Colfe's School

Colfe's School is one of the oldest schools in London. A school had been operating in Lewisham since at least 1494, when Richard Walker's chantry endowed local teaching, but Colfe's formal foundation dates from 1568 when the Rev. John Glyn re-established the school after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Glyn's foundation received a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1574. The school takes its modern name from the Rev. Abraham Colfe, vicar of Lewisham, who re-endowed it in 1652 in his will and placed it under the perpetual governance of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers — a relationship that has continued unbroken for the 370+ years since. The current Official Visitor to the school is HRH Prince Michael of Kent.

The school today occupies a campus in Horn Park, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south-east London. It is co-educational, educates around 1,150 pupils aged 3-18 across the Pre-Prep, Junior School and Senior School, and is a member of the HMC. The Headmaster is Dan Gabriele.

Colfe's modern alumni list is unusually rich across politics, sport and the arts. Sir James Cleverly KCMG MP — former Home Secretary, former Foreign Secretary and former Chair of the Conservative Party — was educated at Colfe's. Sir Olly Robbins, the senior civil servant who served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and was the chief Brexit negotiator under Theresa May, was a contemporary. The Kent cricketer Rob Key, who is currently Managing Director of England Men's Cricket, is also an Old Colfeian. In the arts: the Oscar-winning documentary director James Marsh (Man on Wire; The Theory of Everything); the thriller novelist Eric Ambler OBE (The Mask of Dimitrios); the novelist Christopher Fowler (Bryant & May); and the Royal Academician portrait painter Norman Hepple. In football: Steve Parish, the chairman of Crystal Palace FC; in women's football, the England international Claire Rafferty.

The school operates a substantial bursary programme via the Leathersellers' Company, intended to maintain Abraham Colfe's 1652 commitment to educational access regardless of family means.