We understand boys how they behave how they play how they learn. Our supportive school environment is perfectly aligned to boys' development, enabling each individual to grow, academically and creatively.
- Nurturing every boy as an individual - average class size 10
- Wholesome and holistic education in 85 acres of countryside
- Wrap-around care and a rich tapestry of curricular opportunities
- Academic excellence and top senior school entry
Horris Hill is a day and boarding preparatory school for boys aged between 4 and 13. With our full, weekly, and transition family-friendly boarding, Horris Hill welcomes boarders from all around the globe, as well as day boys who come to us from the towns and villages surrounding our stunning rural location on the Hampshire/Berkshire border.
The aims of Horris Hill are threefold:
To maintain the unique ethos amongst the school community of boys and staff
- To encourage the boys to take responsibility for themselves and each other.
- To maintain an orderly, structured but energetic environment.
- To offer quick and individual support whenever it is needed, whether to right wrongs or to encourage creative action.
To prepare boys well for entry to their senior school
- To deliver success in achieving places at the best senior schools.
- To provide a rigorous and extensive academic, musical, and artistic foundation.
- To offer a wide variety of sports and extra-curricular activities, so that every boy has the opportunity to develop interests away from the classroom.
- To promote personal qualities that allow the boys to get the best from each other and their surroundings.
To maintain the best possible facilities, routines, and staffing:
To provide the highest possible standards of support for all boys, throughout the day and in each of the four boarding houses.
We believe that the period from 4 – 13 years of age is the most critical in any boy's life. These are the years where the foundations of the men they can become are laid. It is at this stage that the ideals, beliefs, and values are developed which inform the character of the adult.
At such a crucial stage in their cultural development, we believe that an all-boys school provides the optimal setting where boys will exercise their intellectual inquisitiveness, free to explore all avenues, building self-confidence and awareness in a safe and encouraging community.
We believe that academic success, and the staff-pupil relationships that underlie it, are most effectively created in an environment where pupils learn to take an uncommon level of responsibility for themselves, and staff has a wider web of care in which to teach. The relatively small size of the school enhances this, allowing every boy to play a full part in school life and, in so doing, learns how he can make a difference to his surroundings.
From its foundation, Horris Hill has also been able to offer to board, and the provision that our four age-graded boarding houses offer is available to boys if and when families would like to experience it. Four-night to seven-night patterns are available and we are proud to be caring for the different needs of many families, giving boys a most positive experience before they move to their senior schools.
Our belief in the benefits of the education that Horris Hill provides is as strong as ever and the school remains at the forefront of the prep school sector. Horris Hill remains firmly rooted as a boys-only school, providing a sector-leading level of pastoral care, a strong academic foundation, and a full range of extracurricular activities for up to 135 pupils.
