Winchester College

[Doolittle1]

Hello

Does anybody have any insight please into which houses are good. I am especially interested in the housemasters / if they are staying or going and facilities in the houses.

Many thanks.

I have no doubt a few of my son's peers in the commoner houses could've taken election but chose not to (and might have got into college). At least the ones who got into college in my son's cohort (those whom I know) didn't really have to prepare especially hard for the exam and enjoyed the challenge.

We are international applicants so interviewed "centrally" in Year 5 (rather than with individual houses) and received an offer without a house attachment. Perhaps that's why we weren't invited to Year 7 get-togethers. All I know is that my son's fellow collegemen were "new" to the house on day one so settled at the same time (I'm sure they were all attached to individual commoner houses previously).

Again, just my opinion.

Bistro - do you think College is more international than some of the other houses? I am starting to wonder whether this phenomenon that I have increasingly observed is a white British inverse snobbery thing, more of a fear of the openly “highly academic”.

Not sure I understand your question. I don't think College is any more "international" than the other houses. My point is that I was not aware of any early year "settling in" activities probably because we were an international applicant with no house affiliation. The rest of my son's year in college are all from UK prep schools so I assume they were all affiliated to one house or another prior to taking election and joining college (none of them were entrants without a year 5 offer).

So (1) in terms of candidates who were successful at election (at least in my son's year group), 100% were students with a year 5 offer, not last minute academically precocious entrants who missed the application. And (2) settling in for "collegemen" is the same, as everybody started new in college regardless of which house they were affiliated with before hand.

DS had an offer from Winchester but we decided on another school. The A level results were a little disappointing this year I thought. There seems to be a lot of disgruntled parents at the moment, this was a factor in our decision. The parent body at Eton appears to be a lot happier. DS wants to do debating and Eton put a lot more into that, he is hoping to apply the US. Eton excell in debating and are always represented in the Oxford/Cambridge schools competition. I have also heard that the pastoral care is not always good.

Interesting isn’t it? We chose WinColl over Eton for the reasons Singingforsupper chose Eton! Goes to show pupils at the same school can have very different experiences. Some friends with children at Eton have grumbled about the fact that the children are very much left to their own devices (and end up spending hours on their devices!), some housemasters not on the ball and pastoral care a bit hit and miss. My view is that the housemaster/matron is key and there is a dollop of luck with the cohort in the house. Not saying Winchester is perfect - no school is - but we think we’ve made the right decision for our son.

“My view is that the housemaster/matron is key and there is a dollop of luck with the cohort in the house.”

Yes, I agree with that completely. The housemasters also have completely different policies regarding devices/confiscating phones etc for younger years./ take away nights etc.

I have a friend who chose Eton over Winchester and Westminster because she particularly liked the fact that the housemaster she was given was really house proud aka neat and tidy and none of the rooms smelt badly and that his main focus was on building a good character and honesty rather than just academics …. People can have very different reasons for choosing a school!

There can also be boys who sit Election but choose to stay with their allocated house. Boys considering Election are encouraged to visit College in year 7 and I do think they can (usually) get a good sense of whether they would be happy there. (of course covid restrictions mean some of the current cohorts had a rather different experience of entry and Election).

My son sat Election having not got a place initially; I don't know whether all the others in his cohort had a place anyway or not.

In terms of how international College is - the proportions in each roll I've looked at seem quite variable. So far as facilities are concerned - there is significant upgrade work being planned for the next year or two I understand; but of course that is within the limits of the physical buildings so they may be looking at optimising privacy for the boys, but they will still mainly be in larger dorms. My DS doesn't seem to have too bothered by it as far as I know.

My son sat election, and we decided against accepting a scholarship and a place in College even though he was high enough on the roll. He is happy with an academic exhibition in a commoner house.

I do think College is much more "normal " than it used to be but its history of an unhealthy and very competitive environment swayed our decision. Saying that I know one year not too long ago there were 3 boys in one year with work induced anxiety that needed some time away.

That probably does happen across the other houses but it was a red flag for me

@Pythonesque have I understood correctly - your son was unsuccessful in applying in Y5 but had a go at election and got a place in College?

If that’s the case, do you have any idea why he didn’t get a place first time around?

Do you have any insights about Sargents? We're set to start there in September 2024, but our recent house visit was disappointing. The facilities were lacking, especially with the room and bathroom ratio. I'm curious about what other houses are like. There's a lot of ongoing work and more planned, but the disruption during time while DS is going to be there ( if we choose to go) wasn't what we expected. I'm open to adapting, but given the high cost and the lack of facilities, it's quite off-putting!