United Kingdom · Berkshire
The useful Eton story is not the novel. It is the 31 August registration date, the house, three Halves at the published fee, and an inspection that both praised the co-curricular life and asked the school to keep working on relationships education.
Dit portret staat nog in het Engels. De andere talen komen school voor school.
Curriculum zoals de school het publiceert:A-Levels and the school’s own entrance path (King’s Scholarship, Common Entrance, or Eton Entrance)
Onderwijstalen:English
This is a boys’ full-boarding school in the town of Eton, beside Windsor. The college’s admissions pages say it educates boys aged 13 to 18. The Independent Schools Inspectorate, visiting on 12–14 November 2024, recorded 1,345 boarding pupils, an age range of 12 to 19, and 25 boarding houses, each with a house master and a dame. Every boy boards. There is no day-boy list to fall back on if the house does not fit.
The same inspection says the school was founded in 1440 by Henry VI to educate 70 poor scholars, and that it met the Standards for leadership, education, wellbeing, social education, and safeguarding. The governing body is the Provost and Fellows; the report names Sir Nicholas Coleridge as Provost and chair. It lists both a Headteacher, Mr Simon Henderson, and an Acting Headteacher, Mr Paul Williams. The financial-aid page still quotes Simon Henderson as Head Master. Confirm who is in post on the day you write.
Praise in that report is not vague. Inspectors called the co-curricular programme a significant strength, noting how much of it pupils themselves run. They also left a concrete next step: leaders should support relationships and sex education so that it is challenging and relevant for all pupils. That belongs in a parent’s notebook as much as the chapel photograph.
The useful questions are ordinary. Can this boy live in a house of other boys, all week, from 13? Can you register by the end of Year 5? Can you pay three Halves at the published fee — and the extras, and the visa charge if it applies — or do you need a bursary conversation in Year 6? And have you read the inspection’s RSE paragraph as well as the societies paragraph?
Eton is not a day school with some beds. The inspectorate’s 1,345 and 1,345 boarding figures are the same number. Houses sit throughout the town; boys move between lessons, houses and sports fields, and the report says security measures exist for that movement. A boy who needs to go home every evening is looking at the wrong campus.
The admissions pages say the college typically welcomes boys from about 120 different state and independent schools each year. In 2023/24, 18% of boys received fee support (average award 71%), and 99 boys paid no fees. The financial-aid page repeats those 99 and says 247 boys received fee reductions that year. That is the access story the college wants you to hear. It also says, more than once, that it cannot fund every application.
Tours for 13+ are weekday afternoons, Mondays and Wednesdays, not weekends. Sixth Form tours for 2027 entry are listed for September 2026. If you cannot do a Monday or Wednesday in term, write to admissions before you assume a Saturday exists.
The inspectorate address is Eton, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 6DW. The site is spread through the town. Boarding houses are “well managed and provide consistency,” inspectors wrote; they are secure, well maintained, and staffed so that new boys, including those new to the UK, settle. A wellbeing centre offers professional counselling. There is a health centre with overnight care when a boy is unwell. First aid and medical arrangements for boarders were found effective.
That is the inspection’s physical picture. It does not tell you if this house at 9 p.m. on a Sunday is kind. Parents and boys with a conditional place meet a selection of house masters in the first and second terms of Year 7, with a view to finding a house. Ask to see more than one, and ask what “consistency of approach” means when the boys in that house are tired.
The public examination route the college names for confirming a 13+ place is the King’s Scholarship, Common Entrance, or the Eton Entrance exam in Year 8. The inspection describes a broad, balanced curriculum with wide choice. Sixth-formers can combine subjects freely — the report’s examples are ancient Greek with mathematics, or languages with science. Language choices include Chinese, Russian, a variety of European languages, Latin and Greek. There is a sustained focus on oracy and literacy. Creative subjects — art, design technology, drama, technical theatre, music across genres — are described as well resourced.
Senior pupils, inspectors said, achieve high public-examination results, and almost all move on to universities with high entrance requirements in the UK, Europe and the USA. Careers education starts with employability profiles for younger boys and becomes more individual later, including psychometric testing, degree apprenticeships and direct employment, not only university. Economic education sits in the SPHERE programme: budgeting, bank accounts, the price of a weekly shop; sixth-form economists discuss wider questions. We are not turning those sentences into a league table.
SPHERE is the school’s personal, social, health and economic programme. It now sits on the academic timetable, not only in tutorial time. It includes relationships and sex education — types of relationships, consent — taught by staff and visiting speakers. Inspectors found the content appropriate and the inclusion in the timetable relatively new. Their recommended next step is the sentence parents should keep: delivery is not always challenging and relevant enough. Leaders, the report says, know that not every teacher may yet be confident, and training is in place. Ask what that training has changed since November 2024.
Sport is both timetabled PE and a wide games programme, team and individual, with coaching for all abilities. Chapel and assemblies are often pupil-led. Divinity includes a range of faiths. The Combined Cadet Force, house plays and concerts, and a long list of societies sit beside that. Beginners, inspectors noted, often work alongside advanced pupils.
A boy may be registered until the end of UK Year 5 — the academic year in which he turns ten. Registrations close on 31 August (the pages note this used to be 30 June). The school’s own examples: for 2028 entry, register by 31 August 2025; for 2029 entry, by 31 August 2026. After that date, the remaining doors it names are scholarships or Music Awards in Year 8 (up to age 13), or Sixth Form (16+) entry, which opens in Year 11.
Registration is an online form, an unabridged birth certificate (the UK “Certified Copy of an Entry,” showing parental details), and a non-refundable fee — currently £480 including VAT, “subject to change.” Incomplete applications can be discarded after a month.
Stage 1, autumn of Year 6. Every boy sits the ISEB Common Pre-Tests in October or November — verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English, mathematics — at his current school or an agreed centre. The tests take about two and a half hours, together or separately, multiple choice, age-standardised. Eton also requests a head teacher’s report on academic strengths, interests and character. Stage 1 outcomes go out in December.
Stage 2, spring and summer of Year 6. Boys who go forward come to Eton for an individual interview and an online predictive test (minimal IT skills). Visits are grouped by date of birth, with one important exception:
Results for those groups are published in March, May and July respectively.
A successful Stage 2 boy is offered a conditional place, later confirmed by the King’s Scholarship, Common Entrance or Eton Entrance in Year 8. Parents who accept pay the Acceptance Fee by the end of March in Year 7. House conversations sit in Year 7. Some boys are offered a waiting-list place and a further assessment in the summer of Year 7; the school says the number taken from that list varies year to year.
We are not inventing the rest of the 16+ path beyond what the entry pages state: that route opens in Year 11, and tours for 2027 Sixth Form entry are listed for September 2026. The admissions team also names the Orwell Award on the entry page. Ask the office for the current Sixth Form and Orwell papers; this portrait does not invent those timetables.
Eton says it is committed to supporting boys with disabilities and has a Learning Support Centre. The inspectorate recorded 375 pupils identified with SEND and no EHC plans at the time of the visit. English was an additional language for five pupils; most EAL arrivals are already fluent, with glossaries and similar support if needed. That is a snapshot, not a promise about your son.
On the official fees page, the 2026/27 school fee is £21,891 per Half (term), including VAT. There are three Halves: Michaelmas, Lent and Summer. The fee covers tuition, board, lodging, most games, and most educational materials. The Provost and Fellows set the next year’s fee in the preceding May; families are notified by the end of the Summer Half.
Three Halves at that rate are £65,673 a year, before extras. Do not budget “about £22,000.”
| Charge | 2026/27 figure the school prints |
|---|---|
| School fee, per Half, including VAT | £21,891 |
| Registration, 13+ and 16+, including VAT (subject to change) | £480 |
| Acceptance fee, boys joining Michaelmas 2026 | £3,840 |
| Of which refunded on leaving if the final bill is settled | £500 |
| Additional deposit if at least one parent lives overseas | one full term’s fees, including VAT |
| Child Student or Student visa sponsorship, annual, payable termly | £3,000 |
| Music, 30 minutes a week, per Half | £548 |
| Music, 45 minutes a week, per Half | £822 |
| Music, 60 minutes a week, per Half | £1,096 |
Extras — music, optional insurance, boat club, trips — are billed in arrears. The school says they usually fall between £500 and £1,500 per Half. A full extras list sits on the Parent Portal. Accounts go out in each major holiday for the next Half plus the previous Half’s extras. Pay by direct debit on the first day of the Half, or in three equal instalments during the Half (there is an administration charge for that). A pre-paid fees scheme exists if you have a capital sum.
The overseas additional deposit is credited on the final bill. If you withdraw with a full term’s notice before the year of entry, that extra deposit is refunded in full. The registration fee and the entrance fee may be waived where there is parental need and supporting documents.
Bursaries are means-tested, from 5% to 100%. Every family completes a financial declaration at the end of Year 5. If help is needed, the full form is submitted in Year 6 to published deadlines, which the school says it keeps strictly. A home visit by an independent company may follow. The Bursaries Committee, chaired by the Bursar, decides. Awards are notified with the conditional offer. Boys are not told they have a bursary unless parents choose to say so. The college does not publish income thresholds; each case is individual. The financial-aid page budgets £9.7 million for scholarships and bursaries in 2024/25. The fees page says £10.06 million was spent on financial aid in 2024/25. The entry page had already said the 2024/25 spend would rise to “well in excess of £10 million” after VAT. Those are the college’s own figures for the same season, worded differently. Ask the Fees and Bursaries team (bursaries@etoncollege.org.uk) which number applies to the year you care about.
Ten inspectors visited for two and a half days. All Standards were met. The co-curricular programme — societies, lectures, competitive and leisure sport, creative work, evenings and weekends — is the significant strength. Pupils often invent new societies. Community engagement includes care homes, a mental health charity, a cemetery and wildlife area, charity shops, and reading in local schools. Partnership work with other schools is mentioned, including climate projects.
Behaviour, inspectors wrote, is uniformly high in lessons, houses, recreation and the town. A culture of kindness is promoted in assemblies, chapel and on small cards about expectations. Bullying is rare and handled promptly. Safeguarding was found effective; staff report quickly; governors oversee; online filtering and monitoring are in place; recruitment checks are complete. Boarders have an independent person they can turn to.
The RSE next step is the other half of the report. SPHERE covers misogyny, British values, prejudice and discrimination, and inspectors heard serious debate. They still wanted the relationships and sex education more challenging and more relevant for every boy. If you tour, ask how SPHERE is taught in this year group, and what has changed since the visit.
Ask which house you are likely to see in Year 7, and what Sunday evening looks like there. Ask how a state-school boy from outside the usual prep list is briefed for Stage 2. Ask whether you are in the January financial-aid assessment group, and what documents that group needs. Ask how many waiting-list boys were taken last year — the school says the number varies, which is not the same as “none.” Ask what “usually £500–£1,500 extras” meant for a boy in the boat club versus a boy who only does house sport. Ask, directly, how RSE is being supported after the 2024 recommendation. Ask to see a house at 9 p.m., not only School Yard in daylight.
We are not ranking Eton. We are not repeating third-party fee blogs. We are not inventing a 16+ exam timetable or a current single head of school. The 375 SEND figure is a November 2024 snapshot. Read the fees page, the Year 9 calendar, and the 2024 ISI report before you pay £480. This is a map. The house still has to be the right Sunday.
Officiële pagina’s en documenten die we lazen. Als een bedrag telt voor budget of aanmelding, open de link en check of die nog klopt.
Vriendelijke oriëntatie, geen aanmelding. Data, tarieven en programma’s schuiven. Check alles bij de school.
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