Longridge Towers School is a non-selective

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

independent day and boarding school in the parish of

Horncliffe Horncliffe is a village in the county of Northumberland, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Tweed about south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and about north east of Norham and is the most northerly village in England England ...

(formerly

Longridge Longridge is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is situated north-east of the city of Preston, at the western end of Longridge Fell, a long ridge above the River Ribble. Its nearest neigh ...

) near

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England, for children between the ages of three and eighteen. It is the only independent school near the town and the only independent school in the county which educates children from reception to

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

School history

The main house was built during the 1870s and was once a hotel and military

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

. In 1949 it became an Ursuline convent school and remained so until 1983 when the order left Northumberland. It was then sold to a charitable trust and named Longridge Towers School. It now has some two hundred and fifty pupils. Most children are day pupils, with a minority of boarding pupils, including international students. In April 2021, a teacher at the school, Richard Glenn, was sacked from his role as head of sixth form and banned from teaching throughout the country after becoming drunk, threatening and taking pupils to a strip club during a school trip to

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Central Valley, within San José Canton. San ...

in July 2019.Drunk teacher sacked after making pupils go to strip club during school trip
Ian Johnson and Bradley Jolly,

msn.com MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

(23 April 2021)

Building history

The Longridge estate was acquired, through his marriage, by

Hubert Jerningham Sir Hubert Edward Henry Jerningham, (18 October 1842 – 3 April 1914) was a British Liberal Party politician and Governor of Mauritius 1892–1897, then Governor of Trinidad and Tobago between 1897 and 1900. Biography Jerningham was great-gra ...

, who from 1881 to 1885 had been a Liberal Member of Parliament for

. He was thereafter colonial secretary of the British Honduras (

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

) (1887–1889), colonial secretary (1889–1893) and lieutenant-governor of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

(1892–1893), and governor of

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

(1897–1900). The principal building, erected as his stately home, at great cost, incorporated the very latest innovations including a hydraulic lift and gas lighting to all parts of the main house. The portico is said to have been built for a visit of the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

to make sure he did not get wet when alighting from his coach. When it was completed it was one of the largest private houses in the north of

, and Jerningham lived there until his death in 1914. Lady Jerningham (d. 1902) had been Annie, daughter of E. Liddell, of Benton Park, and widow of C. T. Mather of Longridge, and her statue sits on the Elizabethan town walls in Berwick-upon-Tweed looking towards the distant school. The building was afterwards a hotel, until it became a convent school.

Inspections

Boarding provision at the school was inspected by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

in 2009. At that date there were 24 pupils in the boarding accommodation. The provision received a judgement of 'satisfactory'. The school was inspected by the

Independent Schools Inspectorate The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is approved by the Secretary of State for Education – under section 106 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 – to inspect independent schools in England. These schools are members of associations, w ...

in 2017. At that time there were 288 day pupils and 30 boarding pupils. Academic and other achievements were judged 'good', and pupils' personal development was judged 'excellent'.

References

*''Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1903'', p. 823.

External links

School websiteProfile
on the

ISC #REDIRECT ISC {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

website {{authority control Independent schools in Northumberland Boarding schools in Northumberland Educational institutions established in 1983 1983 establishments in England