Moving son out of Eton to attend Harrow instead

[Scrapthe11plus]

Asking on behalf of a friend... has anyone ever moved there son to Harrow after a year or two at EC?

Parent in question would like her son to be less Eddy Redmayne and more Benedict Cumberbatch, although I’m unclear as to whether each are typical products of their respective schools. She feels EC has rather failed to develop her son in to a well rounded man like Benedict Cumberbatch, and instead is encouraging her son’s academic success to the detriment of all else.

Given the fierce rivalry between the schools, are transfers between them rare? Surely parents can make an honest mistake in choosing the wrong type of public school for their children.

Ask your friend if she wants her DS to look like an otter?

Don't be ridiculous. It would be like playing for Everton and moving to Liverpool. Or Manchester United to Manchester City. Or moving from the Labour party to the Conservatives. Or putting a baby tiger cub into the Colleseum with the lions.

The child would have no credibility and be bullied endlessly for being part of the "other team". For the whole of his school life he'd be "Tarquin the Twat From Eton" or "Tarquin the Twat from Harrow" depending on which way the switch was.

Eton produced David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Spencer Matthews who are all universally acclaimed heros of our time with no flaws of any kind. They are peons of manhood.

Harrow produced Churchill, Robert Peel and Lord Byron. Low grade non-achievers every last man jack of them.

Notaleopard I take your point about donkeys not having tons of BDE but they often have the ‘B’ part. That combined with the unapologeticness (not a word but I’ve not been to Eton so don’t know the correct one till i contact Jacob R-M to ask,), and the braying, covers most of the bases.

I do think both Schools in question could use this as the new front cover of their respective prospectuses "Would you rather your son become Eddie Redmayne than Benedict Cumberbatch - Eton is the school for you!" etc.
Of course EC produces 1300 clones, where as Harrow only produces 800 BC lookalikes.

OP on the other hand - yes some boys do change school even in such selective ones, but usually only at Sixth Form. How well it goes depends on the individual and circumstances. The only case I know personally went from Winchester to being Home Educated, and seemed to go pretty well - but you'd probably have to ask the boy himself, he is now a young man.

I suspect the boy is actually at St Custard's skipping about talking to the sky and the trees, but the OP is too ashamed to admit it.

Don't you have to put the child's name on the waiting list at birth for both these schools?

This is strangely outing, but I once threw up at the house party of some Etonians. They must have been the dregs though as the poor chaps had had to go to L**ds. It’s not even collegiate.

Fair play, this thread is like a piece of performance art. Tell your 'friend' to send the lad to the local secondary school. He'll definitely get some 'rounding' experiences there that would be unavailable to him at Eton or Harrow

@sashh I dare you to go to the websites of both schools and actually read the sections on applications. You’ll find it fascinating ...

Anyway screw Bendict Cumberbatch (I wish lol) I’d far rather have Tom Ellis, swoon 😂💖 As for the move, not really sure OP, perhaps ask your mum.

Who wouldn't want their DS to resemble an otter?

My sister worked at an extremely exclusive school. I made a point of reading through their Alumni pages. The names, titles and achievements entertained us for hours - in comparison, I worked in an inner city school which is now closing because it's so shit and my Secondary School Alumni news was generally televised once a month with a tagline of 'Don't have nightmares'.

we're happy enough not to delete so that the thread might stand to help the many other parents who find themselves in this sort of a pickle

Ah thank you MNHQ i was only discusing this morning how many of my friends are in exactly this little pickle its often frustrating when helpful advice is deleted because tje tread was started by some one not on tje level.

Well, clearly everyone (boy at any rate) should be doing Common Entrance 13+ not 11+ like the hoi polloi

Ah i didn't think of that, i was thinking of them wanting to scrap it because that were in favour of inclusive education for all. But you're right ots probably more that all of the hoi polloi deluting the selective sector by taking the 11 plus rather than the CE.

take your point about donkeys not having tons of BDE but they often have the ‘B’ part

I Was going to say if any species have the right to have BDE surely its donkeys. I mean isn't the phase hung like one?

Eton are just ahead in wins in the annual cricket match against Harrow and for that reason alone I'd leave the sprog there.

I had to look up BDE.

I went to Mallory Towers.

Naughtto exactly, donkeys have a substantial part of the criteria OPs friend is looking for in that they have substantial parts. The more I think about it the more getting a donkey and leaving the boy at his present school is the way to go. Should the lad not end up in the Houses of Parliament or being the CEO of a prestigious investment bank, the donkey could easily step into either setting quite comfortably.

my Secondary School Alumni news was generally televised once a month with a tagline of 'Don't have nightmares'.

Genuine lol - thank you Mitzi!

I just looked up BDE. I think that could be what's wrong with my neighbour's dog.

@HMArsey I think you can get a cream for that. Possibly from matron.

BDE? I need a glossary!

"Parent in question would like the boy to be less insipid, palid eccentric type of swot and more unapologetic, braying, confident man with in possession of tonnes of B.D.E. "

Parent in questions needs to parent. Or reflect on the parentage of this child to see where these traits came from..... the Apple never falls far from the tree!

I vote whichever is closer to St Trinian's for joint events.

Neither Eton nor Harrow. Your ‘friend’ needs to send her son to Radley. It has been reliably churning out bounders, rotters and cads since it’s inception. Not nice men, but lashings of B.D.E. A couple of famous double murderers went there too. One way of making your mark on the world.

Mallory Towers? Pah. I went to Trebizon

I went to Kingscote.

We knew about BDE there. Miss Cromwell had it in spades. Miss Keith, on the other hand...

Well, you learn something new every day.

We once were sitting eating our sandwiches on a bench halfway up Orrest Head when a donkey ambled up and, well, TBH it was more of a (gently) Big Swinging Dick than a display of BDE. He was otherwise quite small so didn't significantly impair the view or put us off our lunch.

From this I conclude that overendowed males should be put out to grass.