Is Westminster School the best school on Earth?

[statesmom]

Just looking at their website and they have 97 places for their students at Oxford and Cambridge this year?!

We have an 8 year old son and want to focus on getting him into this place, just next to the Palace of Westminster. It looks amazing! Any thought on parents with children at the school very welcome indeed, especially any thoughts on the application process. Thank you for someone new to London.

I like it.

Once again, why the need for the comments about "insecure mothers"? I'm sorry but that comes across to me as petty and vitriolic.

Of course Oxford is the best university in the world - I went there .

I think I made it clear in my earlier post that there are "better schools and brighter kids". On that we agree.

I don't have personal experience of the school so cannot advise you on admissions, however I do feel able to disagree with your thread title.

I fail to see where I and many others do not possess a sense of reality.

Let me answer the question in your first post: No.

Hope that helps.

oh, FINALLY someone answered OP's question, well done Avenging ...and we only took 379 posts to get there!

Good grief I feel sorry for the DS here...he's not got an easy time ahead...to please his mother. Poor kid. What pressure.

OP: are you Michael Gove?

Oh I am sure the notion of the kid going off to Oxford or Harvard was conceived before he was...might be a bit of an issue if he wants to divert from his mother's obvious ambition though

Ha ha! I work, and my kids watch TV. I went to Westminster and Oxbridge. Need I say more?

Just in from work. Have turned off the telly and sent the dunces to bed so I can catch up with what a bad mother I am for a while. This thread is fab.

statesmom, if you are going to be in London for 10 years, I would have thought the easy answer to your question about the application process is just let him try the entrance test to Westminster Under at whatever is the appropriate year for him which I assume is for entry into year 6 now. I am sure that you have worked that out from the website. The school will then let you know if they think it is the best school for your DS.

I'm not aware of any conclusive research suggesting that those children whose parents pay £40k+ a year for their education are guaranteed life-long happiness, mental and physical health or a happy marriage. Amazingly it doesn't even guarantee them A* grades, a place at Uni or a job.

In my experience, the one thing is does guarantee is a sneering attitude to lesser beings, an assumption that anything can be bought for enough money and a deeply damaging sense of failure when they don't get into Oxford.

Sorry meant exam in year 6 for entry into year 7.
MrsBright you see what you would loose out if you segregated private school threads.

Glad I re-tuned in before the attack on working mothers and kids watching TV gets deleted.
This has to be a wind up.

waaait.!!!...MrsB.....40k a year in education doesn't guarantee life long -happiness and the rest for my DS? What was the point of all those happiness lessons then ..I want my money back dammit!

For some reason of which I am unaware, a few manifestly insecure mothers, who probably work and let their children watch a whole lot of TV, hence the insecurity, cannot engage the question in my original post.

Ah yes that will be it, of course!

I suspect you will remain unaware since you are clearly incapable of understanding that the world does not necessarily operate according to your subjectivity, even when presented with experience and evidence to the contrary, and that you are going to spend all these years spent living in London in a permanent state of bewilderment and ignorance.

I would just love to be there as a fly on the wall when you attend the Westminster Open Day and it turns out the staff there offer only the same advice you have had here, which they surely will, manifestly also acting on some incomprehensible agenda born out of their insecurity too......

In fact it is all on the website if you look, the admissions policy aims to "identify applicants whose academic and other abilities appear to match the ethos and standards of the School and whose personal qualities suggest they have the potential to contribute sufficiently to the School community and benefit from the many opportunities that are offered here." "Parents are encouraged to make their sons feel that the family is making its own decision about the most appropriate school for them." What can they be on about?

Mrs Bright seems to have a rather common attitude that because someone wants their son to go to the best schools in the world she doesn't care if this son is happy, healthy or well adjusted.

Now how could someone limn this story?

Seems like a lot of people feel a lot better consoling themselves that they are the only ones who care about their progeny's happiness. How strange.

adog we gave ours fruit shoots too . Mind, only DH went to Oxford and that from the local comp. My mother has really and truly always referred to them as a bit deprived because we live in London.

As the son or an American OP, I just hope he can use a knife and fork properly else the other boys might rag him frightfully - especially if he tries to be the teeniest bit superior.

Cakesisalways: this is not a windup. Mothers who let their children watch TV should be ashamed of themselves, there are plenty of studies documenting the harm of TV:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8654963.stm

Just google it. You'll find a few dozen studies on the harm of TV to children.

I would wager a monkey to a mousetrap that a lot of the mothers here giving me such a hard time for asking about Westminster allow their children to watch TV and to play videogames, neither of which my children have ever done in my home. Ever.

And yet these women are so holy, so much better than I, right? It's a laugh.

Amy Chua wannabe, for sure

I think you are winding us all up,

Surely even in America describing someone as having a "rather common attitude" is really rude?

You are just goading people.

Oh FGS. Get over yourself. My DH was only allowed to watch the Beeb and went to Oxford. My DS has been allowed to watch it every day and is going to Oxford (and we have the exam results - he's deferred - and not from Westminster).

When you have a young man and not a young boy and when he is happy and rounded and successful (as far as it goes) you might, just might be able to dictate how others should bring up and nurture their children. Until then, I'm afraid, you are just learning and a little humility really woudn't go amiss.

Come on ...we all know it's White Dee posing as OP ....'aving a laaarf.

stayesmom mrs B has a perfectly valid point of view because doubtless she has encountered some of those DCs who do indeed manage to emerge from one of these schools, despite the best efforts of staff, with a sense of entitlement Those attitudes almost always originate in the home. It is called a stereotype and doesn't reflect the range of young people who are brought up with different values. What she hasn't encountered is all the DCs who work tremendously hard, who absorb the values taught them by the school and by parents that with privilege comes responsibility and humility, and the importance of empathy, emotional intelligence and respect for others. I suspect from your posts whichever school your DS attends will also face an uphill battle with your son

I read the "rather common attitude" as "popular attitude" not being a reference to class. As a fellow Yank that's how I would interpret that remark rather than it being some sort of class distinction. Could be wrong though...