The Elms was founded in 1614 by Humphrey Walwyn of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, and is the oldest prep school still on its original site.

[3][4] The original school house was based on a farmhouse, built in the 1550s, on the edge of the village of Colwall in the lee of the Malvern Hills.

[5] In 2014 The Elms School celebrated its 400-year anniversary, and named a new dormitory after the late former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

[9] Each class is responsible for tending a garden, and fruits and vegetables they grow are also used in the school kitchens.

Pupils are largely taught by a form teacher in the early years, but there is more specialist subject teaching as they move up the school.