Welcome to a truly special prep school, centred around a quest for excellence in all its forms…

A very warm welcome to The Pilgrims’ School. If this website is your first introduction to our community, I hope it offers a sense of what life here feels like and encourages you to come and experience it for yourself. 

If you are seeking the very best education for your son, we believe you may have found it. That is a bold claim, but one I make with confidence. Having been a boy at Pilgrims’ myself, later returning as a member of staff, I have seen at close quarters how a Pilgrims’ education lays strong, humane foundations for life. Our task is to honour the best of our traditions while ensuring that we offer an excellent all-round education highly relevant to the world our boys will grow into. Whilst we perceive a great deal of overlap between these, we constantly reflect on the changing educational landscape and on how any opportunities we are lucky enough to enjoy through our colleagues at Winchester College might serve our pupils.

At Pilgrims’, each boy belongs to an extended family. We pursue excellence and provide exceptional opportunities, but we know that achievement flourishes best where there is warmth, laughter, kindness and care. Outstanding pastoral support underpins all that we do, helping boys to grow in confidence, curiosity and self-understanding, while learning how to live well with others.

It is our duty to ensure that this education always looks to the possibilities of the future, inspired by the best of the past.  

We are fortunate to learn, play and live in a remarkable setting within a beautiful city. With a thriving boarding community at its heart, the school has a strong sense of belonging and continuity. Place matters: our surroundings offer the boys a feeling of rootedness and perspective that gently shapes their days and stays with them long after they leave. As a double choir school, music runs through daily life, with the sounds of voices and instruments lending rhythm and meaning to the routine. Yet so too do sport and the creative arts, further helping boys find the sparks to their kindling potential.

A Pilgrims’ education is, in essence, a journey. Like any worthwhile pilgrimage, it involves challenge as well as joy, familiarity as well as discovery. The purpose is not simply to arrive, but to be changed along the way. Our staff guide the boys through a rich academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular programme that encourages them to strive for excellence in its many forms.

Just as importantly, the boys learn what it means to travel alongside others. They develop compassion, empathy, self-awareness and respect for difference - qualities that help them navigate both the easier days and the more demanding ones.

Whilst we enjoy all the strength and opportunity of being merged with Winchester College, when their time here comes to an end, our boys move on to a wide range of excellent senior schools. We are proud of their success - and we enjoy a strong scholarship record - but equally proud of the friendships they form and the lasting bond they retain with this distinctive school community.

I very much hope you will come and visit us soon. We would be delighted to welcome you.

Questions for our Headmaster

Four of our boys had the opportunity to ask Mr Butcher some important questions, from how he feels about coming back as the Headmaster, having previously been a teacher and pupil, to who his favourite superhero is.