WHAT? WHERE?

A small, independent day and boarding prep school of around 150 boys and girls aged 2–13, Perrott Hill School is set in 28 beautiful acres of grounds and woodlands just outside Crewkerne, on the borders of Somerset and Dorset, not far from the Jurassic Coast.

Perrott Hill’s story starts at the beginning of World War II, when children from Feltonfleet School in Surrey were evacuated to North Perrott Manor, home to the Hoskyns family. In 1946, Major Hoskyns leased the house to Feltonfleet teacher Bill Grundy and his wife Nora – and it’s been a school ever since.

Fast forward to 2025 and Perrott Hill is the flagship school of the Perrott Hill Education group, which has schools in the Czech Republic (where John Grundy, son of founder Bill, was at the official opening of the new library in Prague), Spain and Lithuania. All share the Perrott Hill ethos: understanding that happy kids are active learners, they aim to combine all that’s precious about childhood and a nurturing family atmosphere with an education fit for today’s – and tomorrow’s – world.

The school will be growing over the next few years, too. They’ll be adding a Year 9 (September 2027), Year 10 (September 2028), and Year 11 (September 2029).

Exciting times.

FACILITIES

The large Victorian manor house, where you’ll find the school admin and the Head, dining halls and boarding accommodation, sits at the heart of the school. Although it’s quite grand, it’s not at all intimidating and has a laid back, family feel with pupils and teachers coming and going about the place.

The rest of the school, clustered round about is a mix of Victorian and 1950/60s buildings housing the Nursery/Pre-Prep, Prep and assorted classrooms, and some impressive contemporary architecture.

There’s the wood-clad sports hall, with possibly the world’s longest welly stand – essential kit in a school where the children spend so much time outside.

Everyone’s welcome to drop into the scientific/technical Tinker Lab during breaks. Stuffed with computers and all sorts of materials and equipment – programmable sphero robots, bee-bots, 3D printers, CAD (computer aided design), a green screen for making videos – pupils can develop their own ideas or work on projects under the teacher’s guidance.

Can I come and live in your Music School please? Opened by (name drop) Sir Neville Marriner, it’s all clean lines, big windows, grass roof and views out from the recital room and its decking – for outside concerts – onto a spectacular cedar tree and the countryside beyond.

Over 80% of children in Years 3 to 8 have private music lessons, with 20% learning more than one, although the school encourages the ethos of quality over quantity (i.e. it’s better to progress on one instrument really well rather than try and do two and make mediocre progress on both!). All Year 2s learn violin and there’s a 25-piece orchestra. Loving the sound of the two rock bands Perrock and Perroll. I witnessed the school’s Christmas tradition of singing While shepherds watched their flocks by night to all sorts of unlikely tunes – like The Muppets. Great fun!

The Hoskyns Library (named after the family who lived in the original manor house) is in the old orangery and open at all times to all pupils, with masses of books, mags and comfy sofas. They operate the Accelerated Readers Scheme. The ‘Goblet of Fire’ appears in a weekly assembly and names are drawn to reward children who reached 100% in the Accelerated Reader reading quiz.

The many and varied sporting facilities include a fab sports hall, extensive games pitches, hard tennis courts, and a heated outdoor swimming pool (though swimming in winter takes place at the indoor pool in nearby Crewkerne). An all-weather sports ground is cunningly concealed in gorgeous formal gardens. A new padel court is on the cards: watch this space.

Assorted drama productions and musical performances take place throughout the year in the dedicated 250-seat theatre. There are usually three big productions a year: a collaborative musical offering (Year 4); a West End-type show like Matilda (Year 6); something more grown up like The Tempest (Year 8), which they plan to perform in the woods – inspired. Pupils have excelled in LAMDA exams with most achieving distinctions.

Messily creative art rooms are more like studios than classrooms, with areas that convert to pop-up darkrooms, carpentry workshops, and an open door policy over breaks and lunch time. Pupils are encouraged to make links with the world around them and the projects, artworks – a table of curiosities – on display are imaginative, exciting and some of them are seriously good. Love the sound of the parents’ ceramic classes. Can I come too?

Famous Five eat your heart out: outdoor learning is huge here and heaps of fun. Down in the Forest School, we saw kids confidently handling saws and other tools to make professional-looking Christmas decorations from branches. Then there’s whittling, den building, fire lighting and cooking – all under the careful but light-touch supervision of inspirational and experienced leaders – that’s when the kids aren’t zooming along the zip wire, that is.

‘Wholesome’ lunches are served in the wood-panelled dining room, with teachers sharing tables with pupils. You’ll also find a roaring fire crackling in the Grundy Hall during winter months.

Children have the run of the grounds at break and lunch, slipping in and out of yew hedges (very Alice in Wonderland-ish) and finding quiet corners to chat in the formal (but not at all stuffy) rose gardens, running around on the lawns as well as playing in the various playgrounds and sports arenas.

SPORTS

Perrott Hill Prep School somerset hockey

Teams punch above their weight and pupils often go onto win sports scholarships (there were seven last year) – there’s a school saying: “At Perrott, we are small but mighty!”. They give everyone a chance to play – there’s no sitting on the reserve bench all match long here. As elsewhere in the school, a focus is on the personal development of each pupil with individual attention and coaching time. Parents aren’t left out. The Perrott Hill Plodders, a staff/parent/Old Perrott Hillian cricket team, plays local clubs.

NURSERY & PRE-PREP

The Nursery and Pre-Prep (Reception, Years 1 & 2) classrooms are housed in a converted stable courtyard with their own playground – a world within a world – although they share the main school’s theatre, art studios, sports hall, pitches, and the school’s large astro turf is all theirs at lunchtime.

Education is curiosity-led and play-based with elements of Montessori. Each class of around ten has a dedicated Pre-Prep teacher, with specialist subject teachers for music, art, PE ICT and French. Children can join the Nursery at any time in the year, can stay for lunch time or all day. Even at Nursery level, enrichment is particularly good. I mean, they get in a professional chef for Round the World cooking – Thai green curry, anyone? Children are able to develop a curiosity about the world, a love of learning and grow in confidence and independence as they move up the school to Year 3 in the big school. Great care is taken over the transition between each stage.

Currently the nursery is open term time only. As from September 2026, it will be open all year round.

ACADEMICS

It’s non-selective, though you’ll have an interview and they’ll cast their eye over your offspring’s school reports. Classes are small, about 14 per class, with usually just one class per year. About half the pupils go to the calm and welcoming Learning Support rooms, and are proud to do so – be it for a little help with literacy, numeracy, anxiety, speech and language issues, ASD – whatever.

They get impressive results: in 2025 over half of pupils in Year 8 secured scholarships, across the board – academic, sport, music, art and drama – to schools including Canford, Bryanston, King’s College Taunton, Blundell’s and King’s Bruton. An advantage of being a standalone Prep means that they can help you choose the senior school that’s right for your child.

HEADTEACHER

Will Silk will be be taking over from current headmaster Alex McCullough at Easter 2026. No stranger to the school, Mr Silk was Deputy Head at Perrott Hill for 15 years before taking on the position of Assistant Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Truro Prep School. Seems he just can’t keep away! Described as expert in ‘nurturing character and fostering communities where pupils thrive’, he sounds a great fit for the school. We hear that parents and staff alike are delighted that he is coming back.

REPORTS

See the recent reports from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), equivalent to Ofsted in the state sector, here.

BOARDING

There’s weekly and flexi-boarding from Year 3 and full boarding from Year 5, with only 15 (not a typo) full-time boarders (though weekly/flexi-boarders bring the number up to around 50). Friday night boarding is extremely popular here, not least because of all the activities and competitions that take place each term, including ‘Throw the Sock’, ‘Pot the Golf Ball in the cup’ and ‘Killer Pool’.

Dorms are small and friendly. The common room near the boys’ dorms is shared by both boys and girls, with surfboards on the wall, an air footie table and a sofa that was far more stylish than the one chez moi. The girls have their own cosy space too. The accommodation is fine but will be even better after its imminent uplift.

At weekends, there’s a great family feel, with lots of activities with house parents.

WHAT ELSE?

They say it takes a village to raise a child; here the school is the village. The small size enables every pupil to be known and cared about, in a relaxed but respectful environment.

Perrott Hill is a school with personality, a place where surprising things sometimes happen, like a Shetland pony popping in for World Book Day – no wonder there’s a school saying “only at Perrott!”

Head boys and girls change termly, and there are captains of sport, music, even Tinker Lab, so lots of people get a chance to be a big cheese.

The school choir has sung for the Pope in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome (they’ve also performed in St Mark’s Basilica in Venice and in Prague – impressive).

Two black sheep called ‘Nutella’ and ‘Toast’ make regular visits to promote Farmer Time, an extracurricular activity which helps the children understand how their food is produced.

Year 8 pupils from Perrott Hill and Feltonfleet School meet up every year – the connection stays alive.

As part of a five-year investment plan, this year sees a rollout of interactive SMART boards, new IT devices, a fleet of shiny new school buses, a new DT workshop, a car park upgrade and more exciting developments to come.

The children love the ‘Slip and slide’ which is set up on the front lawn at every opportunity.

John Grundy – the son of the school’s founding father – comes in each year to talk to children about the history of the school (which he grew up in), bringing with him black and white family photos.

Led by the school’s Young Farmer Club, pupils make preserve to raise funds for Farms for City Children.

WRAP AROUND CARE

The school day currently runs from 8.20am-5.45pm, with some cool sounding free clubs including Round the World Cookery, Chess, Tinker Lab, Spy Club, Yoga, Pinhole Photography, the high energy SWEAT fitness club, Architectural CAD Club – and masses more. There’s the chance for paid extracurricular like ballet and tennis, too. As from September 2026, compulsory Saturday School and Exeat weekends will both end, and the school will move to a five-day core week.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

No phones allowed.

FEES

Fees for all pupils, even Nursery, are termly. So, Nursery, mornings only, £2,297; whole days £2,832. Reception, whole day, £3,080. Year 1, £3,500; Year 2, £4,000; Year 3 £6,990; Years 4, 5 & 6, £7,515; Years 7 & 8 £7,850. Weekly boarding surcharge £1,900. Occasional weekly boarding £200 per week. If you want to book your little darling into a school bunk bed for the night, it’s £52.34/£53.54 and includes supper, an evening activity plus bed and breakfast.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Parents describe Perrott Hill as ‘a lovely, lovely school with a really strong family feel and a gorgeous setting, producing really nice boys and girls’. They talk about the welcoming, relaxed atmosphere, with children coming out of their shells and ‘growing hugely in confidence and enthusiasm’. They value the school’s emphasis on manners, politeness and caring for others and there are ‘lots of great role models’ in the school.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Parents who want a school that combines the best of aspects of a traditional country prep school with an outward looking, progressive education that looks to the future. Shyer, less confident children who might get lost in a larger school would thrive here – can’t imagine anyone falling through the net.

Not for: It’s small so budding sporting superstars might not have much competition from others in their year (though those who are will do well – this year there were seven sports scholarships).

See for yourself: Book a place at their next open morning. The next one is Fri 30 Jan, with a Scholarship Assessment Day on Fri 6 Feb for pupils currently in Years 4 and 6.

Perrott Hill School, Perrott Hill, North Perrott, Crewkerne, TA18 7SL. Tel 01460 72051.

Perrott Hill School, near Crewkerne

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