Eton College conditional place - help finding a prep...please!

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Hi all,
against all odds, my DS1 just found out he has a conditional place at Eton for Sep 2019. I am shell shocked really as it was a wild card. Nobody from his school has ever gone to Eton and we are quite far (we are in the North). I need to find him a prep school urgently for September as he will have quite a bit of catching up to do if he wants to pass the CE. His school does not prepare for CE...
I would appreciate any suggestions....we went to see Aysgarth and liked it, but is there any other school we should consider?
Thank you so much in advance - any suggestions welcome.

Would favour Cargilfield over Aysgarth any day, though if not Cargilfield, Aysgarth would be my second choice.
Have you visited either yet?

Thanks all, yes we have visited and will be going for Aysgarth as we all liked it and it's only 45 minutes drive from home, which we feel will make the transition easier as we can go for matches, etc..

DS1 very excited.. I hope we made the right choice!!!

Thank you all for the advice on this and the past thread, it was very useful and much appreciated

Hi

My DS starts this Sep, after more than a "wild card/crazy idea to enter him, 7 wks after the deadline, two yrs ago!".

He had never been prepped/tutored at that point in time!
Since then, he stayed in his normal school - not a prep school!!- played 3 hrs tennis a day, competitions etc.
For CE preps, We did however tutored him, since last Sep (i.e. 9 months only). So, my thoughts are:

1. U have plenty of time so don't panic.
2. U don't need to move him God knows where.
3. I would simply Tutor him. Most tutors we found, were not only v bad but also pricey ( for what they offered and for their educational background).
4. PM me if you want to put you in touch with the Tutor we used for our DS. He is based in Asia, sessions were done via Skype and despite my initial "this is weird", it worked like a charm. He tutored DS in all subjects, did an intensive 3 day residential UK spell in April.

The rest, is history!

Good luck

Hi lulia68
Thankyou for your message! Unfortunately we absolutely cannot go.for the tutoring route as the school he is at is very long days and huge amounts of homework. I have an older dd1 at that school and so I know he would not have time for any tutoring hence prep has to be the only way from here..

You may also want to consider tutoring as an option.

Wondering what you decided? Have had two children at Mowden Hall in Northumberland and couldn't recommend it as preparation for Eton. They have got the odd boy in over the years but not prepared by the current Head, though he is an Etonian himself. Aysgarth really understands the system and is geared up for it, regularly in contact with Eton's Admissions Tutor and Head, who both visit regularly, and has been able to move boys up the Waiting List by keeping in regular contact with their academic progress etc. Head is hugely focussed on academics which benefits all the boys, not just the bright ones. And your son would probably end up going with other boys which will help him on his first few days, whether they are friends or not. Good luck with it all.

Thank you, we have had a whole academic year now at Aysgarth and would highly recommend it; my Ds1 loved every minute of it, I wish we had considered it sooner

That is fantastic, I'm really pleased for you. Good luck for Sept. 2019!

Thank you!!! 😁 xx

Hope you are well. I am so pleased I found this thread. Aysgarth has recently come up on our radar, and I wonder if you would not mind sharing how you've found it. It appears it offers an all-round education when compared to a few other independent schools we looked at. I would love to send a private message, but not sure how to do this please? Thank you

To send a private message, touch the "3 dots" that appear on the lower right-handed corner of each message. A list of options will then appear. Touch on "PM" and a panel will appear for you to write your message.

Hi all, does anyone have any up to date knowledge re Mowden Hall in Northumberland? We are considering it, but seems to be a lot of conflicting views, both on this forum, and amongst my friends... any thoughts gratefully received.