About New Hall School

New Hall School is a leading HMC boarding & day school for girls & boys aged 1-19. New Hall was awarded the TES ‘Overall Independent School of the Year’ for 2016-17. Founded in 1642, New Hall is one of the oldest Catholic schools and is the largest Catholic boarding & day school in the UK. New Hall is a strong and thriving community, set in a stunning location on the edge of the city of Chelmsford, just 30 minutes by train from London Stratford and 34 minutes from London Liverpool Street. There are also plans for Network Rail to open a new station at the foot of New Hall’s Avenue; this is due to be completed by 2025.

At New Hall, we operate the highly successful ‘diamond model’ structure, i.e. co-education in the Nursery & Preparatory Divisions (ages 1-11), single-sex education in the Girls’ Division & Boys’ Division (11-16) and co-education in the Sixth Form (16-19). In this way, New Hall provides the best of both worlds: the benefits of a co-educational environment together with the advantages of girls and boys being taught separately throughout the 11-16 age range. The provision of single-sex education during the formative years enables students to grow in confidence, whilst enjoying an education that is specifically tailored and recognises the different ways in which girls and boys learn.

There is an exciting School Development Plan (SDP), which has the continued strengthening of the School’s academic standing as its priority. New facilities successfully delivered in the SDP in recent years include: the New Hall Nursery; investment in digital technologies; outdoors ‘Forest School’ provision; the New Hall Farm; a second floodlit all-weather hockey pitch; a floodlit 3G pitch; PE changing rooms; 12 golf nets and launch monitor; recreational and hospitality facilities, including the Denford Bar & Lounge for Sixth Form students and staff; additional staff accommodation; newly refurbished staff rooms; and expansion of the Preparatory Divisions to 3-form entry.

Students aged 7-19 may board in one of four Boarding Houses. High academic expectations and achievements, together with outstanding pastoral care and exceptional drama, music and sports facilities and provision, make New Hall a wonderful place to be educated.

The ethos at New Hall has been inspired by the founding Religious Community, the Canonesses of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. New Hall has thriving Chaplaincy, RE and Theology teams and the community benefits from having a resident Priest Chaplain and lay Chaplaincy staff. The School welcomes all who support its ethos.

Accolades for the School

New Hall School was awarded Independent School of the Year for 2016 in the Times Education
Supplement school awards, as well as Financial Initiative of the Year (2016), in relation to our
Green Travel and Transport Strategy. The School has previously won the TES Award for
‘Outstanding Strategic Initiative’ (201l). New Hall received the highest commendations in its most recent inspections:

• ‘Outstanding’ in the Denominational inspection, Diocese of Brentwood (2018)
• ‘Excellent’ (the highest category) in the whole school ISI inspection (2016)
• ‘Outstanding’ in the ISI boarding inspection (2014)
• All standards met in the ISI Material Change inspection (increase to student roll to 1,500 and inclusion or ages 1-3 age range (2019)
• All standards met in the Ofsted EYFS inspection (2019)
• All standards met in the ISI Regulatory Compliance Inspection (2024)

New Hall’s sponsored primary academy, Messing Primary School, received the highest
commendation of ‘Outstanding’ in the following categories:
1. Effectiveness of leadership and management
2. Personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils
3. Early years provision and ‘Good’ overall, in the Ofsted inspection (2018).