Churcher's College

Located in the picturesque setting of Petersfield, Churcher's College offers a rich educational experience that combines academic excellence with a strong...

Churcher's College was founded in 1722 in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire, under the terms of the will of Richard Churcher. The original intent was specific: Churcher endowed the school to provide "twelve poor boys" with the literacy, numeracy and seamanship needed to be apprenticed into the East India Company's commercial fleet. From this East India Company origin the school broadened gradually into a conventional grammar foundation, then into an HMC public school after the abolition of the direct grant. It became co-educational in the 1990s.

The school today operates across two Hampshire sites. The Senior School (ages 11-18) is in the centre of Petersfield, on a campus with playing fields rolling up towards the South Downs. The Junior School and Nursery (ages 3-11) are at Ramshill in nearby Liphook. Total enrolment is approximately 1,185 pupils, and the school is fully co-educational. The Headmaster is Simon H. L. Williams.

Churcher's is consistently rated among the strongest independent schools in southern Hampshire by A-Level performance. The school has a strong Combined Cadet Force tradition, reflecting its East India Company foundation, and a substantial outdoor-education programme using the South Downs and nearby New Forest. Sport is centred on cricket and rugby, with the school's own ground at Hogmoor used for first-team fixtures.

Alumni from the school's most recent decades include Michael Auger, a member of the vocal group Collabro who won Britain's Got Talent in 2014; Brigadier Henry Baxter CBE GM, who commanded the Ulster Defence Regiment in the mid-1970s and was awarded the George Medal for bomb-disposal work in Northern Ireland; and numerous Old Churcherians active in the Royal Navy, the senior civil service and South Hampshire business. The school operates a substantial bursary programme intended to honour Richard Churcher's original 1722 intent of supporting Hampshire families regardless of means.

Churcher’s College was established in 1722 with a generous bequest of £3,000 from Richard Churcher in his will to provide an education for ten or twelve boys from Petersfield in the arts of writing, arithmetic, and the mathematics of navigation. In 2022 the school celebrated the 300th anniversary of Churcher's College, recognising the past, where it is today and taking inspiration for the future (whole school photo above). A lot has happened to the school over the past three hundred years or so; the number of pupils has grown from ten or twelve boys aged 9 - 14 to over 1,250 girls and boys aged 3 – 18.

Churcher s College is an independent day school for girls and boys aged 3 to 18 years. We are proud to be a Sunday Times Top 100 School and be recognised as one of the most accomplished independent, co-educational day schools in the country. The school accommodates c. 1,300 pupils at Senior and Sixth Form, and 250 at the Junior School (excluding the Nursery).

Churcher’s is located close to the South Downs in Hampshire, on the borders of Surrey and West Sussex, just one hour from London. We operate across two campus sites to best serve our pupils, each offering exceptional educational opportunities in stunning countryside locations. This enables the Junior School and Nursery children to flourish in their own beautiful grounds in Liphook, whilst maintaining close links to the Senior School and Sixth Form located in nearby Petersfield.