Eton boarding houses help?

[englander101]

Can anyone give advice on boarding houses? At this stage we like the look of The Timbralls, Commone Lane House and Wotton House so want opinions on them but welcome to other suggestions.
My DS is academic, a very keen and able sportsman (football, tennis, rugby in particular) and likes drama.
I think it would be important for him to have a housemaster that he relate to and would feel comfortable talking to.

What stage are you at? Have you been to visit any of them yet?

If you haven't visited yet, Common Lane is featured in this link here.

Feel free to PM me if you like.

All the houses and housemasters at Eton are good. There are no pups.

An important consideration though is food! Does your son want an eat-in house or Bekynton? The latter offers considerably more choice but you lose a lot of the intimacy that comes from eating in house.

Other considerations are

1. How long has the house master been there and when is he due to move on?
2. Distance to sports fields if he enjoys his sports (he'll have to choose between football and rugby..... note the football teams are typically more competitive when it comes to matches with other schools as Eton is predominantly a football school) Houses close to Agars and Dutchmans tend to be a long way from Bekynton....
3. How nurturing is the Dame? She'll play a big part in your DS's life.

We were told to avoid one of the houses in your short list as the housemaster is too sports focussed for our liking....Also if you don't own half a county you might want to avoid another of them as it tends to attract a lot of hunting/shooting types (but it IS a super house nonetheless!)

Please ignore the rest of my boring long post but the last 5 paragraphs to see my comments on Eton boarding houses here.

As I visited my DS this weekend I thought of another differentiating factor between houses, which is something the housemasters often focus on during their interviews with you and your DS - that of year group integration.

Some housemasters put all the F Blockers in one corridor when they arrive - others spread them out so the boy in the room next door to your fresh faced 13 year old son could be doing his A levels.

Also eat in houses may have policies of splitting up year groups for some/all meals.

There's no right or wrong here as there are pros and cons to both approaches. It's simply a matter of preference.

We've just been told the boarding houses we wanted were over subscribed and Ds didn't get an offer from our first choice housemasters so we have to go into the "pool" - and do more interviews. Has anyone else had experience of this? I understand this affects 10% of unlucky parents. The previous posts are all really helpful and endorse my opinion that it probably doesn't matter which house they get into. But the problem is when the choice is left you you differentiate each housemaster so that you can come up with a selection that you think will work for your son - but then when that offer is turn down by the housemaster it is disappointing.

Because DS got in off the waiting list we only met two HMs, so we were sort of in the same boat. It was absolutely fine, and in fact the other boys in the house have been just as important a factor as the HM.

It must be frustrating not to know, but in your shoes I really wouldn't worry about it too much. There are a cracking set of HMs at the moment, and you may end up with one of your chosen HMs after the KS exams anyway.

Please feel free to PM me.

Thank you Indrid - have PM'd you.