What is Eton actually like as a school?

[RosiePosiePuddle]

Eton is being mentioned loads as boris Johnson creates more chaos around Brexit.

But what is it really like as a school? What do they do there that is different to a state school or another private school?

I am not completely naive. I am a teacher and teach in a girls' private secondary school abroad. I know the differences in my school compared to a state school (better behaviour, more supportive parents, much more emphasis on pastoral care).

Does anyone have any experience or insider knowledge?

I imagine it's fairly similar to Harrow - this documentary might prove interesting

@RosiePosiePuddle ARE private schools better at pastoral care? That is not my impression. Having said that, state schools provide far better care (especially at high school) than 30 years ago - when there wasn’t any!

Pastoral care, like every other aspect of school is individual to each school.

The constant references to Private Schools being like one huge entity that delivers exactly the same standard nationwide is a complete myth.

Every school, whether Private or State is different in the way it handles things. Parents need to see for themselves if the school they'd like their child to attend will be a good fit for their child. It's usually evident on the schools' websites.

Many private schools, not all, look for a certain type of pupil and have entrance exams and interviews that have to be passed before a child will be offered a place there.

In the school I now work in, the pastoral is light years ahead of the state school where I previously worked. But it is a religious school as well.

Thanks for link on harrow. I'll watch that. I was hoping for a teacher, parent or partner of an ex-pupil to share something.

I went on a tour of Eton a couple of years ago hoping to see the modern school, but only got a mini look around the historic buildings. An old school teacher took us. He had nice things to say about Prince William, but was scathing about harry. No juicy details unfortunately, just that he was a pain.

Do the boys need to sit an entrance test before being accepted, or is it dependent on how rich or royal you are.

A lot of people are very disappointed by the pastoral care in the private sector, so it's really nice to hear that your school has got it so right

Well we can tell that Eton churns our moronic fuckwits. So clearly it’s got some shortcomings.

I am sure that there are others with more direct knowledge but my DH, BIL's and some extended family members and a few friends went/ go there. It's not a choice we'd make for our son, as he has some additional needs and I am not a great fan of boarding schools. TBH I'm neutral about Eton. It works for some and not so much for others. DH barely mentions it, DBIL did extremely well academically but has struggled in the world of work. We have visited once, it's all a bit Hogwarts and my ten year old daughter enjoyed a noisy, feminist rant :)

Here are some of the things that I've noticed:
Boys have a lot of freedom to study different things. The curriculum seems rather less fixed than in other schools.
They are greatly encouraged to study a wide range of things, even if not related to examinations, such as philosophy.
Boys live in houses with a housemaster and their family. Some houses are big, some are small. DH went home to eat at lunchtime.
I'm surprised with the sorts of things boys got away with (with just a rustication or a firm word).
DH made close friends with people from all over the world and from different families (not all of them rich, as some were on scholarships). Some of his friends are quite well known now (and are different in 'real' life) others became things like cabinet makers. His best friend sadly died in military service.
DH was very introverted and quiet at school. He lacked confidence and tells me that people were generally kind to him and teachers took time to get to know him, such as one teaching him the guitar in the evenings.

I suppose any school will 'churn out fuckwits', it's just the ones who went to Eton are sometimes high profile and get noticed.

I didn't go there :-) but have known people who did and a couple of people whose children went there. They were very happy, it was good. The two princes liked their time at Eton too, partly because it was close to Windsor Castle and London so they could go home and see family and cousins some weekends, but they did seem to enjoy Eton.

I attended 15 years ago so will give my experiences. It's hard to give an objective opinion having not studied elsewhere but from subsequent chats with friends from other educational backgrounds I'll give my thoughts:

-About 1/5 boys are on a scholarship of some kind and nobody knows who, so there is much less of a focus on money as people seem to think.

• There is a strong focus on extracurricular activities and students are fortunate enough to have some pretty amazing facilities and support from staff.
• There is also the factor of a favourable staff to student ratio meaning small class sizes and as a result much more support and interactive learning.

-Ultimately students are supported and given the opportunityto excel at those things they are good at and I think this contributes to the confidence which people sometimes see as arrogance. -As to the "old boy network", I think this is over-stated. Most OE's I know do their level best to hide the fact they went there and don't seek out other OE's. Personally I don't put it on my CV or LinkedIn and will never mention it in conversation since it comes with a lot of stigma. -Yes there are a lot of pillocks who went there, but I think that's true of other schools it's just that the Eton pillocks tend to have more of a platform and resulting impact.

My DS went, he left 2 years ago. We thought it was superb and suited him down to the ground.

DH went to an independent boarding school, and he said that there was absolutely nothing familiar about Eton that he recognised from his schooldays. They really do a lot of things differently. George Orwell said of his time there that the school allowed, and even encouraged every boy to develop and grow in his own way.

A lot is expected of the boys, a huge amount of facilities and opportunities are available to them, and they are expected to make the most of them (they choose boys who they believe will do this).

I found the pastoral care great, my DS's house had a real family feel. Masters were good, although were obviously some he didn't get on with, but several of they were truly inspirational and he is still in touch with them. There is a very strong sense of community within the school as a whole, it's like a huge family. I knew someone whose father had been a housemaster there and she grew up there. It is still an extended family for her.

The range of boys there is enormous. Contrary to what some people appear to think they are not all mini Borises. Boris is Boris.

I don't know what else to say. It is extraordinary,

(namechange for this)
Echoing another poster, a key thing to realise is that it's changed out of all recognition since Boris and Dave, or William and Harry, were there. In those days it wasn't an academically selective school. Now it is. They like to say they don't just select on academics, and I'm sure that's true; but last I heard there were more than 6 applicants per place, and most of those come from prep schools where as a matter of pride the heads will not "allow" boys to apply unless they think they are academically strong enough, so the applicant pool is heavily pre-selected. Even if they want other things as well, boys at Eton are generally very bright and the top end is phenomenal.

At the same time it absolutely isn't an exam factory - indeed perhaps that's because it's so selective; it doesn't have to focus on exams to get good results. (It doesn't get absolutely the best - 38% A-star at A level, 21% D1 at Pre-U this year, before any re-marks - but there's no question that someone capable of getting top grades and willing to work for them will end up in classes with plenty of company from boys also going for top grades.)

Boys get a lot of responsibility to plan their own time and work. Unlike Winchester (for example) there's no designated time when everyone must be working. They each have their own room, and several afternoons a week there are no lessons. They are expected to do some exercise but have a lot of choice about how much they really do, and what. Mine struggled a bit to start with to balance gaming with everything else, but better to do that struggle at 13 than 18...

Pastoral care anywhere is going to depend a lot on the individuals involved, but our experience has been fine (not that we've had occasion to know really - DS took to boarding like a duck to water and hasn't really had any problems). It's noticeable that there's a systematic effort to encourage the boys (even or especially the geeks) to develop social skills.

Many of the parents are rich but a surprising number are not - the school offers a lot of financial support. The boys, at least in my son's house, don't seem to notice or care - I think I've picked up more about who's rich and who's not, from brief meetings at parents' things, than my son does from living with the boys. In any case, the teachers are mostly pretty normal which is what matters. Teaching, as far as I can gather from what my son says and what I see of his work, is challenging and stimulating; not wildly different from what other good schools would do, but classes never have more than about 20 boys in, often fewer, top sets don't worry much about syllabuses, and regular one-one conversation sessions in modern languages are the norm, for example. The school is of course extremely well equipped.

Lots of extracurricular stuff available of all kinds - sport, music, clubs for everything.

Last: it's big (e.g., much bigger than Winchester) - 260 boys in each year.

Can't think of anything else to say. Happy to try to answer questions.

@YetAnotherEtonParent which UK girls’ school is it most like & why?

I only have boys, but I've heard parents of girls say there really isn't a UK girls' school that's much like Eton. The ones that have the same kind of academic rigour - Wycombe Abbey for example - seem to be higher pressure, more exam-focused, environments (which suits some better, of course). Maybe someone else knows more.

There were entrance exams in the princes' times at Eton, but I think they were exempted - iirc, Eton started pushing CE from the late 80s/early 90s. Previously, apart from College, the priority was given to those whose fathers or other family members had attended, whether they themselves were capable or not of passing CE.

I am not sure if they still rank boys for every exam from 1-250 or whatever every term. Probably not. But they were certainly in no doubt about where they stood for each subject - and both princes were omitted from any rankings...

It's a school that emphasises independent thought, encourages broadening horizons and not teaching for exams only. It's not for every child, though - I had one brother who loathed it in the main, and one who adored it. The OE network hasn't benefitted either, though neither have sought it out to be fair.

My friend attended there at the same time as BoJo (well he's 4 years younger but knew of him, everyone did apparently) except my friend was on a full scholarship! He said he enjoyed his time there, he chose it because his home life was a bit of a nightmare and a teacher helped him apply for scholarships. It will be different now, far more overseas students or those whose bills are being paid by companies (boarding school is offered to those who need to work overseas as a perk). The Harrow programme and also one on Gordonstone was quite focused on pastoral care, I know firsthand at my DD's boarding school that it was a huge deal.

I am not sure if they still rank boys for every exam from 1-250 or whatever every term

They certainly did when DS was there, but it only two out of the three terms, and only up to GCSE x ie the first three years. I think they also had to sit in class in the order of marks, but that may not be for every subject.

which UK girls’ school is it most like & why?

I agree with AnotherEtonParent, I just don't think there is any girls school you could compare it with.

The big change will have been the introduction of the pre-test, somewhere around 2000? Then the nature of the pre-test has been changed several times, most recently to introduce the ISEB as a pre-pre-test. (CE is not a filter: incredibly rare for anyone to fail.)

Exam ranks are still calculated: DS's school report includes them, along with a box-and-whisker plot for each exam (which shows the minimum and maximum mark, the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile, along with his mark) which is more useful. However, I'm pretty sure I remember DS saying they are no longer read out. Reading-over still exists but I think it only announces who got the top mark in each subject.

This country would be a better place if Eton didn’t exist. It’s an elitist kid of tosh that creates over-confident, under-qualified rich tosspots who go on to wreak havoc on the country.

Benenden would possibly be a girls equivalent- princess Anne went there.

RosiePosiePuddle, the teacher shouldn't have been scathing about Prince Harry, that was out of order. I wish teachers had to sign a confidential clause. I dread to think what my teachers said about me but I doubt they would have talked about me to people outside the school (& I'm not famous any way).

Prince Harry did alright in the end.

Benenden is co-ed?

PaddyF0dder
Well we can tell that Eton churns our moronic fuckwits. So clearly it’s got some shortcomings.

I think you'll find state schools are equally able to churn out moronic fuckwits, in fact I've met a few.

This country would be a better place if Eton didn’t exist. It’s an elitist kid of tosh that creates over-confident, under-qualified rich tosspots who go on to wreak havoc on the country.

Fascinating. This quote tells us everything we would ever need to know about you.

It’s an interesting one. The etonians I knew at uni were lovely young men albeit extremely privileged. There are obviously huge advantages but I don’t think I could ever choose boarding for mine. There is obviously something that many parents feel is worth it over excellent private day schools. There also perhaps seems more of a tradition of boarding for boys. Interestingly the etonians I knew had sisters that went to day schools.