Mowden Hall is a first-rate boarding and day prep school with a thriving pre-prep department. Altogether there are 125 boys and 81 girls in the school. Day pupils only are admitted into the pre-prep, and pupils may start in the Main School as day pupils or boarders but they have to convert to boarding for at least their last two years. At the moment 75% of the children in the Main School are boarders. Pupils come from homes in Northumberland, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and the Scottish Borders, as well as several who have parents living abroad, and they leave Mowden for the better known senior Independent Schools throughout the country.
There is a full time staff of 20, including a Deputy Headmaster, a House Tutor, a Head of Pre-Prep Department, and a Director of Music. The school is recognised by CReSTeD and has a specialist dyslexia teacher. The school facilities are outstanding for the school stands in 60 acres of parkland, looking South over Tynedale and within 13 miles of the centre of Newcastle and of Newcastle International Airport. There is a newly built Theatre and Music School, a large and well equipped Sports Hall and a modern, flood-lit hard surface for three tennis courts/hockey/soccer/roller skating. The purpose-built Pre-Prep was opened in 1993 and, in September 1995, the magnificent new Science, Art and Technology Centre was opened in the converted Stable Yard. A heated, indoor swimming pool was completed in 1996.
All pupils at Mowden Hall spend a full term, during their penultimate year, in France at the Chateau de Sauveterre, near Toulouse. Here they are taught all their lessons in French by French teachers and are given the opportunity to absorb much of the French culture and language through frequent visits and exchanges in the local area.
There is a friendly, family atmosphere within the school. The children are well-mannered, articulate, confident and, above all, happy and busy. Visitors are asked to arrive at midday to have a tour round the school and then to have lunch with the children. Appointments to do so can be made by telephoning Mrs Linda Blair, the School Secretary.
