Marlborough waitlist - is there any chance a space will come up?

[Cocodmackie]

Hello my son has been offered a place at Sherborne boys for 2028 entry and waitlist for Marlborough College. Marlborough is our number 1 choice but wondering if it’s even worth waiting? Don’t give you a rank as to where your child sits and the likelihood of even getting a place. Anyone have any advice please. I think I need to look at some other boarding schools as Sherborne logistically isn’t ideal for us. Many thanks

Princesses Eugenie was at Marlborough when we lived there and it didn't make any difference to the feel of the place.
Have you looked at places like Shiplake or does it need to be big cheese schools?
My daughter boarded in the Cotswolds, hated it but liked the girls at St Mary's.

Problem with Shiplake is it is only about 30% boarders and vast majority are weekly. For FB kids, I think you really have to look at "majority boarder" schools. I don't think Shiplake even has Saturday school.

Full boarding is becoming less and less of a thing. If you look at most of the "full boarding" schools, they all have additional weekend leave listed in addition to exeats. However, they will still run programmes at the weekend of socials and activities, whereas many of the others will not.

The Financial Times had an article about the decline of full boarding recently.

I know my son wouldn't choose full boarding for his DC. Nor his wife. He was a day boy, his partner full boarding.
Obviously if you need it for family circumstances so be it.

Thank you for your comments, no doesn’t need to be a big cheese school as you say. I did like the look of shiplake but I heard boarding numbers aren’t great. We are military so move a lot and need good weekend numbers.

I’m sure this is right - but it is also not right to say that if a school has additional weekend options that it will definitely empty out at weekends. We are Radley parents where they allow an extra weekend each side of half term and it absolutely doesn’t empty out - in fact my boys often don’t take the extra weekends. I realise this isn’t the norm nowadays but the only way to be sure is to check with current parents.

If you read my post properly, I didn't actually say that they empty out. I am quite familiar with Radley and the privi system they run. Most full boarding schools have similar.

The point I was making is that even full boarding schools allow much greater flex with weekend leave, but they still ensure they have lots on at the weekends. That is the reason why pupils at those schools will choose to stay in, whereas schools that are mostly weekly boarding will be empty.

If he’s very sporty maybe you’ve already looked at Bradfield?

Hi
Any chance you could let me know what the issue is with oundle? PM if you would prefer. Am not a journalist just a parent considering the school.

Thanks

There’s no issue with Oundle

Everyone I know thinks it’s a brilliant school, including us

quite a few DC we know go there and various others currently in Year 6 and Year 7 will be going there

the reason Oundle offers are being declined is because Oundle are only just now inviting DC for interview

but quite a lot of offers have already come in from other schools.

so for those whom Oundle was second or third choice, there’s no point putting DC through an interview etc if an offer is alreadyheld from a preferred school

all that said in terms of mixed full boarding schools I happen to think Oundle is way better than Marlborough and that view is shared by virtually everyone I know

the only downside to Oundle is that it’s a massive pain to get to from a lot of home counties locations, especially those to the south and west of London.

Brilliant thank you for clarifying! Our only issue is that we don’t really want weekly boarding so watching to see whether there is any likelihood of a change, we live too far away for daily commuting. Thanks

Oundle isn’t weekly boarding

for that reason, there’s loads Scottish kids and Channel Island kids there.

Agreed. We were slightly put off by the number of London parents who had followed the Wales from Thomas's to lambrook to Marlborough applications - not to mention very random American families with zero connection. It really did concern us that these were socially aspiring parents rather than the normal Marlborough mix

@Cocodmackie the Canford exeat links are here issuu.com/canfordschool/docs/boarding_coach_services?fr=sN2RlODMwMTAyMA

Thank you that is interesting

Pretty sure Prince George won’t be going to Marlborough but yes does put you off people would join a school for that reason alone

I’ve never heard a bad thing about Oundle but yes agree it’s the distance from where we will
likely be in London or south west that has put me off.

Agree to keep talking to admissions and updating them with any achievements of child or their reports etc.

I find it so odd that people think a royal child going to a school is a good thing - to me it would be a major drawback.

The jury is out... it seemed to be a dead cert 12 months ago however there are a few bets elsewhere. I am not sure I would want anyone to know as his parents until the last minute - poor boy. It must be so upsetting knowing what crowd it attracts 😔

For Marlborough applicants have to take and pass the ISEB Common Pre-Test when they’re 10 or 11, so unless their dc have done this then how can parents suddenly decide on Marlborough because Prince George is going there?
Unless they had some insider information dating back 3 or 4 years.

Given that there was a reasonably strong expectation even three years ago that Marlborough would be on the short list, I'm sure at least some social climbers hoping to get in with the Waleses will have put little Tommy through the ISEB and interviews for Marlborough and have left him on it, waiting to see. So in relation to the OP, I suspect the wait list is longer this year than normal, and will empty (or not) depending on whether George goes to Marlborough.

Biggest social climbers I know applied to Marlborough and got waitlisted. They are distraught

They seem now to be “settling” for Oundle, which is a school that I much prefer over Marlborough

since they are so focused on the royal connection, Oundle feels like a disappointment to them whereas I’d see it as an upgrade

goes to show that choosing schools is all in the eye of beholder!

Can I ask what is it you like about Oundle over Marlborough? I never hear a bad word about Oundle and booked in for the next open day, it’s just a lot way geographically for us.

Sure and I will compare to my views on Marlborough.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Student mix at Oundle is broad. It tends not to attract a lot of international students or flashy London types but there is IMO a much broader mix of students from across the UK: plenty of from Scotland (easy train access), the North (ditto) and Midlands. Theres also quite a few kids from the Channel Islands too (not sure why as travel links aren’t good).

that means there’s a lot of domestic diversity and whilst the families are clearly wealthy they aren’t the bling and over bearing London/SE types that dominate some schools (Wellington, Marlborough)

it also means the pupils are much more down to earth and “normal”.

STUDENTS

I had spent an extensive amount of time speaking with Oundle pupils. Both at the school and with friends children. As anyone they are all confident, well spoken, friendly and just at ease talking adults. I have found Marlborough kids to not be very impressive actually. The ones I’ve met were not quick on their feet or that well spoken and yet seemed to have an air of being standoffish, snobby and sneering. Unpleasant mix and it didn’t sit well with me.

Best way to summarize is that I’ve found the Oundle kids impressive, straightforward and down to earth. I found the Marlborough kids irritating.

FACILITIES

Oundle facilities are just amazing. They want for nothing and it’s a fantastic blend of tradition and modernity. You name a sport and they do it. Everything is highly polished. Clearly they are happy to spend money on the campus and it really shows. Marlborough campus seemed uninspiring in comparison. Win to Oundle

SETTING

Oundle is a beautiful market town, Marlborough the town is also lovely. So that’s a draw. However the difference is Marlborough is largely on a single campus whereas Oundle is spread across the town so there is more interaction with the general public. I like that

Marlborough is much better located IMO, but it depends of course where you are! :-)

ACADEMICS

Oundle don’t test on the way in using ISEB. So it’s a fairly broad intake yet their exam results are amazing. Clearly massive value add in terms of teaching. Also they have the best engineering department if any school in the country. It’s incredible. (The Patrick Centre IIRC.)

overall I’d much rather my DC be an Oundle type child than a MC one.

Maybe the "standoffish" Marlborough kids sensed they were dealing with the type of person who would go online and slag them off to all and sundry?