Winchester College Open Day

[timmytoes]

We are off, en famille, to visit Winchester College this weekend at their annual open day. I know that not everyone rates the day as useful but we are going to try to get the best out of it . Does anyone have any tips that might be useful specifically re our visit so we can decide whether it is worth going back for a more tailored visit early next term.

Kings Canterbury is full boarding academically selecive and Jamie Miller is very involved in the fencing and he's one of the countries leading epee coaches lots of GB hopefuls at Kings.

I'm so sorry Yotty but don't despair as he will move up the list and maybe off it. Remember that he won't be the bottom of the academic pile. My son is not the brightest in my opinion and we also don't have a house. What you need to do is to keep remaining in touch with them and let them know what your son has been achieving over the last 3/6/8 months. Enquire about how you can work to prepare him for the entrance exam as you still want him to sit it even if he is on the waiting list. There are parents who will mess schools about and pull out at the last minute. If you can show that you are committed to sending him there then he'll be one of the first to get moved of the list. Lists are generally not based on order so if a musical boy turns down a place then they'll offer a musical boy from the waiting list place.

It's very hard but to even have been offered a waiting list place is a massive achievement.

What about Harrow?

Yes, we would consider coed. HG, I like Kings, but DH can't get his head round the logistics so may look at Marlborough as it does fencing and is full boarding and does exeats that start on a Friday, so DS could come home. Just a bit worried it might be too macho and posh though.

Yotty. I'm sorry you didn't get the news you wanted. Go and look at Marlborough. We felt the posh bit was more reputational after our visit. Lovely school and surroundings. Town is nice too - a touch of normality without being too much of a distraction. 2012 ISI report v good. A school with breadth so has something for everyone. All the kids we met were very down to earth ( maybe the posh ones were elsewhere that day!).i also think it is a lot less macho than some of the single sex schools ( testosterone gets diluted by the girls etc). Pre test is second term of year 7. Not sure when you'd need to register though so check out website.

Hope that helps.

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but Markborough is becoming very hard to get into. It does a Pre-test now and they seem to be looking for strong all-rounders. HG always says good things about St Edwards...l

Logistically now Canterbury has significantly improved train links with the fast speed rail link into St Pancreas and as far as I'm aware still trains to Victoria. I dont do coaches but I understand there is also a good coach service to airports etc. I love Canterbury/East Kent its such a nice city, loads and loads of students because of the two universities, great shops and of course the sea; just up the road with fab sailing clubs etc.

We know all sorts of children at Kings clever, less clever, straight down the middle types, quirky, all seem pretty happy and academically I think its on a par with Marlborough.

Colleger

Am so pleased your DS has place at Winchester . My son is there and loves it

All the best

MWT

Yotty , you will see upthread that my DS is at Winchester . (& I think it is a fab school ) BUT I would just like to say that it was not what I thought some years ago , so at the risk of sounding completely platitunious I am sure the best thing will work out your DS . Also my DS was a late entrant to WinColl so stick in there . Things can work out .

In the spirit of helpfulness.

My 10 yr old made it to the waiting list for wc for 2014, I wondered whether they do in fact reject anyone as the gen and wait lists could have up to 250 boys on them! I must be honest and say I probably didn't get wc when we went round on a private tour but from what I've read on these boards colleger and happy gardening both have good experience of a broad range of these top schools. My boy has spLd as well so not sure wc will be the optimum choice for him but wondered whether it was worthwhile to keep him on the list or if they have a vast list of boys all waiting?!

Congratulations Colleger.

I don't know anything about the Winchester waiting list as luckily we were offered a place although the only boy we knew on it never was offered a place. But what I do know is that all the staff we've had dealings with are really helpful including the admission office so the absolute best people to speak to is them. With regard to "SpLD" which I'm assuming means ?? learning difficulties (I'm crap on accronyms) IME Winchester is very welcoming and supportive of these but again if you have any doubts email the head of learning support for advise. He's really helpful we emailed him before my DS started so I guess found his email on their web site but if it's not there again I'm sure the helpful lady in admission would provide it. Do PM me if you want to know more.

Just to follow up what HG says as to specific learning difficulties, I'd go so far as to say that dyspraxia (for instance) is so accepted at WC that it's nothing unusual whatsoever - even, or maybe even more so! - among the scholars. What seems to matter is the spark.

Yup there seems to be quite a few of dyspexics ADHD dyslexics etc. Bink is right spark is what is being looked for.

Hmm not quite sure what dyspexics are meant to say dyspraxics! Not hard to work out where DS's dyslexia came from!!

I'm sure WC to reject candidates and not all are on the waiting list. I think you should email the registrar and ask exactly how the waiting list works, if there is a rank order, if it is dependent on the house you put down etc. Remember that a waiting list means your child was good enough to get into Winchester, it's just that on this occasion there were a few boys that offered a little bit extra. A rejection would have meant that he wasn't suitable in the slightest.

Yotty I cannot give you any information about the WC waiting list, but my DS was on the Eton waiting list for over 2 years until he was promoted in March for entry this September, so I might be able to offer some general points.

Firstly I agree with Colleger that it is vital to get as much info about the waiting list as possible. Ring them and ask them about the weaker points of your DS's performance and areas that might need working on etc; in my DS's case it was maths, so that immediately gave us a direction to go in!

Ask if there are any other things you can do, they might suggest expanding the range of extra curricular activites, just as an example. If he is musical then perhaps consider taking up a more unusual instrument (but only if he is interested, of course, you cannot force these things).

In our experience there wasn't a lot Admissions could tell us during the first year, but they were obviously following the progress of the boys on the list, and by last summer they had ranked it into three groups, so at least we knew then that DS still had a pretty good chance of getting in.

I would recommend ringing them every 6 months or so for an update of how your son is doing in relation to the list, that's what we did and the Admissions office were always very helpful about things to try.

I wish you and your DS good luck, and do ask if you think I can help with any other info.

Thanks so much for helpful insight into learning support at WC. I asked on the tour but didn't want to flag it up too much for obvious reasons. We are still not quite sure whether dyspraxic, dyslexic, ADD all or any and have been trying to work out whether problem lies with way trad prep school works with child or if child is behaving differently because he is intelligent but has no self esteem (always in learning support group at state school but should have been in g&t so as to inspire him rather than bore him rigid...) We don't know which schools will cater for his good brain but different way of operating. Your advice is so massively welcome and thanks for the input to date, most useful.

PS. His EPA just says SpLD which is why I hadn't given DS a specific 'label'...

Colleger and Indrid, many thanks for spelling out about contacting WC re. waiting list. I was going to contact Mr Pusey next week, just waiting to give the poor man a chance to catch his breath after all the mailings this week! I will definitely ask him to spell out what waiting list means. We were very late in applying (December last year) so only saw one house and housemaster which we were not mad about and any spark on interview day may have been limited by DS being underwhelmed with house on offer.... he also prefers another school at the moment.

Bink, you obviously have experience of WC from learning difficulty side of life so very interesting to hear that it is solid in that department. Do you know of any other schools that offer good support to intelligent boys? We are not sure whether to cater for the intelligence (he's young for his year) or the learning support. It is so difficult to know how our DS will be doing in two years time!

Thanks for all your advice everyone.

Yotty and k, don't despair.

I have posted under other names before now about Wincoll.

We withdrew Ds at a very late stage and there will be others like us. Our reason for withdrawal was simply that Ds didn't want to board and we pushed it as long as we could. But behaviour like that frees up places.

I was immensely impressed by their special needs people( Ds is pretty dyslexic).

What they and Ds' current school say is that many of their top performing boys are dyslexic. They have been trained to find ways round up to this point but now it needs to be addressed head on strategically and tactically.

Many of oh's friends are from college. Dyspraxia, AS etc all find an accepting and understanding home there. And I suspect it percolates through.

But there are other schools that also do a fantastic job.

OGKT, just love your nickname! We have no choice but to board DS as husband moves around too much. Did you look at other boarding schools for your own DS as I would love your opinion on which stood out, particularly if advice is current and if you know of other boarding schools which would do a fantastic job, sounds great. Our son is into art, drama, not much good at team sports but may get into something sporty if it grabs him.... He is not into hard work which is a bit of a problem but that may change of course....

It may be worth mentioning other schools that do a fantastic job as I could not find a school like Winchester anywhere and I would have liked to have found a less selective alternative.

Colleger, did you need a boarding school for your DS as well? Interesting that you struggled to find anything which matched up but if your son intelligent then WC is presumably the top of the pile for that. I am very pleasantly surprised to know that their intake are not all mainstream achievers and some learn outside the box, that suits my boy far more than I imagined it would. Just wish he wasn't on the young side as doesn't help his chances I suppose.