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

Well, obviously it’s not literally a law - I can see how it was good for William, Hazza and the Middletons. But I just have this feeling about George. He looks sensitive which he has every right to be BTW, and it may be too soon to be going away from his close family circle. Obvs not my business but there’s something deeply grim about the pressure he must inevitably feel. I just imagine that a day school would allow him to get home and recover after everyone will obviously be watching how well he does at everything. Awful pressure for a child.

I would be very impressed if they kept him at home and let him be a day boy.

This is obviously none of my business 😆

At boarding school, Prince George is just George and none of the boys care either way. That is the whole point of it, if he can cope with boarding (which includes his own single room and boarding school furniture and slop and living in uniform and trackies like everyone else) it gives kids like him far more normality during a crucial period of independence as teens. It arguably means he can be more normal not less. Whatever they will decide, I am sure he will be fine and has some good friends. I bet the novelty wears off pretty quickly even for the most socially climbing parents and I doubt the kids ever cared either way. I went to school with plenty of who’s who‘s and super rich, nobody cared at that age. Whatever the parents think or don’t think is separate.

I agree for older kids but I genuinely believe some kids are better going away from home later than others. I was a boarder as a sixth former and absolutely loved it. I probably would have loved it from age 11 too. But that doesn’t mean it suits every child.

But even though I am no royalist - I do think these two particular parents are likely to put the child’s needs first whatever that looks like. They clearly take parenting very seriously which is good to see.

And of course they have incredible resources to support them to do so.

Also, I think it’s a bit naive to think he will just be “George”. That’s not what the royals have found in the past and we are in very knowing times. Those kids will know the weight of who he is and I do not think it likely that it will be forgotten by all of them. You may well have known high rollers or celebrities or grand people but this lad is out of all categories. He is in a category of one and therefore incomparable to your experience I would argue.

I will say that my DD was a day girl in a school with boarders and it was not a good experience.

She absolutely had the worst of both worlds-very long days-getting back too late to have any real family time and missing out on the fun at school.

I would look carefully at how the school integrates day and boarding.
DD ended up leaving...

That’s not what the royals have found in the past and we are in very knowing times.

Im not sure what you mean by this. Afaik boys who went to school with Prince William & Harry’s haven’t betrayed them with stories of what went on at Eton (apart from the art teacher who got her revenge when fired).

William and Harry I think were better off because of how badly their parents managed their split. School would have been steadier and happier than at home.
I can imagine home being safer for someone under the pressure that George is under. Obviously it seems to be assumed he would be happier at the most suitable boarding school. I went to boarding schools as day girl and a boarder and I know that some kids did not suit boarding and some thrived. I just don’t believe you can assume anything about an individual by extrapolating from broad generalizations. Their considerations are not necessarily the same as your average Marlborough parent because he arrives already under extreme pressure.