happygardening Tue 14-Nov-17 22:30:04

Years ago I read somewhere that over 2/3 of Wykehamist were in the top 3% don’t know how true that is.

Winchester has a longish and personal selection process. You meet a few HM’s decide which one you like and then register your DS with his house. Between Jan and March of Yr 6 they interview your DS, the interview last over an hour and your DS gets asked to do an activity maybe math, a comprehension, write a short piece etc, but he’s also interviewed. The interview is informal and the HM’s know what they and the school are looking for. We were told (many moons ago) that you could for example do poorly in the comprehension but if you shone somewhere else and the HM’s gut feeling was that were what they wanted in all other respects you could be offered a place. Winchester is oversubscribed but restricts the number who register but I have also heard that the individual candidates are getting stronger year on year, So there is a strong case for saying register and if he doesn’t get offered a place then it’s not the right school for your DS.

On the other hand HM’s can make mistakes. my DS felt that there were lots and lots of —math geniuses— super bright at Winchester but also a smallish number of really not that bright some really struggled. For example a friend thought her DS fell into the not that bright “high average” category and she regretted sending him to Winchester because he was always on the bottom and constantly struggled with this.

Winchester is not just an a academic school it’s a school where the pursuit of all things intellectual is written through it. It has a strong non examined intellectual curriculum in the form of a daily “Div” lesson, and weekly prep, that some might say serves no other purpose than intellectual study for the sake of it. Again most boys love it but my DS has said that the “not that bright” weren’t always so keen because it wasn’t obviously aiding in the passing of public exams.