Winchester College 2023 Entry

[HappyMamababa]

My Son just got a place for Winchester College for 2023 entry. Any existing parents have some comments on the school, compare to Radley and Eton? We are living overseas, so it’s hard for us to visit the school, and would appreciate existing comments so that we can have a feel and insider information.

Congratulations! I have a ds at Wincoll. He is very happy there and has been since the start. We heartily recommend it!

Oh happy to hear that your son is very happy there. Any tips on the entrance exam or election? There’s slight chance that kids fail at entrance exam right ? Any particular sports that ds in wincoll like to do?

Hi HappyMamaBaba, I don’t have any specific tips on entrance or election. We pretty much stayed hands off as parents and ds was prepared at school. The only piece of advice I gave my ds was to finish every paper! I don’t know any boys personally who failed, but occasionally I hear of one. In which case, the registrar and your prep head will work together to place that boy elsewhere. I think the potential is pretty much assessed beforehand and they are offered or not offered a conditional place accordingly.
There are lots of sports on offer. My ds does two martial arts. He was brand new to both when he joined and is now a trainee black belt. He has also been on the team for a more niche sport and does yoga! We very much liked the sports set up at this school. The boys are given mini sessions of all sports in the first week or two when they start and there is a lot more choice around sports than in some other schools. No compulsory rugby! The new sports centre will be invigorating and WinColl also offer sports scholarships to attract talent.

Thanks for all the information. How about the pastoral care and the way they handling covid? Percentage of overseas students ?

The pastoral care is more traditional than some schools. The boys are not molly coddled! But there are plenty of staff taking care of their needs.
Their handling of Covid has been exceptional and to date they have only had one case in school. Their strategy has been led by a top epidemiologist and also science don at College. All boys have had a PCR test before returning to school and have not been admitted unless they have a negative result. Remote learning has been comprehensive and is still ongoing for some international students. I believe there are about 20% international students.

My DS's experience of pastoral care at his boarding house & medical centre at Winchester Coll is dire. The school is clearly struggling. AVOID!

The percentage of oversea students is around 25%. Boys are spending lot of times with their house peers since they have all their meals at their house and prep time is two hours which mean they do not have much time going to see other friends from other house apart from during classes and activities time.

Life outside the classroom is really depend on what are you interested. If you are interested in football then you hang out with people in a football team. If you are more interested in music or societies then you hang out with those people ( sport is optional) instead. Boys are kept busy all the time.

Pastoral care is really depend on each house ‘ housemaster and matron. For example some houses could have a great facility, great housemaster, bad food, and strict matron ( make boys organize but not so warm ) while some houses could have not an ok housemaster, bad facility, great matron and a great delicious food.

Div is interesting and they introduce a lot more diverse topics than ever before, recently boys have learnt about Meiji Restoration and African history as well as Death of Socrates.

I think it is a place where boys are able to find out where their interest lies.

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