Eton and Winchester for September 2026

[artistmother]

Good morning, my son is in Year 6 and applying to Eton and Winchester for September 2026, the schools his headmaster recommended for him which we visited and liked. My heart was set on Winchester, assuming we got offers from both schools, but comments I’ve read here are making me question the very good impression I had of the school, comments I hadn’t come across before.

I know Mumsnet is quite a passionate place and opinions should be taken with a pinch of salt but there are too many negative comments, from too many different parents, to ignore and I’m not sure why someone would go out of their way to put down a school. Unless I’m missing something?

I subscribed to the Good Schools Guide and read ISI reports, to get all the info I could about the different schools we were looking at before visiting and applying, and thought Eton and Winchester were good choices. My son loved the schools when we visited and I was happy with our decision. We particularly liked the Housemaster and House my son would go into at Winchester, we have yet to see Houses and Housemasters at Eton.

I guess my question is, why is there so much negativity around Winchester suddenly? Are things going downhill? Are boys more unhappy there than at other boarding schools? I thought the opposite. I don’t mind the mixed Sixth Form and like the fact it calls itself a “gentle” school. My son is very able academically and a nice kid and would apparently be happy at both schools (although our head prefers Eton for him) but I liked the idea of a gentle and kind institution. We know more parents at Eton than at Winchester but felt like Winchester was the safer choice... are we wrong?

We have yet to receive offers from these schools so may not have a choice in the matter but it would be great to hear from current Winchester and Eton parents who have thoughts on the above… please only share your authentic, wholesome thoughts :)

Thank you

ps. I went boarding at 13 and loved it (King’s Canterbury) and my two elder sons boarded and loved it too so we don’t have a problem with the boarding side of things.

Hello please could you DM me the house? Thanks

Happy Wincoll parent here. Three years ago we were in the same situation and picked Winchester as we felt our DS would have more of a hand in his back. Winchester is a very soft place overall, and very well balanced in sciences vs humanities. Your DC can choose any of the sports on offer (sport is compulsory, but the choice of sport is with the child), and music is off the charts.

Visit the schools as often and possible, it will tell you a lot more than random strangers on MN. You could also just go to one of the games (fixtures on the website) and observe the way kids behave with each other when unsupervised. This is what sealed the deal for us in the end, and we were not disappointed.

Is you son more into humanities? Outgoing enough to break out of his single room and proactively make friends? Mature enough to manage his own time as a teenager? Eager for all the compulsory sports? Bricks over greens? Then go Eton.

Is he academic? Leaning STEM but also classics/ humanities? Prefers to pick his own sports? Greens over bricks? Tranquility over rah rah? Then go Winchester.

Thanks @WEEonline I'm starting to get the picture of Wincoll vs. Eton.. DS is very academic, more STEM than humanities, introverted but sure of himself and close to the extroverts in his class, very mature for his age and already managing his own homework time, into all sports, calm-natured and kind. Eton being close to London is a big plus for us and I think it's the school I prefer but we have a firm offer from Winchester and a Waiting List place at Eton so am staying very open! I like the idea of girls in the Sixth Form.

If he likes STEM the facilities at Eton are hugely superior to those of Winchester. The WinColl labs are pitiful by comparison. But by now I hope you’ve had a tour of both. We were deposit paid,house chosen,fully signed up Winchester parents and switched last minute. We lost a lot of money on the deposit.
Also you should know that Winchester with all the changes of girls, new headmistress; lack of pastoral care (just have a search on Mumsnet) is finding it hard to get boys to come so lowering entry requirements . Prep schools are now getting boys who would never have made the cut getting in. Harrow, Tonbridge and Radley are now preferred destinations so less academic boys are going to WinColl. The number of international boys is almost 40%. Eton is 13%. It’s desperate

Nonsense. We are at Wincoll and it's very British, I don't think there are actual figures but feels like 10-15% international. Harrow is similar leage, but more 'militaristic' but Radley doesn't even come close.

Another reason we stayed away from Eton is the arrogance of those parents. You can sense it on this thread too, with made up numbers trying to sound credible. Many are crazy I 💬 nk. It may be anger due to buyer's remorse or something else, but Eton parents seem to be really pissed all of time somehow. It doesn't feel like they enjoy having two sides of a debate.

When was Eton anywhere near the Olympics in any STEM subject? I suggest you look into their actual achievements, not just the MN smoke and mirrors. Wincoll pupils bring home more maths/science Olympiad medals in a single term, than all of Eton combined manages to get in two decades.

Unfortunately this is not an exaggeration, you can easily look it up. Eton has newer science facilities (because they had meh in the past) but it is the usual case of form above substance. Wincoll pupils/parents are definitely more about substance and Eton more about form and arrogance. First time it gets you, but a bit tiresome after a while.

And if you walk the streets of Eton, you cannot escape the smell of Heathrow planes landing and the fumes of traffic. Kids also walk in traffic to sports and back. Tennis courts are bugged by a motorway and the main artery. Whether you want your DS to be exposed to that for 5-years is up2you.

Would you be able to probed some links to Winchester achievements in Olympiads? I only know about BMO, where it is mostly day and grammar school pupils who excel.

Keep looking, you should be able to find it amongst announcements. It's tedious work but I did my due diligence a few years ago, here is what I had back then:

Golds in STEM Olympiads at the time I looked:

• Wincoll : 29 (12 Biology, 15 Chemistry, 1 Physics, 1 Maths) also strong in Model UN (9 awards in 2022 alone) and Debating (gold in Nehru Cup, and gold French debate)

• RGSG : 10 (6 Biology, 4 Chemistry, 0 Physics, 0 Maths ) also well recognised in Model UN but less so in Debating

• Sevenoaks : 10 (Bio 6, Chem 4, Phys 0, Math 0) also well recognised in Model UN and Debating

• Eton : 0 ( I could hardly believe, so looked further. In the previous decade, there were only 2) and somewhat recognised in Model UN (3 certificates) and Debating (9x finalists)

• King's Canterbury : 0 but strength in Humanities and well recognised in Model UN and Debating

• Tonbridge : 23 (Bio 12, Chem 16, Phys 4, Math 0) but no real recognition in Humanities that I could find at the time

• Merchant Taylors : 16 (Bio 6, Chem 7, Phys 2, Math 1) not much in Debating but well recognised in Model UN

• Perse School: 32 gold (12 Bio, 16 Chem, Phys 4, Math 0) but no recognition in Model UN or Debating that I could find.

In our case, DS was a classic all-rounder: top of his year in every subject, national champion in a niche sport, grade 8 music and lead orchestra.

Surprisingly few boarding schools are balanced in terms of achievements between STEM and Humanities in the South-East (we only looked 90mins from London) and even fewer allow kids to choose their own sports. These were our criteria, and we were not looking for a STEM only school like Tonbridge.

Wincoll is one of them, Sevenoaks was the other, but the latter is organised more as a day school so you loose a lot of the boarding school magic e.g. astronomy club under the night sky at 9.15pm after Preces etc.

Harrow is also excellent by most metrics (apart from Oxbridge results) but it is a one size fits all school for a certain type which is why we decided to pass.

DS debates competitively and I must say I have never heard of the Nehru Cup @WEEonline. The top debaters in this country and internationally aim for a place at the Oxford and Cambridge finals every year. DS has qualified for the finals for the last two years and has never come across anyone from Winchester. He has met boys from Tonbridge and Eton, it’s a little surprising really. One would think that a school like Winchester would want to be represented, it’s a great skill to have. Debaters are very sought after by US universities but maybe Winchester attracts a different type of boy.

Which house is your son in?

@BeAmusedWriter please could you dm me the house your son is in?

I know two people with boys that went to Winchester. Both I'd say were on the more eccentric/nerdy side. One is now at Imperial doing Physics, the other went to Durham to do Maths and now works for the government. Both very much enjoyed their time at Winchester.

It appears to me that Model UN is a way more popular co-curricular for debaters at Wincoll, probably as they have daily Div - which is essentially debating.

Eton is indeed well recognised in debating, as you would expect from a humanities oriented school. Less so in Model UN, which probably has to do with the school's orientation.

Tonbridge was nowhere near debating the last time I looked, but I can see they have done great this year!

Why do you like the idea of girls in the sixth form?

@TheCricketers I went to a mixed boarding school and loved it. I think it’s nice for teenage boys and girls to be able to mix effortlessly and study together, etc.

@artistmother A mixed boarding school is not at all the same thing as a boys school where 5% of the sixth form is female.

My son has been at Winchester for the last 3 years - just completed his GCSEs. He has loved his time there. I have read a number of negative threads on here but they do not reflect the experience we have had.

My DS has offers from Tonbridge and Winchester (2025) ,does anyone know the GCSE and A level results at Winchester this year?

Overall on Tonbridge Vs Winchester, and an aside on Eton Vs Winchester.

First of all there seem to be some pretty pathetic comments on the latter subject. Often written by boys posing as parents. Of course some housemasters are poor and some boys will go off the rails. This happens at all schools, including the best. The negative pastoral remarks r.e. Wincoll are way off the mark for most houses.

I have a son at Winchester. I am not sure what the grades will be this year. However I suspect Tonbridge will be higher at A-level, I am really not concerned about it, the percentage gaps between the top 30 schools A-level performances are so small that Oxbridge places are a better guide on how independent schools are standing academically than league tables are.

For example a girls school that finished top 5 in the A-Level tables last year had under 10 Oxbridge offers, Winchester 30-40.

Winchester and Tonbridge are very, very different types of schools. If you want A-Grade sport in all areas (other than rowing) and A-Grades choose Tonbridge. The latter is a superb all round school, but probably with fewer intellectual and cultural peaks than Winchester. Wincoll is very strong at cricket and pretty decent at football. Music meanwhile at Winchester is insanely strong. I'd say Tonbridge is more for the hearty, beefy type who is also clever, this may have changed over the years of course.

Eton Vs Wincoll, depends on the character of the boy. Many members of our family have been to Eton. The introverts were miserable, the extroverts loved it. I'd say having met my sons friends, both types would be fine at Winchester.

Having spent a lot of time looking into the importance of league tables I have developed some theories, rightly or wrongly.

• GCSEs league tables at the top end are pretty irrelevant. If say 13% of the grades are the equivalent A or A* how challenging are the papers really? What is the point of getting straight 9s if you have to be spoon fed and neglect a more rounded education as a result?
• Winchester spend 15% of GCSE time and 20-25% of A level time on a non examined subject, Div, which is designed to broaden the pupils education and ability to learn. This of course means less time spent on the examined subjects and slightly lower grades.
• The teachers (Dons) there think the syllabuses are pretty basic for both GCSE and A-level, so with the more able sets they nail it, then move on to teach around and beyond the syllabus.
• They deliberately choose the most challenging examining boards at GCSE and A-levels to stretch the pupils.
• They don't cheat the tables. I know of a school in the top ten who make their less able pupils sit exams at independent exam centres so the poor grades are not included in the school's submitted grades. Many schools deliberately sit the easiest exam boards to boost their grades.
• Winchester take a continuous learning approach (no revision in the first year exams for example). They want boys to properly understand and learn rather than cram for exams and forget what they've learnt straight afterwards. This worked brilliantly for my son, he still averaged 80%. I am staggered by his scientific knowledge, before he went to the school he was weaker at the sciences, they are now his strongest subjects.
• Lastly they do not spoon feed the more able boys (majority of sets) in terms of exam learning, they want the boys to think for themselves. This and Div is why the school produces candidates that are of real interest to tutors at the best Universities.

Generally I remember at my Uni there were lots of boys who scored straight As from top schools, where often the chief examiner was also the head of their subject. They'd been spoon fed and hothoused on exam technique. They couldn't think for themselves. They did poorly at University and in their careers. I know I'd rather 95% A-Bs at a school than 99% with boys and girls who were able to stand on their own two feet intellectually. We all have to remember these are schools designed to prepare them for the first steps in further education and careers, not the entirely finished product. Hope this all helps and forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know.

I would agree with @merlin66 that Eton may not work well for introverts - pastoral care not great either - but it can be truly amazing for extroverts. So if your son is an extroverted popular type and perhaps also will have friends / acquaintances there from prep school then go for it. Football is very oversubscribed so best for rugby players who have a better chance of being included in the teams. Choose the house master carefully.

Thank you @Merlin66 Tombridge updated their website on A level results day and again on GCSE results day.

Winchester didn't update the results which is very unusual. Most schools update on the day.
Our choice of HM at Winchester has changed unexpectedly so we are leaning towards Tonbridge.

The pastoral team at our Tonbridge house come across as very proactive ,we are less sure about Winchester.
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The pastoral care at Eton is excellent, it will give support to boys who need it but it can't fix problems if a boy doesn't really want to be there.

It's more complex than just the introvert/extrovert thing too. I know several boys who were very introverted but who thrived in the superb musical provision.

Bumping, would any current Winchester parents be able to send me the link to their exam results this year?

Where did you get these figures from? I didn't think they were published. The 0 in STEM you quote for Eton is definitely wrong - maybe they have elected not to report their results?

I heard that the headmaster mentioned on a recent webinar that the GCSE results are stronger than last year. A level is not as good as last year but the top US uni offers are tripled.