Winchester College Open Day

We were asked which house we wanted to apply for. Although Ds' cousins are at one, we didn't necessarily think it would be right for Ds. So we told the school what his interests were and they suggested a house where the housemaster shared his passions. They clicked immediately. If you don't have a house in mind I suggest you do the same.

And the head would have been matching it for intelligence, SPLD and quirks. Quirks are great! :D

Where else is he interested in?

Another point to those who are interested in Win entrance. Pick the housemaster wisely. It's not just about who you get on with, although this is, of course, important. DS1 was interviewed by a Physics Don and he was able to show just how able he was. Had it been an English Don then it would have been a very different story. The same for DS2 who is very good with languages and English but more average with maths. Had he been interviewed by a Physics Don then I doubt they would have connected as well. I'd say this is the only potential downside to the admissions process but, on the whole, it is the best admissions process I've seen amongst the boys boarding schools.

I sent you a pm, unless I've send it to someone else - I did that the other day!

Our route will be slightly different as we are home educating so I won't know if we've met the entrance requirements until March 2014. If he was in a prep then they would be able to tell me. It's not that he won't pass it's more, will he hit the ground running? I wouldn't want him to be at the bottom. The difficulty though is that there are lots of myths about the WC intake and it's always made out, by parents, that all the boys are genii. My son has academic strengths in other areas to his very intelligent brother so I think I assume he's not that clever. In saying that his Latin tutor thinks he'll be well ahead in classics. I need to sort out other tutors now as his mother is tres thick!

Colleger - I don't think I ask the right questions! I assumed the head had suggested we look at WC because of DS's intelligence, didn't think he was matching it for his learning support requirements because they haven't even managed to address these properly :( Thinking about it and knowing more than I did, so many very intelligent people also have learning difficulties or some such thing that they often go hand in hand. Possibly more unusual not to have the quirky side attached! Was Winchester your top choice and are you going to run with it now he has a confirmed place?

Karobar,

How funny that you are surprised but the intake as I thought it was very known about the school. Many prep Heads would say that 50% are "quirky"!

Colleger, did you need a boarding school for your DS as well? Interesting that you struggled to find anything which matched up but if your son intelligent then WC is presumably the top of the pile for that. I am very pleasantly surprised to know that their intake are not all mainstream achievers and some learn outside the box, that suits my boy far more than I imagined it would. Just wish he wasn't on the young side as doesn't help his chances I suppose.

It may be worth mentioning other schools that do a fantastic job as I could not find a school like Winchester anywhere and I would have liked to have found a less selective alternative.

OGKT, just love your nickname! We have no choice but to board DS as husband moves around too much. Did you look at other boarding schools for your own DS as I would love your opinion on which stood out, particularly if advice is current and if you know of other boarding schools which would do a fantastic job, sounds great. Our son is into art, drama, not much good at team sports but may get into something sporty if it grabs him.... He is not into hard work which is a bit of a problem but that may change of course....

Yotty and k, don't despair.

I have posted under other names before now about Wincoll.

We withdrew Ds at a very late stage and there will be others like us. Our reason for withdrawal was simply that Ds didn't want to board and we pushed it as long as we could. But behaviour like that frees up places.

I was immensely impressed by their special needs people( Ds is pretty dyslexic).

What they and Ds' current school say is that many of their top performing boys are dyslexic. They have been trained to find ways round up to this point but now it needs to be addressed head on strategically and tactically.

Many of oh's friends are from college. Dyspraxia, AS etc all find an accepting and understanding home there. And I suspect it percolates through.

But there are other schools that also do a fantastic job.

Colleger and Indrid, many thanks for spelling out about contacting WC re. waiting list. I was going to contact Mr Pusey next week, just waiting to give the poor man a chance to catch his breath after all the mailings this week! I will definitely ask him to spell out what waiting list means. We were very late in applying (December last year) so only saw one house and housemaster which we were not mad about and any spark on interview day may have been limited by DS being underwhelmed with house on offer.... he also prefers another school at the moment.

Bink, you obviously have experience of WC from learning difficulty side of life so very interesting to hear that it is solid in that department. Do you know of any other schools that offer good support to intelligent boys? We are not sure whether to cater for the intelligence (he's young for his year) or the learning support. It is so difficult to know how our DS will be doing in two years time!

Thanks for all your advice everyone.

PS. His EPA just says SpLD which is why I hadn't given DS a specific 'label'...

Thanks so much for helpful insight into learning support at WC. I asked on the tour but didn't want to flag it up too much for obvious reasons. We are still not quite sure whether dyspraxic, dyslexic, ADD all or any and have been trying to work out whether problem lies with way trad prep school works with child or if child is behaving differently because he is intelligent but has no self esteem (always in learning support group at state school but should have been in g&t so as to inspire him rather than bore him rigid...) We don't know which schools will cater for his good brain but different way of operating. Your advice is so massively welcome and thanks for the input to date, most useful.

Yotty I cannot give you any information about the WC waiting list, but my DS was on the Eton waiting list for over 2 years until he was promoted in March for entry this September, so I might be able to offer some general points.

Firstly I agree with Colleger that it is vital to get as much info about the waiting list as possible. Ring them and ask them about the weaker points of your DS's performance and areas that might need working on etc; in my DS's case it was maths, so that immediately gave us a direction to go in!

Ask if there are any other things you can do, they might suggest expanding the range of extra curricular activites, just as an example. If he is musical then perhaps consider taking up a more unusual instrument (but only if he is interested, of course, you cannot force these things).

In our experience there wasn't a lot Admissions could tell us during the first year, but they were obviously following the progress of the boys on the list, and by last summer they had ranked it into three groups, so at least we knew then that DS still had a pretty good chance of getting in.

I would recommend ringing them every 6 months or so for an update of how your son is doing in relation to the list, that's what we did and the Admissions office were always very helpful about things to try.

I wish you and your DS good luck, and do ask if you think I can help with any other info.

I'm sure WC to reject candidates and not all are on the waiting list. I think you should email the registrar and ask exactly how the waiting list works, if there is a rank order, if it is dependent on the house you put down etc. Remember that a waiting list means your child was good enough to get into Winchester, it's just that on this occasion there were a few boys that offered a little bit extra. A rejection would have meant that he wasn't suitable in the slightest.

Hmm not quite sure what dyspexics are meant to say dyspraxics! Not hard to work out where DS's dyslexia came from!!

Yup there seems to be quite a few of dyspexics ADHD dyslexics etc. Bink is right spark is what is being looked for.

Just to follow up what HG says as to specific learning difficulties, I'd go so far as to say that dyspraxia (for instance) is so accepted at WC that it's nothing unusual whatsoever - even, or maybe even more so! - among the scholars. What seems to matter is the spark.

I don't know anything about the Winchester waiting list as luckily we were offered a place although the only boy we knew on it never was offered a place. But what I do know is that all the staff we've had dealings with are really helpful including the admission office so the absolute best people to speak to is them. With regard to "SpLD" which I'm assuming means ?? learning difficulties (I'm crap on accronyms) IME Winchester is very welcoming and supportive of these but again if you have any doubts email the head of learning support for advise. He's really helpful we emailed him before my DS started so I guess found his email on their web site but if it's not there again I'm sure the helpful lady in admission would provide it. Do PM me if you want to know more.

Congratulations Colleger.

My 10 yr old made it to the waiting list for wc for 2014, I wondered whether they do in fact reject anyone as the gen and wait lists could have up to 250 boys on them! I must be honest and say I probably didn't get wc when we went round on a private tour but from what I've read on these boards colleger and happy gardening both have good experience of a broad range of these top schools. My boy has spLd as well so not sure wc will be the optimum choice for him but wondered whether it was worthwhile to keep him on the list or if they have a vast list of boys all waiting?!

Yotty , you will see upthread that my DS is at Winchester . (& I think it is a fab school ) BUT I would just like to say that it was not what I thought some years ago , so at the risk of sounding completely platitunious I am sure the best thing will work out your DS . Also my DS was a late entrant to WinColl so stick in there . Things can work out .

In the spirit of helpfulness.

Colleger

Am so pleased your DS has place at Winchester . My son is there and loves it

All the best

MWT

Logistically now Canterbury has significantly improved train links with the fast speed rail link into St Pancreas and as far as I'm aware still trains to Victoria. I dont do coaches but I understand there is also a good coach service to airports etc. I love Canterbury/East Kent its such a nice city, loads and loads of students because of the two universities, great shops and of course the sea; just up the road with fab sailing clubs etc.

We know all sorts of children at Kings clever, less clever, straight down the middle types, quirky, all seem pretty happy and academically I think its on a par with Marlborough.

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but Markborough is becoming very hard to get into. It does a Pre-test now and they seem to be looking for strong all-rounders. HG always says good things about St Edwards...l

Yotty. I'm sorry you didn't get the news you wanted. Go and look at Marlborough. We felt the posh bit was more reputational after our visit. Lovely school and surroundings. Town is nice too - a touch of normality without being too much of a distraction. 2012 ISI report v good. A school with breadth so has something for everyone. All the kids we met were very down to earth ( maybe the posh ones were elsewhere that day!).i also think it is a lot less macho than some of the single sex schools ( testosterone gets diluted by the girls etc). Pre test is second term of year 7. Not sure when you'd need to register though so check out website.

Hope that helps.