Our Prep School
Where children become who they truly are.
Highfield Prep School is an independent prep school for Years 3 to 8, set within 175 acres in the South Downs National Park in Liphook, on the borders of Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex.
Our Prep School is much more than preparation for senior school. It is a time of challenge, excitement and discovery, a period in which children grow in confidence, develop independence and begin to understand who they are becoming.
Three things set up apart:
- Specialist teaching. From Year 3, children are taught by subject specialists who bring genuine expertise to every lesson. Small class sizes and strong relationships mean every child is known as an individual and supported to achieve their best.
- 175 acres of opportunity. Set within 175 acres in the South Downs National Park, our grounds give children access to opportunities that are increasingly rare. Woodland learning, outstanding sports facilities, creative spaces and the choice of day or boarding life all become part of everyday school life.
- Confidence for life. We believe children achieve more when they feel confident to be themselves. Academic ambition is balanced with curiosity, creativity and outstanding pastoral care, helping every child discover their strengths and develop the confidence to take on whatever comes next.
The all-round education with sports, music and drama offered to such a wide extent gives children confidence.
Prep School parent
Where is Highfield Prep School located?
Highfield School is an independent school set within 175 acres in the South Downs National Park, on the borders of Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, offering boarding and day places for Prep-age children.
Do you have a catchment area?
We don’t have a fixed catchment area. Families choose Highfield from across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, including Liphook, Haslemere, Hindhead, Midhurst, Godalming, Petworth, Petersfield, Farnham and Alton. We also welcome families from London, many of whom value the school’s setting and choose to relocate or commute.
What age range does Highfield Prep School cover?
Highfield Prep School covers Year 3 to Year 8, with children taught by subject specialists across the curriculum by Year 7 to give them a strong grounding in the senior-school model.
What age can my child join Highfield Prep School?
The main entry points are Year 3 and Year 7, though places in other year groups may also be available, subject to space. We’d encourage families to join in September where possible. However, children can also join at other points throughout the year, so we’d recommend registering with us as soon as possible regardless of which year group or time of year suits your family.
Does Highfield Prep School offer boarding or day places?
Highfield offers both boarding and day places within one school community, so families can choose full boarding, weekly boarding, flexi boarding or day attendance depending on what suits them.
Does Highfield Prep School still sit Common Entrance exams?
No. Highfield has moved away from sitting the full Common Entrance examination, while retaining Common Entrance standards in core subjects, allowing a bespoke curriculum focused on adaptability, resilience, independence, communication and critical thinking.
What time does the Prep School day start and end?
Gates open at 8.00am with registration at 8.20am, and the school day ends at 4.40pm. Breakfast Club is available from 7.30am, and after-school clubs run until 5.50pm, with day children able to stay on for optional Prep, supper and activities until as late as 7.00pm if needed
Does Highfield Prep School have school on Saturdays?
Yes. There are 21 Saturdays a year where children in Year 5 and above attend, with curriculum extension activities in the morning and sports fixtures in the afternoon, which parents are welcome to watch
How many pupils get scholarships to senior school from Highfield?
In 2025–26, Highfield Prep School pupils were awarded 29 senior school scholarships across academic, creative and sporting disciplines, to eight different senior schools at 11+ and 13+.
What we’re up to…
Good leaders know it’s ok to ask for help, and our Cooking Club chefs proved it this week! Yesterday’s session had a Halloween twist, with pizza mummies on the menu. Working with pastry takes precision and plenty of patience, especially with warm little hands! The amazing Sophie showed the children how to cut and lay the strips, then it was over to them. When a mummy started to unravel, they weren’t afraid to ask for help. And once they’d got it sorted, they were straight over to help a friend get theirs wrapped up too! Today it’s pastry, but one day that same confidence to ask and willingness to help will make them brilliant team leaders! 💪 #independentschool #prepschool #cookingclub #halloweencooking #leadingtheway Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Prep school Liphook | Independent school Hampshire | Private school Hampshire | Co-ed prep school | Schools near Haslemere | Schools near Petersfield | Schools near Farnham | Prep school Surrey Hampshire border | After school clubs | Extracurricular activities | Cooking for kids | Highfield School Liphook
The stallholder reveal starts here! 🎄👀 We’ve been keeping some lovely local businesses under wraps… and it’s time to introduce them! Here’s a first look at who’s joining us for our Christmas Shopping Evening at Highfield. With gorgeous gifts to discover under one roof, your Christmas wish list might be about to get a little longer… And this isn’t everyone! Keep an eye out for more stallholder reveals soon. Planning to join us? Register your attendance via the link in our bio. #highfieldschool #christmasshopping #supportlocalbusiness #community #christmasgifts @onedotworld @littlefishsushiinthesticks @pinkcityco @nobleandstace @oarsum_ @tamra_uk @candoverbrook @willinghurstestate @honeydotdesigns @luxumbra_candles @winterfoldco @weareelodie @jbpostcards @tisanjewellery
Before they can lead others, our Nursery children are learning to believe in themselves! 💪 In gymnastics with Mr Rodriguez and Mr Underwood, a wobbly first try turns into “let me try again!”, and that perseverance is how they discover they can do more on their own. One day, that same belief will help them encourage others to keep going too. #independentschool #nursery #earlyyears #leadership #leadingtheway Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Nursery Liphook | Nursery Hampshire | Highfield School
Ever wondered what makes a truly independent, family-owned school feel so different? 💛 Come and see for yourself at our Open Morning next month. Wander through our stunning 175 acres in the South Downs, say hello to our wonderful pupils and teachers, and get a real feel for life here. Whether your little one is 2 or 13, day or boarding, there’s a place for them here! 📅 Friday 20th November 🔗 Book your place via the link in our bio. One story. One purpose. One Highfield. #independentschool #highfieldschool #liphookschool #openmorning #hampshire
Half term already?! 🍂 What a whirlwind! Looking back on these busy weeks, our Head, Suzannah, has been reflecting on the moments that have stayed with her the most. Again and again, they came back to leadership: our pupils stepping up, from Reception children proudly giving tours of Early Years to Year 8s showing a visiting head around Highfield. #independentschool #highfieldschool #leadership #workingtogether #autumnterm Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Pre prep Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
More than £12,000 raised for @liphook.foodbank in five years! Last week, we welcomed Glynis Blake, chair of trustees for the food bank, to our Harvest Festival assembly. She helped our children understand how their donations make a difference to the 80 local families the food bank supports. A BIG thank you to our school community for your continued generosity! 🔗We’ve written more about Glynis’s visit and our ongoing support for the food bank in our latest press release – link in bio. #independentschool #highfieldschool #leadership #outreach #schoolcommunity Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Pre prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
A change of tactics for our U9 boys at last week’s tournament! ⚽ Our Director of Sport, Mr Bather, explains: “Our U9 boys had to rethink their tactics and move into different positions to support the team. They had to work out where they could be most useful, rather than just where they were used to playing. Although it wasn’t the result we’d hoped for, it was a pleasure to play against such strong teams. I’m very proud of how the boys came together and were willing to try something different for the team!” #independentschool #highfieldschool #problemsolving #teamtactics #prepschool #schoolsport Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
73 days until Christmas! 🎄 Too early? Our young artists don’t think so! Our annual Christmas card competition is underway, with children creating their own festive designs to turn into cards for family and friends. Turning an idea into a finished design takes some thought! It means working out how to bring what’s in your head onto the page and what will make your card eye-catching. Every pack ordered raises money for Highfield Highreach Holidays, helping our children see how something they create can make a difference to someone else. Now comes the tricky part… choosing the winning designs! 👀 #independentschool #problemsolving #creativedesign #christmascards #festive Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
October half term is almost here (we can’t quite believe it either)! If you’re looking for activities for your child during the break, we still have a few places available on our Holiday Clubs here at Highfield, with sessions to suit different ages and interests. 🔗Find out what’s on offer via the link in our bio.
Our Head, Suzannah Cryer, has been thinking about something we probably all recognise: that feeling of wanting to know you’ve got the right answer! But problem-solving doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes there’s a clear answer. Other times, there isn’t one at all! And that’s the tricky bit, isn’t it? When you’re faced with something you haven’t done before, where do you even start? What if your first idea doesn’t work? It’s tempting to want someone to tell you what to do next, but there’s so much to be gained from having a go and working things out for yourself. At Highfield, we see this in all sorts of ways. It’s our Reception children figuring out how to build a shelter strong enough to keep Baby Bear dry. It’s Year 4 exploring digestion using a pair of tights in Science! And it’s our U9 footballers rethinking their tactics to help their team. As Suzannah explains, sometimes it’s how you get from A to Z that’s more interesting than the answer itself! #independentschool #problemsolving #progress #criticalthinking #futureskills Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Nursery Liphook | Independent school Surrey | Pre prep school Hampshire | Highfield School
Our Year 8s have been busy preparing their canvases with diluted inks in different colours, ready for a mixed-media project exploring the theme of identity. 🎨 It’s a lovely example of how art encourages children to adapt. You might start with one idea in mind, but as colours blend and materials behave in unexpected ways, you have to think on your feet and try something different. And who knows? Sometimes those unexpected results turn out to be your favourite part of the finished piece! @olgahoughtonart #independentschool #highfieldschool #adaptability #creativelearning #prepschool Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
Things don’t always go to plan. So, what do you do next? At Highfield, we want our children to feel able to give things another go, even when it may feel difficult or be a struggle. Sometimes that means trying a different approach to reach their goal. We asked some of our Year 7s what adapting means to them… #independentschool #highfieldschool #adaptability #resilience #pupilvoice Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
Young musicians from St Bart’s, Beacon Hill, Camelsdale, Liphook Juniors and Highfield came together yesterday as one orchestra, rehearsing and performing alongside professional musicians from the Royal Military School of Music. 🎶 With music specially arranged for every child’s level, they spent the day in sectionals and rehearsals before performing The Traitors theme, March of the Toreadors and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was wonderful to see them adapt so quickly to playing alongside musicians from other schools, many of whom they had only just met. The progress they made in just one day was remarkable! It’s all part of a collaboration between Highfield and @haslemerefest, which will culminate in the young musicians performing at a special Gala Concert at the Haslemere Festival next year. A HUGE thank you to our Director of Music, Jessica Harman, for bringing the day together, to Captain Ben James and the RMSM band, to our sectional leaders Matt Gunner, Helen Downham and Sarah Craven, and to everyone behind the scenes who made it such a success. 👏 #schoolorchestra #royalmilitaryschoolofmusic #youngmusicians #militarymusic #musiceducation #armymusic
It’s been a busy few weeks of sport, with football, hockey and netball fixtures all underway! ⚽🏑 We’ve loved watching our pupils rise to every challenge, whether that’s switching positions mid-match or picking themselves up after conceding a goal. A great example came when the girls U13s 1st team travelled to Bede’s for their IAPS qualifier. 1-0 down after 4 mins in their opening game, they regrouped and answered back with 3 goals to take the victory! They battled their way to the quarter final, where a draw against @edgeboroughschool went to shuffles, ending in a narrow 2-1 loss. Our footballers showed the same spirit at the 7-a-side tournament. After a semi-final defeat to @twyfordschool on penalties, they bounced back to win their play-off and finish 3rd out of 12 teams! 🥉 Win or lose, our teams keep showing what it means to adapt and keep going! #independentschool #highfieldschool #adaptability #teamspirit #resilience Independent school Liphook | Prep school Hampshire | Independent school Surrey | Highfield School
What happens when life doesn’t go to plan? Suzannah Cryer, our Head, shares how changes in her own journey led her to new paths and why being able to pivot matters so much in this ever changing world. It’s a skill we nurture at Highfield every day, helping our children feel confident when things change and willing to find another way forward. ➡️ #independentschool #highfieldschool #adapting #embracechange #growthmindset Independent school Liphook, prep school Hampshire, boarding school Surrey, Hampshire independent school
What did Year 2 love most about their trip to RHS Garden Wisley? We’ll let them tell you! As part of their Fabulous Forests topic, the children had a chance to explore the vast gardens, take part in a woodland workshop and even discover some of the tallest and widest trees growing there! With so much to spark their imaginations, it was a chance to see how the natural world can inspire their own creativity. Swipe to see their favourite moments… 🌳 “My favourite thing was having a go at planting. My plant pot is on my windowsill at home.” 🌱 “My favourite thing was looking at the water fountain. It was beautiful.” ⛲ “I have two favourite things: collecting the spiky pine cones and counting all the vegetables… AND having my lunch!” “I loved going into the greenhouse. It was like being in a jungle.” 🌿 “I liked making the tree bark patterns appear on my paper!” 🌳 We also discovered a Highfield connection: the workshop leader’s wife plays lacrosse with our Head of Girls’ Games and PE, Ashleigh Gloster. What a small world!
“Whoever you are… whatever you do… however you feel… be YOU!” 💛 Year 2 brought Karl Newson’s Be You! to life in their assembly this week, with a lovely reminder that there really is only one you. They even put their creativity to work, making their own colourful animal masks, each one as wonderfully unique as the person who made it. 🎨 #highfieldschool #independentschool #creativelearning #liphook #beyou Liphook independent school, prep school, pre-prep school, boarding school, Hampshire independent school
A camp out is the perfect test of creative thinking! Using only what the woodland could offer, Year 7 sparked fires with flint and steel, whittled with sheath knives and cooked sausages over the fires they’d built themselves. 🔥 Once the tents were up and the hammocks were out, a blindfolded woodland course put their teamwork to the test. The day ended under clear skies, with plenty of campers choosing to sleep out under the stars. Smoky jumpers all round and a wonderful opportunity to the children thrive outside the classroom. #independentschool #highfieldschool #outdooreducation #creativethinking #nature Liphook independent school, prep school, pre-prep school, boarding school, Hampshire independent school
Last week we welcomed families to our Early Years Open Morning, which began with a woodland walk through the Highfield grounds before little feet made their way to our Forest School area. There, Mrs Snagg, our Nursery Manager, and Mrs Hunter, out Head of Pre-Prep and EYFS, helped the children make their own clay snails. 🐌 The children also got busy potion-making with forest finds and oranges, which proved particularly popular! Thank you to all the families who joined us. It was a joy to share a little of what Early Years life at Highfield is all about 🍂 #independentschool #highfieldschool #openmorning #earlyyears #forestschool Liphook independent school, pre-prep school, boarding school, Hampshire independent school
Creativity is everywhere at Highfield. It’s turning a fallen branch into something new at Forest School or stepping onto stage for the very first time. Sometimes it’s finding a different way to solve a problem. Have an idea and wondering ‘what if…?’ We want children and young people to have plenty of space for that kind of thinking. To wonder, try things out and have ideas of their own. Because as AI becomes part of everyday life, creativity and human connection will matter more than ever! #independentschool #creativity #creativethinking #essentialskills Liphook independent school, pre-prep school, prep school life, boarding school, Surrey independent school, Hampshire independent school
Every year on the 26th September, European Day of Languages is celebrated… and there’s plenty for us to celebrate at Highfield. 🎉 French and Spanish are a core part of life here, but our languages often stretch well beyond those. We are also delighted to be a multi-cultural school which welcomes so many pupils from around the world, exposing our British cohort to range of new languages and cultures through close friendships. This year’s theme is ‘Languages unite!’, so our languages team have been looking at just how far languages reach across the curriculum. The video doesn’t capture every subject involved (we’d have needed a rather longer film!), but hopefully gives a good flavour of just how much languages connect with other areas of school life. And yes, we know Mandarin isn’t European. But as it’s taught in Middle Prep, we couldn’t resist sneaking it in! 🤭 #independentschool #europeandayoflanguages #multicultural #languageteachers #crosscurricular
It’s been a busy week for Year 2 who have been learning beyond the classroom in our beautiful grounds 🪵 One science task had them peering beneath leaves and logs, investigating minibeasts, habitats and microhabitats. Elsewhere, there was more hands-on work… sawing through logs with their teacher, ready for next week’s exciting Little Red Riding Hood task (more to come on that!) Two very different lessons, but one shared skill throughout: working together towards a goal. #independentschool #outdoorlearning #workingtogether #forestschool #nature
There’s been some serious campaigning going on in Pre-Prep! Our Year 3 House Captain hopefuls have been putting their speeches together, ready to convince their fellow pupils why they would make the perfect leader. And tucked inside one of those persuasive speeches was this little gem: “Working together as a team will lead us to victory and we can rise as one.” Spoken like a true captain! Because while one person might lead the way, it’s everyone around them who makes a team what it is. 🤝 #independentschool #highfieldschool #workingtogether #leadershipskills #democracy
We’re joining forces with @haslemerefest to bring pupils from local schools together for Haslemere Festival Youth Music 2027. 🎻 Children who play an orchestral instrument or recorder, from pre-Grade 1 through to Grade 8, are invited to take part. It starts here at Highfield on 6th October with an orchestral play day alongside musicians from the Royal Military School of Music, before the children work towards a gala performance at Haslemere Hall next May. We want all children to have the chance to make music with others and experience what it means to be part of an orchestra. For some, it will be the first time they hear their own part become part of something bigger. 🔗 Read more about our partnership with Haslemere Festival via the link in our bio. Schools interested in taking part can contact Jessica Harman at jharman@highfieldschool.com. #IndependentSchool #HighfieldSchool #HaslemereFestival #MakingMusicTogether #YouthOrchestra
Nothing like easing yourself gently into a new school year… by heading straight off to Belgium! Year 8 certainly didn’t hang about this term. Their first few days took them from the battlefields of the Somme to the Last Post at the Menin Gate, with time spent walking through trenches and searching memorials for familiar family names. Being there together gave the children a very real introduction to the stories of the soldiers who fought there. At the Somme, they took on the roles of members of the Pals Battalions, discovering what it meant for friends to sign up and serve side by side – something that felt particularly powerful while travelling and working together as a year group themselves. At Tyne Cot, Bruno and Tabby laid a wreath on behalf of Highfield in the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world: a poignant way to bring that part of the trip to a close. A day at Parc Astérix was also on the itinerary… and even the staff were persuaded onto a rollercoaster or two! Quite a way to start their final year at Highfield. 👏 #IndependentSchool #SchoolTrip #History #Belgium #WorkingTogether