Different kind of Success

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Proud Parent

Different kind of Success

Post by Proud Parent »

I am a proud parent of my boy who appeared for Eton College's Scholarship exam (windsor) this January'07 when he is in Year 5. The purpose of writing this is to let everybody know there are options open before 11+. Let me explain our full story in details to all parents out there. I saw an advert in our local family magazines saying there were four scholarships available. We went to see the school last November. The beauty of this is that only state school children can apply for this. They must be attending that school for atleast last three years. Plus they take exams year early when child is in year 5 and not in Year 6 so that they can avoid heavily coached children. They do ask for your current school's headteacher's report. In the open evening they also said that only consider applying if your child is in top one or two in whole school across that year and not only in their class (i.e if there are three classes for that year then he needs to be at the top within those classes). We asked our headteacher's opinion and went for it . I also told my boy to do his best no matter whatever the outcome. Eighty five children appeared for the tests. The first test was for three hours . Maths, English, Intelligence test. They look for potencial rather then knowledge. Eight candidates got short listed for another set of tests and interview. The second test was two hours test. Science/Ict and interview. My son managed to secure a scholarship for the next eight years. He will be leaving his present school at the end of year 5 to join prep school for three years followed by five years at Eton and beyond. I am surprised that not many people know about this . So I am a stress free parent at the end of year 5 knowing where my child is going. Only downside to this is that Eton is a boarding school. But this is once in a life time opportunity for anybody, which I am sure most of you would agree. We don't have any grammer schools where we live so this has been a God send to us as a family. Not in our wildest dream we could afford to send our child to Eton or any fee paying school. But their scholarship has made my child's life for sure. He is really a bright kid, that's why I had to do something about it. This web-site has helped me in lot of ways. I have ordered lots of material from here which I am sure I will be using it with my daughter because we never got chance to use it . I would like to thank Patricia/Mike and lots of others who helped us. So now you know that this scholarship is there to try. If you think your child has that ability go for it. You never know your luck!!!!! I would be happy to answer any questions anybody might have. Thank you for reading our happy story.
jah

Post by jah »

Fantastic opportunity. Well done!
Guest

Re: Different kind of Success

Post by Guest »

Proud Parent wrote:I am a proud parent of my boy who appeared for Eton College's Scholarship exam (windsor) this January'07 when he is in Year 5. The purpose of writing this is to let everybody know there are options open before 11+. Let me explain our full story in details to all parents out there. I saw an advert in our local family magazines saying there were four scholarships available. We went to see the school last November. The beauty of this is that only state school children can apply for this. They must be attending that school for atleast last three years. Plus they take exams year early when child is in year 5 and not in Year 6 so that they can avoid heavily coached children. They do ask for your current school's headteacher's report. In the open evening they also said that only consider applying if your child is in top one or two in whole school across that year and not only in their class (i.e if there are three classes for that year then he needs to be at the top within those classes). We asked our headteacher's opinion and went for it . I also told my boy to do his best no matter whatever the outcome. Eighty five children appeared for the tests. The first test was for three hours . Maths, English, Intelligence test. They look for potencial rather then knowledge. Eight candidates got short listed for another set of tests and interview. The second test was two hours test. Science/Ict and interview. My son managed to secure a scholarship for the next eight years. He will be leaving his present school at the end of year 5 to join prep school for three years followed by five years at Eton and beyond. I am surprised that not many people know about this . So I am a stress free parent at the end of year 5 knowing where my child is going. Only downside to this is that Eton is a boarding school. But this is once in a life time opportunity for anybody, which I am sure most of you would agree. We don't have any grammer schools where we live so this has been a God send to us as a family. Not in our wildest dream we could afford to send our child to Eton or any fee paying school. But their scholarship has made my child's life for sure. He is really a bright kid, that's why I had to do something about it. This web-site has helped me in lot of ways. I have ordered lots of material from here which I am sure I will be using it with my daughter because we never got chance to use it . I would like to thank Patricia/Mike and lots of others who helped us. So now you know that this scholarship is there to try. If you think your child has that ability go for it. You never know your luck!!!!! I would be happy to answer any questions anybody might have. Thank you for reading our happy story.
Do you still have to pay any fees? THis could be a problem for many parents.
moose

Post by moose »

Congratulations to you and your child! It is a great success! With all respect though , are you not worried about how your child will fit socially in the school environment, especially being a boarder?
How is he going to be treated as being one of the few ex-comps by his rich peers? I would be nervous.
sj355
Posts: 1149
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
Location: Finchley - Barnet

Re: Different kind of Success

Post by sj355 »

What a spectacular success. Bravo a hundred times! No, I did not know about it, but would not have been an option of me really even if I did. I only have one child and it would break me if he had to leave. Still, if there is no other choice, it is a fantastic opportunity for the child. You obviously see him in an all weekends, etc?

INEX
sj355
Proud Parent

Post by Proud Parent »

yes, this is a messages for you all. They do assess your financial circumtances. Based on that they decide how much you could afford. We are paying very little which we could afford . But it is a scholarship up to full fees. When we went to see the school, there were four children who spoke about their experience out of which one was a junior scholar like my son who is doing A levels, comes from an average family. They all seemed very down to earth children. I think when you mention Eton, everybody's impression is about rich coming there and out of your league. But it is not the case. It's like any normal private school. Lots of children are on scholarship here. More important is that all children who join come at 13+. So they are all new and try to make life out of it. My boy is very indepedent which they must have seen in him at the interview. He has been out on cub's camp few times. He loves to try different things, so we thought he would fit in best. He is looking forward to boarding. Only time will tell if we have made right choice. Thank you for all your kindness & wishes.
Green with envy!

Re: Different kind of Success

Post by Green with envy! »

Proud Parent wrote: My son managed to secure a scholarship for the next eight years. He will be leaving his present school at the end of year 5 to join prep school for three years followed by five years at Eton and beyond.
Well done indeed - he has done incredibly well. We entered our son for this quite a few years ago, and he didn't get one of the scholarships, but we wanted him to have the opportunity. (There was no possibility of affording the fees at Eton, so this was our only chance.) The hilarious thing was that we had kept him in a primary school which he hated just so that he would be able to do the test, rather than move him to a prep school which would have been far superior in his opinion. To cut a long story short, we were watching a programme a couple of years later about children who were being home-educated and it turned out that one of them (the same age as my son) had been awarded one of the scholarships to Eton despite not being in a 'normal' primary school. My son recognised him as a child who had tried to distract other children during the Eton test by performing magic tricks!

Anyway, all the very best to your son - you must be absolutely thrilled. By the way, mine never got to move to the prep school even after this, as he decided he had suffered so long that one more year wouldn't make any difference! He did manage to get into a very good school at the age of 11 though, and has forgotten all about "literacy hour" and "numeracy hour" now - they were the banes of his life!
Guest

Post by Guest »

WOW! Well done that young man. Good luck to you all - you deserve your success you went for it and got it, good for you..and your son, hope he is very happy there. If it's good enough for Prince William and Prince Harry it's good enough for you! :D
Anxious Maggie

Post by Anxious Maggie »

Dear Proud Parent,

Was your son in the top 2/3 for his year group? Did he do the optional sats at the end of Year 4, and if so what level was he?

My son is bright but i am not sure he would rank in the top 2/3.

Do you have any more information about what the tests themselves?

Thanks!
Green with envy

Eton scholarship

Post by Green with envy »

Anxious Maggie wrote: Was your son in the top 2/3 for his year group? Did he do the optional sats at the end of Year 4, and if so what level was he?My son is bright but i am not sure he would rank in the top 2/3.
Do you have any more information about what the tests themselves?
I would think a child who got this award would have to be truly exceptional, not just within the top 2 or 3 in the class. They would probably need to be the brightest child in their year, and the school would be looking for signs of great future promise (don't know how they do this, but I'm sure they know what they're looking for - a child who thinks outside the box, anyway). I can't imagine Eton would be very interested in SATs results.

My son who did it in 2001 said there was maths, English and verbal and non-verbal reasoning, and I think they had compiled their own test rather than using a commercial one from what he said. One word of warning - he was devastated at not getting it, and it took him at least a year to recover. We told him he could try again when he was 13, but he had lost interest by then having settled into an 11-18 school.
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