Age Range. 3–16.
Number of Pupils. Day: 224 Boys, 156 Girls.
Fees per term (2024–2025). £4,389–£6,246, excluding VAT.
Westbrook Hay is an outstanding independent school educating boys and girls from 3–16 years. The school’s beautiful location boasts 26 acres of parkland overlooking the Bourne valley in Hertfordshire, and is just off the A41, between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead. This unique setting offers a secure environment, within which children explore and enjoy all that childhood has to offer.
We know that our childhood is a most precious time. Here, at Westbrook Hay, we want it to be the best time of your children’s lives. We believe that it is one filled with happiness, rich and varied experiences, in an ambitious, yet nurturing environment. This is what we strive to provide at Westbrook Hay and what makes our boys and girls the confident, well-mannered young people of whom we are so proud.
Currently offering an education up to Year 8, from September 2025 Westbrook Hay is expanding to offer a senior provision up to Year 11 and GCSEs. This is a wonderful opportunity for pupils to be educated in a nurturing, family, coeducational environment focussing on an exciting academic curriculum without the distraction of 11+ and 13+ entrance exams.
Classes are small and each individual is encouraged and helped to achieve their potential. Individuality, honesty, a sense of humour, and self-reliance are attributes that are stimulated and valued in this most friendly school, which maintains a caring, family atmosphere.
The wonderful Pre-Prep for children in Nursery to Year 2, benefits from a modern purpose-built facility, a woodland school and an exciting outdoor classroom. Children in Years 3 and 4 are class taught primarily by their form teacher, before a move to a subject-based curriculum in Year 5. Already well established, our Lower Seniors in Year 7 & 8 benefit from learning the skills of the Pre Senior Baccalaureate. The PSB has skills, attitudes and behaviours at the heart of its assessment and these skills fit beautifully into our already rigorous academic curriculum. In Year 8 pupils take part in the kids MBA, a recognised qualification introducing the children to entrepreneurship and the world of business. The Upper Senior Years of 9 -11 will be working towards an exciting GCSE programme. There is a diverse array of options that allow the children to leverage their strengths while enjoying a broad range of experiences.
The facilities of the school have benefited from significant improvements including a £2 million Pre-Prep building, a £3 million Performing Arts Centre, with 300-seat theatre and full music practice and performance facilities. The state-of-the-art Outdoor Classroom for our youngest children and the modernisation of the classrooms for our senior pupils are amongst the most recent additions to the outstanding facilities. We have further enhanced our outdoor play areas for the older children with a generously sized adventure playground.All our pupils will enjoy a purpose built STEAM facility that will meet their academic and pastoral needs and prepare the pupils for the next stage in their education. Although located separately to our younger pupils, it will be within the far reaching grounds of Westbrook Hay and accessible to all.
Extensive playing fields give ample room for rugby, football, cricket, golf, and athletics. All-weather netball courts and a heated swimming pool are complemented by a Sports Hall which provides for basketball, POP lacrosse, hockey, badminton, table tennis, cricket nets, five-a-side football, gymnastics and many other indoor sports. Westbrook Hay continues to boast a reputation of not just excellent sports results, but an all inclusive programme for every child.
An exciting range of after school activities is provided by our Westbrook+ programme including Taekwondo, skiing, fencing, ballet, drama, shooting, golf, choir, and model making, to name just a few. We offer breakfast club from 7:30am, supper club until 6:00pm and a school bus service is also available to accommodate the needs of working parents. School bus routes are extended to enable children from Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire to attend the school with shuttle buses allowing children to catch the train to local train stations.
Our Westbrook Adventure is a range of exciting residential trips for children encouraging independence, courage, resourcefulness and teamwork. The trips become progressively more adventurous as the children get older. In Year 3 our children experience a first night away from home by camping in our teepee-style bell tents in the grounds of the school. By the time the children are in Year 6, they enjoy a 5-night language immersion, history and cultural trip to France, and in Years 7 & 8 the children can participate in the trip to Iceland, a curriculum residential trip and a national sports tour. Our Upper Seniors will enjoy a wide range of domestic and international trips that will complement their GCSE studies and will be encouraged to take part in DofE to expose the children to new challenges and situations.
Charitable status. Westbrook Hay School is a Registered Charity, number 292537. It exists to provide education for boys and girls.