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.

[mateysmum]

Bonkers how the hell do you know if I am in a privileged position or not?

Having the money to afford something is different from effectively bribing your way in by giving"donations" as the OP seems to be proposing. Of course a good school will give you an advantage, but my point above about my nephew is an example of social mobility.

No longer can you just roll up at Oxbridge and buy a place even if you are as thick as 2 short planks.

[AmerigoVespucci]

statesmom you really have to stop with the Latin asides. We are not in a court room drama.

[OnGoldenPond]

I can assure you statesmom that these top performing schools are inundated with applications from very rich and well connected parents they are not impressed by attempts at bribery and are still able to choose the DCs that fit their school.

Also, Westminster do not just go for the DCs that score highest in exams, unlike some of the others. They have a reputation for picking quirky boys with a creative, original outlook rather than just the top academics. A friend of my DS has an offer from Westminster for 13+. He is a year below his correct one as he was held back at reception age due to problems caused by hearing issues. He is bright but not top set for everything. However, he is clearly very bright and creative with a very original outlook on the world. The type if individual who could come up with world changing ideas. He is also desperate to go there though his DM was not sure. So you can coach your DS as much as you like, if he is not naturally that kind if boy he would struggle to get a place at Westminster no matter how he scores in exams.

[OnGoldenPond]

Also would like to add that Westminster was one of he few academic schools that would consider a boy who had been held back a year. They definitely put a lot more store by the individual qualities of DCs than even schools a lot further down the academic pecking order. Just forget about buying a place either by bribery or tutoring. If he ain't a Westminster boy he ain't going to get a place!

[TamerB]

There is no such thing as 'the best school on earth' there is only 'the best school on earth for a particular child'. The schools mentioned are not the best for my children, it might be nice if they were, but I need to find the school that is, not fit my child to the school.
No one has ever asked my which school I went to. Getting into university was the last time it cropped up. Never for a job and never in conversation.

[Shootingatpigeons]

I did get into a very good Book Club on the strength of the school I went to. Does that count?

[statesmom]

So we talked about the fact that it's an academic powerhouse.

We talked about the university results.

We talked about the reputational effects that last a lifetime.

How about that other lifetime benefit? When you're a member of the most elite academic club in the nation, you look after other club members first.

This is yet another reason we're going for Westminster: membership in a fraternity of contacts without peer.

[Taz1212]

Statesmom, I would also bear in mind that it is very much down to your DS to want to go to Westminster. My mother was desperate for me to go to Groton. All I heard when I was young was the importance of starting at Groton in 8th grade. I didn't want to go to Groton. I wanted to go to Concord Academy to my mother's horror and she put her foot right down so I dutifully took the SSAT and did very well in the naive hope of being allowed to apply to Concord Academy as well. I then went to interview at Groton and intentionally blew it. I remember being asked which boarding school my father had gone to and blatantly lying by saying I didn't know. They were not impressed with my lack of performance and of course turned me down.

You might have ambitions for your son. He may well have other ideas.

[statesmom]

Huh? He's 8. And he'll be 12 when we decide.

You don't ask a 12 year old their opinion on such an important topic. You tell them.

It's called being a parent.

[Shootingatpigeons]

I love this. statesmom pronounces it is so. A whole load of people with better knowledge and experience pile in to say it is not so. statemom then comes back and says it is so

Are you Captain Jean Luc Picard by any chance? (Because if you are you will earn a lot more respect from me than you have thus far )

[Taz1212]

Oh I was told. I was told over and over and over again. It was expected of me. Didn't stop me intentionally blowing the interview.

[TamerB]

My point exactly, Taz. I know many a child who didn't go along with parental expectation. The teenage years are often when they dig their heels in or deliberately derail it.
We appear to know a lot about OP now and next to nothing about the young child!

[TamerB]

Just read the last bit as cross posted! You do appear a bit naive if you think you tell them and they jump to it!!

[TamerB]

Not asking a 12 year old their opinion is a recipe for later trouble.

[Taz1212]

What I didn't do when it came to DS was make my mother's mistake. I selected an additional school for DS to apply to on top of my choice. It turned out that he fell in love with this other school and didn't care if he got into my choice.

I went with his decision and he thinks it's the best decision we've ever made. He's thriving and I'm so glad I didn't do a repeat of my mother and force my choice onto him (he did get into both schools). That is equally called "being a parent".

[OnGoldenPond]

Statesmom - you are not listening are you?

No one will give a stuff where your DS went to school once he has started at uni

Employers don't care

This old boys network is overplayed. It us more about contacts made at uni than school.

If your DS gets a place at Westminster yes he is likely to do well in life. Not because of some magical thing that us "done" to him while he is here but because the school select very talented boys who are destined to do great things. If your DS is that boy he will do those great things wherever he goes to school.

OK???

[Willdoitinaminute]

Statemum if you had taken any notice of some of the well meaning and thoughtful comments made by a number of posters who have had first hand experience of the admissions procedure at Westminster they have stressed that the school look for independent thinkers.
Your last post suggests that you do not encourage or allow your DC independent thought.

[Shootingatpigeons]

Being a parent is about respecting your child and their ability, talents and personalities and giving them the confidence and motivation to use them, and setting sensible boundaries on their behaviour. Telling them which school to go to because you have decided in the teeth of all the advice to the contrary that it is best in the world because it has old buildings and, regardless of the fact that it is the pupils who get the places not the school, a good hit rate at Oxbridge, and then tutoring them, again in the teeth of all the advice from those more experienced than you, to excess to shoehorn them in is not good parenting. It is a recipe for disaster.

Taking a step back and touring these schools with your DS, gathering reliable information, then guiding them in a decision based on the factors that matter to you and your DS and how each school matches up. That is good parenting that equips them with the skills to face future similarly important decisions in life. I really recommend it.

[unitarian]

We could never have afforded private schools for DD even if it had crossed our minds. What do you do if your only choice, without making a ridiculously tortuous daily commute, is the local rural comp?

You trust in the local comp.

DD is now on one of the most competitive courses at one of the top universities in the world.

After a bout of intense studying she slumps in front of the TV or she practises music to unwind - she's conservatoire standard at that too.

Never had a tutor. Never needed one.

I, therefore, couldn't give a toss where this woman sends her boy.

[OnGoldenPond]

So you think your DS is a blank page who will do what you say and think what you tell him to?

If he is then no way will he get a place at Westminster.

If (as is more likely) you are deluded in thinking you can dictate to a 12 year old you need to find out if he feels the school is right for him or you can rest assured he will torpedo your carefully paid plans!

[Sheldonswhiteboard]

You don't ask a 12 year old their opinion on such an important topic. You tell them.

It's called being a parent.

No, it's called being a dictator. You are in for a world of trouble in the future - good luck!

[BeckAndCall]

I'm with statesmom on the "telling the child where they're going to school" approach.

We did that with all 3 of ours - they went where we told them they were going, even though their friends went elsewhere.

And for university, they had a very narrow choice we were prepared to pay for and I think all 3 were pretty influenced by our opinion of how to compare the different offers they got.

And touch wood, we've not had a backlash or a rebellion as yet.

[mateysmum]

I'm sort of with you Statemom on telling a child where they should go to school, but also remember that a child of 12 is very different from a child of 8. Around that age, they really start to grow up and become more independent, it gets much more difficult to just tell them.

[peteneras]

”When you're a member of the most elite academic club in the nation, you look after other club members first.”

Hmm. . . I’ve trouble digesting that one. The most elite academic club in the nation?

Certainly not Westminster nor Winchester nor even Eton. And best leave Harrow alone.

In my books, this is the club that takes the honour where all the cheque books and Ali Baba’s treasures bundled with the greatest contacts in the world combined cannot buy you membership. There’s only one way in - an IQ of at least 132 no matter who you are.

But I must admit statesmom, I do like your style and I certainly believe you are for real. I know of many moms especially from the orient who behave exactly like you.

”You don't ask a 12 year old their opinion on such an important topic. You tell them.”

”It's called being a parent.”

I like this one best because it makes me laugh. This is exactly what I do and today my DC cannot thank me enough. Others can call me what they like, I have no responsibilities for them.