Winchester College

Overview

Winchester College was founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor to both Edward III and Richard II, and is based in Hampshire (60 miles from London).  Every pupil at Winchester, apart from the Scholars, lives in a boarding house, chosen or allocated when applying to Winchester. Each house is presided over by a housemaster and a number of house tutors. Each of the ten houses has an official name, usually based on the family name of the first housemaster, and an informal name, which is more frequently used in speech and is usually based on the name or nickname of an early housemaster. The 70 Scholars live in College, the original buildings of the school, and within the school “College” refers only to the body of scholars (and their buildings).

Many alumni go on to Oxford and Cambridge and traditionally many Wykehamists have gone on to occupy very senior positions in the Civil Service, including the Foreign Office. Winchester highly values its international links and encourages overseas applicants, wherever they live, to feel confident that the school will take a serious view of their academic credentials.

Sport at Winchester is very special. Winchester Football could be considered a cross between football and rugby, and there is also a distinctive Winchester version of Fives, resembling Rugby Fives but with a buttress on the court. Rackets is also played. Should the same person be Captain of Lord's (the first cricket eleven) and Captain of Rackets, he is known as "Lord of Lords and Prince of Princes", in allusion to Prince's Club in London.

Unique Points

If Winchester is not the best school in the country academically it is certainly in the top two or three.  It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England. Winchester is the oldest of the original nine English public schools defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. According to the commercially published Good Schools Guide, the school "has arguably the finest tradition of scholarship of any school in the country". The writer Evelyn Waugh remarked that Wykehamists had the kind of mind that likes to relax by composing Alcaics on the moving parts of their toy trains.

Winchester has its own entrance examination, and does not use Common Entrance like other major public schools. In 2008 it abandoned A-level and adopted the Cambridge Pre-U on the grounds that this will strengthen the quality of the school's intellectual life.

Winchester College has its own game, Winchester College football, played only at Winchester. It is played in Common Time (the spring term), the main game in Short Half (the autumn term) being Association football. In Cloister Time (the summer term) the main sports are tennis and cricket.

Entry Requirements

The admission of boys to Winchester at age thirteen is largely in the hands of Housemasters. When a boy is eight years old his name can be registered for entry into the school as a prospective member of a particular boarding House. At eleven candidates will be invited by the relevant Housemaster to attend an interview and there is a short written test taken on the same day. If the Housemaster offers a place in his House that place is firm, subject only to the boy’s passing the Entrance Examination or making a good showing in Election (the scholarship exam).

A few boys are admitted into the sixth form to study for two years at the School.