohort, who will start in December.
The latest Platform graduates include nine who have now been encouraged to apply to Westminster, as well as 27 who have been supported to apply to other independent and selective grammar schools.