Governors Hanford Prep Senior Leadership Team
Chair
C.H. Samler
Governors
J.S. Blanch
S.A. Craig-McFeely
Canon N.J. Edwards
L. Hall
A.L. Harris
A.L. Hughes
N. Isaac Esq
N.L. Jones Esq
A.C. Lane
R.A.L. Leach Esq
The Reverend M.P. Lee
G. Marsh Esq
J.S. Massey
A.J.D. Pralle Esq
S.M. Spearing Esq
G. Staley
M.C. Taylor Esq
A.P. Williams
M.T. Wilson Esq
Clerk to the Governors
S.C. Worthy
Head Hanford Prep
Hilary Phillips, BA (Hons) BEd
Deputy Head & Pastoral Care Lead
David Horton BEng Hons, QTS
Head of Boarding/Designated Safeguarding Lead
Susie Askew
Operations Manager
Elisabeth Carr BSc Hons, DTLLS
SHERBORNE SCHOOLS GROUP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Head Hanford Prep
Hilary Phillips, BA (Hons) BEd
Headmaster Sherborne Boys
Simon Heard, BA (Hons), PGDip
Head Sherborne Girls
Dr Ruth Sullivan, BSc, PGCE, MSc, PhD
Head Sherborne Prep
Annie Gent, BA (Hons), MEd, BA, QTS
Director of External Affairs
Katherine Massey, BA (Hons)
Chief Operating Officer
Simon Worthy, BA, MBA
For the full list of Governors for Sherborne Schools Group, which includes the small number of co-opted members of individual committees, please visit https://www.sherborneschools.group/governors-and-executive-committee
Vision + Aims
Fulfilling Potential
To recognise the breadth of academic capabilities and requirements and enable each girl to do the very best that she can.
Nurturing Talent
To provide the opportunity, encouragement and support for each girl to pursue and expand her interests both within and beyond the classroom.
Valuing Individuality
To recognise that each girl develops at her own speed, with her own interests, abilities and needs; to maintain the flexibility to respond accordingly.
Encouraging Respect
To help the girls to look beyond themselves, to learn about living with others, being part of a wider group and taking care of each other’s needs.
Cherishing Childhood
To provide the time, the opportunity and the environment for free play.
Since the formation of Sherborne Schools Group (SSG) last year, we have been developing a strategy for both the Group and each individual school. Our shared vision is to be recognised as the UK’s leading group of independent schools, known for a character-led approach that blends academic excellence, personal growth, wellbeing, and 21stcentury skills.
To bring this vision to life, we are working on a Strategic Framework built around five Key Pillars.
Strategic Framework 2025-2035
Our aim is to deliver a forward-thinking, Transformative Education that respects tradition while boldly embracing the future. Grounded in excellence, driven by character, and powered by innovation, we prepare every pupil to be not just successful, but significant - leaders, creators, and changemakers in a fast-evolving, globalised world.
Our strategic priorities deliver The Sherborne Difference on the ground, translating the Group vision into daily learning experiences, character development, and innovation, equipping pupils to solve complex challenges and make responsible, measurable contributions to society.
Key Aims
1. Character + Leadership
We will embed character development and wellbeing across all aspects of school life, through daily experiences that teach resilience, kindness, creativity and responsibility.
2. Academics + Futures
We will deliver a personalised, innovative education that equip pupils with the knowledge, practical skills, and mindset to thrive in a complex, rapidly changing world.
3. Innovation + Entrepreneurship
We will embed creativity, entrepreneurship, and future-ready skills across all years, giving pupils the confidence to try, experiment, and learn from both successes and setbacks.
4. Partnership + Community
We will ensure community remains at the heart of a Hanford education; cultivating a warm, family-like environment where every girl is known and valued.
5. Sustainability + Humanity
We instil care for the environment and awareness of global responsibility from an early age, ensuring cherishing childhood goes hand in hand with protecting the world around us.
Through The Sherborne Difference, we will cultivate ethical, innovative, and globally-minded leaders prepared to navigate and shape the challenges of the 21st century.
Academics
A Hanford education offers a truly personalised approach which brings out each girl’s talents, encouraging their natural curiosity and instilling a life-long love of learning. We offer an enlightened, innovative education which results in outstanding academic performance as evidenced by the number of scholarships awarded by senior schools in recent years.
Character Education
Character education has always been at the heart of Hanford life, not as an added programme but as something that happens naturally through the rhythm of the school day.
Character is shaped in many small, everyday ways as well as through planned activities. Examples include:
• Daily responsibilities such as clearing up after meals, looking after ponies and other animals, and tending to garden plots.
• Handwork and making, where the process matters as much as the finished product, and perseverance is encouraged.
• The boarding environment fosters independence, social resilience and emotional growth.
• Chapel services, which provide opportunities for reflection and reinforce our Christian foundation.
• Academic and co-curricular life, where girls are encouraged to “give things a go”, to support one another, and to learn from mistakes.
• Leadership and service opportunities, such as committees and roles of responsibility, where collaboration and contribution are valued.
Our approach to behaviour is based on giving girls the time and space to reflect on poor choices and to put things right. Consequences are restorative rather than punitive, helping girls to learn from their mistakes and understand the impact of their actions on others.
Extra Curricular and The Hanford Hundred
During the school week and at weekends, we offer a wide range of up to 60 activities, some of which are included in the school fees and some as paid extras.
Sitting proudly alongside our extensive Extra Curricular activities offer, the Hanford Hundred is a new skills-based enrichment programme. The Hanford Hundred are a set of 100 goals encompassing physical, emotional, academic and life skills. Girls track their skills in their scrapbook, working with their personal tutor to achieve the ‘Hanford Hundred’ by the time they leave Hanford.
The programme is woven into the whole curriculum at Hanford and further developed through bespoke enrichment activities. The three key principles lie at the heart of the programme, designed to:
• Extend knowledge and skills beyond the classroom in a supportive environment.
• Explore and encourage new interests.
• Engage imagination and creativity.
Examples of the Hanford Hundred goals include:
Fundraise
Disagree well
Climb a tree (and get back down) Show compassion
Pool life saving
Write a thank you letter
Destination Schools
Sew on a button
Tie shoelaces
Each year Hanford Leavers move on after Year 8 to a large number of leading senior schools across the country with many choosing Sherborne Girls. We liaise closely with parents, helping them select the right school for their daughter.
In recent years pupils have moved on to schools such as:
Sherborne Girls , Benenden, Bryanston, Canford, Clayesmore, Cranleigh, Downe House, Mayfield, Oundle, Milton Abbey, Millfield, St Mary’s Calne, St Mary’s Ascot, Pangbourne, Tudor Hall, Wycombe Abbey.
Follow a map
Change a plug
Apologise sincerely
Share
Scholarships
Since 2015 Hanford girls have received over 100 Awards and Scholarships in all disciplines - all round, academic, art, music, drama and sport to a wide range of senior schools.
Success at Hanford is not just qualified by awards and prizes. It is also about personal milestones, overcoming fears and reaching personals goal whatever they may be.
Scholarships awarded 2025 –50% of year group
Academic Badminton School
Academic
Academic Exhibition
Art
Art
Art
Performing Arts
Royal High School Bath
Sherborne Girls
Clayesmore
Sherborne Girls
Milton Abbey
Bryanston School
Sport St Mary’s Ascot
Admissions Process
We recommend starting the admissions process at least one year before a pupil’s anticipated start at Hanford, where possible.
Our admissions approach is very personal, speaking to parents to find out as much as possible about their daughters, their interests and education to this point. As a non-selective school, we do not usually ask girls to sit entrance exams or assessments. Instead, our Admissions Manager guides parents through every step of our admissions process, explaining boarding and day options - including Hanford Core and Hanford Plus - and advising on the appropriate year group and entry point.
Individual Visits + Open Mornings
Families are encouraged to visit Hanford for a personal tour. We tailor visits to suit each family including a full tour with our Head, Mrs Hilary Phillips, as well as opportunities to meet pupils, staff and ponies.
Our termly Open Mornings are an excellent opportunity to experience Hanford in action. Visitors can observe lessons and activities, enjoy a short concert, and chat with the Head and key staff over coffee and refreshments.
Registration
Parents are invited to complete a Registration Form and submit the £120 Registration Fee (£300 for international pupils). Once received, their daughter is added to our entry list.
Parents are asked to send a copy of their daughter’s most recent school report and a reference. This helps us gain a better understanding of prospective pupils’ academic progress and broader interests.
Taster Day/Stay
Once registered, prospective pupils join us for a Taster Day and, if they are considering boarding, stay overnight. Spending a day in lessons with the relevant year group allows prospective pupils to meet future teachers, engage with the curriculum and begin forming friendships.
Offer of a Place
Once we have all relevant information, parents are sent a formal Offer Letter, along with an Acceptance Form and the school’s Terms & Conditions. The Offer Letter will include details of the deposit payment.
Acceptance
A girl’s place at Hanford is confirmed once we have received the completed Acceptance Form and deposit payment.
General Information
Boarding
At Hanford Prep 60% of girls are boarders and school life is just as full and busy at weekends as during the school week. Girls share dormitories with their peers, sit down to eat together with friends and staff, and are wonderfully cared for and supported by our pastoral team who create a homely experience for everyone. Weekend activities are mostly home-grown games and adventures, making sure that there’s time to rest and unwind before the busy week ahead. Nearly all our day girls choose to board flexibly or, as they get older, to become full boarders. Parents and carers are asked to complete a Flexi Boarding form each week so the boarding team can manage and prepare dormitories.
Communication
The first point of contact for parents is the School Office or, for pastoral and boarding matters, the Boarding phone, monitored by the Head of Boarding, school nurses and matrons. Regular updates from the Head are sent via ISAMS, and a school calendar is available online. Hanford Headlines, our newsletter written by senior girls, shares news and events.
Boarders can call home or arrange Zoom or Teams calls with staff support. They do not have personal mobile access during term but write letters each weekend and can email home in supervised sessions.
Equality
Hanford Prep fully endorses the fundamental principles of equality and justice. The School provides a moral framework for pupils’ personal development so that they develop into principled and tolerant members of the school community in which they live and work. The School encourages all members of its community to have respect for one another, regardless of race, gender, creed, social status, age or disability and is opposed to words or actions which display unkindness, prejudice or discrimination of any sort against any individual.
Education Guardians
All girls whose parents are resident abroad must have an Education Guardian in the UK. Education guardians are responsible for the girl’s welfare while she is at boarding school, travel arrangements, accommodation at closed exeat weekends and half-term holidays and represent parents at meetings with teachers. In the event of an emergency, illness or disciplinary matter the education guardian will be called on by the School to collect your daughter and therefore should live within reasonable travelling distance. We recommend no more than 2.5 hours drive away. The appointment of an Education Guardian is the responsibility of the parents. Where an Education Guardian is not a close relative or family friend, the appointment must be made through a reputable guardianship organisation accredited by either the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) or the Association for the Education and Guardianship of International Students (AEGIS).
Inspections
Hanford was inspected in the Autumn Term 2022 and was deemed Excellent both in terms of the pupils’ academic and in terms of their development. Hanford also met all the standards required in the Focused Compliance Inspection. You can read the report here: hanfordprep.group
Pastoral Care
The pastoral care at Hanford provides a supportive and nurturing environment in which the girls feel a deep sense of belonging and are known and cared for as individuals. Its small size means that each girl is known very well by all the staff who each play a part in supporting the girls’ wellbeing. There are two qualified nurses at school every weekday and the local school GP holds a surgery once a week.
The mental health and wellbeing of the girls is paramount. In addition to the Head of Boarding, matrons and school nurses and Head who is very involved in boarding life, every girl is assigned her own tutor when she arrives at Hanford, either a teacher or member of the pastoral staff. This person acts as a sounding board and mentor. They work hard to prevent problems from arising and encourage the girls make the most of the opportunities on offer at Hanford, help girls fulfils their potential academically as well as their personal development.
Policies
The following policies and documents can be found on the School website hanfordprep.group
• Admissions Policy
• Anti-Bullying Policy
• Behaviour Management Policy
• Complaints Procedure Policy
• Curriculum Policy
• First Aid Policy
• Gender Pay Gap Report 2022, Gender Pay Gap Report 2023, Gender Pay Gap Report 2024
• Relationships & Sex Education Policy, PSHEE Policy
• SEND (including EAL) Policy
• SSG Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy
• SSG Health & Safety Policy
• SSG Privacy Noticy Policy
• SSG Data Protection Policy
• SSG Bursary Award Policy
• SSG Environmental & Sustainability Strategy & Action Plan
• SSG Equal Opportunities Policy for Staff
• SSG Website and Cookie Policy
• SSG Pupil Attendance, Registration & Absence Policy
For further policies concerning the safeguarding and welfare of pupils, inclusion and accessibility, behaviour and pastoral support, medical and mental health provision, online and data safety, boarding arrangements and recruitment practices, which are available on request, please contact the Policies, Inspection & Strategy Co-ordinator policies@ sherborneschools.group.
Privacy Notice
Sherborne Schools Group Data Protection and Privacy Notice is available to view on the School Policies page of our website: hanfordprep.group
By registering or providing personal information to Hanford Prep, parents agree to Hanford Prep using this information in relation to their enquiry and to contacting them via email, direct mail and telephone. All the personal information provided to Hanford Prep will be held securely and used strictly in accordance with data protection regulations.
Safeguarding
Hanford Prep is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. The School aims to provide a warm and secure environment, with an open and frank atmosphere, in which girls can feel supported. The fundamental right to be protected from harm is an essential part of the School’s pastoral responsibility and necessitates a clear child protection policy and procedures. Further information can be found on the School website. At Hanford every member of staff regularly attends Safeguarding training and there is a robust internal and external structure in place to promote child safety and to raise concerns. All staff also have a summary leaflet and card with key contact details.
Technology for Learning
We embrace the use of technology for teaching and learning where it can enrich the educational experience, equipping girls with the skills to use technology safely. By the time they leave Hanford, our girls are not only technologically capable but also digitally creative and practically skilled, ready to take on the computing challenges of senior school and the wider world.
Travel
For girls who live abroad there is school-organised supervised coach/minibus at the beginning of term, half terms and exeats. For fixed exeats and half term holidays there is a private coach to London on which girls are accompanied by a member of staff. This coach stops at Andover and Fleet before ending at Richmond. The same coach service also brings girls back to Hanford after exeats and half terms. Parents are asked to complete a travel form ahead of each break.
Visa Requirements
Parents must ensure that their child is in possession of a valid visa before the start of their first term. If a pupil has a UK passport, they will not require a visa to study in the UK; however, if they do not have a UK passport, even if they live in the UK, they may still require a visa. Parents are asked to check a non-UK passport carefully to see whether the child has ‘Right of Abode’ in the UK. A child intending to study at Hanford Prep should apply under the Child Student Visa route. This visa has replaced the Tier 4 Child Student Visa. If applying from outside the UK, the earliest one can apply for a visa is six months before starting at Hanford Prep. More information is available on the UK Visas and Immigration section of the gov.uk website.
Fees
Registration Fee
A Registration fee of £120 (£300 for international pupils) is payable by all parents wishing to register their daughter for entry to the School. The fee is nonrefundable.
Deposit
A deposit of £1,000 is payable on acceptance of a place. Overseas parents pay a deposit of £1,000 plus one term’s fee credited against their first term’s bill.
Termly Fees 2025/26 inclusive of VAT
Year Hanford Day Boarding Core
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
£5,585
£6,200
£6,830
Year 6 n/a
Year 7 n/a
Year 8 n/a
International
Flexi Boarding Night
£6,765
£7,390
£8,000
£8,060
£9,310
£10,425
£8,070 £10,520
£8,070
£10,520
£8,070 £10,520
£13,650
£54
Sibling Fee Discount Scheme
Hanford Prep, Sherborne Boys, Sherborne Girls and Sherborne Prep operate a scheme whereby parents who educate three or more of their children at the schools are eligible for a sibling fee discount. A 10% discount will apply to the third child at the schools and 15% to the fourth and subsequent children.
HM Forces
From September 2025, the total amount payable for CEA funded pupils will be the CEA allowance plus 10% of the prevailing (full) boarding fee (inclusive of VAT). All the Schools within the Sherborne Schools Group also offer a 10% discount off day and boarding fees for those families currently working in the armed forces, who do not qualify for the CEA allowance.
Fees in lieu of notice
Under the School’s Terms and Conditions parents must give a term’s written notice to terminate the Parent Contract, given no later than the first day of the term which is to be the pupil’s final full term at the School. If proper notice is not given, then fees in lieu of notice will be payable in lieu as a debt.
Extras Charges 2025/26
Inclusive of VAT (where applicable)
Admission Charges
Registration (non-refundable)
Registration
(International pupils - non-refundable)
Deposit*
£120
£300
£1,000
The refundable Acceptance Deposit will be automatically added to the Michaelmas bill of children moving up from Year 2 (Pre-Prep) to Year 3 (Prep)
Extras and Activities
Riding
Weekly term-time full livery fee
Weekly holiday pony full livery fee
£360 per term
£48 per week
£72
Those pupils with ponies at school on livery will receive a 50% discount on termly riding fees
Dancing
Tennis (from Year 5)
Learning a Musical instrument
Musical Instrument hire
Further details about the full range of options and charges for extra subjects are available from the appropriate Head of Department.
A term’s notice is required to discontinue extra tuition. “A term’s notice” means notice given before the first day of term expiring at the end of term. Extras will continue into the following academic year unless notice has been received in advance.
£176 per term
£94 per term
£345 per term
£36 per term
Hanford Core girls may stay on for activities and supper
£33.60 per day
Day Girls may stay on for supper and late collection
£21.60 per day
Learning Support
Every attempt is made to keep additional fees for Learning Support to a minimum. The school offers the first half-term of support free of charge. Thereafter, depending on level of need, payment is divided into:
Level A (typically 2 small group sessions per week)
£240 per term
Level B (typically a 1:1 session + small group sessions per week)
£453.60 per term
Level C (typically 2x 1:1 + small group sessions per week)
Full diagnostic assessment
£612 per term
£504
General / Financial Enquiries
General enquiries
01258 860219
office@hanfordprep.group
Admissions enquiries
01258 920847
admissions@hanfordprep.group
Head
Correspondence via School Office, Mrs Hilary Phillips 01258 860219 head@hanfordprep.group
Financial enquiries
Operations Manager 01258 920849
opsmanager@hanfordprep.group
Chair of Governors
Correspondence should be addressed to: S.C. Worthy
Clerk to the Governors
c/o The Bursary, Sherborne Boys, Abbey Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LF
Location
2 hours from London Waterloo
2 hours from Heathrow
1.5 hours from Bristol and Southampton airports
30 minutes from Gillingham train station
SWINDON
OXFORD
SOUTHAMPTON
LONDON
CARDIFF
BRISTOL
BATH
Reading
Luton
St Albans
Chepstow
Andover
Winchester
Salisbury
Horsham
Hastings
Eastbourne
Chichester
Guildford
Woking
Waterloo
Maidstone
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Newport
Taunton Yeovil
Shepton Mallet
Sherborne
Honiton Dorchester
Blandford
Weymouth
Basingstoke
Isle of Wight
Hanford Prep
Child Okeford
Blandford Forum
Dorset
DT11 8HN
admissions@hanfordprep.group
01258 920847
hanfordprep.group
Sherborne Schools Group is a charitable company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, No. 4002575 and registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, No. 1081228