Clifton College Website

Welcome to the Preparatory School

The Preparatory School (known locally as 'The Pre') is the region’s largest boarding and day preparatory school for 400 girls and boys aged 8 to 13.

Here, your child’s interests and talents will be teased out, coaxed into the open, nurtured, developed and celebrated. The message is that everyone’s potential is important and the Pre aims to provide each child with the right environment in which to succeed; the right mix of opportunity, challenge and support allows the children to flourish.

Strong pastoral care within the House system is a great asset in securing your child’s happiness. Whilst, of course, problems and issues do arise, a strong sense of community and belonging quickly develops and the girls and boys gain an enormous amount from the House system.

At the Pre we pride ourselves on the wide-range of co-curricular, musical, dramatic and sporting activities on offer; our breadth, depth and range of pursuits on offer is extremely impressive.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach at The Pre – each child is considered and treated as an individual with a unique profile of skills, passions, talents and undiscovered potential. There is no single Clifton type to distinguish – and limit – our pupils. Who knows where your child’s interests, talents and passions will lie: initially, the child, the parent, the teacher, the school may all be unaware of latent talents and the tinderbox of opportunity that will ignite the spark of a long-lasting, perhaps lifelong, love affair between your child and, for example, an academic subject, music, art, the theatrical arts, sports, Sewing club, Magic club, cookery, social leadership opportunities or ‘community’ involvement. And if your child comes up to us with an already identified talent or interest, who knows to what level that will be encouraged to soar? For me, this remains the beauty, the excitement and the true value of a Clifton education.

John Milne
Headmaster

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