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.

What year is his entry?

He'll be starting in 2014. We just heard last week that he was offered a place.

Well my son doesn't even have a house place yet but has been offered a general list place so it's got nothing to do with unpopularity. I don't think you have to accept a house. Why not say that you want to accept the place but would need to meet the housemaster before accepting a house place?

The HM is very important at Winchester as most people choose him after meeting 2-3 they have a lot of autonomy and there is significant variation between houses (although I suspect not as much as there used to be) including quality of food a bit if a "thorny issue." Winchester is exceedingly house centric and the boys unbelievably loyal to their houses. Many houses are quite a walk to the school and its playing fields and many have different facilities some have gyms/squash courts in the basement and dorms sizes apparently vary. You have to have confidence in him as does your DS. At a parents thing last year all the parents we met were happy with their HM and couldn't praise him enough.

Many thanks colleger and happy gardening, I'm following up your suggestions and hope that all will become clearer in the next few months. Your help has been very useful and I'm really grateful. I'll let you know how I get on :)