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Is Westminster School the best school on Earth? STATESMOM returns

1000 replies

statesmom · 27/06/2024 22:23

I have a lot to say, don't know if anyone remembers the thread. Let me know if you want to hear from me.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
26
TheBossOfMe · 02/07/2024 18:19

I also remember her first thread - what's interesting is that back then, she was absolutely 100% convinced that Westminster was the absolute best school in the world, and no amount of people pointing out that it had serious flaws would convince her she was wrong. Except now she's returning saying that it wasn't all that.

And back then she absolutely was 100% convinced that one of the best things about them was how many children they got into Oxbridge or Ivy League universities. Except now she's saying Oxbridge is bollocks and Westminster were crap at getting kids into Ivy League universities.

Classic - I'm right, I'm right, I'm right. Until I flipflop but won't concede that might have meant that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't right in the first place 😂

Nottodaythankyou123 · 02/07/2024 18:35

cassandre · 02/07/2024 16:45

Colour me surprised that the OP is a Trump supporter.

The antipathy to rational argument was a bit of a glaring clue.

I think she might actually be Trump! The ramblings are certainly the same!

meandkarmavibe · 02/07/2024 18:45

@TheBossOfMe I've just looked up the old thread. Yup, dozens of people explaining earnestly why Westminster wasn't necessarily the best school on earth and OP shouting 'SHUT UP, YES IT IS BECAUSE IT SENDS SO MANY PEOPLE TO OXBRIDGE AND THE IVIES.' I can't wait for the next thread in a decade on how her ds's Ivy education was crap and Wall Street isnt' all that ...

Arsenal4Ever · 02/07/2024 19:00

If not Westminster, which school is the best school on earth?

Needmorelego · 02/07/2024 19:04

@Arsenal4Ever Grange Hill 😂

HappierTimesAhead · 02/07/2024 19:07

Needmorelego · 02/07/2024 19:04

@Arsenal4Ever Grange Hill 😂

😂👏 Well, no one in Grange Hill needed to pay millions for coaching to get into an Ivy League Uni did they

TheBossOfMe · 02/07/2024 19:11

HappierTimesAhead · 02/07/2024 19:07

😂👏 Well, no one in Grange Hill needed to pay millions for coaching to get into an Ivy League Uni did they

They still made it to the White House though 😂

TheBossOfMe · 02/07/2024 19:12

meandkarmavibe · 02/07/2024 18:45

@TheBossOfMe I've just looked up the old thread. Yup, dozens of people explaining earnestly why Westminster wasn't necessarily the best school on earth and OP shouting 'SHUT UP, YES IT IS BECAUSE IT SENDS SO MANY PEOPLE TO OXBRIDGE AND THE IVIES.' I can't wait for the next thread in a decade on how her ds's Ivy education was crap and Wall Street isnt' all that ...

Hahaha - probably!

Choccybuttonsandprosecco · 02/07/2024 21:07

Is there anything about your son’s happiness and wellbeing and his interests? Seems just about boasting about his university and earning the most money?
I really hope he matures into a happy individual who leads the life they would like and finds joy in whatever makes him tick. It’s a shame your priorities seem so far from this.
Your son is the type who we see in therapy rooms in years to come…..

DEI2025 · 02/07/2024 21:13

Choccybuttonsandprosecco · 02/07/2024 21:07

Is there anything about your son’s happiness and wellbeing and his interests? Seems just about boasting about his university and earning the most money?
I really hope he matures into a happy individual who leads the life they would like and finds joy in whatever makes him tick. It’s a shame your priorities seem so far from this.
Your son is the type who we see in therapy rooms in years to come…..

It's not nice to target Op's son like this.

TheWayTheLightFalls · 02/07/2024 21:16

DEI2025 · 02/07/2024 21:13

It's not nice to target Op's son like this.

I don't think PP is targeting the son in the slightest. She suggests (and I agree with her) that OP is so fixated on producing a Stanford-educated, high earning investment banker that there isn't much sense of who her son is as a person in her posts. What he enjoys, what makes him happy, what his aspirations are.

Midagehealth · 02/07/2024 21:21

Honestly, OP, I think you are wrong in one thing for sure. You really believe AND you tried hard to prove that to measure happiness in one's life there's only one way- which is your way.

Glad you enjoyed your chosen path, but no need to prove others who made their own choices differed from yours are making mistakes. We don't have to agree on life choices, why should we?

As a few posters said, there are many other factors in play that would really make me prefer to have my child stay away from US even if my he gets the chance and begs me to let him go the the ivy school. Every country has its own devils. US is not heaven and will never be!

Midagehealth · 02/07/2024 22:27

TheWayTheLightFalls · 02/07/2024 14:23

I'm finding the OP of this thread fascinating, though I don't think it's proving much of an advert for Westminster, WinColl, Stanford, investment banking as a career, education consultants or- I could probably go on.

OP, lots of us make decisions big and small every day - where to live, what careers to pursue, where to send our children to school, what culture or activities to emphasise or de-emphasise. And most people just... get on with it? If you're secure in your choices, it's quite odd to again and again (especially several years later) return somewhere and try to not only share your opinion but assert that your way is best, your son's education is the best, your family has donated $$$$ more to universities than another poster, your son has done x hours more volunteering than another poster's child, your country of choice is superlatively better than the UK/Europe. It's not impressive, it's just sort of odd. I would be quite exhausted constantly comparing myself / my children to everyone I knew and justifying to myself why I/they are the best. I wish you well and I hope you have the opportunity to think about why you're taking the approach you are.

I was just wondering about the same... quite odd, and fascinating.

DDberzatto · 03/07/2024 07:27

If I may add my two penn’orth into this discussion as an ex-Westminster parent… Sadly I think that the OP is both a genuine ex-parent and is the perfect example of the exact parent I avoided being stuck with at any school function. These are not the parents you chose to join you on the team for the parents quiz nights either because you a) it’s supposed to be fun and b) you are not allowed to use google 😉

Westminster does have two kinds of pupils - the naturally academic and the tutored to death, never allowed a moment’s downtime type. The girls do tend to fall into the former. There are also a high level of neurodiverse pupils.

It is true that the school does not ‘coach’ for Ivy League because the kids who are going are either ‘donation rich’ or legacy applicants which leaves the rest fighting for a very small amount of places which I understand is explained at the start of the process. However it is also the case that positions of responsibility are mostly given to potential US application pupils because Ivy Leagues want that sort of nonsense whereas Oxbridge don’t give a shiny shit if you are the milk monitor or not. Spending any money on a child who is likely to get in on early acceptance because of their natural ability is obscene. The OP won’t want to hear this because her child is very unlikely to have been in college (sore point for a lot of US moms) and because she equates success with throwing money at the ‘problem’. Happily, there are a great deal of people who will take her money and probably have a good laugh about the insanity of it all.

Saturday school IME was not a waste of time, and does provide the school with the ability to facilitate sports on two afternoons a week (where parents are not allowed to interfere with the order of things) and allows the pupils to let off steam from what is a very pressurised home environment. The school recognises this as an essential part of the week.

The teachers IME are not lazy and I have no doubt that my DC received a brilliant non-spoon fed education. However, a lot of kids are put under pressure by insane parents who then tutor outside of school leaving zero time for the DC to actually learn to love the subject. It is quite sad. The more emotionally stable and frankly happier kids are the ones whose parents are not trying to live vicariously through them.

Also sad is the amount of emotional neglect that some kids receive from their parents and for that reason I rate the pastoral care system very highly. Parents of kids who receive the highest amount of pastoral care are very unlikely to know that their child is being discreetly propped up by the school because of their parenting.

After the whole ‘everyone’s invited’ situation the school has done its best to facilitate educating young men into becoming actual gentleman. However consent still remains an issue at parties and it won’t surprise anyone on here to read that the sort of kids who have an inability to understand consent are raised by the entitled, arrogant and ignorant types so expertly self-identified by the OP. Girls don’t want to go to US universities because the entitled attitude of male college boys having bought their way into school is not appealing. Nor is the prospect of having no agency over their own bodies following Roe v Wade bring overturned. Oh, and let’s not forget Facebook was started because Mark Zuckerberg and his contemporaries were unable to get a date and decided to set up a rating system for their female peers. So not creepy at all then. But yay! It is the ‘greatest civilisation on earth’.

It is also not the case that there are ‘large numbers’ of girls arriving keen to express themselves as male-identifying. Quite the opposite.

If anyone would like to know my thoughts on the actual School it is this - it is by far the best education my DC could’ve received to meet their needs. The teachers are skilled, supportive, reactive and communicative. A large number are OW. Nearly all have received an Oxbridge education themselves. The environment is akin to studying at Oxbridge- high volume in short bursts which is self-guided. This is why so many applicants from the school are successful. If you are looking for a spoon-fed, rote learning school, this is not the one for you. If sports excellence (other than rowing) is important to you, this is not the school for you either. If you are looking for your child to meet other kids who think like them and who support each other both emotionally and academically and who will form life-long friendships, this might be the School you are looking for.

knitnerd90 · 03/07/2024 07:35

Hrm, I dare say judging the entire US by this laughable poster is a bit much. And I'd say men are equally as entitled on both sides of the pond, whether their parents can buy their way into an education or not (and mostly it's the same as Oxbridge; you buy privilege by buying a better education. Or sometimes, obscure sport. And of course wealthy schools have far more opportunities for you to do things to put on your application.)

TizerorFizz · 03/07/2024 09:13

I always applaud a school sticking to its guns about sport and Saturday school. We had new parents arrive at our school after a new head started and they complained at the length of the school day and Saturday sport. It interred with their weekend. So the school started to change. Never mind what existing parents thought! Westminster has maintained its traditions and is better for it. Our old school lost a lot of theirs and is a shadow of what it was, both academically and “fun” element.

Whatevers · 03/07/2024 10:14

Saturday school means two half days during the week for training means no after school extra-curricular training and matches - brilliant. No running the gauntlet of North London traffic to get to training and matches. My DS would be up early for matches on the weekend anyway. I am slightly disappointed that the cricket isn't top level like the rowing but, well, it's enough for him. He's not going to trouble the national selectors. He just loves the team element and the game.
I should say that I really don't get people heavily tutoring their kids. If you've got the money for an independent school education, you've got the access to the right school for your child, untutored. Sure, get Atom learning. Encourage them to practice but huge amounts of tutoring - what is the point? I would think he would be totally miserable with the Westminster work load plus tutoring. In fact, I think that would be impossible.

TizerorFizz · 03/07/2024 10:25

@Whatevers If someone doesn’t agree with Saturday school, don’t choose a school that has it and then moan! That’s the issue we had. A previously harmonious school and then a few new noisy parents got the ear of the new head and it was all change. What others valued, and had been in the school much longer, wasn’t considered. No consultation.

DDberzatto · 03/07/2024 10:43

TizerorFizz · 03/07/2024 10:25

@Whatevers If someone doesn’t agree with Saturday school, don’t choose a school that has it and then moan! That’s the issue we had. A previously harmonious school and then a few new noisy parents got the ear of the new head and it was all change. What others valued, and had been in the school much longer, wasn’t considered. No consultation.

💯 this. The trouble with Saturday school is that the teachers don’t like it. At Westminster however you do have the advantage of being housed in the school property portfolio which is why they might dislike it but the benefits outweigh the inconvenience of coming on for half a day two Saturdays out of 3. I’d rather have a 500m commute to my job and put up with it 😉

Whatevers · 03/07/2024 10:44

Westminster changing away from Saturday school would first require a snowman successfully chillaxing in the fires of hell - it aint gonna happen. Sometimes requests from parents are met with a smooth 20 ft high wall of shiny granite. I think that would be one of them. I feel that is the Westminster culture. We are responsive, up to a point. You need to fit in with the core principles and structures. It makes for good educators but not such good entrepreneurs.

meandkarmavibe · 03/07/2024 11:25

knitnerd90 · 03/07/2024 07:35

Hrm, I dare say judging the entire US by this laughable poster is a bit much. And I'd say men are equally as entitled on both sides of the pond, whether their parents can buy their way into an education or not (and mostly it's the same as Oxbridge; you buy privilege by buying a better education. Or sometimes, obscure sport. And of course wealthy schools have far more opportunities for you to do things to put on your application.)

oxbridge is completely different to the Ivues in terms of selection, they don’t give a toss about extracurricular activities on applications which the Ivies give great prominence to and you certainly can’t buy a legacy place or help your pathway with donations. They are actively and very successfully trying to widen access and make huge allowances for differences in educational backgrounds. At my kids’ private and very selective school all the rich but average students target the Ivues because they know they stand no chance at oxbridge

HawaiiWake · 03/07/2024 12:25

TizerorFizz · 03/07/2024 10:25

@Whatevers If someone doesn’t agree with Saturday school, don’t choose a school that has it and then moan! That’s the issue we had. A previously harmonious school and then a few new noisy parents got the ear of the new head and it was all change. What others valued, and had been in the school much longer, wasn’t considered. No consultation.

That is so dire, that the extra noise from new parents gets their agenda pushed rather than a proper consultation.

SiobhanSharpe · 03/07/2024 12:44

"Jealousy is the worst human emotion (my hubby is French so I had to beat that out of him) ..."
I can well believe that, she terrifies me.
PS but I fixed your spelling for you, OP - jealosy (sic). You're welcome. ☺️

XelaM · 03/07/2024 15:39

All I can say is that my cousin - who actually failed his exams at the Moscow State University and only managed to graduate because my uncle is very wealthy and knows the Dean - easily got into Columbia, which is one of the Ivy League universities. I suspect they accepted him because my uncle was willing to pay the fees 🤷‍♀️ He wouldn't have got into any of the top unis in the UK.

Arsenal4Ever · 03/07/2024 15:53

XelaM · 03/07/2024 15:39

All I can say is that my cousin - who actually failed his exams at the Moscow State University and only managed to graduate because my uncle is very wealthy and knows the Dean - easily got into Columbia, which is one of the Ivy League universities. I suspect they accepted him because my uncle was willing to pay the fees 🤷‍♀️ He wouldn't have got into any of the top unis in the UK.

Pretty sure he would have got master degree offers from Oxbridge.

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