So Eton, everything I expected and more

[JoanBias]

My DS is at a private school, so I have experience of private schooling, but my word Eton was like another world.

Not just the school, but the people there.

There was one prep school being shown around, all in tweed jackets, and to a boy the spitting image of Draco Malfoy (well there was one Chinese boy, but otherwise....).

One of the mothers doing the tour was not quite right in some respect, I'm not sure how but something wasn't wired up correctly or something. She was immacuately dressed, 6-inch heels (pretty daft considering the confirmation letter warns about having a long walk), but she was just bizarre. The admissions tutor said 'we have a waiting list of 80 boys and typically 35% of these will make it through', and she asked afterwards 'so 80% of the boys from the waiting list make it through?', and it was then explained again, but you could kind of hear the cogs going round and she clearly didn't get it. She had asked several other similar questions; e.g., it was explained that some Houses are catering and others go to a central cafeteria, so she then asked 'so they all eat in the cafeteria'? She pointed at the Fives Court and asked me 'what do they play here?' I said 'Fives' 'Is it squash?', she said. 'No, Eton Fives.' 'So is it squash?' It seemed as if this woman had had the benefit of the 'Finishing School for the Terminally Dim', because she was otherwise every inch the presentable upper middle-class wife.

Another family had a son who looked the prototypical pre-Etonian, and sure enough Daddy spent the tour braying on about his House when he had been there.

The facilities were extremely impressive, although they didn't bother to show us any of the academic parts, and basically the impression was 'if your son is incredibly pushy and self-motivated, send him here and we will teach him to be entitled'. They said 'every year we reject about a third of the highest performers on the test', essentially because they aren't pushy enough. (The House Mistresses seemed quite nice though.)

Fantastic training for future managing directors and whatever, but not for us.....

Well worth it to sign up for a tour, very illuminating. They take about 100 a day from what I can see, so obligation at all....

My mum cooked everything from scratch and I was brought up in ireland where it was all from the farm etc etc which would delight even the biggest food snob.I have had 2 transplants and h=cancer and have heart disease

That's an interesting link to find out about the new Archbishop Xenia.
Another case of You heard it here first ?!

Sad to hear about their baby daughter

Avoid Gressingham dsuck especially. They have no access to water for splashing or swimming. Absolutely cruel.

A lot of farmed duck fails to meet welfare standards. Check before buying.

The evangelicals of the HTB school, like Welby, are not IME gay-hating or anything-hating, they tend to be quite sort of hugging and hand-waving types. Bit irritating really.

Xenia, do you get bored with what you eat?
That is the trouble with me.
I always say, I like variety in everything in life, except husbands.

I was fearing happy clappy, guitars and he has that aura about him. On the link he's all kind of nervous in a sense, as if a lot is held inside, no warmth and then using ridiculous phrases as if he were always going down to the pub for a quick drink, trying to appeal to the ordinary person and yet appearing so fake in so doing.

There is no more variety than in paleo diets, absolutely amazing amount of really good healthy food to eat, much much wider choice than the standard English diet today.

We had chicken feet for dinner today. Very tasty actually.

And pork in pig's blood.

My friend cooked it. She did some macaroni for the kids, but DS refused to eat it, saying it was baby food. Double helpings of pork in blood for him though.

Yes I heard about Welby on R4 this evening. Thanks for the link....he seems a bit wet. Actually I quite like men with beards esp the clever ones, I would though.

I didn't buy Gressigham Duck, I have in the past, I won't now.

I can manage to avoid doughnuts, well the edible ones anyway. I prefer beetroot cake. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/home/view-page/item441778/284051/

Noody do you really think it is because of a rich diet? or something to do with genes and just bloody poor luck? my mother's family are all very tall & skinny, all eat rich food, no low fat and lots of farm fresh foods (grandfather was a farmer) but they keel over because of low cholesterol (linked to SAH) which seems to imply that some people can just eat as they like and others are very susceptible to the effects of certain fats and sugar in their diet or in our case all the so called "wrong" food has no effect on cholesterol.

Chicken feet

I though Welby seemed a bit nervous and unnatural and as for the other bishop.....how creepy.

which other bishop?

I liked Sentamu, but he's not really liberal enough for the West.

I wish they'd chosen more of a liberal if there are any left in the CofE ?

They seem to be a dying breed, and everyone taking things so literally in a tedious and unrealistic way.

No room these days for any subtlety or diversity of thought.

We have such wonderful church buildings in this country. I hope the CofE is still up to the job of looking after them, as well as having a credible voice to add to the general discussion.

Hope Welby will be good with people. The first thing he said on the link was he was looking forward to being with people and listening, so that's hopeful at least ?

Love the way this thread is only tangentially about Eton now and includes thoughts on the welfare of Gressingham duck, the delights of chicken feet, and the merits of the new Archbishop !

I don't think there's much market for liberal Christianity tbh in a secularized society. In a world where people go to church as a matter of course, perhaps. But not so much in the UK.

No I am just saying that my diet was exemplary and mainly free range and organic etc and my health is crap. There re no guarantees even though xenia thinks you can buy everything

I'm not a Christian, what is a liberal Christian? Hope it isn't one that is wishy washy.

The church are trying to get their hooks into my father of 82. He has started attending breakfast, a male only event for discussion and breakfast.

He said yesterday "they haven't asked me for a penny" I replied, "No they'll have the decency to wait until you croak and then send me the bill" He is probably plotting some really long miserable affair to ensure he has our full attention.

I think the Archbishop at least should be able to embrace a liberal view of Christianity and not take everything completely literally. I'll be interested to see what he has to say. I'll be surprised if he does a better job than Rowan Williams. I liked him - though he could have said more I feel.

Rowan Williams seem to say so much that by the end of it everyone was confused. He was described today as an intellectuals intellectual, which seems to be a kind way of saying he had his head up his arse. But I liked him, he seemed genuine, perhaps too erudite for the masses but a very clever man who worked very hard. Welby in contrast seemed rather dim in that you tube clip, maybe he is very much a man of our time, much like that other grinning wax work Cameron.

I'd say a liberal Christian is someone like my dear grandparents who tried to be thankful throughout a sometimes challenging life, and saw being a good Christian in terms of being kind to others.
These days, with evangelicals in strong voice, it seems to be all about believing 50 impossible things before breakfast.

My father has started going to church, one half of his family did a lot for their local church (village) but the other side were Jewish. So my father has a lot of strange ideas. In the jewish faith it isn't about what you believe but about what you do, which always seems a far more sensible thing. especially when it comes to acts of generosity and kindness. There are 613 Mitzvot or laws that should be followed but most are so easy, you wouldn't really take any time or even much thought just to perform them.

I certainly think the Jewish faith is on to something with that approach

A liberal Christian is yes a sort of wishy washy one, who sees their version of Christianity as a sort of philosophy along the lines Buddhism, rather than a statement about the origins of the universe and the destiny of mankind.

I just booked a tour at Merchant Taylors School, Northwood, and they sent me an invitation, and it's done up like a bloody wedding invitation with 'You are cordially invited' and a quote from the founder (16thC) about breeding 'gentlemen'.

I was slightly taken aback, but it's obvious that this shit sells.

In a way I'm happy to have experience of the private sector from age 5, because it inures you to this nonsense, whereas perhaps if I was a new buyer at 11 I'd be impressed. It obviously is supposed to impress people, but I'd be more interested in their IT facilities than that they are some sort of relic from the 16th century. Eton came across as almost ramshackle in that respect, an old building here, a 60s monstrosity there, all dotted all over the place, let's be honest they'd be better off with a single campus.....

Why did you change your username joan? It must be marvellous to be so aloof but if you think these schools are truly shit, why waste so much time trekking round them? Nothing better to do? What a tedious life.

I have never said any of these schools are shit, I was just making an observation on the way they are sold to parents.

If it's just a marketing thing, it doesn't matter, if it goes beyond that then perhaps I'd prefer a different school. But that doesn't make any of them shit, any more than a Louis Vuitton bag is 'shit', it's just not what I want to buy.

And of course it makes sense to trek round them all, if you are going to spend £100k+ there (and I am), I think you'd be mad not to.