For many parents, choosing a house for their son is one of the hardest parts of the Eton process. Twenty-five of them, a booklet of housemaster profiles landing in your inbox in September, and the feeling of pressure that this decision will play a big part in your son’s future.

I spent ten years advising parents on their children's lives before I had a child of my own. The latter certainly isn’t a prerequisite to do the job well - quite the opposite; some of the best educationalists I know are not parents. But it does sharpen the focus when the advice you’ve been giving centres in on your own child. 

At the inaugural Oppidan Lecture last week, Peter Hyman made the case for Human Maxxing: as machines grow more capable, children need to develop their human capacities to the fullest.

The Oppidan Lecture, Royal Society of Arts, 22 September 2026

On Tuesday 22nd September, Peter Hyman delivered the inaugural Oppidan Lecture at the Royal Society of Arts to a room of 100 leading educationalists, including heads of top UK schools, MAT CEOs, policy makers, non-profit leaders and education journalists.

Eton has been educating boys of note for nearly 600 years and are no strangers to educating future Kings or foreign Monarchs. There will be no red carpets, nor pomp or ceremony. By teacher or peer, Prince George will be treated the same as any other boy, and little fuss will be made, at least inside the school, of his time as a student there.

Independent school fees for 2026/27 run from around £27,000 a year at the lower end of the London day schools to just over £69,000 for a boarding place at Westminster.

We mentored 52 boys through the Eton process this year.

We surveyed 600 new families across the UK, Europe and the US about their experience with Oppidan and the impact of our programmes on their children.

The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online, adaptive admissions test taken by children applying to many of the UK’s leading independent senior schools. It covers English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, takes around two and a quarter hours, and is usually sat once in Year 6.

What is the admissions process for Winchester at 13+? Students can enter Winchester at 13+ and 16+. The application deadline for 2027 entry for 13+ is 3 July 2024. 

Westminster School occupies a slightly unusual position among Britain’s leading senior schools: it is academically formidable, unmistakably urban, and, after more than four centuries, in the middle of the biggest change in its history. 

Summer holidays are long, and by mid-August the days start to blur. This is a good moment for the kind of English work that rarely fits into term time - writing something for the fun of it, sitting with a poem long enough to actually enjoy it.

Last December, a school in Hackney became the first in England to be the subject of a safeguarding review triggered by complaints about its behaviour policy. 

Since landing in New York, we’ve spent a year sitting in classrooms, running school days, and getting to know families across the city.

Oppidan has landed in the US, and with it, a new crew of mentors bringing the same energy, warmth, and expertise our families in the UK have come to know.

We’ve led parent talks and student workshops in 100+ schools where early adolescents are applying to selective secondary schools.

With the UK government’s recent announcement that under-16s will be banned from social media next year, 16-year-old student Jasper Varley-Johnson discusses why the ban doesn’t go far enough and some potential solutions for parents.

Nearly a million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET). That’s one in eight. And the number is rising.

Oppidan's handpicked guide to summer 2026: creative projects, ideas and London events to keep curious children thinking, making and exploring all season.