Moira House School was an independent day and

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

for girls aged 6 weeks to 18 years in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

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, from 1887 to 2020, but founded in Surrey in 1875. Moira House was an inter-denominational school. On March 2017, the school had 312 pupils on roll, including ten boys, with 55 in the

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 ...

History

The school was established in 1875 by Charles Ingham at Moira House in Surrey. Within a few years it had moved to Eastbourne. On 27 January 2018, the school merged with

Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...

as part of the newly-created Roedean Group of Schools and became known as Roedean Moira House. However, this lasted only two years, and the school closed permanently in August 2020, with most girls and some staff transferring to Roedean.

School houses

The school had a

house system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to o ...

, and sisters were usually allocated to the same house. The houses had names from myths and legends: *Excalibur, symbolised by a sword and the colour gold *Pegasus, symbolised by a

pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

and the colour white *Vulcan, symbolised by a flame and the colour red *Merlin, symbolised by a wizard and the colour green

Sports

With views over the sea, the school grounds at Eastbourne opened directly onto the

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hamp ...

, providing walking, cycling and pony trekking opportunities for the girls. Playing fields, including astroturf, provided for lawn tennis, cricket, football,

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, netball, lacrosse, and athletics. The school also had a 25-metre indoor heated swimming pool, and a sports hall. An equestrian centre was opened in September 2016.

Music

Visiting staff taught cello, clarinet, flute, guitar, piano, recorder, saxophone, violin, vocal etc. Girls who wished to do so were able to take Associated Board of Examination music exams. The Chamber Choir performed locally, such as at

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

. Every two years there was a Performing Arts Tour which involved flying to other parts of the world to perform, and destinations included

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, and

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

. The last tour was to

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, where the choir sang at the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

, the United Nations Building and the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

. Girls could study

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and take

LAMDA LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was a ...

exams in drama.

Notable former pupils

Isabelle Allen Isabelle Lucy Allen (born 16 March 2002) is an English stage and screen actress known for her role as the young Cosette in the 2012 film adaptation of ''Les Misérables''. The role earned her critical acclaim and various film cast awards such a ...

(born 2002), actress *

Susannah Corbett Susannah Jane Corbett (born 10 August 1968) is an English actress and author. Her acting career began in 1991 and she has performed on television, film and radio. As an author, she writes children's books. Early life Born in Marylebone in Lon ...

(born 1968), actress and author *

Karin Giannone Karin Giannone (born 1974) is a South African-born British news presenter working in the United Kingdom. She is a London-based main presenter on BBC World News. Career Giannone edited the student magazine ''Varsity'' magazine at Cambridge, whic ...

(born 1974), news presenter at

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus'' in 1947 and '' The River'' in ...

(1907–1998), author *

Katharine Gun Katharine Teresa Gun (''née'' Harwood) (born 1974) is a British linguist who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). In 2003, she leaked top-secret information to ''The Observer'', concerning a request by ...

(born 1974), British linguist and whistleblower *

Gina Miller Gina Nadira Miller (' Singh; born 19 April 1965) is a Guyanese-British business owner and activist who initiated the 2016 ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union'' court case against the British government over its aut ...

(born 1965), initiator of ''

R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union'' is a United Kingdom constitutional law case decided by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom Supreme Court on 24 January 2017, which ruled that the Government ...

'' *

Christina Oxenberg Christina Oxenberg (born December 27, 1962) is an American writer, humorist, and fashion designer. She has written seven books, and her writing has been featured in magazines and publications like '' Allure'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''Huffington ...

(born 1962), writer and journalist *

Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a ...

(born 1932), actress

Closure

In March 2020, Andrew Pianca, chairman of governors of Roedean Moira House, announced: “It is with great sadness and regret that we have taken the difficult decision to close Roedean Moira House. Our legal advisors tell us it is the only route available to us.” The decision was blamed on falling numbers of pupils and “financial losses that we cannot sustain”. The school permanently closed in August 2020. An Educational Needs Assessment explored the reasons behind the closure, finding that the school “suffered material operational losses for the financial year ending 2019” and that economic difficulties had been caused by lower demand for independent school places in the Eastbourne area. On 31st May 2022 approval was given for a plan to redevelop the five-acre Moira House School campus into a residential development of 33 apartments and 19 houses. The school’s ancillary buildings, including the gym and swimming pool, would be demolished, but the three original 19th-century houses would be turned into housing.https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/politics/redevelopment-of-former-eastbourne-school-into-52-homes-approved-3715349

References

External links

* * https://gsa.uk.com/school/moira-house-girls-school/ {{authority control Defunct schools in East Sussex Girls' schools in East Sussex Schools in Eastbourne Boarding schools in East Sussex Educational institutions disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in England