Eton College UK Boarding School Review, Results And Fees

Life at Eton College is exciting and challenging, sometimes even exhausting but greatly rewarding. The school prides itself in the various opportunities it has created for its students. Graduates of Eton College will leave with five years worth of academic, sporting, dramatic, artistic, musical, and personal growth, with his built friendships and connections as the centre. 

Art

The Drawing Schools are very well-equipped and the departmental staff are always present to facilitate individual or team projects. The Drawing Schools have facilities for painting, drawing, printmaking, computer graphics and digital photography. 

The facilities include two purpose-built 3D studios that have equipment for ceramics and sculpture in wood, metal, and plaster. Within the Drawing Schools’ timetable, there are various opportunities for art projects.

The Drawing Schools stage regular exhibitions and a library that serves as a lecture room. The students are encouraged to use the studios in their free time and the Drawing Schools are open at weekends.

Drama

Curricular Drama

Drama is available in the curriculum throughout Eton College. An introductory course is open for all students in block F and students in block E and D can also choose drama in their GCSE. Students in block C and B can choose to study a joint course in English with Theatre Studies on an increased time allocation which leads to two full A levels, one in English Literature and the other in Theatre Studies.

Co-curricular Drama

Eton College stages more than 20 theatrical productions every year. This includes School and House Plays, a Lower Boy Play for students in E and F, and plays mounted independently by students. Productions have frequently gone to the Edinburgh Fringe. The whole repertoire is covered from classics, musicals and comedies to the latest contemporary plays. Every third year there is a School Play Festival for the performance of new plays written by students and staff.

Students can explore the world of acting, writing, and directing. In addition the students build the sets, provide lighting and sound for all shows, and run the stage and front-of-house management, under the guidance and with the training of specialist theatre staff.

Technical Theatre

The Farrer Theatre seats 401 people in a flexible auditorium and is staffed by 5 full time theatre professionals led by an Artistic Director. The theatre is fully equipped to a high standard including a full counterweight flying system with truss and motors as well as a large orchestra pit.  There is a comprehensive stock of lanterns, state of the art lighting control system and excellent 7.1 surround sound capabilities supported by a digital sound desk. Backstage there is a scenic workshop and set storage, a well-stocked wardrobe, a make-up studio, Green Room and spacious dressing rooms. 

The Caccia Studio and Empty Space seats 100 and 60 people respectively. These theatres offer flexible, fully equipped alternative theatre spaces. Other venues around the College are often turned into temporary theatre spaces.

Games

Games are vital at Eton College. The school believes in the values that the concept of games provide. According to Eton, “Learning to win and lose, to lead and be led, to push oneself to and perhaps beyond one’s limits, to think as part of a team, to know when to strive for more and when to acknowledge defeat; these are all part of learning to be human.”

Every student is given the chance to benefit from learning through sport by playing and being taught the sport of his choice at the level appropriate to his abilities and interest. There are over 40 teams on some match days and each of the 25 houses fields a number of teams at senior and junior levels in the majority of sports.

Some of the sports available include:

• Soccer
• Rugby
• Hockey
• Cricket
• Rowing
• Athletics
• Squash
• Rackets
• Fives

Wall and Field Games are some of the games that can be exclusively played at Eton. There are nearly 30 different games on offer, all coached by Eton College masters and professional coaches.

There is a school team for just about every boy who wants to play – this amounts to more than 40 teams on some match days – and each of the 25 houses fields a number of teams at senior and junior levels in the majority of sports.

At the highest level of expertise, Eton College sportsmen consistently challenge against the strongest school opponents in the UK and overseas.

Music

The Music Schools at Eton College are also very well equipped and fully staffed. The facilities at the new building consists of a purpose-built orchestral rehearsal room, recording studio, computer room with twelve PC workstations, a pre/post-production suite, rock band studio, electric guitar teaching room, and twelve other teaching and practice rooms. While the facilities at the old building has been rebuilt and consists of three floors of teaching, rehearsal and practice rooms, together with a 250-seater Concert Hall, academic teaching rooms, a library and an organ room. 

Currently, there are 122 Music Scholars and Music Exhibitioners at Eton College. Between six and eight Music Scholarships and up to six Music Exhibitions at 13+ are offered each year. Many Sixth Form Scholarship applicants also offer music.

Over 1,000 music lessons are taught each week by a music staff of seven full-time masters and over seventy visiting teachers; instruments range from sitar and tabla to the full range of orchestral and solo instruments.

Senior students put on their own concerts; orchestras, bands (jazz bands, wind band, pipe band), chamber ensembles, choirs, choral society, and music technology. The orchestras and choirs conduct concerts outside of the school occasionally; the College Chapel Choir goes on a two-week concert tour every Easter Holidays.

Societies

At Eton College there are about fifty societies and clubs in existence at any one time.

Some of the societies at present include:

• African
• Alexander Cozens (Art)
• Amnesty
• Archeological
• Architectural
• Astronomy
• Banks (conservation)
• Caledonian
• Cheese
• Classical
• Comedy
• Cosmopolitan
• Debating
• Design
• Entrepreneurship
• Geographical
• Henry Fielding
• Hispanic
• History
• Keynes (economics)
• Law
• Literary
• Mathematical
• Medical
• Middle Eastern
• Model United Nations
• Modern Languages
• Oriental
• Orwell (left-wing)
• Simeon (Christian)
• Parry (music)
• Photographic
• Political
• Praed (poetry)
• Rock (music)
• Rous (equestrian)
• Salisbury (diplomatic)
• Scientific
• Sports
• Tech Club
• Theatre
• Wellington (military)
• Wine and Wotton’s (philosophy)

Meetings are usually held after supper, starting at 8:45pm. Reports of recent society meetings can be found in the news pages. Some society meetings are open to students from other schools. 

Community Engagement

Eton College organises a rich programme of community engagement activities both independently and in partnership with local organisations and initiatives. These voluntary activities form an integral part of the extra-curricular timetable of many sixth-formers at Eton, with about 180 students currently involved. 

Students typically engage in community service once or twice a week, in any one of the following activities:

Local Schools

Students volunteer to read with younger children of all ages at a range of local schools, including the Eton Porny First School, Datchet Church of England Combined School and Eton Wick First School. Arbour Vale is the furthest school visited by the students (a 20-minute bicycle ride) where they take part in classroom and sports activities with disabled children and children with learning difficulties. New ventures have included helping with physical education at the James Elliman School in Slough and assisting in modern language classes at the Eton and Slough Community School.

The Elderly

Students visit elderly people in their homes, in Eton Wick and Eton itself: they go along for a cup of tea and a chat, or perhaps to help in the garden. Some students visit the Charteris Day Centre in Eton, while others go to the Upton Hospital in Slough where they spend time with the elderly patients.

Charity Shops

Eton College has established ties with a number of local charity shops in Slough and Windsor. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the students help other volunteers ‘behind the scenes’ with the sorting and display of donated goods.

Other Work

Students help at Riding for the Disabled in Fulmer, Bucks. For the last two years, students at Eton College have tended the grave of a young soldier from Eton Wick who was killed in action during the World War II. Others belong to the Friendly Club and visit the local Mencap centre in Langley, and there is also a ‘Monday Run’, in which students take food, clothing and other essentials to the homeless people of Slough. Recent one-off activities have included helping with the Windsor Festival.

Eton Action

Eton Action is a fund-raising organisation which supports local, national, and international appeals. Every year in September Eton College hosts a fair which attracts a healthy crowd and raises many thousands of pounds. Students vote on the use of funds raised by the yearly Eton Action Fair and other charitable events organised by students.

Eton College actively participates in helping other charitable and voluntary schemes as long as the timetable and manpower permits. For more information please contact the master in charge of Community Service at Eton College.