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.

Since we are on anecdote one of my friends sons was at Westminster and throughout his time there was a complete PIA to school and parents, never lifted a finger, all along everyone assumed it was all going to end in disaster. Of course it never did, he may have managed to have gone there without seemingly ever touching the sides, but he ended up at Cambridge, got a first and is currently traveling the world taking illicit substances at moon festivals and living in beachside shacks, still worrying his mother silly. He is lovely though, perfectly able to look you in the eye. But entirely without a work ethic

Statesmom might not like the following. Our American neighbour is a fabulously successful investment banker. He hires "W" (Winchester and Westminster) people for boring but intellectually challenging jobs - Compliance etc. He's never appointed a W to an outward facing job.

He may well be wrong but a recent Westminster head commented that he had comparatively few sons of old boys "because we typically turn out boys who are not going to get rich enough to pay £30,000 in school fees for a couple of children".

Zero . The DCs school has people chomping at the bit to get in. People transferring from less Crappy Schools, like Eton for instance eh OP? Funnily enough. DCs 'best school in the Area' is State :)

So who gets the outward facing jobs grovel?

"because we typically turn out boys who are not going to get rich enough to pay £30,000 in school fees for a couple of children"

...which corroborates what I wrote at the beginning of the thread about the subjects that Westminster pupils go on to read at Oxbridge and that will not enable them to maintain their standard of living. Go into it with your eyes open, statesmom .

Shooting, of course intellectually curious, funny, enthusiastic caring girls who have confidence in their talents and know how they want to use them to make a difference. is a shining example of what we all aspire to (maybe with the exception of Statemom).

But it doesn't follow that that it is only achieved in public schools, or only when the teacher is a circus Magician. Nor do I believe that motivation and work ethic follows fun and fascination. I's more the other way around and basically a chicken and egg cycle. Fun without work ethic leads to fascination with celebrities. Consumption of 'fun', rather than generation of ideas.

Very structured educational systems produce just as shining scientist as you describe. Intellectual curiosity develops through learning, by enjoying discovery; it feeds itself. Every learner has her dissected fish moment. Usually it comes from within. Confidence comes with success. Most able learners are able and curious in all subjects. In the modern society you need rounded skills. A few years ago bio cybernetics were the new frontier in cancer research. So calculus is relevant if your DD wants to cure cancer. Look at yesterday's news about the bionic hand...

The problem with UK system is that in pursuit of elitism it leave the majority behind, and then the middle classes complain about paying for benefits.

Oh, god, this is hilarious! OP has quoted an ancient blog to explain why W is the best school on earth, but clearly has only read the heading!

This is what the article (written by an Old Boy of Westminster BTW) actually says:

'The high standards of education at Westminster are not hard to explain. ... They are:

1. Selection at entry – ...A level of rejection is allowed that has been all but forbidden in the state sector, barring a few surviving grammar schools.

1. Selection on arrival – From the beginning, and right through the school, children of different abilities are divided into different sets.

1. Intelligent teachers who have been to excellent universities.

1. Along with rigorous preparation for exams, the idea of learning for the pleasure of learning – of reading outside the curriculum – is instilled.

1. Special tuition in the tactics of Oxbridge interviews.

1. Discipline.

The one factor that can't be replicated across the country is the academic, disciplined background from which most of the pupils are drawn. A child brought up in a book-lined house, well-schooled until the age of 13, has a vast advantage over a child from a bookless house, with a sub-standard primary education.'

I think this sums up what the majority of the posts on this thread have said!

Oh my gosh, it just downed on me...

Westminster boys appointed to Compliance. This explains the financial crisis, the rogue traders and fines for misselling and money laundering. Compliance, hey... :DDDDDD

Dawned of course. I am under educated.

great .....now the Eton crowd are getting on this thread ...that will spice it up...W and W products are good for ....Compliance ...ha ha

OP's husband is French. Where does he stand? Presumably he is with Bonsoir in the overall and absolute superiority of the French system. My understanding is that the Lycee CDG is one of the top ranked Lycee's in the world, and have heard that they too have success with Ivy league entry.

Presumably he is with Bonsoir in the overall and absolute superiority of the French system.

Well, if he's gone through it himself, he might not be! I don't think Bonsoir has, you see.

needmore Westminster is a "family commitment" presumably he has been committed

Bonkers I have had wine. I make a policy of not doing a nearthewindmill will comment in a more sober moment.............

This is my favourite thread ever.

Shooting, here's to you

"a recent Westminster head commented that he had comparatively few sons of old boys "because we typically turn out boys who are not going to get rich enough to pay £30,000 in school fees for a couple of children."

Yup, that's certainly been the experience of most of my Westminster peers.

Good luck, statesmom, gutted your driver hadn't heard of Westminster [sad old Westminster emoticon]

Bonkers and everyone else, especially nearthewindmill

I think social services should get on the case for child cruelty and totally undermining the personality of the poor boy. Hope he has a large trust fund to pay for life long therapy. Just imagine what it would be like to have a mum like that

Clearly the driver was not a taxi, as he would have done the Knowledge and know of Dean's Yard and the potential cut through.

Don't say, Statemom uses Addison Lee.....

Why don't they have public school ranking based on 3 years salaries of the alumni, like they have for business schools?

Because they'd be totally eclipsed by trade schools?

:DDDDDD

Like it. Presumably Mika and Dido would bring the average up and Shane MacGowan the average down. Helena Bonham-Carter? Gavin Rossdale? Nick Clegg? I would still expect Eton to come out on top, lesser school though it is.

So, what education for a portfolio career?

I mean something like occasional compliance officer, plumber, gardener, taxi driver? I would pay for that.