Taverham Hall School was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

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 ...

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

and boarding preparatory school. Situated in

Taverham Taverham is a large village and civil parish in Norfolk, in England. It is approximately 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Norwich. Taverham sits on the River Wensum. Taverham forms part the wider Norwich Built-up area. In 2001, Taverham ha ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, it was founded in 1920. The school accommodates over 300 pupils between the ages of 1 and 13. The current headmaster is Mike Crossley, who is a member of the IAPS. In 2016, Taverham Hall School merged with the preparatory department of

Langley School, Loddon Langley School is an HMC private co educational day, weekly, flexi and full boarding school situated near the market town of Loddon in South Norfolk, England. The current headmaster is Simon Cooke, who has been in post since 2024, and the sch ...

, to form Langley Preparatory School at Taverham Hall.

History

In 1623, Augustin Sotherton of Ludham was offered the estate of Taverham. It remained within his family for over 300 years until the Rev'd John Nathaniel Micklethwait, a retired parson, inherited the estate through the female line of his family in 1850. Micklethwait decided to demolish the existing hall and engaged architect, David Brandon, to design a country house befitting a country gentleman. Brandon completed a neo-Jacobean mansion in 1858. The Micklethwaits had no children and subsequently, in 1901, the estate passed through the female line to the Rev'd F C Mills of Warwickshire. Having no desire to live in Norfolk, Mills leased the hall until 1921, when he decided to divide up the estate and sell it at auction. Rev'd Frank Glass, a schoolmaster, bought the hall with approximately of grounds for £12,000 and opened a boys' preparatory school. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the hall was requisitioned by the army. Soldiers' names scratched into the brickwork and bullet holes in the weather vanes are still visible. After the war, the school returned to the hall and prospered under the headship of John Peel. The school later became a charitable trust and

Merger with Langley School

In early May 2016, the governors of Taverham Hall announced that the school would merge with Langley School. The announcement was initially greeted with anger in some quarters and the

Charity Commission The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government that regulates registered charities in England and Wales and maintains the Central Register of Charities. Its counterparts in Scotland and ...

sent inspectors to the school in July that year, citing "regulatory concerns". Langley's prep-school site, Thorpe House, was sold to developers and the merger was concluded for the beginning of the Autumn term, 2016.

Curriculum

Pupils are provided with a wide-ranging and stimulating curriculum It is broadly based on the National Curriculum, but includes Latin and Classical civilisation for all pupils, and French for pupils in the top set. All pupils study ICT, DT and music. Pupils formerly took the

Common Entrance Examination Common Entrance Examinations (commonly known as CE) are taken by independent school pupils in the UK as part of the selective admissions process at age 13, though ten independent schools do select at 11 using different test papers. They are se ...

at 13+ for entrance to a range of independent senior schools; the majority now move directly from the prep school to the senior school at 11+.

Extra Curricular

The school uses the

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

, with 4 school houses for inter-house events including music, athletics (sports day) and swimming. The estate extends to over 100 acres (40 ha), and includes a forest school and a swimming pool. The boarding facilities are in the main hall with the pre-prep, nursery and sports hall in separate buildings. There is an

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

pitch and the grounds provide access to the

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England, Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservatio ...

, on which the school has

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

rights. Sports on offer include

Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

Rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league. Rugby football started at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where the rules were first codified in 1845. Forms of football in which the ball ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

. Extra curricular activities include art,

bushcraft Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills to survive and thrive in a natural environment. Bushcraft skills include foraging, hunting, fishing, firecraft, and tying knots. Woodcraft is a subset of bushcraft that focuses on survival skills for ...

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

debating Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...

-making,

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. The school also has a choir and a rock band. Recent dramatic productions include ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

'' and ''Ernie and his incredible Illucinations''. The school has an active alumni association.

Notable former pupils

Jonathan Agnew Jonathan Philip Agnew, (born 4 April 1960) is an English cricket broadcaster and a former cricketer. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Uppingham School. He is nicknamed "Aggers" and, less commonly, "Spiro" – the latter, ...

(1960-), cricketer and broadcaster *

Martin Bell Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war Journalist, reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Ta ...

(1938-), broadcaster and MP * Humphrey Berney (1980-), opera singer * Rob Newton (1990-), cricketer *

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The first volume, ''Northern Lights'' (1995), won the Carnegie Medal

(1946-), author *

Jack van Poortvliet Jack Corstiaan van Poortvliet (born 15 May 2001) is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers and the England national team. Club career Van Poortvliet was born in Col ...

(2001-), England Rugby international * Saxon Earley (2002-), professional footballer

References

External links

Joint Schools home page

Senior School home page

Old Taverhamians
{{authority control Boarding schools in Norfolk Preparatory schools in Norfolk Private schools in Norfolk Educational institutions established in 1920 1920 establishments in England