News & Diary
Window on Winchester – Spring 2026
‘The effort you eliminate with AI? That’s the learning.’
In her latest video message, the Headmaster addresses one of the most topical subjects in education, the role of artificial intelligence in learning. Her remarks explore the foundations of learning, the difference between process and product, and the risks of ‘cognitive off‑loading’ in a digital age.
Explore Winchester College from the comfort of your own home.
Our new virtual tour offers prospective families an immersive, 360° journey through our historic campus, from our medieval architecture to our modern facilities.
Whether you are planning to join us on one of our Open Days, or you are discovering us for the first time, we invite you to take a look.
Follow the link to begin your tour of Winchester College
Earlier this term, eighty-six pupils across all year groups took part in this year’s Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, a competition run by the charity, Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Oxford University. Over half a million students competed nationally. A total of 36 Wykehamists achieved Gold Awards, placing them within the top 10% nationally.
There were also several notable individual results:
Hear from Benji, George and Aditya on what makes being a part of College special.
On Wednesday 21st January, the Winchester Philharmonic Choir, joined by singers from the Winchester College Choral Society and Chapel Choir, and supported by local choirs, came together at Winchester Cathedral for a memorable performance of Bach’s magnificent Mass in B Minor.
Conducted by the College’s Director of Music, Ms Sarah Baldock, the concert was a powerful and uplifting celebration
of one of Bach’s most revered works.
We were delighted to celebrate an outstanding initial set of university offers secured by our Sixth Form pupils.
To date, they have received an impressive 38 offers from Oxford and Cambridge. These achievements reflect not only intellectual ability but also the curiosity and confidence our pupils bring to their studies.
This year has seen exceptional success across a broad range of disciplines, with strong progression into highly competitive fields including Medicine, Mathematics, Engineering, and Classics.
Beyond the UK, we are proud to celebrate early offers from leading US universities, continuing a long tradition of global success. Institutions include Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, and Duke.
This year’s thrilling XVs game of Winchester College Football went down to the wire.
The Pearl Pot has once again found its home for the year, watch below to find out the full result!
A highlight from last term was that a team from the College was crowned national champions at the UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge (STMC), perhaps for the first time in the College’s history.
In an outstanding performance, a team of four pupils achieved full marks in the Group Round, Cross Number, and Shuttle Round. They narrowly edged out the pre-competition favourites, a very strong Tonbridge team reportedly featuring a four-time International Mathematical Olympiad gold medallist.
With only two teams achieving full marks overall, the final result was decided on a tie-break: the Wykehamists’ higher placing in the poster competition, where they presented on Voronoi diagrams, a project they had been refining over the previous two weeks.
This was a tremendous achievement and a testament not only to their mathematical talent, but also to their dedication, teamwork, and composure under pressure.
In February 2026, a team of five Sixth Form chemists, known as the WyChemists, represented Winchester College at the 7th annual Cambridge Chemistry Race, taking on more than 80 schools nationwide, with 58 competing at the Cambridge venue itself.
Widely regarded as the UK’s leading team chemistry competition, the two-hour event challenged schools to solve progressively harder problems, with each correct answer unlocking the next. Problems were set by postgraduate students from the Universities of Cambridge and Pardubice.
The boys made a steady start before really finding their stride as the questions became more demanding, working brilliantly as a team, with each pupil playing to their strengths.
They were deservedly announced as winners of the Cambridge site with 147 points, finishing ahead of Magdalen College School, and placed second nationally, just two points behind the top team.
A fantastic result that continues the College’s outstanding record in this prestigious competition.
Our second Community Weekend of the year followed XVs and saw our first and second years enjoy games of laser tag, take on an inflatable assault course and try their hand at circus skills.
It was a hugely successful day out for Winchester College Boat Club at the Avon Spring Head Regatta, with crews competing across two distances: a short course of 1,500m and a long course of 3,250m.
The first medal of the day came in the morning, when a crew of four rowers won the long course in 10:58, beating Avon County Rowing Club by over a minute and a half.
The afternoon brought further success, with a crew of under-15 rowers winning the short course in 5:02, edging out crews from Monkton, Bryanston and Millfield, and finishing just 6 seconds clear of a second Winchester crew in the same event. They rounded off a fine day by winning the long course too, in a time of 11:29.
It was a wonderful day of racing and great to see the whole club out together and competing!
Towards the end of term, Winchester’s golf and cricket scholars benefited from a specialist biomechanical analysis and physical screening, delivered by an expert performance director and physiotherapist from Athletic Shoulder, practitioners who work with some of the world’s best athletes.
Using force plates and movement screening, the golf scholars received personalised feedback on power output, flexibility and areas for development, while the cricket scholars, particularly the bowlers, gained expert guidance on shoulder and back health and long-term resilience.
It was a fantastic afternoon!
Families connected with Winchester may be interested in CATALYST, Winchester College’s online enrichment programme designed to reflect the College’s distinctive culture of learning.
Designed and taught by Winchester dons, the programme is inspired by Div and brings together pupils from around the world to think, question and test ideas in conversation. Courses range widely across topics such as AI, philosophy, economics, ethics and scientific inquiry, encouraging intellectual exploration, analytical rigour and thoughtful approaches to complex problems.
Two programmes run this summer:
Families connected with Winchester are offered a 20% discount on this summer’s courses. When applying, simply note “Winchester Family” on the application form.
Further information can be found at the links below.
