Moreton Hall School A GSG School

Other features

All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.

International Study Centre - school has a linked, international study centre for overseas students wishing to improve their English.

What The Good Schools Guide says

Principal

Since 2023, Michael Brewer MA PGCE, previously head of Thetford Grammar. Degree in English and religious studies from Christ Church Canterbury University and a PGCE from Chichester. His teaching career spans independent day and boarding schools in a range of roles including housemaster and director of boarding. He has also published textbooks and teacher guides and taught a PGCE course, as well as training as an ISI inspector. Married to Felicity, he has two daughters.

Entrance

Gently selective. Seamless entry from prep into the senior school with entrance exams at years 7 and 9 for external candidates only. Candidates for sixth form take papers in two of their chosen A level subjects.

Exit

Few girls leave post-GCSE (below 10 per year), most stay the course and head for university, with Leeds, UCL, Sheffield, York, Birmingham, Exeter and Durham recently popular. Three medics and five to overseas universities in 2023.

Latest results

In 2023, 55 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 45 per cent A*/A (72 per cent A*-B) at A level. In 2019 (the last pre-pandemic results), 75 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 41 per cent A*/A at A level (70 per cent A*-B).

Teaching and learning

They don’t half cram it in. Senior school has an extended teaching day with lessons until 5pm, as well as on Saturday mornings. ‘Parents take it for granted that we will deliver academically.’ Pupils are setted from year 7 in maths, English, humanities and science. Option blocks for GSCE and A level are created around individuals in order to allow ‘esoteric’ choices. The school will ‘find a way’ to teach any modern language, even for a single child. Boys in years 7 and 8 study the broad curriculum already offered to girls, alongside individual support to reach year 9 destination schools. Senior school classes average 12-15, falling to around six by A Level. Parents comment that pupils are ‘always stretched but never put under pressure’.

The phrase ‘educating the whole child’ gets bandied around but Moreton is a gold standard example of how to get it right. Added value is prized above exam league tables and academic enrichment is central. A range of societies contributes to a culture of extracurricular learning more akin to CPD and the world beyond either school or undergraduate studies. The Stables lectures and Jenner, Lady Barbirolli and Bronwen societies offer weekly talks, masterclasses and events in the fields of medicine, music and general intellectual curiosity delivered by significant academics and professionals (as well as introductions that often lead to work experience). Study of spoken English is compulsory at various points in the academic journey. Directors Table meets six times a year with guests from the world of business and the Moreton Connect initiative provides contacts for girls among parents and OMs. Leiths School of Food and Wine is offered to lower sixth.

‘We provide education for life, not just how to pass physics,’ stated previous head. With that in mind, the school’s Rylands Diploma, a year-long Saturday morning course, is offered to year 12. It provides girls with a wide range of life skills in areas including budgeting and managing bills, essential household and car maintenance, driving theory, cookery, drafting a CV and preparing for interviews.

Learning support and SEN

Learning support is driven by a full-time members of staff. Provision for dyslexia, autism, ADHD, visual, hearing and physical disabilities and epilepsy. With learning support factored into the fees, it’s not just those with specific learning issues that feel the benefit, but anyone that needs that little bit more help at any point during their Moreton journey. Boarding houses have some adapted rooms with wet room and emergency pull cord.

The arts and extracurricular

Newish and still gorgeous Holroyd Community Theatre with 180 seats and the latest lighting and sound systems hosts drama lessons and we observed some superb performances of an excerpt from a challenging play tackling eating disorders. Past Moreton productions of Chicago, The Addams Family and Aladdin have been up to West End quality, say proud parents.

Art, photography, textiles and history of art are available as separate A levels, the latter enjoying a renaissance under the auspices of an enthusiastic teacher. DT suite and renovated music department both opened in 2021. Choir is compulsory and there are chamber and show choirs for the more dedicated. North Shropshire Senior Orchestra is a school-based community project that welcomes local musicians to play alongside pupils every Monday evening.

Unique to the school is the serious CV opportunity offered by Moreton Enterprises. Year 12 manage, stock, staff and market dedicated, open-plan retail premises at the heart of the school site. After a rigorous application process, successful candidates are appointed to business director roles. Beaming with pride, they showed us a tuck counter displaying crisps, sweets no parent would approve of and, of course, obligatory pot noodles. A second area sells stationery, pharmacy essentials and jewellery, and a bustling café offers snacks, drinks and smoothies (we fancied the Classic Berry) to customers relaxing on large, bright orange sofas. ‘We try to buy from local, female suppliers,’ the directors explain. This is no insignificant operation, with a turnover last year of £30,000, sure to increase in the near future with business expanding into ice-cream sales in the theatre.

Those still with time on their hands can participate in a wide-ranging extracurricular programme including journalism, frisbee golf and touch rugby, among many others.

Sport

Renowned for success in lacrosse (‘a religion’), with girls regularly representing England and Wales at junior and senior level. U14s have been national champions and the senior team ranked in the top eight in the country when we visited. Other core sports – hockey, netball and tennis – are played at an equally high level with regular competition at county and national level. Sports staff tend to be recruited from coaching backgrounds, many with experience coaching and/or playing at national level.

In addition, pupils can try their hands at squash (back from the eighties), cricket, fencing, rowing and swimming. Range of sports offered include five-a-side football, hockey and golf. Indoor pool, 3.7m deep, is great for diving and there’s a fully stocked gym. The 5km cross-country running trail marked out in the grounds is known as the ‘trim trail’; director of sport grimaces, explaining that girls named it and sadly it caught on.

School has recently launched its new ACE (Achieve, Compete, Excel) performance hub focusing on hockey, lacrosse, tennis and fencing, to provide coaching, support and programmes for elite athletes. Development camps are also offered for those who are less elite but keen to improve.

Boarders

Around half of pupils are boarders in year 7, rising to 75 per cent during GCSE years and by the sixth form nearly everyone boards. Many day pupils board a few times per week, paying a B&B rate. Flexi boarders get their own beds if staying more than four nights per week for the older age groups, although it’s more like one night in the junior house. Booking in for flexi is informal with pupils often just turning up in the morning with a boarding bag – quite unusual for senior boarding.

Houses operate on a horizontal system, with separate accommodation for different academic years. That way ‘scaffolding can be gradually taken away’ and facilities can reflect the age range. It’s all impressively well thought out. Stables welcomes younger senior girls in rooms of up to six, the majority in bunks. There’s a wellbeing area, four guinea pigs and a poodle inexplicably named Nonie-Potato. By year 9 the bunks are fewer, the pink gone and after-school time less structured. More cerebral activities – like making pop bottle rockets or floating cardboard canoes on the canal – are cleverly snuck in, under the guise of fun. An upside down map of the world on one wall caught our eye. By this age even the house decor sought to challenge young minds, it was explained. By year 10 single and double rooms come with house responsibilities such as wake up and common room duties.

Sixth form accommodation is ensuite. All do their own laundry by year 11. Mitchell House has been renovated to meet the future additional demand for boys’ boarding that accompanies extending to years 7 and 8, although in its first year it currently only houses a small handful of boarders.

With long and active school days, even those that live nearby choose to board. ‘It’s a damning review of home, but a great review of Moreton,’ sighed one parent. Many go home at weekends but those that stay can expect Saturday night activities including mocktails, nail technicians, karaoke, paint by numbers, smoothie bars, ice-cream and waffles. Sundays are for activities such as laser tag or trips to trampoline parks, Alton Towers, food festivals, the beach at Barmouth, shopping in Chester or Shrewsbury or just going for a walk.

Ethos and heritage

Founded in 1913 by Ellen Lloyd-Williams, a feminist visionary in the field of girls’ education who began by homeschooling her 11 children (of which nine were daughters). From these humble beginnings the school grew like topsy with newer buildings being added as required surrounding the original 16th century house. As a result, the 100-acre site is a study in architecture through the ages. A particularly enthusiastic, experimental triangular period culminated in the building of the ‘Toblerone’, now the distinctive home of the prep. More recent construction has included two (rectangular) sixth form boarding houses, a science centre and the showpiece Holroyd Community Theatre, as well as renovation of the library.

Moreton is no insular private school bubble. There’s a strong focus on community. ’We have a duty to share our facilities,’ says school. The theatre was built with this in mind, to be a space for visiting companies to entertain local crowds and for use by local groups. Moreton also provides weekly science lab space, teaching in top set maths and shares facilities for CCF with a nearby state school.

School inspires an unusual level of loyalty from Old Moretonians. Reunions are well attended and OMs never pass up the opportunity to return, over 15 of them sharing their pearls of wisdom in last year’s sixth form Bridging the Gap programme, focusing on life skills after the scaffolding of school has gone. Famous alumnae include the actress Sheila Reid, the first female editor-in-chief of the Economist, Zanny Minton-Beddoes, and Dame Linda Dobbs, the first non-white person to be appointed as a High Court judge.

Pastoral care, inclusivity and discipline

Parents and staff alike remark on the ‘family feel’ of the school, one even referring to her daughter’s housemistress as ‘her mum at school’. School performances are regularly attended by grounds and kitchen staff.

Pupils have tutor time twice a week in a group as well as a one-on-one. Director of wellbeing role has been reintroduced, working closely with health centre and local GP. Programmes are targeted at parents as well as pupils, with advice including how to have difficult conversations and how to grow a teenager. School doesn't shy away from thorny issues, eg relating to Everyone's Invited, which previous head assured us are covered in PHSE and assemblies.

Cornflower Farm (currently more smallholding than farm) opened in 2020 as a pastoral retreat, complete with sheep, geese, ducks and peacocks. The chickens (Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybil) often have to be removed from the maths block.

Parents rave about the school’s talent for seeking out the best in each child. A former principal described a ‘culture of compulsory fun’; when everyone has a go, mental barriers to entry are quickly broken down. Positive peer pressure to do new things builds the ability to cope with the unexpected.

There are very few rules. There’s no detention and no red zone. In their place is a ‘focus on what matters, not expending energy on pushing back against ridiculous barriers’. No-one bats an eyelid if your hair is down, your shirt is out or if you wear nail polish. So what if some are a bit scruffy? Parents prefer children to express themselves and report them flourishing in this freedom, treated as young adults. You can be ‘unapologetically yourself’, explains school. With few rules comes less of a sense of hierarchy, genuine mutual respect and the ability for staff and pupils to work collaboratively: ’there’s no them and us’. Girls having coffee and a chat with teachers at break is normal. ‘People believe in you,’ say sixth formers. International students tell us they have ‘become brave’. ‘Anything is possible at this school,’ they say.

Pupils and parents

School attracts families from Wales, Cheshire, south Shropshire, Staffordshire, with increasing interest from Liverpool, Manchester and London. Some international pupils, mostly from China. Good local contingent. Parents say that socially it’s ‘a broad church’, ‘not full of Range Rovers’.

Money matters

Eagle eyes will note the relatively small difference between senior day and boarding fees, but this reflects the similarity between the day and boarding offer – day pupils are welcome at any time and until well after 9pm without booking in or extra charge. Very few extras turn up on the bill and commendably that includes learning support: ‘We wouldn’t dream of charging for the Accelerated Oxbridge Programme, so why would we charge for SEN?’ remarked the previous principal. ‘We’re more British Airways than Ryanair,’ he added. Certainly not cheap, but parents say that in the end, ‘it’s good value for money’.

Scholarships are generous, up to 20 per cent of fees available from year 7. Academic scholarships awarded on entrance exam performance. Sport, music, drama and art awarded on basis of portfolio, audition or interview. Means-tested bursaries can cover entire fees if potential is spotted.

The last word

Not for the half-hearted. Parents describe it as a place for children who ‘throw themselves into something’ rather than those who want to go home at 3pm. Likened to a start-up company, full of ‘fizz and energy’, instilling a drive to problem-solving and an inventiveness to try things by a former principal. Pupils leave equipped, not only with solid academics, a jam-packed CV and a network of contacts, but more importantly an inner confidence and strong sense of self. One thing’s for sure, we certainly wouldn’t want to be up against anyone from Moreton at interview.

Special Education Needs

We have a strong SEN department with specialist staff. Please call us for specific details.