Any positive experiences of Winchester College?

I would greatly appreciate any recent experiences re Win Coll Houses and Housemasters please? Also in what respect would you deem the "pastoral care and leadership woeful" would you mind elaborating please?

which house?

Another happy WinColl parent here and I agree with everything Merlin66 wrote. When we did our research, the only other comparable school in terms of atmosphere was King's Canterbury, but their intake is less academic, central dining takes away from the atmosphere, and they study in their dorms i.e. no dedicated study areas. Another one we also liked was Sevenoaks, but that is organised more as a day school where some pupils also sleep over.

Glad your boys are doing well & have managed in-spite of difficulties. It's sad the experience one has is like pot luck, depending on the HM.
When you say woeful leadership- Do you mean just the HM's or the higher ups too?

Quality of education wise, what is your experience? Does the lack of right leadership affect the quality of education too?

We have 2 sons there. They are having a good time and achieving pretty well. Sadly they have a very poor Housemaster but their friends network at school means they feel well supported. I think there are some really excellent HMs around - but some are not good. Do ask around to get clarity. Many many of the boys are kind, funny, clever, smart and great company. It's a good place to be a bright and curious boy, there are many good friends to be made and a lot to keep them busy. But the pastoral care and leadership is woeful and outdated in some houses, sadly.

My son is at the school currently. I am not sure what ethical gaps there are with the current Head. People do talk a lot of nonsense on these threads. You'll find the people who are most vocal and critical are not representative of the vast majority of the parents and/or pupils views.

Pastoral care is actually pretty good now. The Housemaster is proactive and supportive, the school also has a large team of counsellors to help kids who need it.

Intellectually the school is very strong. The focus of the school isn't just getting the best grades/being top of the league table, although it is very strong on grades as well. A quarter of their time at A-level is spent studying a non examined subject designed to broaden their education and minds. It is excellent. They also spend a lot of time in class going beyond the syllabus. As pupils are mostly pretty smart and the syllabuses are narrow this offers a much deeper and wider learning experience of a subject.

Winchester is a very unique school, there is nowhere else like it in the UK. The best way to decide if it is right for you is did you and child like the people you met and the atmosphere, were you inspired? If so I'd go for it.

Generally Winchester is a lot kindler and gentler than most boys boarding schools. There is hardly any bullying and there is little jock sports culture culture. pupils are celebrated for being brilliant at the piano ass much as they with a ball and a bat. People genuinely respect each other for their intellectual and cultural achievement. That is very rare in a boys school.

In terms of drinking and drugs, yes I am sure it goes on, there is probably less of it than at most private schools. The boys are kept very busy, so have little time for that.

The genuine test when I look at my son and his friends is are the school making them better people as characters in terms of human decency and intellect. I'd in most cases the answer is yes.

What other issues are there? Could you please elaborate.
It's so stressful to make a decision when half the things are hidden and we are relying on school PR to make a final decision.

Do you know how many she has expelled in her time in winchester college. You said quiet a few have gone this term? Did they leave by themselves or was she responsible of getting rid of them.

Winchester is not a very big school, does anyone know how many boys were expelled? The oversight/ pastoral care was not up to the expected standard when DS was there so I'm not surprised to be honest.

Does anyone have further information about the girls and the 6th form provision for them? My DD has recently expressed an interest (her father was a College man).

Ex Wincoll parent here, how many boys did they expell this term? There were boys in my DS's house who should have been expelled in the 6th Book for various reasons , I am very surprised they have done this.

I'm glad to hear that Winchester have decided to clamp down on drug taking, hopefully they will do the same with alcohol (this started very early on) . DS was very uncomfortable at the school and asked to leave, it puts the boys who aren't interested in a very difficult position. Lack of oversight and supervision doesn't help.

I agree that pastoral care needs a total overhaul, but as the pp said I doubt the senior management have the stomach for it. The same goes for the quality of teaching, there are far too many medicore teachers there.

I hope that Winchester dealt with it fairly, I know some of the main culprits in DS's house were untouchable at the time.

The article is complete nonsense and very condescending to current parents.

The new HeadMASTER is a bit odd. Something out of the 1950s and I can see already an agenda to throw Winchester back into something like the old style boarding school establishments - no technology, cold dorms, packed with pupils lacking privacy or space and rarely seeing your parents. Great if you're nostalgic for those times, but most of us remember those as quite miserable moments of our lives, and it would be a retrograde step for the school if that's where it goes. As a parent, I found the article patronising: plenty of great schools deliver a superb education without demeaning the parent, and the school is determined not to listen to the customer and improve in the ways they would like.

My biggest issue with the school is the quality of teaching. The best teachers are as good as any, but for a school of this reputation, there are far too many mediocre teachers who won't or can't move on, don't really care about the pupils and are just in it for themselves. It's a shame really. The place could be decent, but it needs a clear out and I don't think the current leadership have the stomach to raise academic or pastoral standards. Well done if you have a place, but you have to ask whether things will improve in the 5 years your son might be there.

The way to do that is not to keep expelling pupils (quite a few have gone this term already) but to provide excellent pastoral care, supervision and oversight. Blaming teenagers for doing what teenagers do misses the point.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/winchester-college-teaches-life-skills-mum-and-dad-forgot-9f8c3wxf5

This is a very odd article in today's Times.

' Elizabeth Stone, who became the first female headmaster of Winchester College in September, said the parents of her pupils were not always managing to teach such life skills.'

You must have more connections at the school than I did @Beyondthesea123. This will obviously prove useful in the future when you are applying for university. Some parents were well connected within the school but the majority are kept at arms length.

College had more of these parents, our house only had one that I can think of. I like the way DS2 's shares information across the school.
Winchester is very different.

If you see the pattern @cally75 and @Thankyouforthemusical could have known each other and posting to support each other idea.

@cally75 I am not sure you are Winchester College’s parents or not because if you are the parents you would have know where to get all the information and details. You would have known who to talk to.

It is also so unusual to say bad things about the school you DS just graduate when it is not a bad year for results or offers.

@Beyondthesea123 I have a DD going through the US applications this year. She will have to comitt before her A level's. It's the first choice for the girls who apply at her school. Some are very wealthy so don't mind the fees, others like DD will qualify for very generous financially aid , if she is accepted.

My DS was at Winchester @Beyondthesea123 , he left this year. Does your housemaster share this information with you? You seem to know more than the top years did when they left this summer. My DS knows boys who missed their offers, it's very stressful and I do wonder how the school is supporting them.The school over predicted their grades ,they really need to look at their university application procedures.

What year is your DS in? We had very little information about university applications during our time at the school. Our housemaster would have never discussed boys outcomes with other parents. He didn't like to answer any awkward questions. As parents we would have liked to know where boys went on to study and more importantly which degree they took. We didn't receive anything except for the information they make public.

DS2 is at another school, they are very open about university destinations. They don't give names obviously but we are given a list of all the destinations and degrees studied. I like this approach.

@Thankyouforthemusical
your writing style reminding me of someone who always trying to attack Winchester college and me in the previous posts.

Many pupils turn down Ivy Leagues even during my days. I knew friends who turn down Brown and Yale for LSE. I knew some friends who defer their entries to Columbia for a year of internship and traveling. Out of 30 pupils in the year 2023 who defer their entries must have their own reasons and activities, it is good to see the wood though.

One of the main point for someone to turndown Ivy League is it is a lot more expensive to study in the US and it also takes longer to graduate. There are also a couple of cases last year that some international student turn down Cornell and John Hopkins( although John Hopkins is not in the Ivy League but it is a top university in its own right) for engineering course at UCL ( this is more unusual ) and medical degree at King’s college ( in the US it takes much longer time to become a doctor).

Winchester does not have to tell all the details about their offers and destinations. Eton did not even publish anything for many years now.

Thank you @cally75 , she is counting down the days. Her regular applications decisions will be out March/ April, she has a mix of Ivy League and liberal arts colleges.

@Thankyouforthemusical Good luck to your DD with her US applications. My youngest DS is planning to apply. I would be interested to hear the outcome. He is applying to Westminster for 6th form, they offer lots of support for the US but any advice would be helpful.