Winchester College- Sports

[Workingtoohard123]

I am presently considering senior schools for my DS. The Head at his Prep School has suggested Winchester College. The only reservation that I have is that my DS is a gifted all round sportsman (Cricket, Football, Athletics). Looking at WCs results, they seem to lose regularly at most team sports. Does anyone have anything positive to say about sport at WC?

OP, we don't know quite how talented your DS is at sport. A couple of years ago Radley had 75 new boys who had played in their prep school's first XV (rugby). As a result some of those boys ended up in the fifth XV for their year group which must have been a bit disconcerting/discouraging for them. There is an argument for being a big fish in a small pond.

I is clear from actually reading the thread that Workingtoohard is considering Eto.

Eton has loads of very sporty boys, it is huge enough numbers-wise and rich enough to provide all things including pretty good coaching (although not as good as schools like Radley) to all sorts. There are however distinct differences from Winchester and we with DSs at Winchester are appreciative of what Winchester provides compared to Eton just as Eton parents or parents of other schools appreciate what their school offers.
The 'package' is different. Workingtoohard will make her own mind up what is the best fit for her DS and family.

Grovel is right, lots of very sporty boys at prep school don't make the top teams at large schools like Eton or very sporty schools like Radley. Sometimes it is not a question of talent but the amount of time different boys have put into their sport. A big football club junior academy player will have an advantage to a boy at a boarding prep school who has just played for their school.
The coaching for the lower teams may still be good but there will be less matches.

peternas you may not recall current Eton parents asking you to modify your comments but I do. The posters who've PMd in response to your comments have in a few cases done so to reassure that not all parents are behave as you sometimes behave on here and that you are not a typical example of an Eton parent and just reassure you I I don't go at round canvasing opinion of comments.
The OP titled her thread "Winchester College-Sports" indicating that that she is pretty serious about it so it's hardly surprising the comments she's received. I stand by my position and actually disagree with other parents with DS's at Win Coll if your DS is not only a genuinely very talented alround sportsman particularly in the major sports, but also am ambitious sportsman with aspirations of getting in GB teams/GB ranking or playing for England and if sport is very important to him (I'm not sporty but a I accept that to some people it is) then I personally don't think Win Coll is the right place for him that is not what Win Coll is all about. The OP said her DS is very musical but plenty of schools have execellent music depts, so if I was her I would not be only looking at Win Coll I would also be looking at others including the likes of Charterhouse Eton Radely Cranleigh and maybe even St Edwards all who have better more serious sporting depts than Win Coll.
Of course what we don't know is how talented the OP's really DS is, or how musical or anything else about him, maybe his current prep school head thinks despite his interest in sport he would still suit Win Coll because he would thrive on it's unique intellectual stimulation. As you pointed out she and or her head don't know about the boarding but a few years ago I listened to a mum with two boys who'd gone through win Coll moan that her 3rd DS was not allowed to be a day boy so I'm not surprised that the OP and her prep school head aren't familiar with the boarding arrangements.

Talking about modifying comments, HG doesn’t give a second thought about modifying her own derogatory comments when she writes stuff like this, in total disregard to the offence this trash might cause to Eton parents. Make no mistake and let’s just be clear about this, she is saying her dog, repeat, her DOG is more precious than the Etonian boys whose parents have spent or are spending a £¼ million to have them there!

And her arrogance and disrespect is not confined only to Eton and Etonian parents alone but to the hundreds of boys and girls and their parents of other well respected (public) schools such as Stowe which is bigger than WC etc.

Yes, the pot calling the kettle black, I find her totally disingenuous and hypocritical and it is quite alarming to see a parent of a major British public school kid behaving the way she does; alarming because she still doesn’t realise or recognise the fault that she has in her but instead, is quick to criticise others when her interests take a hit. What message is this sending to her son at WC?

I am asked to ‘modify my comments’ but this request is conveniently attributed to some innocent Eton parents.

HG, at the risk of repeating myself, my comments and views are mine alone and no parent(s) either from Eton or elsewhere can ask me ‘to modify my comments’. For one, even if they did, they are unlikely to succeed because I’m not a performing donkey taking orders from a higher master. Secondly, the very thought of it sounds implausible as Eton parents are more cultured than you think to be asking anyone to modify his/her comments. Don’t know about Win Coll, but at Eton they teach you to speak up your own mind and be your own person. That’s what they mean when they say there isn’t a ‘type’ at Eton - there are more than 1300 ‘types’. So, please do not put words on the mouths of some innocent Eton parents.

It did not escape my notice that you are fond of imaginarily “quoting” some friends, or friends of friends, etc as ‘evidence’ on any particular events or topics throughout the years that you have been posting at MN. Well, I’m afraid others may be gullible but I don’t buy that crap. As you quite rightly say, I do it with solid evidence - thus the extensive links in most of my postings.

And I’ve been re-reading this whole thread to see whereabouts is my ‘behaviour’ to be found wanting. I found none. All I did was to offer an alternative to OP in her attempt to find a school for her sporting son and along came you to suggest that my post was ‘unpleasant’ and ‘dishonest’.

Sometimes I wonder who needs a more urgent education than these young boys and girls?

I have know a few people who have gone to Winchester but they have all been the quirky/ academic types-indeed it is hard to imagine a less sporty lot.

Sorry-I should have added that on the upside as well as being very bright the WC boys I have known have all had a natural charm and are not at all pompous (unlike the products of certain other private schools).

To be fair Peterenas I don't generally read the Wincoll's parents' comments on this thread as trying to fit Wincoll to the boy, it seems to me that people have tried to be realistic in where they feel Winchester fits in as a "sporty school" and about OP's reservations. But as pp said the OP's son is also academic and talented at music so OP has a balance of things to consider. And, it is also useful to suggest other schools.

Sorry if this has been posted already OP, but how the weekend coming out of school thing works at Winchester is that on Sundays boys are allowed home after chapel, and these tend to alternate between early and late chapel - so the boy is free from either approx 9.30am or 11.30am on Sunday. VI Bk I boys (final year) can also have one weekend at home leaving after saturday morning lessons. In both cases they have to be back for the house meeting at 9.15 pm on Sunday. I have no idea how Eton works at the weekend. It sounds like Charterhouse are more flexible about weekends.

Grovel that is a good point about the teams. V similar thing happened with a friend of mine's son who, given his prowess at prep school, ended up in lower teams at Radley initially than you might have reasonably assumed.

OP - just to say the final year's boys' extra weekend at home is once per half term, not just once.

Peteneras did n't some of your posts in a previous W or E thread get deleted by the MN moderators? Extreme views for or against schools are fine (although better if backed up by personal knowledge of the schools) however personal attacks show a loss of perspective which reduced credibility.

DarklingJane, Eton's week-end rules sound the same as Winchester's. Boys spend Saturday night at school unless it's an exeat or half-term. Chapel on Sunday is compulsory either ar 10 or 6. Towards the top of the school you get one or two more Saturday nights at home.

I genuinely believe that most Wykehamists (perhaps 80%?) would thrive at Eton and vice versa.

Gosh! I remember the good natured teasing that one family got for bringing an Eton Mess pudding to a College bring and share picnic (didn't stop it being eaten, I noticed ), but I had no idea there was such bitter rivalry between the parents of the two schools! They hide it so well!

D'you think the boys have noticed?

Tanith must only be some parents. TBH Eton has never been discussed in my hearing in RL by parents at Winchester. I think there may always be the need between schools for some rivalry particularly with sport. Radley and Abingdon have it for example.

I've never heard an Eton parent criticise Winchester in real life. If anything I think there is mutual respect. Eton poached William of Wykeham for heaven's sake.

Or was it William of Wayneflete? Anyway Henry VI wanted some Winchester experience when he founded Eton.

Grovel - - William of Wykeham ( and he also nicked most of their dons )

Anyhow - agree with you - if you drew a Venn diagram of boys who go to either school and where they intersect , the intersection would be much bigger (IMHO) than you think. There are obviously differences, but from what I can gather from DS the differences are written larger than the similarities.

By which I mean, the similarities are in truth the larger part. (Probably did not express that well)

Summerends, yes they got deleted prompted usually by the very people who wrote nasty things first and when I reciprocate they go crying ‘Foul’ to MN moderators. Oh, it happens quite regularly here and elsewhere. What a shame, some people just cannot swallow their own medicine.

Yes grovel, I’ve met many WinColl parents when they came to Eton to watch their sons play games when my DS was also involved. It was actually quite a delight to be talking to them all showing mutual respect and courtesy etc. It’s only here at MN that I find the Eton ethos, its uniform, its tradition, its after match tea or lack of it, that’s constantly being criticised. A school where no dog should even come. . .

But what's strange is that all the Eton tradition, ethos, rituals, history etc would have been derived from WinColl in the first place. Very disingenuous indeed.

That’s a fair comment, DarklingJane.

Somehow, over the past few years I’ve resisted, very uncomfortably I might add, to respond to some Win Coll parents (and I don’t mean you. DJ) drumming into our heads over and over again of how very academic and the rhetoric of how Win Coll offers a unique intellectual stimulation type of education; that it writes its own entrance exams as opposed to CE; that it does the ‘much harder’, ‘more challenging’ Pre-U instead of A-Levels (that the rest of the imbeciles take) and as if no other schools or academies in the world, never mind the UK, can offer the same type of stimulating, high-level education.

In short, only geniuses are admitted to Win Coll and presumably they would go on to swamp Harvard, Oxbridge etc; going on eventually to dominate the world’s top professions in medicine, law, politics, industry and commerce and be leaders of all men and creatures great and small.

But unfortunately, the only Old Wykehamist I’ve ever met happens to be a doorman at a certain nightclub! [Honest!]

Upthread, I did say I’d leave the question of music and academics alone without clouding the waters here on this thread which is about sports. Try as I did but it seems the question of music and academics keeps beckoning for a response as a couple of posters have reminded me that OP is not merely looking for sports but also academics and music. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong thread but I don’t see anywhere that OP is looking for academics although I agree she did say her son is musical.

Be that as it may, my suggestion of a more appropriate school at Windsor for this particular child isn’t a suggestion for him to come to a school with a lesser music department or an inferior academic faculty to that of the Hampshire school. I put it to you that Win Coll is not the exclusive domain of an academic education as some parents there keep reminding us that it is.

If you think your child is highly academic and the best, then Win Coll is where you go.

If you think your child is super-academic and the best of the best, then Win Coll is where you go.

If you think your child is super-mega academic and the best of the best of the best, then HERE is where you go.

As for the music at Eton, I’ll let another Eton parent, IndridCold, have the honour of entertaining you with this link she provided in another earlier thread or alternatively here if the link doesn’t work.

So OP, if you think the standard of music at Eton isn’t good enough for your DS, then perhaps you should go to the Hampshire school. But wherever you decide, I sincerely wish you the very best of luck and hope all turns out well for you.

Thank you to everyone who has responded. I made the original post because I was seeking reassurance that my DS would have the opportunity to achieve any sporting potential at WC. To clarify, Im not looking for a "sporty school", but DS is academic and musical as well as sporty and I dont wish to limit his options or enjoyment by making the wrong choice. Were planning to visit Eton and have visited Charterhouse.

Workingtoohard what did you think of Charterhouse?
Is there any reason why you want to narrow it down at this stage? Why not just engage with the entrance procedures of several of the contenders. In a couple of years your DS will have a much clearer idea of what he prefers and you will know more through the contact with the schools

Ditto Summerends

Workingtoohard I would love to hear what you thought of Charterhouse.
If there is anything you don't want to share publicly, please PM me.

Thanks in advance.

I was very impressed with Charterhouse. Although it is an old school, it seems to be very modern in its outlook and embraces change. The co-ed sixth form appeals to me. The facilities are comprehensive. We also met the Headmaster who impressed a great deal. I wouldn`t hesitate sending our DS there, unless WC or Eton impress more. We shall see.

That sounds very positive Working. Good luck with your investigations.