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welcome from the Heads
We are an independent boarding school located at the heart of the Cotswolds. We educate boys and girls from the ages of 3 to 18 years old at Cheltenham Prep and then at our senior school, Cheltenham College. Please click below to find out more about each school. We look forward to meeting you soon at one of our Open Mornings.
We are an independent boarding school located at the heart of the Cotswolds. We educate boys and girls from the ages of 3 to 18 years old at Cheltenham Prep and then at our senior school, Cheltenham College. Please click below to find out more about each school. We look forward to meeting you soon at one of our Open Mornings.
College provides the foundations for pupils to go on and hit their Higher Education goals and achieve great things in their chosen careers. Explore the map to discover more about our alumni and how our Cheltonian Society reaches across the globe.
Cheltenham College was established as a Church of England Foundation in 1841 by our founding fathers, George Simon Harcourt and James Shrubb Iredell, as a school for the sons of gentleman within a prosperous spa town.
Families could choose between the Classical Department, where boys studied Classics, Mathematics, Ancient History and Hebrew, in preparation for a career in scholarship at university, or…
...the Modern (Military) Department, whose offering included History, Geography, Drawing, Experimental Science and optional Sanskrit and Hindustani, preparing boys for careers in the Army or the Indian Civil Service.
Once established, College grew rapidly, with a Chapel, practical chemistry room, museum, gymnasium, Junior Boy Department and four large Boarding Houses constructed and in use by 1880.
One of our earliest photographs of our 1st cricket XI in 1860. Sport has always been central to life at College, whether rugby, rowing, rifles, hockey or any of the numerous other options offered over the years.
To celebrate our first 50 years, our current Chapel (the first now transformed into our College Dining Hall) was designed by an Old Cheltonian, Henry Prothero, and dedicated by the Bishop of Gloucester on 16 December 1896.
In 1908 the Juniors were finally given a purpose-built school of their own, now known as Cheltenham College Preparatory School. The beautiful grounds gave the boys (aged 7-13) space to learn in their own part of College.
Although the first four girls arrived to study in 1969, our Sixth Form only officially accepted girls from 1981. By 1998 both The Prep and College were fully co-educational, with girls admitted from the age of 3 upwards!
We remain one of the few schools to have our own Royal Military Colours, unofficially since 1863, ratified in 1921 and most recently presented by Princess Anne, the same day that our second girls’ House, Ashmead, was opened.
Today we offer a rounded education to pupils from across the globe and, with the opening of a new girls’ House, College Lawn, nearly equal numbers of boys to girls. We look forward to seeing where the next chapter will take us...
%20cheltenham%20college.jpg "Foundation")
%20big%20classical%20schoolroom.jpg "Big Classical")
%20Big%20modern.jpeg "Big Modern")
%20building%20new%20chapel.jpg "Construction")
%20Chapel.jpeg "Chapel")
%20junior.jpg "The Juniors")
%20girls.jpeg "The Pioneer Girls")
%20Princess%20Anne.jpg "Royal Military Colours")
%20The%20Chatfeild-Roberts%20Library-Web%20Page%20Image.jpg "College Today")