Westonbirt celebrates a successful academic year and bids farewell to its leavers

8th July 2023

The last week of the summer term saw much celebration, albeit tinged with sadness, as the Westonbirt School community – staff, parents and students – came together to mark the end of term, recognise achievements and say farewell to leavers.

Activities in the Prep School commenced with dance parties, year group celebrations, an Entrepreneur Day with stalls run by Year 6 pupils and a final Prize Giving Ceremony. Senior School celebrations included the annual Picnic in the Park; families gathered in glorious weather on the back terraces to enjoy an informal awards ceremony for Years 7 to 10 and music performances delivered by the students.

Events culminated with the annual Speech Day and Awards Ceremony for Years 11-13 on Saturday 8th July. Speeches were delivered by Sam Antrobus, Executive Chairman of Wishford Schools; Natasha Dangerfield, Headmistress and guest speaker Darren Edwards, Disabled Adventurer and Motivational Speaker.

Speech Day is always a fantastic time to reflect on the events of the previous academic year and was an incredibly moving time as we said goodbye to the Class of 2023, some of whom have been with the School for many years, and presented subject, community and other awards to them. Our Year 13 leavers have some great destinations planned, including gap years and travel, and degree course subjects as diverse as Biomedicine, Law, Aerospace Engineering, International Development, Architecture, Nursing and Fashion Marketing at universities including Nottingham, Bath, Leeds, Edinburgh, Southampton, SOAS, as well as sports scholarships to US universities.

Natasha Dangerfield, Head of Westonbirt School, said as part of her speech:

“Hard work does reap its rewards, kindness to one another is vital and maintaining respect for each other as individuals and the environment which surrounds us will make a difference. Our responsibilities as adults and for those Y13s as emerging young adults, is to espouse this.

As we draw this year to a close, the relationships and diversity now presented on site are more relevant, and exciting. We are a thriving community and if those values we hold dear, being kindness, courage, confidence, respect, resilience and respect are measured, I can confirm we are seeing more of them.”

And her final message to our 2023 leavers:

“The time to step up and out is here. Thank you, Year 13 for the times you have given us, the examples you have set and for the passion you have brought into such different areas of the School. You are a remarkably eclectic group, with widely different interests and motivators. Your onward travel leaves a various trail of paths ahead and I know that many of you will merge together at points and as Alumni you remain part of our pattern here at Westonbirt. Remember as you journey onward through the summer and beyond, to be kind, to be respectful and more importantly, to be you.”

We wish the best of luck to all of our leavers and look forward to seeing everyone else back in September and welcoming our new joiners.