Tonbridge School or Winchester College

[Marshmallowtreat]

My DS has been offered a place at Winchester College and Tonbridge School for year 9.
We are finding difficult to make a decision at the moment.

Can any current or recent parents offer advice?
He is currently at a London day school so he will be new to boarding.

Have you actually read the posts in this thread? If you have then may I suggest you read them again,I use the word prospective before the word pupils so these are prospective pupils,ie pupils not actually yet at the school,I also put in 23 as that is the year they would start at the school,so put it all together and you get "several prospective 23 pupils that are looking elsewhere",simples...

Even if they are prospective parents, you’ve also heard that 23 of them were now looking elsewhere, you definitely not talking to 23 of them.

Beyond Not '23 pupils', rather 'prospective pupils for 2023'.

That said, I think it is unnecessary to make fun of a school rather the specific criticisms.

This is why i admire teachers,i really couldnt deal with people like this on a daily basis..

I did not read it properly but the whole points are

1. 23 ‘prospective pupils’ are on your secondary source. You just heard about it from someone else or making your own estimation.

2 You are not being nice and polite toward other school or parents.

3 You feel that you have rights to treat other people that way.

@nolanscrack

This is why i admire teachers,i really couldnt deal with people like this on a daily basis..

People like what, nolanscrack? People whose writing style suggests that English is not their first language, and therefore they may struggle to comprehend idiomatic English at times? Or were you just trying to imply that Beyondthesea123 is less intelligent that you are?

I've been following this thread with interest as my DS has a place at Winchester for 2023. The supercilious, sneering attitude on display from nolanscrack makes me a) very, very glad we didn't apply to Eton, and b) not remotely inclined to believe a word of their posts criticising Winchester.

Honestly as an incoming 22 parent at WinColl I can't feel offended by @nolanscrack. Shes absolutely hilarious, makes me chuckle in general and we need to be able to giggle at ourselves - even more so when we're struggling.Really rather pleased that Nolanscrack is still around.

@Semental Thank you for your sympathy. English is not my first language and I am also dyslexia. It is not right for someone to pick on this. What they have to discuss is the actual content. We are here to support other parents, giving them useful information. There is no need to attack other parents or trying so hard to offend them.

@ 565e75868
When you can not feel that Nolanscrack has offended you, it does not mean other have to feel that way. When someone feeling offended, it has to stop. Nolanscarck should be around but with a better manner.

At the beginning of this thread, parents were trying to share their experience at Tonbridge and Winchester. However a certain person came in and discredited both schools then said Eton is much better.

This kind of intervention happened in many other threads by the same person. Is it possible to tell other how good Eton is without having to discredit other school especially when you have no first hand experience at neither school? I have many good Etonian friends from Uni whom also sent their DS to Eton and none of them behave this way.

Dont worry,this certain person will continue to post,

I was referred to this website as i wanted to find out more information about a particular school.
I think Nolans crack, you need to get a life. Do you really base your whole status in life on where your son goes to school and feel the necessity to make continual one upmanship comments knocking other schools. i think you should:-

• Get a job
• Do some charity work.

-Get out more. As for Beyond the Sea- Grow a backbone and don’t say ‘let be friends.’ You dont need to be friends with people like Nolan’s Crack. She makes herself feel good by putting other people down. FFS !! What a load of vacuous nonsense. They are lucky to go to any of these schools. Try and live in the real world.

@felizdia and @ Molesey66

I do not think Nolan’s crack know that what she does could hurt other people and does not project a better image of her safe or Eton. The proudest moment of her life is may be when her son got accepted to the school. She may he has nothing to hold on too and will feel inferior when someone thinks other schools are good too.

I thought being kind and nice to her even when she was not being very nice will make her change. I thought she was just a lost soul but may be I was wrong.

@Molesey66 - that is hilarious! Be careful, maybe Nolanscrack fancies a job as an educational consultant.
In any event, I value free speech and I think even if these discussions can get rather heated, at least people are free, in this country, to state what they want to, within reason. No point getting offended. Mumsnet has been like this for years.

I am very curious to see what type of new headmaster Winchester College is going to hire. I better hope it is not some young, overly woke or keen careerist guy. I hope it someone very intellectual and measured who puts staff and children’s wellbeing first.

Otherwise the school really will become unrecognisable and it will put even more people off. I agree there is no point trying to become Wellington College or Sevenoaks or any of the successful more modern mixed schools. It is not what people have bought into. On the other hand, I think mixing with some girls at Sixth Form is good for boys. So if those girls fit in, then I don’t see any problem with that. Personally, if I had the money and my children were very intellectually minded, and I lived locally, I would be happy with these proposed changes. If I had a boy sent from very far away to termly board, I might be more concerned that the ethos would change away from focus on full boarding.
As regards Eton OP, I have friends with boys there who are lovely and they are very happy with the school. I think Eton College has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. The rumour is that the more sensitive intellectual boy is just fine there these days.

Still here
Lets see who Win hire,certainly two names Ive heard that are in the running are unlikely to be called Headmaster..

We have decided on Eton now @workisnotawolf.
I think you're right Winchester is not going to be great for the boys who need to be full boarding. Not just boys from overseas but also those from other parts of the UK..I think it will become more of a local school with more day pupils added.
Interesting thought on the new Head @nolanscrack I did think that might be possible.

I am sure Winchester will continue doing well academically. It can not be so local, even Tonbridge and Sevenoaks are not meant be local and they have lot of day pupils. Their international intake will properly rise but some traditional British family may be not going to favor them as much as before.

The new head has to take up a new challenge. The college has to be able to find someone with innovative mind and a great courage. I have faith that they will find someone, it definitely has enough budget and reputation to draw a good headmaster, within a country or even from abroad.

The number of boys applying to JP ( thirdform) at Winchester college is actually increasing significantly after they announced becoming co-Ed at sixth form. The number from usual feeders such as Horris hill, Pilgrims and Papplewick are also not dropping.

I think Winchester College will still be very popular.
It's just that the families who have it as their first choice.will be different. Horris Hill is a very local school ( with international boarders ). My sister in law looked at it for her DS but found out most boys lived very locally and a small group of international boys. I'm not sure about the other two. Horris Hill is also going Coed and have added a Pre Prep . My sister in law got the impression that they were struggling with numbers. Having read the article in the local paper on line last summer regarding their one star rating for food hygiene I'm not surprised. Things may be improving under the new head.

I think it will become hard in the medium term to keep any element of full boarding at Winchester. It's a shame really perhaps they should have just added 6th form boarding for girls. It will be difficult for the international boys and those who live too far away to go home on Sunday or Saturday night if they add weekly boarding imo.

@Marshmallowtreat

I agree that they should not add the day pupils. I asked them how are they going to deal with this and the policy will be that day pupils also have to do Saturday night prep ( not great for day students) before going home and they will have no weekly boarding option. There is going to be just 19 girls -20 girls a year for sixth form and as soon as they’ve finished the boarding house most of the girls will be boarding.

Papplewick over the last 6 years has sent on average three boys a year to Win.

Well it is a small school and they have sent 7 boys a year to Eton, second and third most popular school for them is Harrow and Winchester . I properly should said Twyfords and Cothill house instead of Papplewick but somehow Papplewick came to my mind first. Winchester college becomes more popular nowadays to some school such as Cothill house ( do not get me wrong they still send the majority of boys to Eton and Radley but for the pass 3-5 years they have sent 6-8 boys a year to Winchester and less and less to Harrow). Majority of boys are from Pilgrims which is a real feeder school.

Most of the scholars both at Eton and Winchester are international students nowadays so they are both becoming a global place.

Cargill field from Scotland also send more and more kids ( 11 last year) and they are definitely not a local school in that sense. Summerfield is also sendIng a regular amount even they are still a feeder to Eton. Winchester is a smaller school than Eton, it is only 58% in size compare to Eton while 50% -60% of students are from Pilgrims so they can not have that much students from other schools.

They are more and more international application thought International parents prefer co-ed school since they are more used to it so they are not making a big fuss. Day students will be kept at minimum of no more than 5-10% so it is still pretty much a boarding school.

The percentage of foreign students at Eton is just less than ten percent,its twenty at Winchester,Eton can restrict the number of foreign students,that isnt the case at Winchester..Eton have stated they wont allow that number to go over ten percent,that is not something that Winchester could do,it is getting more and more reliant on foreign children..
Day pupils staying in to do saturday night prep? Good luck selling that idea to prospective parents and pupils..

Is Eton really that much richer than Winchester College though? Have you compared their accounts @nolanscrack bearing in mind Winchester is significantly smaller. Both schools have significant asset value don’t they? Eton gets a lot of donations too.

Sorry wolf..What have I missed?