Winchester schools

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Does anybody have an idea of the current ratio of 12/13ys applicants to number of places at Winchest College. Also is a cheque book the main requirement for Pilgrims Sch or is there also a complusory brain search?

Happy I think that you maybe are being slightly selective in how you are interpreting the PS stats. I am certainly not querying whether or not Winchester College is a highly academic and selective school. It definitely is. However a sixth form non- selective college that has the following results taken from 2011 results PS website should be commended;

A remarkable 652 top A* grades;
33 subjects had 100% pass rates at A2 (the full A-level);
21 students scored a remarkable 700 or more UCAS points (ie the equivalent at least of 5 full A-levels at A*);
51 students obtained places at Oxford or Cambridge - one of the highest numbers from any school or college, state or independent, anywhere in the UK;

It has to be considered impressive and 51 Oxbridge places is a bus load as you accepted. Therefore in a thread about Winchester schools one would expect to see PS mentioned. So I disagree, it is something for them to be proud of especially as the selection process is not similar to Winchester College.

This is not a pissing match Win Coll is not PS and vice versa. It is not fair to compare the two: please note I didn't start the comparison. Win Coll is not just about academic results it is an alround education and it's supporters believe that if it is right for your DS then it is the best school in the world and what it offers is completely unique. The OP may have titled her posting Winchester Schools maybe to attract the eye of other MNetters but her thread was not about Winchester schools in general her posting was exceedingly specific; she asked about Pilgrims and Win Coll for all we know she doesn't live anywhere near Winchester or even in England. She most definitely did not ask for views on PS (she clearly has a child of primary school age so PS was definately not even on her radar) or any other schools in Winchester whether they be state or independent. It is so very obvious that Lemonsole and Talkinpeace2 were just using this thread for more pointless and now becoming very tedious independent school bashing. They just needed ElaineR and seeker to put their exceedingly boring and prejudiced views on this thread for it to sink into another pointless agrument and so far removed the original OP legitimate and sensible question.
Completely unrelated to Win Coll achievements with regard to PS I don't view 51 out of 1300+ pupils going onto Oxbridge as particularly impressive especially in a wealthy middle class area like Winchester in fact I think it's pretty awful.

Happy agree with your first paragraph but we will just agree to disagree on the second one. If the 1300+ were selected on academic ability then I would agree but they are not.

I dont actually care about PS results as I dont live anywhere Winchester but DS1 non selective comp sends 8-10% to Oxbridge so 4% is pretty poor and below the national average which I think is 5% although I'm happy to be corrected on this.
But you right lets agree to disagree on this.

It's not PS that can take the credit. A large number of children who wish to stay on and go onto sixth form colleges for A'level will be the brightest and the most studious. Many come from independent schools, some from Win Coll, and it is the school that gave them the strong foundation before PS and the tutoring that gives PS good results. I know many who've gone to PS and the parents paid for tutors rather than send them to private school for sixth form.

5% of 6th form students go to Oxbridge?
really?
Oxbridge take around 3500 students a year
there are rather more than 70,000 sixth formers out there
in fact over 250,000 took A levels
and many thousands more did other courses

As I said Im happy to be corrected about the national average. Still think 51 out 1300+ is not exactly an achievement.

Great Comment - Happygardening!!

So I understand this is an old thread and I guess not of much use anymore to the OP (?). But I do have an issue regarding scholarship papers amongst the ?Big Boys?:

Quote:
?My SIL DS was in the scholarship stream at his very successful but pushy London Prep and and they were told that the Win Coll scholarship (he wasn't doing it) is 1. the hardest in the country and 2 nearly A level standard.?

Really?

Hmmm . . . that?s not what I understand it to be, coming previously from a MNetter, (the 10th posting of this thread) who professes to be an Oxford Admissions tutor. Put all the other scholarship papers in the shade, don?t you think?

peteneras this is the opini

I'm not going down the route of tit for tat but we have been told on numerous occasions that DS would get an Election to Winchester, even a year early but there is no guarantee he'll get an Eton scholarship as its the hardest scholarship there is.

peteneras this is the opininion of the head at my nephew prep school a typical london exceedingly pushy day prep. In that year they achieved 20 scholarships to all the big names including Eton Win Coll and Westminster. He may be wrong but that is not really what my posting was about I'm tired of the knee jerk anti indpendent ed brigade hijacking threads and voicing their exceedingly boring and predictable remarks.

I am not anti independent schools
I benefited from them after all
When I was at school I could not even name my local state schools let alone know anybody who went to them
I am anti any form of state funded selection - academic, religious, whatever

My real issue is that the debate about private / selective / comp education is dominated by politicians whose experience of the system is based on central London and private schools
neither of which have any relevance to most of the country

I could not give a flying whether Eton or Winchester is harder to get into
I do give a flying that having gone to those schools opens careers doors that are firmly shut to children like mine.

I'm genuinely very interested that you and others frequently mention what for ease I shall call the old boy net work. What evidence do you have for its excistence? Maybe my DH is in the wrong profession but he has no experience of it and in my work we will have a larger than average proportion educated at these schools and I'm hard pushed to believe that it makes any difference to their career prospects. A friend who used to work for the civil service seemed to feel as you did so maybe it occurs there I might be wrong but I think in the past Win Coll had strong links with the foreign office. Perhaps you would be kind enough to elaborate on careers that have been shut off to you children by old Etonians etc. I'm really not trying to be patronising I just have no experience of the sort of thing you talk about.

Winchester College Election(scholarship). In 2011, 55 boys sat the test for 20 places. 14 scholarship and 6 Exhibition and 2 headmaster awards are extra. Majority of the boys sat these have A places already, some boys come from Honk kong and china and do extremely well and Winchester do not give out scholarships to just anybody, you have to be at the top of academic, music and art sports etc... Eton 98 boys sat scholarship and same again for 20 places. Over the last term, I have learnt, Winchester would prefer all rounders, music sports etc.. Over all, DS is very happy and very social.

Happy
Look at the schools attended by the party leaders of Labour, Lib/dem, Tory for the last 100 years
Look at the schools attended by the heads of the services
Look at the schools attended by Judges and QCs
Look at the schools attended by top civil servants
Look at the schools attended by the heads of QUANGOs
Look at the schools attended by the Chairmen of FTSE 100 companies (CEOs now thankfully are drawn from a wider pool)

The disproportionate amount of Public School - especially boarding - is not good for the country
as it means that legislation and justice are being meted out by those who do not understand the people they are dealing with.

Please do not get me wrong. I expect my children to achieve and achieve highly. I am already putting money aside for the expected 6 year and 5 year degree courses. The Tiger Mum documentary has been quoted at me by DH and my DCs - even though I am blonde. But the connections one acquires from public school are invisibly very strong.

On a positive note, the children of several of my friends are now at Oxford (via comps and a couple of them Peter Symonds) and they are making those same connections. I cannot afford private school but by golly my kids will get into top Unis!

PS my nephew is at Winchester and loves it!

But these people are from a different generation to your and my children. Twenty years ago in my work " a good word was put in for someone" we now have such a rigid equal ops policy and the selection process so transparent and rigid this cannot happen.
Any connections (if they exist) my DS has made have largely been through friends we have made not through his school and I genuinely hope he would not resort to using them in the future.
My DS is also blissfully happily at Win Coll as I say it's not for everyone I'm not talking about academic selection here but if it works then I believe it can't be beaten. I'm sure you know this but it does offer very generous bursaries.

I'm an accountant
at my old firm there were equal opportunities for all - so long as they had the right handshake - whoops - no women in the lodge
chatting to former colleagues NOTHING has changed
law firms are even worse - lunching at the right places and being seen at Glyndebourne is an excellent route into the 'rayt' chambers - as of this summer

I deal with the public sector and elected officials and quangos : the same kneepadded twerps are the chairs of all of them and they will NEVER hire anybody bright enough to make them look bad
sorry but its absolutely ingrained : and it will be another 30 years till it unravels

and in politics, only the psychopaths are willing to run for high office now - the rest of us stay well clear

PS Next time I'm in Winchester visiting the Castle I'll look out for your son. My fave parking place is Edgar Road - so I see lots of them coming home for lunch.

Maybe it's because you're an accountant that you are having problems with these "twerps".

My DH knows a well know barristers chambers and they wont interview old Etonians; "too arrogant" peteneras not my words or even my views.

I find anyone that judges a whole group of people based on where they were educated as rather thick!

I've just listened to a fascinating radio program about Imran Khan the well known civil rights lawyer he certainly didn't come from a privalaged background. What he achieved is truly extra ordinary. My DH feels these schools do promote the ethos of "there is no limit" maybe this accounts for many of their pupils success.

HappyG, Etonians, I suppose, don't even have to look at a shop like that barristers' chambers your DH talks about. Why else would you bother when you have various other paths to see you appointed as Lord Chancellors, Lord Chief Justices, Masters of the Roll, QC's etc. etc.?

Colleger
I am sorry, I do not understand your comment
please elucidate

Im sorry to be the one to tell you this but not all Etonians become Lord Chancellor this particular chambers has had old Etonians applying to them.
Discrimination is something I feel very strongly about I personally don't believe we should discriminate against anyone on the basis of where they went to school or because they're black or because they're in a wheel chair or for that matter becaus they went to a comp. I found discrimination of any type particularly undesirable. I used the example because I think discrimination can be against all sections of the population not just those who haven't been to the right schools.