Harrow School

[Rache101]

Hello
My son is applying for a sixth form scholarship to Harrow school and have 3 exams and a interview, does he stand a good chance of getting in?. He does Cadets, debating, Prefect, part of a classsical society, shooting, part of the Labour Party and represents his county at Cadet football. His predicated grades haven't been released yet but I reckon he will get around 3-5 A*'s and GCSE. Do you think he stands a realistic chance or am I living in a dream world?

Thank You

[Colleger]

Everyone's experience seems so different. My communications with Harrow have been excellent. They actually encouraged both my boys to sit for the Peter Beckwith scholarships but I had to tell them we could afford the fees twice - must look poor! Out of Eton and Win it is the only school willing to allow my son not to sit CE as his school does not prepare for it. The other schools know I'd have to get private tutors in but Harrow said they'd prefer he concentrated on something else if he had any free time left. I like the school very much but I really dislike the parents.

Regarding bursaries at Eton and Win, I have also never had any bad experiences and also find it hard to believe that Eton would act in such a fashion. They are the most generous of all the schools and constantly advertise their scholarships in newspapers including the Sun.

[Rache101]

Eton is more for the sons of Kings, Lords and Politicans I feel...Harrow on the other hand is for buisness people and those who have work for there money NOT TRYING TO BE OFFENSIVE.

[grovel]

Rache, the 10 boys in my DS's year in his house at Eton were all distinctly middle-class. 7 of them had two working parents. Businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, architects etc.
There was no boy in the whole house with titled parents.
Your stereotype s way off mark.
Harrow has generally had a sprinkling of royalty in its ranks. All foreigners of course.

[Colleger]

Rachel101, I'm not defending Eton or Harrow but your view on both is very inaccurate and you'll be in for a shock if you think you'll be mixing with a certain type at Harrow. In fact most of the aristos and Lords' kids are not bright enough to get into the top schools.

[TheMead]

I get an impression that more middle & upper class are dominant in middle range private schools. Am I also being biased?

[kerrygrey]

"I have also never had any bad experiences and also find it hard to believe that Eton would act in such a fashion." Nevertheless, colleger, it's true.
I too had heard of Eton's generousity, so was a bit shocked. Perhaps the unpleasant woman was having a bad day

[TheMead]

I know schools like Eton or WinCol claims that scholarship does not bring financial benefit. Bursary's been offered (provisional), but not enough to commit for 5 yrs.

I wonder in reality if scholarship would make me in the better position for us to re-negotiate financial support. Or completely means tested support.

[Abitwobblynow]

Wow, Colleger, your boys must be very bright. Well done!

[Colleger]

Only one bright son, but lazy. The other is musical...and lazy!

[TheMead]

Benefactors of the school contribute anything from a million to £10 million without having to make a song and dance out of it. In fact, the benefactor who contributed £10 million only did so on the one condition that he/she remains anonymous. [peteneras]

Mohamad at Eton at 21:10?

[peteneras]

Benefactors of the school contribute anything from a million to £10 million without having to make a song and dance out of it. In fact, the benefactor who contributed £10 million only did so on the one condition that he/she remains anonymous.

That is absolutely correct.

The Horizon Foundation Scholarship is an Eton Sixth Form Scholarship made possible by an Eton benefactor that has absolutely nothing to do with the programme.

Just in case you can?t read properly, the song and dance of the 'Mohamad At Eton' programme was made by an Aljazeera filmmaker Shehani Fernando.

Quote
Filmmaker?s View
While travelling in Lebanon in 2010, I heard about a boy from one of the Palestinian refugee camps who had won a scholarship to Eton College, Britain's most prestigious school. I was intrigued to find out more, attracted by the sharp cultural contrasts his story was likely to reveal. Mohamad Fahed turned out to be a bright, articulate young man, the son of a teacher, whose grandparents had fled Palestine in 1948. Top of his class and with hopes of being a genetic engineer, Mohamad had been given a lucky break. His family and Eton, a school that rarely permits filming, agreed to let me document his story.

[Colleger]

Really enjoyed this, thanks for mentioning it. He is such a lovely chap.

[peteneras]

A Note to Mohamad Fahed

Many congratulations to you, Mohamad. I'm sure your leader, Yasser Arafat, somewhere out there, is mightily proud of your achiements and smiling down at you with a broad grin. Your people are looking towards you to lead them to freedom and Eton will provide you with the tools to do the job like she has done so a million times in the last 600 years!

Very well done!

[Greythorne]

Peteneras
I have met some OEs and I have always been quietly impressed.

To say I am not impressed with your attitude ("minor public school" / "the only publie school that matters" / "the headmaster cannot touch them" etc) would be a masterpiece of understatement.

[Abitwobblynow]

Peterenas,

"I can visualise a polite OP asking some very reasonable and polite questions about scholarships/bursaries, exams, admissions etc. - just to be ?slagged? off by Harrow as if she?s a pain in the behind, or worse still, a bloody cancer that Harrow wish will go away."

Harrow have just had an unbelievable headmaster, Barnaby Lenon (started off being a house tutor at Eton!), who had incredible vision and drive.

The upshot of his tenure is that whilst applications to public schools are falling, applications to Harrow are up 400% and they can afford to pick and choose. A lot of Eton parents are coming over because it is said that the ethos of Eton is being lost under Tony Little.

But the way you were spoken to is not acceptable and very unlike them. Some stupid harrassed woman office worker, perhaps?

[TheMead]

Just in case you can?t read properly, the song and dance of the 'Mohamad At Eton' programme was made by an Aljazeera filmmaker Shehani Fernando.

I meant "anonymous" aspect in your writing.

[peteneras]

Greythorne, but honestly, I don?t give a monkey?s whether you?re impressed or not by my attitude. For a start, I?m not out here to impress anyone and nobody needs to agree with anything I write anymore than I have to agree with anybody and everybody.

(1) 'The only nice thing about Harrow, is that on a clear day you can see Eton'. I didn?t invent this phrase nor did I post this jibe here. All I did was to put a picture into words. You obviously have no sense of humour.

(2) Harrow, a ?minor public school?. Again, I didn?t invent or post this here first but as far as I?m concerned (particularly in view of my previous treatment by them and what I have seen now), in the eyes of Eton, Harrow IS a minor public school, like it or not. Again, you don?t have to agree with me.

Quote: ?At the annual Eton/Harrow match an Eton chant is 'Who goes to a minor public school? You do, you do'.

(3) As for ?The only public school that matters? ? go outside these shores, ask an average American, Asian, African, Russian or anybody, to name one British school they know and confirm the answer yourself. Strange, in the world?s top school of each particular country, I have never heard of terms like, ?The Harrow of Japan?, ?The Win College of India?, ?The Charterhouse of Africa?, ?The Westminster of Malaysia?, ?The Shrewsbury of Sri Lanka?, The Merchant Taylors? of The Middle East?, etc.

I make no apologies for the mistakes made by these world top schools.

(4) Finally, ? the headmaster cannot touch them?. It is quite obvious you choose your quotes and words deliberately to mislead. This is what I wrote:

?It is believed the King?s Scholars (of which DS was one) are so revered that even the Head Master cannot touch them e.g. expel them;?

You can be forgiven for thinking Eton is just another school which is run like any other school where the Headmaster is king. But unfortunately (for you), at Eton, the king is not the Headmaster but literally the King himself or his representative, the Provost, who even till today, is appointed by The Crown. The procedural appointment of the Provost, Fellows, , Head Master etc. are more or less set in stone, so to speak, in Statues of the Foundation. I have already said previously the KS?s are the King?s Scholars, i.e. belonging to the King and not the Head Master.

Given that the daily running of the school including disciplinary matters is managed by the Head Master, but when the question arises in expelling a KS, only the Provost has the power to do that albeit he?ll be heavily influenced by the Head Master.

[peteneras]

'But the way you were spoken to is not acceptable and very unlike them. Some stupid harrassed woman office worker, perhaps?'

Abitwobblynow, I can gather for whatever reason you do have some sentiment for Harrow for which I apologise to you. Let me not pretend that I like the school. To be fair, I don't know much about the school at all, that's why I phoned up to make a few urgent but very reasonable enquiries. I was given the run around for a few days because the person who could answer my questions, the senior registrar, no less, was 'busy' and could not entertain me, blah, blah, blah. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not an unreasonable person, accepting that a person of his position can be very busy etc, but my gripe was that I was told to ring back at a certain time just to be told he's just gone for lunch and some other (feeble) reason or other. Like I said I was given the runaround for a few days.

And when I finally got the man, before I could even open my mouth (his secretary must have already briefed him previously) his first question to me (angrily and discouragingly) was, "Do you know what sort of boys we have here for scholarships?"

To say I was dumbfounded must be the understatement of the decade. I didn't feel like talking more or telling him DS was already a fully paid up member of British Mensa since the age of 6. Just as well, after putting the phone down on him I made enquiries at that school in Windsor and the rest is history - DS subsequently won two scholarships, the Junior Scholarship (2nd nationally - now replaced by the New Foundation Scholarship) and the King's Scholarship.

[Happygardening]

peteneras nobody is questioning any of the things you've posted above but being the most famous or being structured in a different way doesn't necessarily make you better than any where else. In your opinion and experience Eton in the best but there are plenty of people with different opinions and most importantly experiences of both Eton and other schools who would feel differently; neither opinion is necessarily more valid. The OP did not ask anyones opinion of Harrow just about one particular scholarship. As I've already said she's seen it, liked it, and feels its right for her son and herself and I think we should accept that. To aggressively criticise her choice is just sheer bad manners something I'm sure Eton would not approve of.

[peteneras]

TheMead, are you really saying you're not going to meet that nice Palestinian boy, Mohamad, who has come a few thousand miles to thank you for the scholarship so as to keep your anonymity?

[peteneras]

What the heck are you talking about, HG?

Are you not another hypocrite in posting this:
'If you want more flexibility then St Paul's would be a better bet . . .'

And don't remind us another million times Winchester College is VERY ACADEMIC and you don't like Eton because they have fancy uniform and that boys need to run about and play, nonsense. Boys do that in primary school when they are 3 not 13. And if it's run about and play, you want, make sure you do it right at 4.00 o'clock in the afternoon after lessons at the playing fields or rowing lake till you drop.

In any case, my lastest postings are not directed at OP. You seem very frightened about people going to Eton. Care to tell us why instead of the uniform crap?

[Happygardening]

'If you want more flexibility then St Paul's would be a better bet . . .' I dont think anyone would see this as a criticism of Harrow I was picking up on the OP's comment about her DS seeing his friends and pointing out to someone who may not be familiar with full boarding that this is not what full boarding is about. As a father of a full boarder you should know this yourself. I didn't say St Pauls is better I just know that as it is not a traditional boarding school boarding is more flexible there.
I'm not frightened of Eton (the only thing that really frightens me is those I occasionally meet in my working life knife wielding chair throwing psychopaths) I accept its a good school and know many who are very happy there and all I have met are charming and and none are arrogant. I am uncomfortable with what I consider "pointless ritual" which is why I was initially drawn to St Pauls. But it was not for us because of the boarding. There is pointless ritual everywhere and I've learnt to live with it. Uniform is just my particular irrational per hate, most of us have one.

[propatria]

Oh dear,how sad that the op was asking about a specific scholarship for a specific school and someone decided to use it as an excuse for Harrow bashing,why do some first time buyers feel the need to lead vicarious lives,very sad.

[peteneras]

But I can?t help noticing a couple of things from you every time someone mentions Eton. No matter how you try to dress it, you always have something veering towards the negative to say about the school. Inevitably, your son?s school is always brought up as very academic, whatever it means. Aren?t schools by definition meant to be academic if it?s not a music school or some art school?

So what if a school is very academic? Can one?s child improve or worsen significantly going to that very academic school? Each child has his/her ceiling and going to a very academic school wouldn?t improve your stature any further once your ceiling is reached.

I?ve gone through the route OP is now embarking. Like her, being a north Londoner I looked up to Harrow first and foremost when I first began. You have no experience of Harrow?s rudeness; I think OP already has. I do not blame her for so-called ?clinging? on to Harrow (not meant to be rude, OP, just my way of expression) for the very good reasons she already told us. Like I said, I do understand.

Until I went to see Eton when all my fears and doubts were simply swept aside in no time at all. Now I?m merely trying to insinuate to OP that she should also try to look elsewhere as there?s nothing to lose. I?m glad to learn that OP has said she?s not putting all her eggs in one basket. Whoever goes or not go to Eton doesn?t bother me except for one or two personal friends who have been to the school and love it so very much.

[Happygardening]

Eton is not my cup of tea and I do not hide this fact but I've frequently acknowledged that its a good school and in the past I've also said that I know lots there and don't know of one person who is or was there who has a bad word to say about it. I've also said that I know lots Harrow the vast majority are happy but I do know a few who are or have been unhappy with it.
I personally never even considered Harrow (I did on the advise of out prep school head carefully consider Eton) primarily due to its location which as far as I'm concerned might as well be Mongolia for inconvenience and even more than Eton its definitely not for me or my DS. I personally find adding boaters into the uniform even more ridiculous than tails. There are other things I've heard from existing and potential parents that really put me off but I've already said this is not the point of this thread.