Schools from a local state school, St Martin’s. Working with Moreton Hall’s STEM department, year 10 and 11 students from St Martin’s are offered stretch, challenge and support, and a number of the St Martin’s girls join Moreton Sixth on generous bursaries and scholarships. The girls acknowledge it as a life changing opportunity and as one young woman explained it to me, ‘when I arrived here I wouldn’t have believed I could even apply to a Russell Group University like Durham, but today I turned down Durham because I’m accepting LSE!’ But it’s not just the ‘every girl matters’ approach which makes Moreton Hall special. Ask any Moreton girl the secret of the Moreton magic and she will tell you that ‘we have no rules’. Of course, every community has rules, but as Jonathan Forster describes it ‘the school is known for being small, friendly and open, not cluttered by petty rules, but with a clear set of values agreed upon and respected by all members of the school community.’ At Moreton Hall that lack of petty rules means that there are no bells, no detentions, no loss of privileges. Despite that, lessons start on time, preps are completed, dorms are tidied, and people are kind to each other! In truth the metaphor for the Moreton Hall ‘no rules approach’ can be found on the Lacrosse fields. This term, Moreton Hall’s first and second teams made the last eight at The Nationals in Aldershot, whilst the Under 14s, returned to Shropshire victorious, crowned national champions for their age group. Interviewed on Radio Shropshire, their coach, Louise Lewin described lacrosse as a game with ‘not too many restrictions in terms of rules. It’s kind of fast and free flowing.’
Under 14s goalie, Iris explained to the bemused presenter that there are ‘hardly any rules, there’s lots of activity and it’s lots of fun.’ In summing up, she could have been summing up Moreton Hall and its philosophy. ‘It can be tough mentally ... but it’s very teamy ... you build relationships – you enjoy every second of it.’ Caroline Lang is Senior Tutor and Registrar at Moreton Hall
Summer 2019
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