Eton college - what type of boys ?

Are you an overseas applicant, kavikila?

kavikila08 I really would start a new thread for your question.

I think you will also need to add more details. As your son is 12 I assume he is not taking the ordinary assessment. Is he trying for one of the scholarships? If so, it will help if you say which one so that the right people can answer.

Good luck to your son!

My son is attending his first interview with Eton college September 2014, he is 12yrs at the moment; could anyone please advice me on what he should expect and what the college expectations they require from him.

I was reasonably bright, although far from the brightest. Used to finish about just in the top half of the exams list - all boys are ranked in their first few years from 1 to 250 on their exam results unless times have changed. In my first half (term, if you like) they actually got all the boys in the year (F-Block) together and read them out, starting from the bottom! I have never felt such relief in my life as when it wasn't me, getting better and better until finally I was number 101.

Poor kid at 250-odd - nobody ever forgot that it was him.

Anyway, I wasn't the brightest there, as I said, was OK at sport but not going to break any records, and not artistic or musical in the least. However, I apparently did very well in the interview at about 11, and was accepted as long as I passed Common Entrance.

Never had a checked shirt. As already pointed out, the uniform is very quickly something the boys get used to.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the hoodie!

Thanks for those links Peteneras , I shall look forward to watching those later.

My DS is home on Long Leave at the moment, but I have to say that he seems to have hit the ground running and is absolutely loving it.

dapplegrey I had initially sent DS off with a couple of smartish polo shirts and a grey jumper for his casual kit, but they are going to be replaced by his most ghastly t-shirts and the dreaded hoodie when he goes back on Sunday < sigh >.

Bisjo - my ds never had anything as smart as a checked shirt lol. His mufti invariably consisted of jeans, the top of which came between halfway down his buttocks to the bottom of his buttocks, and various scruffy T shirts which were either too big or too small. He had one particularly choice number in bright yellow bearing the legend 'Yummy Mummy'.

Peteneras, I enjoyed the documentary. Thanks.

I agree that it probably captures the ethos. Like all these things it does not really capture the daily lives of the boys or show the "boys being boys" but I'm not sure that really matters (or is achievable).

"I just wanted to know what type of things they look for generally in boys . . ."

OP, to be honest, there are no particular 'type of things' that Eton are looking for though I hasten to add it helps if a boy is particularly good at something - anything. The former Provost, Sir Eric Anderson once said there are 1300 types of Eton-boys at any one time at Eton. And he?s right, of course - he was David Cameron?s Head Master at Eton and was Tony Blair?s Housemaster at Fettes. So there goes the so-called, ?Eton type? straight out the window!

You may find this 1993 documentary called, (30 mins) by Howard Guard useful. Although it?s almost 20 years since this film was made, I?d say essentially nothing much has changed. In it, you?ll hear comments from people directly associated with the School, from boys to Housemaster/Head Master; handyman to Provost, etc. expressing their views about the School. I particularly like the comment from a boy at around the 22?00 (min) mark. Never fails to make me laugh!

Here?s (26 mins).

Hope the sons of Ingridcold and Colleger (and others) are beginning to settle down and liking the School. I?d say, give it some time. Which reminds me of some people I know coming to the UK for the first time disliking every bit of it from Heathrow to London due to the weather, food, landscape, etc. but after a year or so, they had to be literally dragged to the plane by the Border Agency to leave Britain!

Oh right, plenty of time then, I wish him (and you!) the best of luck.

I'm glad your DS enjoyed the video, i have to say I laughed out loud. The master in the Rolls is assistant HM at DS's house .

He's 8 (year 4) Indrid so we have a long way to go before we have to make any decisions. If he is keen and his school agree he will probably do the pre-test in year 6.

I saw a documentary about Eton years ago and some of the older boys were grumbling about how they had to conform and everyone turned out the same; yet as soon as they have the chance to express themselves they all want to wear the same stuff as each other !!

How old is your DS bisjo? (If you don't mind me asking ).

well Harrow boys seem to all wear blue shirts and pale chinos for about ten years after leaving
so at least the non uniform uniforms do not overlap

True, although it does appear to be compulsory to wear checked shirts when they go into Windsor .

I was surprised how surprised ds was by the uniform as he has seen plenty of Eton boys wandering around but clearly hasn't noticed them. At the moment he has the ability but not the application to get into Eton.

The boys soon get used to the uniform, and they don't have to wear it when they are kicking around in Windsor.

Showed ds the youtube video and he's decided he wants to go to Eton, even though he thought the uniform was rather odd. I told him he'd have to work very hard at school to get a scholarship ....

sorry!

I tend to put full links on things and did not spot the purple word :-)

Talkin that is the same as Indrid's link!

The current crop of Eton boys ....

Very funny

This might answer your question style!

Cont! Sorry about error posted to early! Right school for our DC. We want them to be happy do well take advantage of all that is offered and lets not forget 5 years of boarding is going to cost at least £170 000!
We we're so lucky we were able to look at Winchester 5 times the HM's were all very welcoming and don't seem to mind and in 5 different circumstances on the 5 th time we ate with the boys in a house. The very articulate but rather sharp young man talking to me was how I suspected my DS would be at that age. This boy loved Winchester his house explained why for him it worked and then at last I could see what it was all about and why it could work for my DS too. Sadly many parents when looking at schools are not as lucky and are making these decisions having attended a guided tour and read a website. The only advise I would give is go as many times as you can to a school you like the look of and go with an open mind try and be objective about your DC what sort of person he is talk to as many existing pupils and remember these super selectives are likely to be pushy/pressurised because of the expectations of the boys teachers parents some however bright find this difficult and therefore may struggle especially in the beginning.

Bisjo this is not helped by the fact that mny schools are pretty similar. This is unsurprising same curriculum because same exams, same games so you can play other schools, most have CCF, or and voluntary service, chapel on Sunday, orchestras regular dram productions etc etc it's hardly surprising parents can't indenting the woods from the trees. We attend open have pupil guided tours and often are opinion is swayed by the child who does it, we talk to teachers, listen to heads, drink wine and eat canopes we peer in classroom and even look at bathrooms and loos all in a desperate attemp to work out if this is the right school for

I think you are right about trying to get a proper feel for school and it is difficult to do that on one visit. Ds's only requirement for his senior school is CCF, which doesn't narrow it down at all.

There are a number of points being raised here which are relevant to all choosing independent schools. I think Im correct in thinking that both dapplegrey and grovel DS's have left. I personally think education in the independent sector has and is changing. Many parents sending their DC's to schools like Eton are of course paying for the name but not just that they are ambitious they want results because they've realised that being an old Etonian is not enough. So now they want As and Oxbridge/Ivy League universities, and whereas 6-8 years a high % of a schools leavers getting these kind of results was the preserve of a handful other schools e.g. Radley have upped their game. Also children themselves are increasingly aware in these recessionary times of the importance of Oxbridge/Ivy league/A's so this also creates "a very hard, pressurised school and really not for the faint hearted or the gentle boy is why the environment."
Secondly the point that colleger made "I think one of the main problems is that the school feels and runs like a university"
I think this applies to all of these super selective schools, but this doesn't habe to be a bad thing. That is what we including my DS loved about St Pauls because it so obviously felt just like a university and he too had come from a "quaint little prep schools in the country" but he hated it he couldn't wait to get out of the place. You need to be objective about your DC.
Finally "Boys at Eton have to be bright, go-getters and exceptionally robust the housemaster said that boys who have boarded before often struggle the most because they are surrounded by excited boys trying to vie for alpha position but they don't have that excitement of being away from home or need to get involved. In the long run it can leave them quite isolated." I've heard this said before my DS full boarded at prep from yr 3 he walked into Winchester and took to it like a duck to water so this does not need to necessarily apply.
"I think my son would have been happier at Winchester but its done now."
Colleger as you know I am not 100% convinced your DS would be happier at Winchester the boys who thrive are "go-getters and exceptionally robust" it is IMO a mega pushy academic environment fiercely competitive and I am delighted to report just like a university. The pastoral care is outstanding the teaching staff 110% committed and a just as it should be when your at university a boy is pretty free to be himself and follow his own interests but I do feel that the pressure on the individual boys is immense.

The problem stems from the difficulty in choosing the right school its so easy to be bedazzled by websites, prospectuses (will someone please tell me what the plural for prospectus is) swish guided tours league table facilities and lets not forget reputation. We have to make these decisions about schools often not really ever seeing the true picture, we post on MN read the GSG Tatler and God knows what else but they are only skating over the surface really only telling us something we already know. Parents need more time and space to see the real school sit and talk to the boys/girls keep going back, try to get a true feel for what one parent we know said during our guided tour of Eton "what is the ethos that underpins this place" and most importantly will it work for my DC?