Winchester College - Girl's Experience

[RosaMimosa]

My daughter is starting at Winchester College VI Form this Autumn. I've found quite worrying comments here from couple of years ago on how uncomfortable a day girl would feel at WinCol.
Any updates from this year when girls were admitted please?

Hi, my daughter is at the College and is very happy. I also read some scary threads on here before my daughter started so I know what you mean. It is an amazing school and we don’t regret sending her for a second.

Hi

I was wondering if there are any more views on this - having been to a boys school with a few girls in the sixth form I really want to make sure I choose a school with the right messaging and actions. Thank you!

@RosaMimosa , how has your daughter found her first term at WinColl? My DD is interested in possibly joining in 2026 and we are just feeling around the edges now.

She (and other girls I know there) are loving it. At the beginning of the term I felt that it would be too harsh for a "girly" girl (like my younger daughter who wants to go to WinCol too) but now see that they all found their place.

Still worth considering that colleges' expectations are the same as of the boys - time, sports, etc wise. Like my daughter would say "we'll run 7km tomorrow" and I would go "what if you can't?" and she "it's not an option, everyone will run".
Also, day students need to be in their houses 8-ish and leave (preferably) after 10 pm so you daughter would be either lodging or boarding (if they manage to finish girl's boarding house by 2026) if you are not Winchester-based.
Other than that, I'd definitely recommend it, I can see how much she's eager to come back to school from her Christmas break.

@RosaMimosa , many thanks for your answer. I'm pleased to heard your DD is enjoying it. Does she find the teaching challenging and the work stretching? To which house is she attached?

What do you think about the girls having a boarding house? I like the idea of girls being attached to boys' houses for meals so that they mix there too.

Are you local or is your daughter in lodgings?
We are local so perhaps could meet if you are too?

would love to hear how your daughters are getting on at Winchester ? Considering it for DD for 2027 as she’s after a school that teaches thinking and beyond the curriculum. Are there enough girls to field good sports teams and what type of girls does it attract ?

My daughter had the best experience at Wincol and said "it was two best years of my life". Her sister wants to go to the college too. As for types - all types, but all quite intellectual and talented, though a scale is different - from a genius doing seven A-levels to a just normal, clever girls.
There are about 17 of them in each year, so yes, enough to play sports. As for sports, they play Winkies (Wincol own football type game), run and can do cadets alongside boys, which is not for all girls. Although they are not forced to as far as I know, and some would do yoga instead.
My daughter loved Winkies and rowing, and was in Marines Cadets (even got a rank) but again, they can opt out and do a community service instead.
You might want to follow school's Instagram, it shows pretty decent picture of the school's life.

Thank you so much for your message. Much appreciated. Where is your daughter now? My daughter is very sporty which is my biggest concern and would like to continue rowing. 17 girls isn’t very many we’re hoping to see it in two weeks with a tour, so perhaps they’ll be taking a lot more now that the girls boarding house is opening. What were the reasons for choosing Winchester over others for your daughter?

You can check their sports fixtures here - it also shows that their A team plays other school’s D teams in netball so read into that what you want to. Very few girls sports teams otherwise and you can see the results of the fixtures which they have and if she is super sporty and doesn’t like losing it might not be ideal.

https://sportsfixtures.winchestercollege.org/Fixtures_List.asp?Id=3441&TID=1947682&SID=18

Yes, that definitely sounds about right but I think with the new girls boarding house from September they’ll have a lot more girls so hopefully the standard will go up. My daughter is into rowing so as long as there are a few other girls who are rowers it shouldn’t be an issue.