The Elms School is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

private boarding prep school located in

Colwall Colwall is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated on the border with Worcestershire, nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills at the heart of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, AONB. Areas of ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Including the early years and pre-prep departments, it educates children from 3 to 13 years old (with boarding and flexiboarding available from Year 3 upwards). It is a non-selective mainstream school, totally independent of any senior school, and therefore sends children on to a wide range of top senior schools.

History

The Elms was founded in 1614 by Humphrey Walwyn of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, and is the oldest prep school still on its original site. The original school house was based on a farmhouse, built in the 1550s, on the edge of the village of Colwall in the lee of the Malvern Hills. According to ''The Rise of the English Prep School,'' the official inception date of The Elms as a prep school dates back to 1867. In 2014 The Elms School celebrated its 400-year anniversary, and named a new dormitory after the late former Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

. It maintains close links with the Grocers' Company, and receives financial assistance from the company's charitable arm.

Facilities

The school has 40 acres of land, including a farm and a large outdoor arena for riding. As of 2013, The Elms was one of 98 schools in the UK with its own farm. The Elms has herds of Hereford cattle and Gloucester Old Spot pigs, and Shropshire Sheep, which pupils help to tend, and show at county agricultural shows. Meat from the farm is served in the school dining hall and sold to parents. Each class is responsible for tending a garden, and fruits and vegetables they grow are also used in the school kitchens. The school also has a sports hall, theatre, swimming pool, astroturf, and science laboratories, as well as sports fields.

Curriculum

Pupils study a standard curriculum, with the addition of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

(for some pupils),

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and Rural Studies. Pupils are largely taught by a form teacher in the early years, but there is more specialist subject teaching as they move up the school.

Sport

Pupils play association football, rugby football, cricket, hockey, netball, rounders, athletics, triathlon and heptathlon.

Notable alumni

* Stephen Davies, ornithologistStephen Davies's CV
* Sir Peter Gadsden (1929–2006), 652nd

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

* Quentin Letts (born 1963), journalist and theatre critic * John Moore (1907–1967), author

References

External links

The Elms School Website

Information about the school from the Independent Schools Council

The Elms School Official Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elms School The 1614 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 1610s Preparatory schools in Herefordshire Private schools in Herefordshire