Begin your Copperfield journey
Why Copperfield?
Copperfield is a community – a community of ideas, respect and optimism. We are an international school founded in 2021 to fulfil a vision of building a world class school in the Swiss Alps: an international community in a unique and inspiring setting.
Our mission is to teach young people to live with both compassion and courage, developing the moral compass, strength of character and technical skill that they will need, whatever they wish to do.
We start each day, each lesson and each interaction by asking ‘what is best for the student?’, and our decisions flow from that principle.
Start your application
We strive to make our admissions process transparent, thorough and trouble-free. Our mission is to find students who demonstrate great character, potential, and a natural curiosity. Our aim throughout the process is to give families the clearest possible sense of what life at our school looks, sounds and feels like, from multiple perspectives.
We use OpenApply to ensure that our process is smooth and efficient. You will have the opportunity to speak with members of our faculty, our leadership team, our headteacher, as well as students and parents.
Regular Process
We have designed our admissions process to be as stress-free as possible. Our aim is to find out your family's needs and aspirations, and to meet them.
Below is a step-by-step outline of our regular admissions process:
Contact
Your first contact will be with Hannah Leggett, our Head of Admissions. This is a chance for us to get to know your family's goals and for you to discover more about our vision for education.
We will then ask you to fill out our enrolment form.
Visit
We believe that a transparent, immersive admissions experience will build mutual trust and help your family to make a fully-informed decision.
We encourage both in-person and virtual visits - whichever suits your family best. You will then have the opportunity to meet our faculty, students, and parents.
The Head of our Parent Teacher Association, Jonas Palm, is available to answer questions at +41 79 221 72 78.
Apply
Once you have spoken with our team and visited our campus, we send two questionnaires to complete. These are designed to allow you and your children to express your ideas and what you will contribute to the Copperfield community.
We ask for references from previous schools and school transcripts. For more detail on this, click the button 'Why Copperfield?' below.
The Admissions team will then send an invoice for a deposit to confirm your child's place in class. Congratulations – your family are now members of the Copperfield community!
Prepare
Our team has over 100 years of experience living in Verbier, and is on hand to assist with accommodation, local amenities and visa applications.
We also conduct a thorough handover with your previous school, well in advance of your arrival at Copperfield. This helps us to align curriculum gaps, plan for personalised learning requirements, and prepare teachers to know your child's name on day one.
Global Scholars Program
We are a community of international families, teachers and students committed to excellence and inclusion. Our Global Scholars Program, launched in March 2022, is designed to attract the most talented, creative and courageous students from around the world.
Below is a step-by-step outline of the Global Scholars Admissions Process.
Contact Made
​
The Global Scholars candidate contacts the school, and a preliminary video-call interview is organised. If the candidate is able to visit the school in-person, we encourage this.
Preliminary interview
​
The preliminary interview is used to assess the basic attitudes and competencies of the candidate. The interview is written up and the write-up is shared with the GS assessment team. If the interview is deemed to have gone sufficiently well, then the ‘Written Application’ documents will be sent to the candidate.
Second Interview
​
Upon receipt of answers to the written application questions, a second interview will be organised, conducted by two members of the team.
Meeting of the selection committee
​
Team members responsible for the Global Scholars Selection process will collate all evidence gathered from the duration of the application process and gather together to discuss the final decision according to criteria outlined in the selection criteria document and general response rubric.
Final Interview and Evaluation
The final interview will take place over video call or in person, and a final evaluation will then be made by the school's senior leadership, including the Headteacher.
Decision Made:
​
We will communicate this via email within three weeks of the final interview. We will provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants.
A Copperfield child
Our students are curious, compassionate, and kind. We do not award places based on standardised tests, but on mutual fit that becomes clear during the admissions process. Above all, we are building a community of caring people, and our admissions philosophy is a core part of this mission.
Our fees
Transparency is important to us.
Fees for 2022/23 are below:
Foundation (Y0)
Primary (Years 1-6)
Lower Secondary (Years 7-8)
Middle Secondary (Years 9-11)
Upper Secondary (Years 12 & 13)
Residential
31,500 CHF
33,000 CHF
40,500 CHF
41,500 CHF
46,500 CHF
Fee as above + 60,000 CHF
Fees are inclusive of daily lunch and snack, books and materials, two skiing lessons per week, other sports instruction.
For second children, there is a discount of 15% for each additional child.
The school offers a variety of individual support programmes to support the students on their individual educational path, such as tuition in specific subjects (most often languages), learning support, executive coaching and college counselling. The fees for the individual support programmes will be agreed with parents prior to any programme being put in place.
