Eton, Winchester etc. planning for the future

[WelshParent]

Dear All,

I am new to MN and this is my first post. So please be gentle with me if I do something wrong. I don't have one specific question but a bunch of related questions which I hope I can get some answers to.

OK, so we live in South Wales and DS is in yr3 at the moment at a local indie in Cardiff. It is a very good school but it is a full 3-18 type and produces very good A level results. DS is a bright kid and does lots of extra curricular activities including piano, tennis, swimming and ofcourse football. Teacher thinks that he is very good and is working at a level higher than expected.

Like many other parents we aspire for DS to be able to move to somewhere really good like Eton or Winchester. I have spent months and months reading about the admission procedures of each of those schools and some others like Harrow, Radley, Abingdon etc.

My first question is that if DS takes the pretest at Eton or Harrow and is offered a conditional place when time comes, I imagine they will want him to take CE. Now being in a 3-18 school he will not have been expressly prepared for CE. We do not have any good Prep school in S Wales, so that is not an option for us. Where would that leave us? Both of us spend a lot of time to guide him with his academics and would not have a problem preparing him for CE purely from a syllabus perspective but we do not have CE preparation experience. Would some private tutoring be enough over the normal school work (which is at quite a good level). What about subjects like Latin which may not be part of DS's school curriculum. Is dreaming of KS or Election a dream without being in a very good prep?

Secondly we are managing to afford school fees + other activities + uniform + childcare etc. of about 12k per annum as of now. We might be able to afford another 4-5k by really pushing ourselves. Now our total yearly take home is about 52k (gross of 79k) both working f/t. We do have some other commitments like financially supporting DH's mother, who lives abroad. So even though the 52k looks alright. We don't live too luxuriously at all, we do have a biggish house and pay a mortgage of about 1200. We don't have a huge lot of equity in it though. I know it is a speculative question but based on this are we likely to get a bursary if DS gets an offer or will our income work against us.

I will be ever so grateful for any replies.

WelshParent, my apologies for taking your thread off topic for more occasions than I like. There are many views and advices given here, some genuinely trying to be helpful and some I feel is trying to put you off going to any of these big name public schools especially Eton.

My only advice on Eton is this:

• Phone the School and ask them whatever questions you have no matter how trivial

• Make an appointment to see the School with your son (it will be a very well spent expense)

• Whilst there, ask and ask again whatever questions you still have or get confirmation to answers you already have

• Do not be put off with whatever your household income is when applying for bursary. Eton is an old school with nearly 600 years of experience. There are many richer people there with a higher income than yours and still on bursary.

• Around 25% of Etonians are on bursary/scholarship

• The average level of bursary is >60%

Hope this helps. PM me if you wish and Good Luck!

peteneras, Thank you very much for that valuable information - very useful indeed. I think the school will probably not encourage a visit so early but we will do so as soon as they do. The bursary info you provide gives me hope - thanks a lot for that.