Best boarding prep school for Eton

[cathy2016]

Hello wonderful mums and dads.

My DS got a conditional place for 2018 entry and we need to send him to a boarding prep school to prepare CE/KS. As my husband works abroad, it's got to be a boarding school. And we would prefer all boys' prep.

My DS is bright, gentle and conscientious in nature. Not particularly good at sports but happy to join in.

Please advise.

But presumably you can afford fees at Eton ...?

Not necessarily. A relatively large proportion of families with boys there couldn't think of affording the fees.

Gruach I realised that, but I assumed the OP would have mentioned if a bursery was necessary - I doubt she would have assumed a boarding Prep would be dirt cheap, plus presumably she is already paying quite a bit for an international school?

^ I could not afford Eton fees btw, so I'm not just assuming privilege.

Mmm ... The OP may (if they received the pre-test result in December) still be crossing her fingers for a further decision. And of course the international school might be paid for by her DH's employers ...

Yes Gruach, I meant school fees

And Thanks Blue for your kind and detailed advice!
I didn't realised boarding preps are that expensive. We expected half the price.
Cothill sounds fantastic. I am looking at their website now.

Cothill is all pupils full boarding too. No day pupils.

Not at all . I appreciate all your advice!

Only thing I know about Cothill (and this may have changed in the past couple of years) is that they offered no external bursaries. We rather felt that might limit the intake somewhat.

Oh! Boys at other preps on the same sports circuit recently have said the Cothill teams were far and away the most polite. And SF had the very best facilities.

OP if you were applying for yr 4 you would probably face a distinction between the first come first served country preps and the more competitive entry places. But that may matter less for yr 7.

I wouldn't disregard all the co-ed preps - The Dragon might well suit, if you could get in. (Though I think it's even more expensive than SF.)

Thank you Gruach for your helpful advice!
Cothill sounds great.
Thanks to you and everyone here, I think that we could substantially narrow down the list of preps for our DS.

Cothill is excellent. It has an excellent record for getting boys into Eton.
Re Sauveterre, its French arm, children go there from many other prep schools apart from Cothill and other schools owned by Cothill trust. My dd went, and loved it.

That’s really amazing, OP, that your DS did it all by himself in securing a conditional place at Eton. If I may say so, I think you’re absolutely right in looking now for a full-boarding boys prep school with a good track record in sending boys to Eton. I’m a strong believer in single-sex schools (boys or girls) and especially when we’re talking about Eton, the experiences of full-boarding in a boys’ prep school will be invaluable later at Eton. After all, you need to hit Eton running because there will be many new ‘F’-Block boys arriving there already well-seasoned in a familiar all-boys full-boarding environment.

To help you in your search, here is a list of prep schools arranged in county order that have sent boys to Eton throughout the ages. The list is quite daunting but I would suggest you look first at the possible location(s) of the prep school that you may be interested and then narrow down to a list of 3 to 5 schools. My earlier post listed 4 schools that have a good recent track record of sending KS’s to Eton (something you indicated as important) but two of the four may not be suitable; Dragon is co-ed and WUS is non-boarding. Personally, I won’t touch Dragon with a long pole - not so much because they’re co-ed, I might add . . .

Good Luck and Happy Searching!

Thank you!

Papplewick- Ascot
St John Beaumont -(Old windsor)
St George - Windsor

I met a lovely couple at an admissions day who were shepherding overseas boarders they were guardians for (would have been students at Dragon or Summerfields). I suspect whatever prep you select will be able to help you with that side of things. Agree that preps are less likely to have the deep bursary pockets that the oldest senior schools are blessed with. I think Eton has a scheme to support 2 years at prep pre-entry, but probably that is only for children currently in state schools and wouldn't be relevant in your situation.

I think Dragon offers scholarships for entry to any year between 4 and 7 though - exams probably coming up fairly soon if that is relevant. Don't know much about Summerfields.

For what it's worth, we find Oxford is betwen 45 mins and 1.5 hrs from Heathrow. And the airport coach service runs round the clock.

Good luck with your searching, I've a son the same age and we're in the middle of stuff about senior school choices. He's at a day school currently though so can't recommend it to you!

Python - I'm fairly sure that now they have the New Foundation Scholarships specifically for boys from state schools E. no longer offers those prep school schols. (I've certainly seen no mention of them in the past few years, nor are they mentioned on the preliminary school tour.) The New Foundation Schol does seem a very accessible portal from what I've heard.

There are competitive bursaries available at SF as far as I understand - but like anywhere you're more likely to be awarded one in conjunction with a scholarship.

Congrats to you DS for getting a conditional place. Papplewick is an amazing school. DS got a conditional place in Eton for 2017 and we moved him to Papplewick last year and they are preparing him for CE/KS. He loves it there. Not too sporty sporty but very strong in academics and music.

”To my knowledge, there are a handful of prep schools in the last 15 or so years that regularly succeed in winning the King’s Scholarship for their boys, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 KS’s in a single year.

They are:

•Summer Fields (Oxford)
•Dragon (Oxford)
•Papplewick (Ascot)
•Westminster Under School (London)

The 2016 Election Roll is published recently.

With the exception of Dragon (never my favourite school anyway), all the prep schools mentioned above seem to be maintaining their form although both WUS and Papplewick looked like they had a slight wobble.

Summer Fields seem to have aced it again this year with 3 boys on the Roll and another awarded The Martineau Exhibition. Absolutely tremendous!

The overseas boys as usual, are constantly knocking on the door. Thailand managed to squeeze one in and Spain very nearly succeeded too but had to settle for the less prestigious Annah Shaw Scholarship.

OP, I hope by now you have settled for a school and hope to see your son’s name on The Roll in 2018.

Just want to say that Windlesham House is wonderful and full boarding and sends boys to Eton sometimes as kings scholars.

I am an expat and my children are brilliantly looked after. Also they manage the whole airport transfer thing very efficiently.

St George's Windsor Castle
Aldro
Sunningdale

etc etc.