Moira House School was an independent day and
boarding school 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,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, 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, 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 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 ...
, 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. 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 for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
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 Delta i ...
,
Australia,
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
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, where the choir sang at the
Empire State Building, the
United Nations Building and the
Statue of Liberty. Girls could study
musical theatre 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 ...
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 (born 1968), actress and author
*
Karin Giannone (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 broad ...
*
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 au ...
(born 1965), initiator of ''
''
*
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