Eton but where first?

[WLW2026]

My son has an accepted offer from an academic London day school at 11+ (think Latymer, City of London, Highgate type) with no clear 13+ entry/leavers. He also somewhat unexpectedly received an offer from Eton for 13+ in the recent round for 2028 entry. His current private primary school only runs to Y6.

My dilemma is, should I send him to the accepted day school, and then look to take the common entrance privately, or try to find (very last minute) a 11-13 prep school?

I completely appreciate this is a very unconventional route, and I’ve seen a previous poster coming under a lot of pressure from posters. I can only say that no one going into the London system can know how their child will perform for their exams, or what will suit their child when they are 11/13/older. There is no intention on my side to ‘take a spot’ from another deserving candidate!

The reason we wanted to try for Eton is that I thought it would be a good academic fit - my son loves lots of different things that are offered. Separately, he has cousins who attended and loved the school. The reason we aren’t so keen on taking a 11-13 prep place is that I don’t really want him to go to a tiny school for 2 years working toward an exam, nor are we keen for him to board now, rather than in two years. I am much more of the mind set that you can only make sure your child is at the right place for them at the time.

One solution of course is for my child to stay at the day school, but they loved the admissions process at Eton, and while they were slightly hesitant about boarding, I can easily see how in two years this might be different (ie, already very independent academically and socially, loves to go on camps with school/clubs).

May I ask if anyone here has experience of moving from Day to Boarding, and how that worked? Also, if any current Eton parents are aware of their children’s friend who might have taken this route?

thank you!

First people I would ask are Eton Admissions, they will have the best advice. From memory (former Eton parent here) they used say it was best to be at a school where CE was the principle focus, even if they weren't one of the main feeder schools. If your DS already has an Eton offer then it won't be too hard to find a school that will take him.

Not Eton but my son got a place at Brighton College Year 9 and we also had to find an intermidate solution for years 7/8. He went to a local prep school for those 2 years. They accepted him knowing that he already had a place for an amazing secondary school and took him without further testing.
my son really enjoyed those 2 years at a new school. Lots of challenges in Latin and sciences, new boys to meet and generalky a good preparation for another change in 2 years time.

Where in London are you? Surely you must have 11-13 prep options that are focused on CE and are not teeny tiny.

We are in West London. Schools I’ve considered are St Philip’s, Wetherby, Sussex house and Brighton College Kensington. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe all have quite small 11-13 year groups?
I think my son is ready for a much larger secondary school environment if I’m honest. He was excited about the multi form entry and massive variety of clubs on offer at the day school.

thanks everyone for your advice.

Thank you! Hearing good outcomes from others in similar situation makes comtemplating the change easier!

Sending him to the 11+ day school will not be helpful. He needs to go somewhere that can prep him for Eton. Not all preps are full boarding now, with an offer from Eton he will get accepted somewhere. I think if he does to the London day school you will be paying extra for the CE prep and he might decide he doesn't want to move to Eton after all. Then you have wasted money on the tutoring and delayed Eton being able to offer his place to someone who really wants it but has been stuck on a waiting list.

Yes indeed. Declining Eton is an option we are considering.

I vote Sussex House. The headmaster, Mr. Kaye, is very nice and has been there for decades. My ex-husband and all the boys in his family have been through the school, and I met Mr. Kaye at a party at my BIL's house a few years ago. It's a very settled school with him at the helm.

When my nephew was there, I went to a school fete night. (Nigella was there!) I walked around the school, and.....the boys were playing so hard, I have literally never seen classrooms in such a mess! I remember polystyrene.....absolutely everywhere. 🤣 Point being, it's not stuffy, and the boys are certainly allowed to go a bit wild and express themselves. 😮🤭

Sorry, forgot to fill in my impressions of Mr. Kaye. Very professional, knows what he's doing when it comes to that school, committed, and if I had a son I'd have no hesitation sending him to Sussex House with Mr K. as the head. It also says something about how well he gets on with the families that he was at a party held by an old boy (my BIL). I can't honestly remember if the party was before or after my nephew's time. (Said nephew is BIL's son.)

Is Eaton House the Manor too far from you? They have a decent size Y7/Y8 and Eton is one of their main leavers destinations.

I’m afraid so. One of the things we are keen on is for son to travel independently, and pretty much all south of the river is hard for us to get to on public transport.

I would agree about talking to Eton.

(CE really has become a bit of a bind - and you can’t be the only family for whom it’s causing inconvenience. I know there are different arrangements for boys entering from state schools - ideally that would be extended to others too. )

If your son enjoyed the Eton admissions process it would be an enormous shame to drop the whole idea purely because of the puzzle of the next two years.

Have a look at WCCS in Victoria - they have joiners in Y7 and lots go on to Eton.

Hiya - have you considered out of London preps - Caldicott comes to mind - multiple buses from West London and the option to board from two nights to all week if he chooses (not compulsory) which would help prep him for life as a boarder at Eton. Caldicott are well practiced at both flexible boarding and prepping for CE, with Eton being one of their key leavers destinations. It’s not too large but has great grounds and homely boarding environs, with a good range of extracurriculars. It’s definitely moved on from its previous incarnation as a gung-ho sporty boys only type place. You may also want to consider Lambrook/Papplewick who have similar buses out from West London tho’ I can’t speak as well to their offerings.

That’s excellent advice from @Raeside.

While previous experience of boarding is absolutely not necessary for boarding at senior school, it can be helpful! (Maybe particularly for a child who hasn’t spent much time away from home, or had an opportunity to develop much self-reliance.) Flexi-boarding with maybe the odd night in yr 7 and two or three nights a week in yr 8 would set them up nicely.

Not relevant to you as you already have the conditional place but I know a boy who started boarding at prep just weeks before his yr 6 pre-test. I always feel the fact he was demonstrably thrilled with boarding at his Eton interview probably helped.

look at prep boarding for a couple of years - several children joined my sons prep Elstree near reading for year 7-8. You can weekly board with bus from London.

I was also going to suggest Caldicott. Eton is a main destination for them (so they have a meaningful cohort of year 7-8) and they bus in loads of west London boys each day from Notting Hull westwards.

It’s close to its M40 exit so the commute isn’t that bad.

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions. I’ll ring up some of the preps suggested to see if there are occasional places. I think (selfishly), I’m not quite ready for my son to board at Y7, but it does sound like this might be the best route if we wanted a busy, larger environment.

gosh it’s so hard isn’t it! We all just want the best for our kids but it’s not always easy to know what that is…

Nicest boys’ prep is in Oxford.

Very summery!

Happy to chat further about what it’s like if helpful, just DM me. My son is in his final term at Caldicott.

Nobody else has said it yet but Hill House in SW3 goes up to 13 and has a lot going on to board at Eton, Radley, Winchester etc. If you don’t want to do boarding yet that might be an option.

We did london day (senior rather than last 2 years of a prep) before boarding at 13. Definitely ask Eton their opinion - is CE essential to take as we didn’t have to test again but we didn’t do Eton.
we wanted london independence / travel / life skills before boarding for 2 years and it worked really well - but appreciate it was for a different school destination. Year 7/8 in a senior school is diff to end of prep and prepares them differently

Depending on the school your son might want to board. My son was at a rural prep school with beautiful grounds and was desperate to board by Y7. By that time he was doing 12 hour days a couple of times a week so he started boarding that summer term, then all of Y8 - 4 terms in all.

Good luck with finding a school, and see what happens

As an intermediary for full boarding I would suggest atleast some boarding. Prep school boarding is alot of fun. My son lived it in year 6. Otherwise it will be a massive shock for you and him in year 9.

One of my nephews went from a through London day school - he didn’t do too well in the entrance exams in year 8 but they let him in. He then started in middle sets but got moved to top sets and got an academic award.
The boys who get into the competitive London day schools as a group are typically extremely bright and an asset to most schools, including the top boarding schools. They will be getting independent and social skills in years 7&8 which are important long term. For my nephew at least sets were completely fluid so it’s not worth worrying about, in my opinion.