Why is Harrow School Out of Favour: What Am I Missing?

[MrsHLQ]

First off, I’m well aware of the epic “diluted brand” thread about Harrow here. An interesting read and I’m not seeking to duplicate it.

This question comes from a different perspective: A positive one! I really like Harrow!

Following a number of visits, my family (including my DS) all think Harrow would be an excellent fit for my DS.

We have no prior connections to the school and yes the local area (outside the immediate “Hill”) is very far from being genteel, but that isn’t a deal breaker for us. Key for us was that we were very impressed by the ethos of the school. The fellowship and community is very strong and they seem to be interested in boys with a range of skills and interests, not just bookish whizz kids.

But strangely amongst my son’s friends (spread across two English prep schools with boarders), Harrow is very much out of favour.

By number of applications, Eton is the cohort’s number 1 choice (by a very long way), followed by Radley and then Winchester. All three are excellent schools and worthy of praise. Many boys have applied to 2 or 3 of these schools. But they have not applied to Harrow!

In fact, we do not know anyone else other than ourselves who were impressed by Harrow or who thought it would be a good fit for their son. A few people have said they were underwhelmed on the open days and others were simply disparaging without providing good reason.

But Everyone is being very coy about their own experiences/impressions of Harrow. So we are not getting any great insight or detail from them. Even one former Harrow pupil has put his son down for Eton and isn’t applying to Harrow but won’t say much about why! So frustrating!

We have visited a dozen senior schools, many of them at least twice and we thought Harrow was fantastic and right at the top of the tree in terms of fit. But we are clearly outliers.

Very strange as I thought (especially amongst this rarified group, there are no many prep school boarders) that Harrow would’ve been first or second choice for most boys. Definitely not the case at all. Typically fourth choice behind the other 3 boys schools I mention or even more commonly, they are just not applying to Harrow at all.

The views of others are not dissuading us, as “fit” is a very personal thing and Harrow seems to be a brilliant fit for our DS.

But why are so many boys (and their parents) who we know well who we think would be a good “fit” for Harrow now not even applying? They won’t tell us directly!

So the big questions for Mumsnet (where perhaps people can speak more freely) are:

Q1. What are we missing about Harrow that others have seen?

and

Q2. Why is Harrow so much out of favour right now with what would traditionally be considered its most eligible potential pupils?

Surely the EAL stats must reflect the number of student who are being provided with assistance to study English as an Additional Language. Just because English isn't your first language it doesn't mean you need to study EAL - especially if you've gone to an English (speaking) prep, you are probably pretty fluent by age 13. So perhaps Eton takes many more kids for whom English is a second language, but they don't show up because they don't need any additional help?

I know Harrow is now nearly 70% 'international', essentially a Chinese dependent model, which is great for its financials and business model, but not an attractive choice for white guys.

The DfE’s definition of EAL for the school census purposes is: ‘where the pupil has been exposed to a language other than English during early development and continues to be exposed to this language in the home or in the community’

This is a perfect satire of this thread.

Just because English isn't your first language it doesn't mean you need to study EAL - especially if you've gone to an English (speaking) prep, you are probably pretty fluent by age 13.

Yes, and surely to pass the pre tests and interviewand then common entrance, the applicant would have to be fluent to the point of bilingual.
There were a lot of boys from overseas at my son’s school and they all spoke accentless English.

Harrow Hong Kong and Harrow Beijing are very popular and highly regarded. The Harrow brand is well managed and funded in Asia. The mother school is now overshadowed by its satellite schools and has become a satellite of those originally satellite schools.

I was going to say the same thing - there is something weird about these numbers. We’ve been Radley parents for 6 years and I haven’t noticed a huge change in the proportion of overseas boys in that time. I value the chance my sons get to have friends from all over the place so have no reason to deny that there is an overseas contingent at Radley, but not out of all proportion to the other schools listed I don’t think.

Because they can charge them fortunes. Some of the nonsense that my uncle's private school where he taught had for the Chinese market was unreal. A lot of it totally exaggerated or even made up!

Yes but this is not about whether the pupil can speak English - its about the large % of total pupils in one school, boarding house or year that are culturally international pupils. This has a huge impact on the culture of a school. Harrow has become increasingly over reliant on international and particularly east asian pupils which has changed the dynamics for the UK boys who were once the core pupil cohort - no longer. Rather sad.