Nice to see that all the bashing seems to have stopped. It's probably obvious to point out that every school (state or private) has generated good and bad impressions. For Winchester, ours are all good.
On food: all I can say is that our son LOVES WinColl food, and having had many dinners myself in his hall, I can say that he's right. Sunday roasts, wonderful homemade crumbles, weekly BBQs on the Warden's Lawn in summer ... it all tastes homey, and he gets as much of it as he wants. Friday morning fry-ups are a treat. I could go on and on. In my son's house, food is not a problem.
As DS is an only child,sleeping in a dorm is what he always wanted. Pillow fights, seances, midnight feasts, running around after hours, hiding, and not getting caught by dons: it's straight out of a boy's own story, and again, he absolutely loves it. Being lonely is what he feared most (he'd never boarded before) and I know he would have cried himself to sleep in a single study-bedroom.
No posters on bedroom walls? Quite right. I agree with the housemaster, who bans them on grounds that the boys are there to concentrate on learning, not while away their time on frippery. Having said that, DS has a huge Ferrari poster in his toys.
Use of computers in first two years: Being a university academic, I see what comes out of all sorts of schools, and have to deal with students who think that serious research is done on the internet. It is not. What passes for knowledge on the web is mostly crap, and it's refreshing to find a school which acknowledges that, and teaches boys to read and write weekly essays by hand. I cannot speak highly enough of WinColl's practice of banning computers in lower years. However, blind eyes are turned on mobile phones, and if your son wants to talk to parents and grandparents, he can do that. To the bemusement of most new parents this year, we found that our sons had no time to phone or text us at all. They were too busy either studying, going to extracurricular activities, or playing British Bulldog in some weird WinColl version. Working and playing very hard, and having lots of fun.
Where do the boys kick a ball? My son does it on the Meads. I accept that there are many beautiful school grounds up and down the country, but come on .... you have to agree that the Meads, and the banks of the Itchen, and all that green territory behind the buildings, is absolutely gorgeous. Also, My DS is out on the sports field or skulling on the river in literally minutes. Few other schools are that close to their sports facilities (notably, Eton itself. The Olympic Lake is all very well, but it's distant from the school).
Where do the boys go to relax? My son goes to his chambers, where there are comfy chairs and, in winter, an open fire which burns all day long. The living room in matrron's house is another favourite place. This is where any boy can even go to sleep (she has beds waiting) should they want a quiet night. When DS is extra tired, he goes there and matron looks after him. She's absolutely wonderful.
Not much organised on SUndays: I agree with that one. After compulsory Chapel, the vast majority go home. We're too far away to do that regularly, but came down one Sunday to take DS out for lunch. He was tacitrun throughout, until we wormed it out of him that he'd planned to use the afternoon for music practice and work. At 13, that's pretty self-responsible. If your son will develop that way, this is the school for him.
We went to no open days, for Winchester or any other school. We did not register DS when he was 8. But, based on decades of academic experience in universities, we knew that WInchester produces wonderfully rounded, polite, genuinely modest and original-thinking boys. We just knew it was perfect for our son, who likes to think outside of the box, is not geeky, but sees through much of what passes for culture these days. The top Old Wykehamists of the last century are historians, philosophers, scientists, and LABOUR politicians. Therefore we chose Winchester, and never even thought of any other school. A Housemaster showed us round; DS was invited to live and study at WinColl for 3 days in the Autumn of the year of the entrance exam (that was the mechanism by which we were shown the School--which is pretty impressive), and the Headmaster never interviewed either us or the boy. That, of course, does not mean that he wasn't aware of what was going on. He just lets people get on with things. We didn't even catch sight of him until he gave his speech on the first day of school. We don't find him forbidding. He's just a typical academic. So, from the time of first thinking that DS should change schools, to having him accepted, was no more than 12 months. My point is that you don't need to get so het up years in advance. If it's the right place for your son, WinColl will make every effort to find him a place ... as long as he passes the exam, of course (Election, in our case). It's a fantastic place, and I don't have a bad word to say about it ... which does not adversely reflect on any other school either.