Westminster is an independent boarding and day school in the heart of Central London next to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It is a happy, busy and purposeful place where individual and collective excellence is encouraged. Boys can join Westminster at 13+ and girls and boys can join the co-educational sixth form at 16+. The origins of the School can be traced back to the monastic school of the great Benedictine abbey at Westminster which was founded over a thousand years ago. In 1560 Queen Elizabeth I gave the School its statutes in which she said: '...the youth which is growing to manhood, as tender shoots in the wood of our state, shall be liberally instructed in good books to the greater honour of the state...'.