History
Highfield School was founded in Southampton in 1892 by Mr EA Wells, the owner and first Headmaster. The school first opened as a boys’ prep with 18 pupils. In 1904, Mr William Mills became the owner and Headmaster and moved Highfield to its present 175-acre site in Liphook, on the Hampshire, West Sussex and Surrey border.
The new purpose-built school opened in September 1907 with 32 boys, all boarders. The school grew steadily; a beautiful Chapel was added in 1910, with other buildings quickly following suit. Mr Mills, who was ordained in 1912 and later became an Honorary Canon of Portsmouth Cathedral, remained Headmaster until 1953. Under Canon Mills, the school grew to accommodate 120 boys and established an enviable reputation for academic and sporting excellence. Highfield pupils won many scholarships to the leading English public schools, including Eton, Winchester, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse, Rugby and Sherborne.
Canon Mills died in 1953 and was succeeded by his son, Peter. The school became co-educational in 1978 and also began to take day children into the junior part of the school. Peter Mills retired in 1979 to be succeeded by Old Highfieldian Robin Orr, who remained Headmaster until 1993. During his tenure, school numbers rose from around 120 to almost 170. Under Nigel Ramage, Mr Orr’s successor, the school began a considerable programme of refurbishment and building work. Mr Ramage was succeeded in 1999 by Phillip Evitt when the compulsory boarding requirement ended, although many children still choose to board to this day, with almost all boarding for at least part of their final two years. Phillip Evitt retired in 2022 and was succeeded by Mrs Suzannah Cryer, current Head of Highfield.
Today, all departments have designated teaching rooms. New Science, Maths and Computing facilities were opened in September 2000. A new indoor swimming pool was opened at Easter 2005, and a new Music School in 2006. Today, Highfield is genuinely co-educational with equal numbers of girls and boys. In 1992, Brookham Pre-prep was built within the grounds of Highfield and this building is home to our Nursery to Year 3 children.
Highfield and Brookham is owned by Mr William Mills, the grandson of the founder. Mr Mills is also Chairman of the Board of Directors. Today, Highfield continues to enjoy an outstanding reputation as a top preparatory school for children aged 8-13 that offers an excellent all-round education, and its long tradition of scholarship success continues.
What we’re up to…
Introducing our new Mini Maintenance Team, a group of volunteer pupils that are working with our Maintenance Team, contributing to the care of the school environment, discussing key aspects for the whole school community including health and safety, respect and appreciation of the school site and the wonderful surroundings. #TogetherWeGrow #teamwork #coeducationalschools #prepschool #countryprepschool #community #wecareforourenvironment #hampshire #surrey #westsussex
We’ve been treated to another musical masterclass from our blossoming children in Year 1 to Year 3, who charmed their watching parents at this morning’s Spring Concert. Under the tutelage of specialist music teachers Mrs Harman, Mrs Gregory, Mrs O’Brien, Mrs Craven, Mrs Hall, Mr Rood and Mr Spratley, the children showed great courage, poise and maturity to perform a wonderful array of pieces for piano, recorder, violin, classical guitar and cello, not to mention jaunty renditions from our amazing junior choirs. #TogetherWeGrow #SpringConcert #PrePrepSchoolMusic #SpecialistMusicTeaching #SchoolsInHampshire #PerformingArts
It’s incredibly rewarding to see our children use their imaginations at play. Today, our youngest cohort made full use of the nursery garden and the veritable treasure trove of assorted odds and ends that they could find to lose themselves in a rich world of fantasy and make believe. Sometimes less really is more… #TogetherWeGrow #ChildrenAtPlay #LettingImaginationsRunFree #SchoolsInHampshire #Nursery #PrePrepSchool #PrepSchool
Our seasonal prep school sports rotation continued today, with the boys swapping rugby balls for hockey sticks for some high-quality matches against our friends from Hoe Bridge School. Straight after the half-term holiday, the girls will swap the hockey astro for the football pitch. #TogetherWeGrow #PrepSchoolSport #BoysHockey #GirlsFootball #SchoolsInHampshire #HampshireBoardingSchools
Pastel chalks, paintbrushes and pencils were the order of the day as our prep school children demonstrated a wonderful mix of technique and talent at Sketch Club. The children created some amazing artwork during their extra-curricular lunchtime session; refining existing artistic techniques, as well as learning new ones, which they can take into their regular art lessons. #TogetherWeGrow #SketchClub #ExtraCurricularClubs #Art #ArtisticExpression #SchoolsInHampshire #CoeducationalSchoolsInHampshire
As the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of our children is at the heart of everything we do, we marked Safer Internet Day by helping ensure they are protected from cyber threats too. An insightful prep school assembly raised awareness of the importance of creating a safe and positive online environment for everyone, especially children and young people, by highlighting potential online risks such as cyberbullying, harmful content, and privacy concerns. The children were also encouraged to practice responsible online behavior and to take steps to protect themselves digitally before learning of the dangers of scams and phishing during a nationwide live lesson which aims to keep children across the UK safe in today’s digital world. #TogetherWeGrow #DigitalSafety #SaferInternetDay #StayingSafeOnline #SchoolsInHampshire #BoardingSchoolsInHampshire
Determined runners from within the school community are putting their best feet forward for a landmark run around the nation’s capital in aid of the Centenary Bursaries Fund. And they would love your support as they prepare to tackle the 13.1-mile London Landmarks Half Marathon in April. #TogetherWeGrow #LondonLandmarksHalfMarathon #BestFootForward #CharityRunners #HighfieldCentenaryBursariesFund #SchoolsInHampshire
Hot on the heels of an inspirational masterclass with Terry Gilmour, Head of Rugby at @marlboroughcollege, our brilliant U10A rugby players put their newly-learned skills and techniques to the best possible use with a fantastic win over a strong @aldroschool side on Saturday to round off an unbeaten season. And their win was mirrored by the U13A, U12A and U11A teams on a phenomenal afternoon against Aldro. #TogetherWeGrow #PrepSchoolRugby #WinningMentality #SchoolsInHampshire
It may have been overcast, it may have been pretty cold, it may even have begun sleeting, but nothing could dampen the spirits of our happy pupils and staff who rounded off Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week with an invigorating and uplifting wellbeing walk. #TogetherWeGrow #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek #WellbeingWeek #PastoralCare #SchoolsInHampshire #CoeducationalBoardingSchool
One of our treasured values is ‘be kind’ and there are no shortages of examples of kindness to be found every day all over the school, such as our Year 2 children helping each other with their reading at Booklet Club. #TogetherWeGrow #BeKind #ReadingAmbassadors #HelpIsAtHand #SchoolsInHampshire #SchoolValues
Ahead of their performance of Pride Rocks next month, our Year 5 and Year 6 children have been treated to a drama masterclass from a West End star. Gloria Onitiri was just 17 when she played Nala in The Lion King on stage at the Lyceum Theatre and today she brought a wealth of stage experience to our school theatre. Gloria focused on physicality and movement on stage, working with different groups of ‘animals’ who feature in The Lion King, with the children honing the one-to-ten movement technique which starts with the body stock still on the count of one before evolving and becoming more animated as the count moves higher. After a wonderful day of drama, we can’t wait for the children to take to the stage in March! West End On Demand #TogetherWeGrow #PerformingArts #TheLionKing #PrideRocks #WestEndStar #GloriaOnitiri #PrepSchoolDrama
In support of @_place2be’s Children’s Mental Health Week we wanted to give a shout-out to our amazing Beehive. We launched the Beehive just over a year ago, a friendly and positive space which is home to some of our popular wellbeing activities, including visits from wellness experts for our children and staff body. It is a space where the children can relax, reset and regulate their emotions. The Beehive is an important asset to the school community, and the ongoing pastoral story at Highfield and Brookham School. #togetherwegrow #Beehive #childrensmentalhealthweek #coeducationalschools #prepschool #countryprepschool @thewellbeinghubteentips
The shared area in pre-prep was a hive of activity today – and it all added up to a truly memorable lesson for Year 1. While some children got busy in the kitchen, expertly measuring, pouring and mixing to produce tasty apple and honey cookies, others brushed up on their maths by cleverly using different coloured paint to create number bonds, showed great dexterity and perseverance to make robots out of recycled materials, or let their imaginations run free with marker pens and a whiteboard. #TogetherWeGrow #Cookery #RecycledRobots #AppleAndHoneyCookies #ResourcefulChildren #Maths #NumberBonds #CoeducationalPrepSchool #SchoolsInHampshire
With our traditionally strong links to some of the best senior schools in the country, our children are regularly exposed to inspirational visitors who offer insightful and invaluable advice via talks, hands-on workshops and coaching sessions. Today, we welcomed Terry Gilmour, Head of Rugby at @marlboroughcollege, who put our Year 5 and Year 8 boys through their paces while offering some top teaching tips to Mr Bather, our very own Director of Sport. #TogetherWeGrow #PrepSchoolRugby #ExpertSportsCoaching #SchoolsInHampshire #BoardingSchool
We are looking forward to tomorrow night’s Educating Outside London drinks reception and talk @beauforthousechelsea 6.30-8.30pm, and to meeting all of the parents attending. Our Head Suzannah Cryer will be there with experts and fellow Heads from @hanfordschool @ludgrove_school @downe_house @marlboroughcollege @radleycollegeoxon, to discuss the multiple benefits of educating outside London. Whether you are looking to move/relocate or want to learn about the numerous benefits of boarding and giving your children a country school education within easy reach of London – the schools’ teams will be there to answer your questions, to help you make an informed choice about your children’s future education. We have had an amazing response from parents, and if you are still interested to come along, please don’t hesitate to reach out and head to the link in our bio above to book. #educatingoutsidelondon #countryschoolbenefits #londonfamily #londonmums #londondads #londonparenting #londonparents #countryschooleducation #boardingschool #prepschool #liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex
Today, we’ve been treated to another amazing cushion concert, where the children get the chance to perform in front of a small but select audience of parents and friends as they continue on their musical journey. Four pianists tackled Melody, Michael Head’s The Quiet Wood, Virginia Hall and North American anthem Take Me Out To The Ballgame while our three young vocalists gave assured renditions of The Owls, Castle On A Cloud from hit West End musical Les Misérables, and traditional American folk song Shenandoah. #TogetherWeGrow #CushionConcert #SchoolsInHampshire #Music #SchoolMusicConcert
As part of their termly focus on good health and wellbeing, Year 3 have been busy working on fruit and vegetable faces in art. Using a scoring technique and applying slip to make pieces secure on their ‘faces’ before they go in the kiln for firing, the children added clay bananas, blueberries, broccoli and tangerines to represent the facial features. #TogetherWeGrow #SchoolsInHampshire #FruitAndVegetables #Art #VisualArts
Given that outdoor learning and play helps children grow socially, helps them develop healthy ways of forming friendships, helps them respond to physical interaction and use their imaginations to entertain each other, it looks like our pre-prep youngsters have got @_place2be’s Children’s Mental Health Week off to the perfect start! #TogetherWeGrow #HampshireSchools #CoeducationalSchools #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek #OutdoorLearning
Our work on a project which fosters independent learning, critical thinking and academic excellence among our Year 8 children has earned a golden accolade from a leading exam board. ISEB #TogetherWeGrow #CoeducationalPrepSchool #HampshireSchools #IndependentSchool #BoardingSchool #CriticalThinking #AcademicExcellence
Joggers, football shirts, bling, onesies, hats, jewellery and trainers were all the rage as our children took full advantage of Break The Rules Day to raise money for Highreach, our ever-popular charity which provides week-long holidays for children with disabilities. #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #BreakTheRulesDay
Coloured hair? Jewellery? Wearing hats in class? We don’t normally encourage our children to break the rules but we are prepared to make the odd exception, especially when all money raised is going to a good cause like our much-loved Highreach Holidays! #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #HighreachHolidays
As part of their history topic on the Second World War, Year 4 were this week treated to a visit from Carole Coller, who held the children spellbound as she vividly recounted incredible tales of her life as an evacuee. She even brought in a framed painting which belonged to a member of her family and which was hung in the window of a regular meeting spot to indicate whether or not the intelligence services were in session. #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #SecondWorldWar
Our Early Years children made a big beeline for our treasured woodland today; playing together and learning together on a beautiful bright winter’s today. And did they enjoy their time together in the great outdoors? That lovely smile would suggest that they very much did… #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex
The Year 1 Choir has today been in fine voice under the expert direction of Mrs O’Brien ahead of next month’s spring concert, running through the lyrics of the catchy song Pirates and polishing up the associated hand gestures. Shiver me timbers, it’s going to be quite a spectacle! #TogetherWeGrow #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #SpringConcertRehearsal
There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing friends and classmates united by a common cause. That was the case today as our U11 girls displayed oodles of determination, passion, togetherness and good grace on the netball court against our friends from St. Edmund’s School, Surrey. Well played, girls! #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #Netball #Teamwork #TogetherWeCompete