Any positive experiences of Winchester College?

[Naspen]

DS has a place at Winchester College and we're trying to decide whether to go ahead with it when the enormous deposit becomes due. Reading previous threads, it seems like a number of MNers have had negative experiences with the school. I was wondering whether there are there any current or recent parents with positive experiences or is it all doom and gloom?

DS has other offers elsewhere but Winchester is his first choice and we just want to be as sure as we can be that we wouldn't be making a mistake in sending him there.

Hopeful bump...

A Mr Sunak was a pupil there.

@LlynTegid I was hoping there might be someone with more recent experience than that!

I have several friends with DC at Winchester. They are happy with the school. In every school, there will be some dissatisfied parents. I suspect parents of DC getting into Winchester are probably the critical thinking types… so perhaps more negative posts.
Never choose a school based on Mumsnet or the press etc. Go see for yourself. It is a lot of money to spend. If you are not sure, ask to speak to the housemaster and registrar again etc. etc. I am sure they would be happy to help and reassure you.
Either way it is very important that you have a good working rapport with a housemaster if your DC is going to board.

My DS has amazing time at the school. Winchester is heading in a good direction. Plenty of opportunities in term of personal development. My DS and his friends set up their own society recently (despite not being in the 6th form) , teacher gave them a great support. Pupils here can choose to be themselves without any peer pressures. There is no discrimination against musicians or pupils who do minority sports.

My DS is very sporty and before coming to Winchester we were worried about the sport reputation here. However this year their 1st football team did very well ( drew against Harrow and beat Charterhouse who eventually became ISFA CUp finalist) and their 1st Cricket team did brilliantly, they beat Harrow and Eton in school matches but lost to Bradfield in the T20 Regional Final ( they beat Bradfield earlier in the season but lost in the cup). The 1st Tennis team is so far unbeaten this season.
Not just the first team that did well but they became strong in all the years group in most of the sport.

Oxbridge places were dropped in recent years but in 2023 there are 38 Oxbridge offers (27-30%) and around another 10 will go to Ivy leagues and other top universities around the world.

What are the downside? If I have to say the food could have improved and facilities could have been more up to date. There are also many quirky children which may need alot of understanding from their friends, at the end they get on well and celebrate the differences.

Another happy Wincoll parent here. Negativity that you see is likely coming from tiger mums on the waiting like, who tend to come out in packs during those days😉 My DS is in College and says the food is amazing, but that may just be a reflection on my cooking😎

Thank you for your responses, and apologies for not acknowledging sooner; I haven't checked the thread in a while.

DS is almost at the end of his first half-term at Winchester and is loving it. The school seems to be a really good fit for him, and we're really happy with our experience of the school so far.

I was just wondering if anybody has any feedback on the new Headmaster - is it strange that she is called a Headmaster when she is female or am I reading too much into this. Also how the girls are getting on and settling in and is it true it has become even more international in recent years? Not that this would not be positive….Thank you.

DS left this year so I have no insight into the new headmaster, I don't think it will make that much difference. It would be interesting to know how she supported the boys who missed their offers this year. Lots of over predicted grades, DS could see this coming a mile off. The parents who use tutors got a better picture and could act accordingly. I have no idea how resits work but I imagine it's very difficult.

US universities were very disappointing, they seem to be more interested in getting boys to sign up the their SAT's course than supporting their University applications.

It's definitely more intentional, I don't think that it's the first choice of British parents these days.
Pastoral care is very poor and I do feel sorry for boys who are so far from home. Many need so much more support than they get. DS doesn't miss the cold or the bad food. Facilities at other schools are much better today, DS says it felt very grim at times.

It may prove popular with day pupils at 6th form. Winchester must have been concerned about their numbers , the school needs updating but they will never dig into their very deep reserves. Other schools offer so much more these days, pastoral care, teaching and support with university are top notch at most boarding school now , Winchester is an outlier in that respect.

I'm not sure where @Beyondthesea123 gets her information from? 24 to Oxbridge and 3 to Ivy League universities, did that many miss their offers?

If you look at the charts on https://www.winchestercollege.org/learning/exam-results-and-universities

22% are taking a gap year. And if you read all the lines, there is 31 Oxbridge offer that are accepted.

Not all 31 pupils who got offers from Oxbridge has to go in 2023, 24 went and 7 defer their entries ( I guess you did not read details but just look at the charts briefly).

22% of the year group are taking a gap year that is more than 30 pupils, some of those defer their entries to Oxbridge and other universities in and out of UK. There are also some pupils that I know who got offer from Ivy League universities but decide to go to LSE, Imperial , UCL or doing medicine at other universities instead. There are also 2-3% of the pupils who did not update school at all what they are doing, they might go to university or trying to start their own businesses ( those people are in other categories in the chart)

@Thankyouforthemusical please read all the information carefully before making comments.

I see @Beyondthesea123 , you said above they had 38 offers. My friend's DS was in that year so I know that some boys missed their university offers this year.

They weren't aware of any boy turning down an Ivy league university, it would be highly unusual for Winchester not to mention that. Boys in that year group would also know if a housemate received an offer to an Ivy league.The early action places at Ivy league universities need to be confirmed in May, I don't think anyone who applies turns it down to wait for A level results.They are usually the first choice of those who apply due to the long application process.

Girls at my DD's school (including DD) are waiting to hear at the moment, the results for early action will be out within the next few weeks.

@Thankyouforthemusical Good luck to your DD with her US applications. My youngest DS is planning to apply. I would be interested to hear the outcome. He is applying to Westminster for 6th form, they offer lots of support for the US but any advice would be helpful.

Thank you @cally75 , she is counting down the days. Her regular applications decisions will be out March/ April, she has a mix of Ivy League and liberal arts colleges.

@Thankyouforthemusical
your writing style reminding me of someone who always trying to attack Winchester college and me in the previous posts.

Many pupils turn down Ivy Leagues even during my days. I knew friends who turn down Brown and Yale for LSE. I knew some friends who defer their entries to Columbia for a year of internship and traveling. Out of 30 pupils in the year 2023 who defer their entries must have their own reasons and activities, it is good to see the wood though.

One of the main point for someone to turndown Ivy League is it is a lot more expensive to study in the US and it also takes longer to graduate. There are also a couple of cases last year that some international student turn down Cornell and John Hopkins( although John Hopkins is not in the Ivy League but it is a top university in its own right) for engineering course at UCL ( this is more unusual ) and medical degree at King’s college ( in the US it takes much longer time to become a doctor).

Winchester does not have to tell all the details about their offers and destinations. Eton did not even publish anything for many years now.

My DS was at Winchester @Beyondthesea123 , he left this year. Does your housemaster share this information with you? You seem to know more than the top years did when they left this summer. My DS knows boys who missed their offers, it's very stressful and I do wonder how the school is supporting them.The school over predicted their grades ,they really need to look at their university application procedures.

What year is your DS in? We had very little information about university applications during our time at the school. Our housemaster would have never discussed boys outcomes with other parents. He didn't like to answer any awkward questions. As parents we would have liked to know where boys went on to study and more importantly which degree they took. We didn't receive anything except for the information they make public.

DS2 is at another school, they are very open about university destinations. They don't give names obviously but we are given a list of all the destinations and degrees studied. I like this approach.

@Beyondthesea123 I have a DD going through the US applications this year. She will have to comitt before her A level's. It's the first choice for the girls who apply at her school. Some are very wealthy so don't mind the fees, others like DD will qualify for very generous financially aid , if she is accepted.

@cally75 I am not sure you are Winchester College’s parents or not because if you are the parents you would have know where to get all the information and details. You would have known who to talk to.

It is also so unusual to say bad things about the school you DS just graduate when it is not a bad year for results or offers.

If you see the pattern @cally75 and @Thankyouforthemusical could have known each other and posting to support each other idea.

You must have more connections at the school than I did @Beyondthesea123. This will obviously prove useful in the future when you are applying for university. Some parents were well connected within the school but the majority are kept at arms length.

College had more of these parents, our house only had one that I can think of. I like the way DS2 's shares information across the school.
Winchester is very different.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/winchester-college-teaches-life-skills-mum-and-dad-forgot-9f8c3wxf5

This is a very odd article in today's Times.

' Elizabeth Stone, who became the first female headmaster of Winchester College in September, said the parents of her pupils were not always managing to teach such life skills.'

The new HeadMASTER is a bit odd. Something out of the 1950s and I can see already an agenda to throw Winchester back into something like the old style boarding school establishments - no technology, cold dorms, packed with pupils lacking privacy or space and rarely seeing your parents. Great if you're nostalgic for those times, but most of us remember those as quite miserable moments of our lives, and it would be a retrograde step for the school if that's where it goes. As a parent, I found the article patronising: plenty of great schools deliver a superb education without demeaning the parent, and the school is determined not to listen to the customer and improve in the ways they would like.

My biggest issue with the school is the quality of teaching. The best teachers are as good as any, but for a school of this reputation, there are far too many mediocre teachers who won't or can't move on, don't really care about the pupils and are just in it for themselves. It's a shame really. The place could be decent, but it needs a clear out and I don't think the current leadership have the stomach to raise academic or pastoral standards. Well done if you have a place, but you have to ask whether things will improve in the 5 years your son might be there.

The way to do that is not to keep expelling pupils (quite a few have gone this term already) but to provide excellent pastoral care, supervision and oversight. Blaming teenagers for doing what teenagers do misses the point.

Hadn't expected this thread to be revived. Interesting to hear different points of view on university entrance.

The new HeadMASTER is a bit odd. Something out of the 1950s and I can see already an agenda to throw Winchester back into something like the old style boarding school establishments - no technology, cold dorms, packed with pupils lacking privacy or space and rarely seeing your parents.

Headmaster is the title that the role has always had. Mrs. Stone is the first female head of the school and has simply chosen not to change it. I see that as a way of indicating that the sex of the person occupying the role is irrelevant (and personally I think "Headmistress" has far more unwelcome prissy 1950's connotations).

I can't see any evidence that the school has an agenda to revert to old-style boarding conditions. Every pupil has a laptop which is used extensively for lessons and prep (and the school seems to have a much better handle on locking down technology against unwanted use than some other senior schools I am familiar with). DS's dorm is neither cold nor packed with pupils. We are able to see him every Sunday for most of the day on non-exeat weekends, and are regularly invited to attend school events.

The way to do that is not to keep expelling pupils (quite a few have gone this term already) but to provide excellent pastoral care, supervision and oversight. Blaming teenagers for doing what teenagers do misses the point.

I know of several older pupils expelled so far this term. In each case it was for drug-taking or possession on school premises. The pupils are well aware of the school rules, and as a parent, I'd be far more worried by a school that didn't have a zero-tolerance policy on drug use.

@Doolittle1, DS is too junior to have much contact with the sixth form girls, but says that the girls in his house seem to fit in well. From what I can see on social media and in school newsletters, the girls' achievements in academic and extracurricular activities and in sport are celebrated alongside those of the boys' (as they should be!), and lots of the girls are involved in music.

I've heard Mrs. Stone address parents on several occasions and she comes across as very down-to-earth and sensible, and very much focused on the welfare of pupils. When speaking to all the new JP parents on the first day of term, she suggested (and I can't remember the precise wording so am paraphrasing) that helicopter parenting was best avoided in order to give teenagers some space to develop independence, which is a message I agree with. My only slight gripe is that it would be nice to hear directly from the Head more (e.g. via email newsletter) to get a sense of her thoughts about the school and future directions, but hopefully this may come once she has settled in fully.