Winchester College- Sports

Sorry just reviving an old message, as it had been suggested in this thread that due to the lack of differentiation between major vs minor sports at Win Coll, it is possible to have daily (coached?) training in some niche sports like fencing or sailing or squash.

Does this mean that, for example, if my son were to take up say fencing or sailing, then he would have access to a coached session daily (or perhaps 3x a week) for every term in his 5 years there?

Workingtoohard there is emphasis on sporting achievement, it is certainly valued but IMO just not valued more than other activities (although inevitably some housemasters do). In case we are talking at cross-purposes, what sort of sports structure would you ideally like at Winchester?
Don't forget that MCS is a day school and therefore inevitably the sporty boys there will be receiving extra training playing for outside clubs and in the county development programmes outside school hours.

Workingtoohard I think you have misunderstood what we (or at least I) have been trying to explain about Winchester. Generally the coaching is fine and even very good for most sports. However as a school it selects quite a few boys who have other strengths but don't like team sports and are attracted to the liberal attitude to sporting participation.
To make it a sporty school which wins a lot across lots of teams you either have to make it a very large school (like Eton) to increase the pool of sporty boys amongst the others or change the selection (and therefore ethos of the school) by attracting primarily sporty boys or sporty boys who are also all rounders (like your DS). The headmaster would then also have to enforce main team sports and not allow boys to focus their time on other interests like music should they wish to.
There are already quite a few sporty all round boys' schools such as Charterhouse or Tonbridge or Radley. Understandably those or Eton might be more your type of school.
Tim Hands has certainly tried to build good sport coaching at MCS and may well continue that at Winchester but it would be unlikely IMO for him to fundamentally change the direction of Winchester.

OP, if you can put your hand on heart, look up to Heaven and say, paying £36,000 p.a. for an education (which to all intents and purposes can be had absolutely free elsewhere) a “joy”, then May your Lord bless you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Purse!

Amen!

OP one of the joys of being able to pay for education is that we are free to look carefully at a variety of schools and find one that suits us and our DC's. We don't all want the same thing, some are very impressed by breath taking facilities, an endless list of impressive old alumni, others want tradition, others a 21 century education others are looking for something more nuanced and discreet, we personally love Win Coll's unique daily Div lesson, the following of a non examined curriculum but not all want this and that fine we're all different. As one parent said in a rather loud voice on a tour of a school many years ago "for 30k (36 now) a year they've all got Olympics Swimming pools, manicured playing fields and books going back to the 13 th century what I want to know is what is the ethos that underpins this place?" That in my opinion is that challenge, some ram it down your neck, we visited SPS (3 times) and what it was all about was very obvious, nothing was hidden, I personally loved it, modern, liberal, multicultural, no meaningless ritual, ridiculous uniform, a true 21st century education but we found some staff slightly unhelpful, and it suited a sort of boy that I didn't and indeed don't think my DS is. We found Win Coll is more subtle, I couldn't initially see what it was all about and was frankly unimpressed at the open day but after three or four visits I worked out what it's all about and it suits us and it does suit the sort of boy my DS is. No one is wrong in their choice providing it works for them, the key is to find a school that comes closest to our must have/mustn't have list. It doesn't really matter to anyone else if you want Sanskrit lessons and 1-1 tiddlywinks lessons it's all about you and your DC. Look at as many schools as you can, talk to as many pupils and staff as you can preferably not on guided tours/open days but when they are just going about there everyday school life, look and listen to pupils, is this how you want your DS to turn our, talk to staff, do you feel that you are all singing from the same hymn sheet do they give you confidence? Can you see your DC there, can you see yourself working with the staff in the event of a problem? Decide what you want from education as well. Also decide if you the flexibility of weekly boarding or full boarding, think about travel times etc. The more schools you look at the more you'll start to form a view on what could works for you. Talk to parents with pupils at senior schools. Do these parents have the same outlook on education/life as you do? If something really matters to you ask either the school or existing parent (who are frankly more likely to give you an honest answer). I don't believe that there's a school out there that's right for all bright sporty musical boys and their parents. There are many excellent schools who educate these type of boys (and girls) take time to find one that feels right for you. Do to be swayed by "big names" or "reputations", the school that's currently your prep schools flavor of the month or single rooms and en suite bathrooms these things are all window dressing. I wouldn't spend to lomg pouring over exam results either there isn't that much to choose between many of them. Finally I do believe that as parents we have to really believe in our choice for our individual DC's, of we're positive so will they be.

”We`re planning to visit Eton and have visited Charterhouse.”

OK, Workingtoohard, that’s very sensible of you to be looking at other schools and it’s good to hear you’ve visited Charterhouse and is very impressed. I suppose you’d be just as impressed if not more so, when you visit WC sometime later on.

That being the case, I’m honestly just now a little bit concerned when the time comes for you to visit Eton and halfway through the visit you’re completely and utterly swept off your feet , smitten by the facilities which are out of this world from a school 170 years older than Charterhouse but with a futuristic outlook comparable to that of the USA's Harvard and MIT!

Oh, and with regards to WC’s excellent/fantastic reputation which you seem to be very keen on (you mentioned it twice), I’d leave this issue of ‘reputation’ to the rest of the world to decide:

Japan

India

Malaysia

Africa

Sri Lanka

and

The Middle East to name but just a few countries.

Good luck!

Workingtoohard just to echo DarklingJane.
It also sounds from your initial posts that you would quite like the idea of the weekly boarding that Charterhouse offers. We definitely would have preferred weekly boarding as a family at the stage you are now with your DS but in the end he preferred W.

That sounds very positive Working. Good luck with your investigations.

Ditto Summerends

Workingtoohard I would love to hear what you thought of Charterhouse.
If there is anything you don't want to share publicly, please PM me.

Thanks in advance.

Workingtoohard what did you think of Charterhouse?
Is there any reason why you want to narrow it down at this stage? Why not just engage with the entrance procedures of several of the contenders. In a couple of years your DS will have a much clearer idea of what he prefers and you will know more through the contact with the schools

That’s a fair comment, DarklingJane.

Somehow, over the past few years I’ve resisted, very uncomfortably I might add, to respond to some Win Coll parents (and I don’t mean you. DJ) drumming into our heads over and over again of how very academic and the rhetoric of how Win Coll offers a unique intellectual stimulation type of education; that it writes its own entrance exams as opposed to CE; that it does the ‘much harder’, ‘more challenging’ Pre-U instead of A-Levels (that the rest of the imbeciles take) and as if no other schools or academies in the world, never mind the UK, can offer the same type of stimulating, high-level education.

In short, only geniuses are admitted to Win Coll and presumably they would go on to swamp Harvard, Oxbridge etc; going on eventually to dominate the world’s top professions in medicine, law, politics, industry and commerce and be leaders of all men and creatures great and small.

But unfortunately, the only Old Wykehamist I’ve ever met happens to be a doorman at a certain nightclub! [Honest!]

Upthread, I did say I’d leave the question of music and academics alone without clouding the waters here on this thread which is about sports. Try as I did but it seems the question of music and academics keeps beckoning for a response as a couple of posters have reminded me that OP is not merely looking for sports but also academics and music. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong thread but I don’t see anywhere that OP is looking for academics although I agree she did say her son is musical.

Be that as it may, my suggestion of a more appropriate school at Windsor for this particular child isn’t a suggestion for him to come to a school with a lesser music department or an inferior academic faculty to that of the Hampshire school. I put it to you that Win Coll is not the exclusive domain of an academic education as some parents there keep reminding us that it is.

If you think your child is highly academic and the best, then Win Coll is where you go.

If you think your child is super-academic and the best of the best, then Win Coll is where you go.

If you think your child is super-mega academic and the best of the best of the best, then HERE is where you go.

As for the music at Eton, I’ll let another Eton parent, IndridCold, have the honour of entertaining you with this link she provided in another earlier thread or alternatively here if the link doesn’t work.

So OP, if you think the standard of music at Eton isn’t good enough for your DS, then perhaps you should go to the Hampshire school. But wherever you decide, I sincerely wish you the very best of luck and hope all turns out well for you.

Yes grovel, I’ve met many WinColl parents when they came to Eton to watch their sons play games when my DS was also involved. It was actually quite a delight to be talking to them all showing mutual respect and courtesy etc. It’s only here at MN that I find the Eton ethos, its uniform, its tradition, its after match tea or lack of it, that’s constantly being criticised. A school where no dog should even come. . .

But what's strange is that all the Eton tradition, ethos, rituals, history etc would have been derived from WinColl in the first place. Very disingenuous indeed.

Summerends, yes they got deleted prompted usually by the very people who wrote nasty things first and when I reciprocate they go crying ‘Foul’ to MN moderators. Oh, it happens quite regularly here and elsewhere. What a shame, some people just cannot swallow their own medicine.

By which I mean, the similarities are in truth the larger part. (Probably did not express that well)

Grovel - - William of Wykeham ( and he also nicked most of their dons )

Anyhow - agree with you - if you drew a Venn diagram of boys who go to either school and where they intersect , the intersection would be much bigger (IMHO) than you think. There are obviously differences, but from what I can gather from DS the differences are written larger than the similarities.

Or was it William of Wayneflete? Anyway Henry VI wanted some Winchester experience when he founded Eton.

I've never heard an Eton parent criticise Winchester in real life. If anything I think there is mutual respect. Eton poached William of Wykeham for heaven's sake.

Tanith must only be some parents. TBH Eton has never been discussed in my hearing in RL by parents at Winchester. I think there may always be the need between schools for some rivalry particularly with sport. Radley and Abingdon have it for example.

Gosh! I remember the good natured teasing that one family got for bringing an Eton Mess pudding to a College bring and share picnic (didn't stop it being eaten, I noticed ), but I had no idea there was such bitter rivalry between the parents of the two schools! They hide it so well!

D'you think the boys have noticed?

DarklingJane, Eton's week-end rules sound the same as Winchester's. Boys spend Saturday night at school unless it's an exeat or half-term. Chapel on Sunday is compulsory either ar 10 or 6. Towards the top of the school you get one or two more Saturday nights at home.

I genuinely believe that most Wykehamists (perhaps 80%?) would thrive at Eton and vice versa.

Peteneras did n't some of your posts in a previous W or E thread get deleted by the MN moderators? Extreme views for or against schools are fine (although better if backed up by personal knowledge of the schools) however personal attacks show a loss of perspective which reduced credibility.