The school's motto is Veritas in Caritate, taken from the Latin text of Ephesians 4:15: "(Speaking the) truth in love.

"[citation needed] His initial desire that working class boys were not to be admitted caused much controversy.

During the Second World War, pupils from the Priory School in Portsmouth moved to BWS to avoid the bombing of the city.

Headmaster Stuart Smallwood defended the school, saying it did not receive enough government funding and that the payments were entirely optional.

[7] In October 2021, it was reported that Wiltshire Police had investigated drugs activity among a small number of pupils.

[8] In March 2023, it was reported that a student in Year 10 had been arrested on suspicion of sending social media messages threatening to perform a mass shooting at the school.

[9] In December 2024, the Salisbury Journal reported that headmaster Matthew Morgan had left the school for personal reasons, after three months in the post.

Pupils must achieve more than 48 points (including 5 in maths and English) in their GCSEs to continue their studies in sixth form, as well as a relatively high grade in the options they propose to take.

He was known affectionately as "Scruff" by the pupils due to his sometimes unkempt hair and beard and his carefree dress sense.

Kenelm Foster wrote: "[the company is] a sort of modernist Grail (for Boys) or Solidarity which Dr Happold founded in 1935 at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury.

[citation needed] After Harwood's death in 2003, composer Sam Hanson (organist/director of music at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, formerly organ scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge), dedicated a requiem to him.

Former headmaster Clive Barnett (who left the school in 2002) is a patron of EdUKaid, a charity working in Tanzania.

[17] The "Old Wordsworthian" AGM and lunch is traditionally held after the cathedral service and Founder's Day celebrations in July.