The Pilgrims' School

Pilgrims' is an independent fee-paying school with day and boarding in the heart of Winchester, for boys age 4-13. It offers a generous 20% off fees in addition to the CEA for military families. Other bursaries may also be available. The school values every boy for his own sake and encourages pupils to find and develop their own talents to the full. The Headmaster is Tim Butcher, a former pupil himself, now proud to lead this outstanding school which nurtures a certain kind of confidence, not the brash kind, not the performed, but the kind that comes from having been genuinely stretched having been given opportunities in many different things. 

Following the merger with its next door neighbour, the prestigious and centuries old Winchester College, Pilgrims' enjoys resources and expertise which are hard to beat at Prep school level, including a theatre, museum, observatory and additional sports facilities to its own. The latest ISI Inspection noted music as a 'significant strength' due to the opportunities across the entire musical curriculum. Separate to this, Pilgrims' is the school in the UK with boys singing for two choral foundations, Winchester College's chapel and Winchester Cathedral, meaning boys might be singing a cathedral solo one day and playing for the cricket team on Saturday. The choristers often sing for professional recordings. Pilgrims' offers incredible extra-curricular activities, including the chance to learn to fly a light aircraft. 

 The ethos is to not ask boys to choose at such a young age but to try as much as they can. The school aims to prepare boys for which ever senior school suits them best, making sure they leave interested in the world around them and interesting to the people they meet. The Head of Boarding is a former Army Officer, Matt Sutherland, who brings experience working with young people in an Army Training Regiment, looking after young recruits taking their first steps into army life. School life in Winchester is very different to his army life and the surroundings are much prettier but the school acknowledges that the transformative power of living and learning together as a community remains the same. 

Pilgrims’ keeps boys busy (the timetables of our Choristers and Quiristers, for example, really are as intricate as a military operation) and the two boarding houses provide a happy home from home with the same sense of purpose and camaraderie with the boarding team acting in loco parentis in perhaps the truest form of that expression that you will find. The school says, 'There's more to a Pilgrim' and it's not wrong. It's a genuinely warm community which values how time is spent both in and out of the classroom. Academic ambition sits alongside the nurturing of good character and kindness in preparing boys for the world beyond the prep school gates.