Documentary - Eton New Foundation Scholars

[pusspusslet]

Peeps,

On 18th and 19th March at 5.30pm on CBBC is a documentary ('The Most Famous School in the World' -- part of the 'My Life' series) following the three New Foundation Scholars at Eton at the start of the 2013 academic year.

Sounds very interesting!

Funny, I think Grovel is trying to say something to me but I can't hear her!

You live outside Edinburgh?

How could any of you ever want anything more from life?

(Wodering if you're actually at Fettes or just get to admire the amazing edifice from a distance....)

I laughed, Taz.

Good luck to you and your DS. I'm sure he'll thrive anywhere.

Never done an emoticon before.

Will this work?

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I'm a techie. Yahoo!

at Grovel

I watched the programme at the weekend as James' parents run our local Chinese... Although I think our local postie might have been upset as he does the deliveries in the evening not James! As one of the earlier posters mentioned, James went to one of our local grammar schools, Westcliff High and was already a high flyer there.

ETON:
FEES & KINGS SCHOLARSHIPS.

I have 17 yrs son at Eton College (since 11) and I'd first like to clarify re
the fees at 34k. One needs to add at least 10k pa to this for the Extras, the Uniforms, the international trips that are part and parcel of belonging there.

Academically, the school ranges quite widely.
If you are really exceptional, you may become a Kings Scholar : to do this you will have to pass at aged 13 a set of exams which would be challenging for most A level students. This is because they rely in a vast breadth of reading and a deep understanding for that age - my son wrote a literary analysis of a Sylvia Plath poem for his English Scholarship (13) the Latin was fine ( just above GCSE) but the Maths papers are also notoriously difficult: especially the lateral thinking required - no amount of intensive revision could prepare you for the mathematical thinking on that - as your son might well need to use differential calculus as well as say algorithms and vertices to answer one of the harder questions - they are deliberately multi dimensional. I am a qualified doctor and part time lecturer at Imperial College School of Medicine and I couldn't do the Math's scholarship paper. It stumped me.

My boy loves sports ( Rugby -winter, Cricket summer) and performing in an orchestra. My advice: I see no point in trying for Eton unless you want to work very hard and you're an all-rounder. Yes, it is slightly elite, yes my husband went there, but they are open to many more sorts of boys nowadays - but it is not somewhere to go and sit back and watch, just getting by or have a mindset that is ever happy ' faute de mieux ' so to speak.

There are hundreds of private schools where you can go and get 10 good GCSE's and 4 good A levels and proceed to Oxbridge, but the meaning and ethos of Eton goes beyond that into a way of life, that either you subscribe to or not- in which case you should look elsewhere.

Dr. Jenny H
Trevor Sq. SW7

Eton starts at 13 not 11 so what was your son doing there 2 years early?

Also looking at the English past papers which are on the Eton website, no Sylvia Plath in the 2009-2012 papers.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude the address is the give away ;-)

I was just wondering why someone would post an obvious lie

Eton boys start at 13 surely......

Tell us more 'Dr Jenny'

The King's Scholarship exams just finished yesterday after almost a week of very stressful examinations. Good luck to all boys who took part but only 14 will be elected for the 2014/15 academic year starting September. Others can still hold their heads high for having participated in what is reputed to be the toughest exams for 13-year-olds - anywhere!

Since 2011 is maybe what she meant.

Cows
No Sylvia Plath on the 2011 KS. I hope her DS's grammar and punctuation were better hers if he really did sit it!

Apologies, I meant 2011. I'm sorry my post was written at 1000000 mph - I neither want nor have the leisure-time some here do - but I was taken aback at the suspicion and even more so at the ill-mannered nature of one or two replies.

For KS, my son did the English paper, felt unwell - and his headmaster asked to submit an essay (research project) he had recently done on the poet Plath in consideration. I realise I should have made that clear; sincere apologies! (but doesn't it clarify a high level of expectation..?)

I think my main points stand. Firstly, the KS papers are very difficult, the Math's stumped me and although some years ago I managed A grades in Math's Physics Chemistry Biology and General Studies A level. My second point is also valid : Eton 'lives its ethos' more than most independent schools - if you want only high grades, Westminster, St Pauls or Philips Exeter Academy in the States might be better, latter especially should you like the better Ivy League colleges across the pond.

Good luck with your children's schooling.
JH

Dr Jenny I think people are suspicious of your post firstly because there are a number of errors (if your DS went in 2011 he would be 16 now, not 17?)

Secondly, you appear to be disclosing a lot of personal information on a public Internet forum which is very unwise (possibly even your real name?).

I neither want nor have the leisure-time some here do

Hahahaha ha.

You are wondering why people might me suspicious of a post that seems to contain material inaccuracies and a surprising amount of personal information?

Be not me - thanks phone

FWIW there are no boys at Eton with the surname Hatton, although Dr Jenny's DS may have his DFs name of course .

I'm a bit intrigued by Dr Jenny .

I'm avoiding housework so I checked the GMC - the only Dr Jenny / Jennifer Hatton listed qualified in 2009. Mature student?

Trevor Square does exist of course. Interesting. I thought DrJenny did seem to have some inside knowledge of Eton the idea that to get the most out of it you need to "work hard and be an all rounder" I would have thought was a pretty accurate statement but them this applies to many including SPS and a Westminster. Also the idea that you have to "subscribe" to the Eton ethos we felt that when we looked round it which is why it wasn't for us.
Mind you we could all be lying no one really knows.

I don't think that Dr Jenny has said anything that you couldn't have come up with just by reading peteneras old posts...