Boarding
Boarding at Highfield and Brookham is extremely popular but also completely optional. Our boarding provision has always been an integral part of the prep school and perhaps the continued popularity reflects how well we do it. Our flexible contemporary boarding provision means that if you are considering boarding for your child we are sure we can offer something that suits them. We offer everything from two nights per week to the ever-popular full boarding experience.
One of our many strengths is our diverse national and international community. We have always enjoyed a strong association with Armed Forces families and we are honoured to have been welcoming children from overseas for more than decade. Throughout our history we have been able provide outstanding pastoral care and the full boarding experience for children whose families may be abroad. The thriving boarding community means that no child will ever feel alone if their parents are out of the country. They are part of a large extended family who care for and support them every step of the way.
The approach to boarding is excellent – we love the Junior Boarding House to start and there’s a great balance of freedom and guidance.
Full boarding is the complete package offered to children in Year 4 to Year 8. It allows your child to experience the whole week, including weekends. Roughly a quarter of our boarders board full time, including international children, Forces children and local children who want to experience full boarding before senior school. Weekends are treasured by our boarders as they enjoy more of their favourite part of boarding – being with their friends.
Sundays offer a relaxed start with a ‘pyjama breakfast’ at 9am. Each weekend there is a either an on-site or off-site activity such as bowling in Guildford, going to the cinema in Portsmouth or fairground rides at Hollycombe. Our weekly boarders always have the option to book additional nights to join our full boarders for the most popular weekend activities – ice skating in Winchester being one of them.
Weekly boarding is available from Year 3 to Year 8. Approximately half of our boarders choose this option. As a weekly boarder your child will arrive at school on Monday morning and return home on Saturday, allowing them to experience the joys of being part of our thriving boarding family.
If your child doesn’t have school on a Saturday they are collected at 9am, if they do have Saturday School they will be collected at the end of the school day. We also value seeing our families at Sunday Chapel, which has been an important part of boarding for many years. We would love to invite your child to stay after Sunday Chapel and there will be no extra charge.
This is our unique take on part-time, flexi boarding and is available for children in Year 3 to Year 7. Around a quarter of our boarders choose our Steps to Boarding programme. Steps offers your child a gentle start to boarding. It is a great opportunity for them to test the water before being a full boarder either at prep or senior school. It also offers families a more flexible option to fit around after-school clubs and commitments, the school run and work life.
What makes it special is your child will board the same nights each week and have their own bed, in their dorm with their friends, with their belongings. No chopping and changing. It is their home even if they are only with us two nights a week. Children in Year 3 to Year 6 have the options of staying two, three or four nights a week and children in Year 7 have the choice between three or four nights a week.
Additional boarding gives children who aren’t full boarders the option to book extra nights in our Boarding House on a more flexible basis. As we do not ‘hot bed’, your child’s bed is always available to them on other nights when they need it, or simply when they want to stay for that extra special weekend activity. We all know how popular the Winchester Christmas Market is!
What we’re up to…
Congratulations to Year 7 pupils Grace Craig and Annie Yang, who jointly picked up the Art Effort of the Month award for February for their amazing renditions of American artist Roy Lichtenstein’s colourful and dramatic pop art work. #TogetherWeGrow #PrepSchoolArt #CreativeArts #SchoolsInHampshire #TalentedPupils #Art
True to form, our young mini marvels have had a marvellous time during the half-term holiday. Outdoor play, cycling, cookery and getting creative in the art room making fun masks were among the many amazing activities on offer during an action-packed few days where smiles, joy and laughter were par for the course. #TogetherWeGrow #MiniMarvels #HalfTermHolidayFun #SchoolsInHampshire #SchoolHolidayCourses
With a view to widening our reach and engaging with key communities, we have made our first foray into television advertising. Let us know if you spot us on Sky TV! #TogetherWeGrow #SchoolsInHampshire #Nursery #PrePrepSchool #PrepSchool #PrivateEducation #Hampshire #WestSussex #Surrey #DayAndBoardingSchool
Are you looking for a nurturing school environment where your child can truly thrive? Join us on Friday 14th March for our Open Morning and explore the school, its beautiful grounds and extensive facilities. You’ll be guided on a tour by some of our Year 8 pupils, who will share their personal experiences. Meet our inspiring Head and discover first-hand how we bring out the best in every child and prepare them for their future schools and beyond. To book a place, visit bit.ly/4k2iFbL #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #OpenMorning #CountryEducation
Are you looking for a nurturing school environment where your child can truly thrive? Join us on Friday 14th March for our Open Morning and explore the school, its beautiful grounds and extensive facilities. You’ll be guided on a tour by some of our Year 8 pupils, who will share their personal experiences. Meet our inspiring Head and discover first-hand how we bring out the best in every child and prepare them for their future schools and beyond. To book a place click the link in our bio above. #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #OpenMorning
Led by the amazing Mrs Wilson, our very own West End stage star, the children taking part in today’s half-term holiday performing arts masterclass look like they could soon be following in her footsteps. The eager boys and girls gave their all as they recited, acted, danced and sang their way through two wonderful skits and a fantastic finale from hit musical The Greatest Showman. Bravo, one and all, bravo! #TogetherWeGrow #PerformingArts #HalfTermHolidayActivities #StageTalent #SchoolsInHampshire
An incredible bird’s eye view of our inter-school cross-country last Friday with thanks to @the_raven_view for this amazing drone footage. We are fortunate to have such amazing school grounds to host this event and the video provides a snapshot of the challenging terrain the children had to navigate. #crosscountry #prepschool #coeducationalschool #TogetherWeGrow #prepschoolcrosscountry #westsussex #hampshire
Love and friendship was the order of the day as our boys and girls got down to some seriously creative crafting today. Under the expert guidance of the brilliant Hannah and Jo, from Feltybeecrafts, the children got the half-term holiday week off to a great start in the art room by decorating beautiful glass pebbles, making and decorating trinket boxes to put them in, and using their needle-felting skills to produce some amazing animals, complete with cute ears, charming whiskers and soft noses. #TogetherWeGrow #LoveAndFriendship #CreativeCrafting #HalfTermHolidays #HolidayActivityClubs
It was wonderful to see so much amazing sportsmanship and camaraderie at our annual cross-country event, with teammates often running in pairs or small groups to help each other through the toughest sections of the challenging course. #TogetherWeGrow #IndependentSchool #PrivateSchool #BoardingSchool #PrepSchool #PrePrepSchool #Nursery #Liphook #Hampshire #Surrey #WestSussex #crosscountry #sportsmanship #helpinghand @amesburyschool @aldroschool @barrowhillsschool @churchers1722 @churchersjunior @edgeboroughschool @feltonfleetschool @hoebridgeschool @parkside_prep @rgs_guildford @rgsprep @twyfordschool @westbournehouseschool
More than 900 children from 15 schools across Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex have given their all over our testing cross-country course today. Children aged from eight to 13 showed real determination and strained every sinew, not only battling each other but also a tricky course, slippery ground and a biting wind. There were some tears, knocks and scrapes along the way, but the way in which the runners supported not only their teammates but children from rival schools was truly heartwarming on a cold day. And the look of joy and relief on the faces of the children as they crossed the finish, cheered on by their peers, was a sight to behold. Very well done, boys and girls! Aldro Amesbury School Barrow Hills School Churcher’s College Edgeborough School Feltonfleet School Hoe Bridge School Parkside School RGS Prep School Twyford School, Hampshire Westbourne House School #TogetherWeGrow #PrepSchoolCrossCountry #RunningInTheMud #SchoolsInHampshire
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
