Winchester College Entry 2025 - results

[SW1Pmum]

Anyone knows when do we expect results to be sent out?
My son had an interview in mid January and I’m excited to hear from them.
Don’t want to chase the school 😉 so I was wondering for any advice here
Thank you

Are you sure you’re not confusing the schools? Boris was one of the most vocal Brexiteers and it ties in well with the union flags ethos of its alma mater.

I know this for a fact not to be true for Winchester as we attended classes recently to see for ourselves - they call it Pseudium, I think anyone can register you just need to join the Winchester Society.

Teaching was inquisitive neutral pro and contra with a hint of liberal ethos. Believe you me that it was as far from the mindless pro-Brexit narrative as you can get.

Wincoll is not a political institution, it is an inquisitive liberal school after all. That’s what you get. I may be wrong about this but I think this is why the Tories tend to recruit from Eton (and not Wincoll or Westminster) first and foremost.

The current head master of Eton is a Wykehamist. Nobody is “recruiting” from any independent schools…. Many MPs studied PPE at Oxford, far more relevant than Eton vs WinColl.

Boris Johnson is self serving and would have jumped on anything that serves his purpose.

The current prime minister is a Wykehamist. It suits the Labour Party to have a go at private schools as it is a dig at their leaders … although their own leader was also at a private school.

Better not to mix politics and education. Especially if you are liberal in your outlook.

No @WEEonline, I am not confusing the schools .Johnson was never eurosceptic , he is a populist. There is nothing that he wouldn't have supported in order to win. Sunak has been in favour of Brexit since his school days. All this is irrelevant of course . I am talking about the students , my DS left last year. DS found the views of the boys very right wing.

They do have a few fairly liberal dons but the are in the minority. The boys are what we found most surprising as I don't know any other young people who support Brexit or have Sunak"s opinions on refugees. His policies are alive and kicking at Winchester. As you said it's a school not a political institution, I was just commenting on the opinions of the boys there. It would be perfect for some families just not ours.

Eton has become more diverse, it still doesn't represent society in general of course. Westminster would be my top choice if applying now. DS is at university so I am speaking with the benefit of hindsight.

I think we can all agree that the teaching is fairly liberal and inquisitive. What boys bring from home is entirely different. You could end up in a house and year group which doesn’t fit with your family’s world view, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

In my opinion that’s one of the greatest added value of a boarding school, and Wincoll’s div is made to encourage diversity of opinion. It is true that Eton and Westminster are more obviously on either end of the spectrum, and you can easily fund your cult in those schools (it is fairly obvious which one is which) so if you are ideologically committed then those are probably better choices.

Wincoll loves debate and diversity of views. That’s how it is set up, that’s why they spend more time on div than any other subject. A div don once told us that a good div lesson is where there are equal camps on each side
of the argument. That summarises Wincoll. It is not a sect, it is an inquisitive liberal school.

We like that but I appreciate that it’s not for everyone.

DS found the reality very different, we were completely sold on the school before we started. Our actual experience was very different. There was very little diversity of opinion across the school, this was not what we were led to believe. We also attended the events etc but you don't really know a school until you're actually a parent or student.

To me it seems you are ideologically committed @Potomac and any views opposing that world view will set you off.

The whole school is set up to encourage the div(ersity of opinions) aka live and let live, which is important as it is meant to teach boys a tolerance for the opinions of others.

I am sorry if you found that experience distressing, but Wincoll is not a political sect and it is neither left nor right. It encourages independent thinking and values the diversity of opinions. That’s the whole point, not a brute force takeover of views.

DN knew that he wanted to change in MP so set the ball in motion. I agree @Potomac I don’t come across any Brexit supporting young people but it was the majority at Winchester. It makes me wonder if they understood what it meant for them😕.

You name change and then agree with yourself. Makes me wonder why you are on this thread. Are you for real?

My son is not a Brexiteer (far from it) and he is at Wincoll so that’s one. He says most of his year group are the same, so that’s a hundred.

You're confusing me now @WEEonline , I thought that your DS was yet to join Winchester? Perhaps things have changed, happy to hear that he is enjoying his time there.

I think many people misunderstand these days what liberal means. In its original
form the word meant tolerance for the opinions of others.

Liberal politics these days are far from tolerant, they are downright autocratic and mostly promoted by old hippy masters from 1968 and their younger padawans.

Which one is Winchester?

Tolerance for the views of my others is not something that I associated with Winchester when DS was there. We didn't send DS2 or 3. Mindless narrative is how DS would describe it.

Don't listen to what a Div don tells you, they are selling the school. Most of the unpleasantness is done out of sight of the dons. DS never felt it was worth bringing anything to their attention. He just got on with it , he said other boys did the same.

Our housemaster was completely unsuitable for the job.The pastoral care is not what it should be.

C’mon now get a grip. Boarding is not for screen addicted snowflakes, who are content only when everything goes their way and no-one dares to disagree.

Mindless narrative is what you get through media these days, and I personally find it rare and refreshing when I get alternative views even if I tend to differ.

Wincoll is a boarding school, not a rainbow field of unicorns.

Loads of ideological nonsense on this thread.
First of all, Winchester doesn't even have single rooms until well into 6th form, so claims of tutoring is a joke and a physical impossibility.
Secondly, a child can leave any time and WinColl has one of the lowest rate of leavers after GCSEs so how are we supposed to believe that @Snowymountainveiw , @Potomac and @Needanamechange01 kept their unhappy children at WinColl locked in when they could have left anytime?
Thirdly, WinColl is well known to be a bastion of liberal education and div is all about diversity of opinions. If your DS struggles with that, then Wincoll is probably not for you (neither is any intellectual work).
Finally, if your DS really went there @Snowymountainveiw @Potomac and @Needanamechange01 you wouldn't soil their resumes by badmouthing their schools on a public forum (that you gladly paid for while there) would you?
B/S - none of this adds up to anything.

Your posts are not very good PR for the school @Nowand4ever and @Floreathlon. The pastoral care at Winchester is shocking, if you had a son there you would know that. We didn't send our two other sons there so I know exactly what excellent pastoral care in a boarding school looks like.

You have to be very organized and make plans to leave in MP if you intend to leave after GCSES ,but I do wish had.
Many parents are promised change just as we were , this always leads to nothing. A surprising number of boys leave in the first two years, you will know this of course. When my son started 6th form and it was clear nothing was changing , it then a case of trying to make the best of it. The lack of respect for the headmaster and some other dons is something to see, again you will know this.

The aggressive tone of your posts are not unsurprising, it's what parents come to expect when questioning anything. We made a great choice for our two other sons ,it was definitely a learning experience for us.

Nobody believes that ' Winchester is a bastion of liberal education' , you need to stop being so silly. Parents who sent their sons to Winchester are looking first and foremost for good pastoral care ,at least we were. Staff turnover is far too high, this doesn't surprise me.You will be well aware of this of course. Staff often complain to boys about the priorities of the school so it's understandable when they more on.

You only have to look at how the school managed the announcement to introduce girls and day pupils (day pupils was particularly unsettling of international parents) to see how little regard they give to parents. A email during lockdown after it was in the morning newspaper! I believe that the introduction of girls boarding in 2024 is not going to plan.

@Snowymountainveiw
it’s possible to believe that the rationale/handling of the decision to admit girls and day pupils is terrible and the HM is way past his sell by date
AND
believe that Winchester is still a very good choice for parents who want a high quality liberal with a small l education for their sons

In terms of pastoral care, all these top schools put huge effort into this now, but the truth is that in every school there will be a tiny minority of pupils and a tiny minority of teachers who are in the wrong school for them. It’s much better that they leave as soon as this is obvious.

I think the main point is that if a talented boy has offers from Eton, WinColl and Westminster - and he needs to choose right now- Eton or Westminster will appear to be the more stable choice. Because there are a lot of changes happening at WinColl right now.

However, if the boy already has a brother there or a family connection or whatever, then his parents might look past the changes. I am sure the changes will be fine in the long run, but it is the kind of stuff that makes parents anxious, especially those that have several other options. Hopefully the school know this and are handholding the new parent group and hopefully “senior management“ is also making the required effort. Or perhaps they take the view they can fill their places anyway … who knows?

Can I also just ask whether Eton view WinColl as such a competitor? In the same way that some WinColl parents on here seem to see Eton as such a competitor?

Because in reality, there are so many rich international, incredibly bright boys and both schools have plenty of choice in that regard anyway. And in the long run, WinColl will also have the pick of international girls and local girls too. So the changes make sense. It is just that parents don’t necessarily want to sign up to the current uncertainty and changes a la “not in my backyard” way.

If Labour come in and bang VAT on school fees both schools will be catering more and more to the international market, won’t they? Or will they? Eton has the upper hand to keep ”locals” due to the endowment?

I think having boys from lots of different backgrounds enriches Eton, especially the boys who are Uber privileged. I am also pretty confident that the changes at WinColl will be good in the long run.

@Ziegfeld All schools talk about how they prioritize pastoral care , not all know what this looks like in reality. I agree a parent should remove their child when it becomes obvious that pastoral care is poor but it doesn't make my experience any less valid. My son is a very confident boy so he coped better than many. A parent needs to feel support would be able if needed. My son thought that some less confident boys were treated very poorly, looking back he feels very uncomfortable about this. Although I know he often spoke out at the time.

@Intergalacticcatharsis I don't think Eton or Westminster think of Winchester as a rival. Winchester could learn a lot from them , we have have personal experience of one and family experience of the other.

May I ask a question? My DS did not pass Eton stage one exam. Is there any chance for him to apply Eton again? Someone told me we can apply the king's scholarship, but I think it is difficult. We are overseas students and do not any experience in this. Many thanks

@yukkim You can always try for a KS scholarship in Y8. Another possibility is a music scholarship (gr 8 standard) and/or sports scholarship (team sports) depending on the school you are targeting.

@Intergalacticcatharsis I don't think there is a direct competition as they are very different schools.

For example, Westminster is a STEM-leaning urban leftie boarding school where kids go home to sleep:) no compulsory sports and co-ed in 6th form; Eton is a humanities leaning boys-only semi-urban Tory bastion with single rooms and strong sports pedigree; Wincoll is strong in both STEM and humanities, liberal beyond curriculum academic semi-rural with shared dorms in lower years, sports are elective after first year and co-ed in 6th form.

Maybe they look similar at first glance, but if you know what you're looking for then it is unlikely that you would apply to all three as they are so different!

I don’t know where you get the sweeping generalisation that that Eton is humanities leaning and Winchester is both. Virtually everyone at Eton does maths A level, whether they are any good at maths or not. Meanwhile numbers doing English at Winchester have dwindled to almost nothing. Foreign language numbers also very low.

People can check detailed A Level results and university destinations, including the courses applied for.
Westminster has a fair amount of those going on to study humanities, modern languages, PPE as well as engineering and medicine. Lots of Economics and Law too. So when you look at outcome it isn’t necessarily STEM
leaning at that point (potentially the girls up the percentage of humanities etc but who knows). What it definitely still has the edge on currently is Oxbridge offers. However, that could be down to the parent group/pupils’ choice, it isn’t always just down to the school.

@Ziegfeld you can do your own research. Here are a few snapshots to get you started

@Intergalacticcatharsis Agree that Westminster is now more balanced than before, for me economics and medicine are STEM leaning due to subject requirements

@Ziegfeld I don’t want to spend longer on this than necessary but English Literature is covered by Div at Winchester (so not dwindling, but structurally elsewhere) while English Language is taken to A-levels