Bromsgrove School

Bromsgrove School is a co-educational boarding and day school in the English public school tradition, founded in 1553 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. First recorded as a chantry school in 1476 and refounded as a grammar between 1548 and 1553, it stands as one of the oldest public schools in Britain. The 1693 endowment of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet of Norgrove Court, produced the first buildings on the present 100-acre town-centre site; Thomas Cookes House remains in use today as the oldest building on campus.

The school is one of the fourteen founding members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), and educates roughly 2,114 pupils across three integrated divisions — a pre-prep nursery for ages 2-7, a preparatory school for 7-13 and the senior school for 13-18. It is fully co-educational and offers both day and boarding places, with overseas expansion to Bangkok (Bromsgrove International School Thailand) and Shenzhen, China (Bromsgrove School Mission Hills). Boarding fees reach approximately £18,114 per term across three terms per year. The headmaster from September 2022 is Michael Punt, previously headmaster of Chigwell School.

Bromsgrove combines a strong academic record with an unusually broad and deep co-curricular programme. The school's sporting reputation is national: it has produced five Victoria Cross recipients and currently educates several England rugby internationals (Ben Foden, Ollie Lawrence and Matt Mullan among recent alumni), as well as Olympic and motor-sport competitors. Music has been a school strength since the appointment of Isaiah Burnell as director of music in 1907; alumni include John Illsley of Dire Straits, Fyfe Dangerfield of Guillemots and the jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch.

The school's most famous old boy is the poet A. E. Housman, author of A Shropshire Lad. Other Old Bromsgrovians include Conservative grandees Lord Heseltine and Lord Digby Jones; First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key; novelist Nicholas Evans (The Horse Whisperer); and a wide cast of British actors including Ian Carmichael, Trevor Eve, Richard Wattis and Doctor Who's Arthur Darvill.