Clifton College

Clifton College is a public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike most contemporary public schools, it emphasised science rather than classics in the curriculum, and was less concerned with social elitism, for example by admitting day-boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated boarding house for Jewish boys, called Polack's House. Having linked its General Studies classes with Badminton School, it admitted girls to every year group (from pre-prep up to Upper 6th, excepting 5th form due to potential O-levels disruption) in 1987, and was the first of the traditional boys' public schools to become fully coeducational. Polack's House closed in 2005 but a scholarship fund open to Jewish candidates still exists. Clifton College is one of the original 26 English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889.

The school was also the headquarters of the US army in Britain during part of the Second World War. General Omar Bradley used the school's buildings as a staff office from October to November 1944.

Clifton College has educated several Nobel laureates: Sir John Kendrew, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962; Sir John Hicks, winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics; Sir Nevill Francis Mott, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977; and Geoffrey Hinton who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024.

Introduction

The school takes boys and girls aged between 13 and 18. It has its own preparatory school, Clifton College Preparatory School (known as the 'Pre'), for children from 8 to 13 which adjoins the school and shares many of the same facilities; there is also a pre-preparatory school for younger children aged 3 to 8 called Butcombe.