Winchester College Open Day

[bico]

Anyone going this Saturday? Ds is in year 4 and keen to have a look, I think mainly because they have an 18 hole golf course .

Forgot to mention that WC does not need to know about your Election decision until three months or so before the May exams. Prep schools invariably want to know two years ahead for special preparation. Frankly, one should question if such long organised preparation (for exam questions and interviews!!) is healthy. Once you have seen some past papers, you can judge for yourself.

Just in case, Winchester Day is next Saturday.

Again just from personal experience, it is only in the final year that pupils may need to be taught specifically for Election / King's scholarship and in fact there is no major difference between the syllabus required to be covered for the Winchester entrance and election. It is an advantage ( for both entrance and election ) to be at a school with good language teaching but the mindset, personal enthusiasm and interests of the boys is key IMO

Agree. Boys' attitude is key. KS is at CE level or slightly stretched. Election is at of below CE, maths in particular is below CE in terms of breadth of knowledge needed but the little you need you have to have profound understanding of it. Somewhat true for Election science too.

"There are a few trivial privileges for scholars."
Someone told me scholars are allowed to have two gorillas commoners only one don't know how true this is but I suppose it could sway your decision.
"Winchester Day is next Saturday."
termofuse you've not been reading your WC correspondence its been renamed Winchester.
My DS also didn't go for the election heavily influenced by his dislike of college.
"it is only in the final year that pupils may need to be taught specifically for Election / King's scholarship"
I agree and for this your going to have to be at the right prep small non selective preps just don't have the resources number of children to run separate classes. If your serious you need to fund a prep with a recent and regular history of success in either/or the election/KS e.g. Summer Field. The language papers are a problem for prep schools the head once told me that many coming from preps don't do well in either Latin or French in the entrance exam so I'm sure the same problem applies to the election.

Let me try again termofuse you've not been reading your WC correspondence its been renamed Winchester Match.

HG, from reading your comments, I think your son would have done very well in most of the Election papers although your dog might have had a better grade in French

The dog would have beaten them all at French when my son was asked by a French teacher who was assessing his French (or lack of it) "Quelle heure est-il?" he looked completely blank (6 months before the entrance exam) at least the dog looked at the clock he just crap with numbers.
You can understand my surprise when he was telling me he now loves French and he would love to be fluent so much so he is considering doing it at Pre U a real tribute to the MFL teaching at WC.

Sorry HG. Case of reading and not registering. Match it is before I slip back to Day.
Election only requires a minimum of 3 optional papers ("4 is reasonable") and WC does not recommend taking many; best 3 counts. So if languages and classics are weak, there is no need to take them. Same applies to other subjects.
Seriously question if special sets or classes are really useful for Election (for KS yes and languages perhaps but not for other subjects). As for prep school track record, I would just flag that correlation not being the same as causation, classic pitfall of single aspect analysis of success. Worth asking yourself how many who got elected may have done so without (or despite) special tutoring and classes and (no so easily done) looking into those who didn't. Indeed there are quite a few in most years who only spent 2 months getting used to the style of Election questions. This year's roll says something. Not about cleverness or best academic performance, just inquisitive traits. Can't see how in a selective school like WC anyone there could be not clever and/or diligent. College does not care about what the boys know but how they figure things out and how motivated they are.

Many dogs would make ideal candidates for College since they tend to be inquisitive and motivated to learn to get their owners work for them. They always do well with aural for languages.

Ok tern I'll register the dog for WC instead of Milton Abbey which I was never completely convinced was that suitable for him. He has a younger brother completely barmey do you think ..........

The good thing is that although scholars all live together in college they are all educated with the commoners my DS has scholars in all his classes.

HG. You obviously did not read your correspondence either! Gorrilas are banned because of risk of primate virus jumping to canines. Over crowding of primates in College was to blame. New not so trivial privilege is that collegers can mark any tree but commoner just some.

Totally agree HG. It would be awful to not mix them in classes. Another down side as collegers: with the gown, it is not possible to dress warmly and stay dry on really cold and wet days.

No gorrillas I've just ordered one for DS's up coming birthday do you think I'll get a refund if I send it back?
I'd better put the dog in for election he loves marking all tress.

HG. Marwell if no refund for used gorilla? Though it is full of argumentative anti-chapel OWG already I heard.

I can imagine all giving eminently sensible and highly articulate reasons why they shouldn't have to go to chapel every Sunday. The keepers must be so bored.
"Yeah yeah we know you think you shouldn't have to go to chapel on Sundays, and you think you've found a way of getting out of it can we change the record now?"

Well...... I think I now know as much as I could possibly know about WC without being reincarnated as a boy and passing the entrance exam!
I just wish there could be similarly detailed threads about SPS, Eton and Westminster....
I will now just try to relax and enjoy the next few years before it becomes time to make a decision....!
Thanks to everyone (and your dogs) for sharing such insightful comments.

Just. The essentials about the other schools. Fewer trees in London but perhaps made up by lamp posts. As for the other by the castle, they must have cut down a lot of trees for oars, boats and flashy buildings. Thus all lacking important facilities. All else is peripheral. Woof.

just I suspect that the reason this thread has been so informative is because it's not been hijacked by either the anti independent ed. brigade busy either telling us how immoral/unfair independent ed is and how our children should be educated in their "community", or how their state comp offers identical opportunities , the oh so tedious anti boarding brigade and let's not forget those who think they know all about WC but in reality know nothing. I doubt any of us with DS's at WC think it's perfect but we do clearly like it weird irrational little quirks and all.

just Im sure if you start a thread about Eton many will be falling over themselves to tell you just how wonderful it is.

Thank you, HG (and dog!). I think I'll leave my thinking at "just starting" for the moment and enjoy prep school (vicariously....). I'll stick my neck out and solicit thoughts about other schools when I get closer to the crucial dates....

HG

May I PM you ?

If this is too intrusive please say no (or ignore )

MB

Madeleine I've PM'd you. I'm sure you'll be delighted to know my younger dog is called Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps obviously we pronounce it "Funghy Fipps" or Fung for short.

DS was elected to College. He did attend a prep school, for which we had a generous bursary. I can confirm, though, that he had no additional tutoring whatsoever for the simple reason that we couldn't possibly afford it.
In fact, I pm'd HappyGardener in a panic because I was so worried this would prejudice him. She very kindly reassured me.

I can also confirm that they seem to be looking for a certain type of mind, not necessarily a crammed boy who knows all the answers.
It's the kind of boy who comes home after Election and sets up a pulley system in the kids' water table because he wants to test out an interesting problem that came up in one of the papers (we're childminders and the pre-schoolers were bemused, to say the least ).
He really loved Election: to hear him talk, you'd think he'd been away on holiday! He can't wait for September.

They told us that the best preparation we could give him was to read the leaders in the newspapers and we were able to do that for him. Not quite sure how that helped, but they obviously know best and it was a relief to find something we could do to help.
One of his current teachers did say they can tell a boy who is likely to become a Winchester Colleger or a Kings Scholar at Eton. It doesn't seem to be something that can be taught: it's the boys themselves.
I'm sorry I don't know enough to define it myself, only that DS seems to be what they're looking for.