Manor House School

Manor House School began in Sidmouth in 1920, when Miss Green and Miss Wheeler gathered two small classes under the name The Beehive. A period at Mickleham Hall preceded the move to Bookham in 1937, when Miss Green bought the Queen Anne Manor House. That sequence of beginnings, moves and buildings gives the present setting a strong sense of continuity, while the registered 2-to-16, day-only girls' provision marks out its current shape.

Learning is broad from the Early Years through Key Stages 1 to 3, with the EYFS and National Curriculum providing a framework rather than a narrow academic script. Academic, creative, cultural, linguistic, mathematical, physical, scientific and technological work sits alongside personal, social and health education. The balance is intended to match challenge to age, ability and previous experience, so the curriculum can remain ambitious without losing its developmental pace.

The Dell, a woodland outdoor classroom, gives Nursery to Year 2 a weekly Forest School experience throughout the year. The prep programme changes each term and extends beyond lessons through more than 35 clubs in music, languages, dance, subject activities, sport, art and drama. Instrumental teaching, further music and speech-and-drama lessons add individual routes into performance and practical skill.

From September 2026, senior girls are due to move into the combined Senior School on the St Teresa's site within the Effingham Schools Trust, with automatic transition for Manor House prep pupils. Nursery and Prep entry remains a distinct process, involving open mornings, Reception and Year 3 experience days, school reports, meetings, an age-appropriate digital assessment and, where applicable, a confidential reference.