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Our view
Highfield and Brookham is flourishing – it’s got a gloriously family-friendly, homely feel, academics are top notch, and childhood is really valued. Children are happily busy being children, and are sweetly enthusiastic and proud of their school. All of this helps shape the school into one of the South East’s top non-selective preps.
Where?
A gorgeous rural location – an hour from London – in the heart of the South Downs National Park on the borders of Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire. There are grounds as far as you can see (175 acres to be precise), woodland for camp-outs, marshmallow-roasting, hide and seek and forest school; masses of playing fields; and even a smart golf course. Small wonder that London families are relocating in their droves, realising the exceptional space and breadth of curriculum the school offers.
Architecture is a mix of purpose-built Edwardian and modern add-ons (which are all very eco and fuelled by biomass boilers). The pre-prep and nursery sits alongside the prep to form one big, happy school. The recently extended nursery, full of light and calming colours, was opened by Hugh Bonneville who, much to the delight of children and parents alike, regaled everyone with an animated reading from Paddington Bear.
Head
Head Suzannah Cryer has been in post since 2022, but she is no stranger to the school. Before becoming deputy head at Thomas’s Battersea, she was head of drama and head of boarding here for seven years, and two of her three children are former pupils. She is wonderfully straightforward and her enthusiasm for the school and her team is palpable.
The priority here is to develop curious, creative and confident learners. Mrs Cryer is passionate about the children leaving ‘fit for the future’ and has introduced an industry-led skills builder programme across the school. Common Entrance only remains for the core subjects of maths, English and science, giving teachers more autonomy to introduce lots of project-based work and thematic learning across different subjects.
Mrs Cryer’s refresh also includes the ‘Beehive’, the school’s new hub for wellbeing, staffed at lunch and break times and full of squishy sofas, books and craft activities. It’s a space for anyone who needs time out during the busy school day and has proved very popular with the children.
Admissions
Highfield and Brookham is popular and although there’s no formal registration deadline, the advice is to register early. Children can join at any stage – Nursery, Reception and Year 3 are the most popular entry points, with a handful more joining in Year 7, often from international schools. The school is non-selective, and proud of the resulting diversity and natural acceptance which benefits every child. There are no requirements to be ‘a certain child’ and we loved that. Applicants for Reception and above pop in for a taster day and informal assessment so the school can assess their reading, spelling and maths, and check they’ll be able to access the curriculum with confidence.
The wonderful registrar Charlotte Cottrell (also a former parent) relishes helping families move to the school and area, and is on hand with her little black book of local contacts to help smooth the transition if needed.
It’s worth knowing about the incredible bursary programme, the likes of which are rarely seen at prep-school level. The school is evangelical about broadening access, and Highfield and Brookham is on a mission to make the biggest possible difference, so bursaries are handed out each year to children whose lives would be transformed by attending Highfield and Brookham.
Academics and senior school destinations
It’s the combination of a nicely broad curriculum and stellar staff that lead to Highfield and Brookham’s superb academic results. All children are taught in forms until Year 6, with specialist teaching in art, music, sport and science. In Years 7 and 8, children are set and there are specialist teachers across the board.
All pupils now sit their ISEB examinations in Year 6, and in Year 8 complete the newly-introduced ISEB EPQ, which helps consolidate the project-based learning introduced across the school and culminates in an exhibition attended by all parents, where each child has a stand and presents their project. Pupils chose the focus, so projects are diverse and fascinating – anything from a fashion show to a presentation about the influence of marketing on the brain.
There are academic extension lessons on Saturday mornings, then games in the afternoons – it’s thanks to this extra weekend teaching time that they manage to cram in so much drama, music, PE and art.
Pupils get their teeth into both French and Spanish (and then pick one to carry on with), and everyone from Year 5 upwards gets their own Surface Pro. Prep is kept to a minimum in the younger years.
The majority of pupils stay on till 13, so there’s a good co-ed mix all the way through. Pupils hop on to a fantastic list of schools – last year there were scholarships to Charterhouse, Benenden, Bryanston, Cranleigh, Wellington and Marlborough, and places at everywhere from Eton to Seaford, Radley and St Cats. The variety of destination schools reflects the diversity of pupils coming here and it’s something they are very proud of.
Co-curricular
Pupils get five afternoons of sport a week, and there is a huge amount on offer – everything from golf and gymnastics to mountain biking and karate. Hockey is flying; with a new full sized Hockey Astro; several coaches teach at county level; there’s tons of cricket (for boys and girls); and on match days, Highfield and Brookham regularly fields up to 25 teams across all sports (Westbourne House and Lambrook are two of the biggest rivals). Pupils report that sport is one of their favourite things about school – they love the huge amount of choice and the inclusivity, and the fact that everyone gets to play in matches.
Drama is big here, and part of the core curriculum until Year 8. The Year 7s are currently working hard on their production of Macbeth, and pupils tell us that head of drama Mrs Baird, is ‘really inspiring’. Facilities are fab, with the sprung-floored theatre and the significant prop, costume and staging efforts igniting passions in pupils, several of whom bag drama scholarships each year. Music-wise, there’s something for all and a whopping 85 per cent of older children have individual music lessons. Talented musicians can sing in five different choirs or play in chamber orchestras, smaller ensembles or rock bands, while learners get to build up their confidence in ‘cushion concerts’. Mums and dads sing in Highfield Voices, the parents choir. Not forgetting art, we admired Year 6’s Greek pots (every year, pupils win creative scholarships) as well as the woodwork, needlework, metalwork, laser cutting and 3D printed creations of the D&T classes.
There’s a terrific sense of space here and a real emphasis on being outdoors: think bushcraft, orienteering, tree-climbing, survival skills and even alfresco cinema in the woods (pupils perch on logs). The Keys Diploma is a unique opportunity for children in Years 3 to 8 to receive recognition for things not measured by exam results, such as problem-solving, staying positive, leading with empathy and aiming high. Guided by their teachers, children record evidence of when they have applied one of eight essential skills in their Keys Diploma Passport, and at the end of each phase they are awarded with a merit or distinction for progress, engagement and commitment.
Boarding
Pupils can choose between full, weekly or ‘steps-to’ boarding (a minimum of two consecutive nights per week). This is particularly popular with the younger pupils, where boarding starts from Year 4. Around half the children board in some capacity, and by Year 8 many board in preparation for the transition to senior school.
Boarders who stay over for the whole weekend can expect trips to Winchester, ice-skating and torchlit games of Spotlight (we’re assured it’s really great fun). Some parents will be particularly heartened by the schools ‘no phones’ policy which – aside from evening calls home – means that children play and talk together and aren’t reliant on or overly influenced by their tech and the media that comes with it. Tablets and iPads are handed in at night too.
The youngest boarders live together in the lovely junior house which felt to us very much like a family home. For everyone else, smart, bright dorms are upstairs in the main house.
School community
Many staff live on site, aided by four graduate assistants who pupils often turn to for informal advice or support. Children in Years 7 and 8 have a form tutor with whom they meet every day (younger years are under the care of a class teacher). Year 8s are trained as peer listeners, and well over 300 parents have signed up for mental-health first-aid training at the school – there’s a big drive on wellbeing, with a pastoral tracker system electronically recording notes on every single child. No pupil hierarchy; there are no monitors or prefects (except a head boy and girl and boarding house captains who perform a more pastoral role), so no one is singled out as being better than anyone else.
Families tend to be from West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. There’s a strong cohort of international pupils too from Spain, France and Italy as well as China, the US and Japan. Working parents love the wraparound Larks and Owls care – day children can arrive for breakfast from 7.30am and stay for supper until 6.30pm.
And finally...
Highfield and Brookham just keeps on going from strength to strength. It’s nicely unassuming, its pupils are charming, happy, enthusiastic and well-behaved – and the acres and acres of space really are a youngsters' utopia.