More House Private School

• Founded in: 1939,
• Location: Farham, Surrey, United Kingdom,
• Age of students: 12+,
• Number of students: 500+,
• Language of instruction: English,
• Type of education: boarding and day school for boys.

More House was founded in 1939 as a boarding school for boys, and in the mid-80s it opened a full-time department. More House now has around 500 pupils, making it one of the largest boarding schools for boys in England.

More House is nationally recognised as a centre of excellence in pedagogy, has received numerous awards, and is regularly ranked high in various rankings across the board, both for the quality of teaching and for its excellent accommodation facilities. More than eighty years of experience, time-tested staff and a flexible, adaptive programme provide unique conditions for individual support for children with special needs and learning difficulties, such as dyslexia or poor language development, etc.

More House is proud of its Department of Engineering, Bradbury School, a purpose-built and excellently equipped center with a metal engineering workshop, kitchens and several workshops, which allows students to get acquainted with design technologies, manual labor, and acquire useful skills. The department consists of 6 specialists, each of whom has unique competencies in their profile.

Classes within the framework of the engineering school begin from the 4th grade: children master basic skills and knowledge, using a large number of simple and understandable, accessible interactive manuals. As they develop, following the program, teenagers will learn to draw and design in 2D and 3D, develop and soberly evaluate their own projects. In high school, technology and design can be studied at GCSE and A-level.

• At home

The school has a system of houses: Cobbet, Knight, Hawthorne and Sturt.

• Mobile Device Policy

During classes, mobile phones, players, tablets and other devices must be turned off and cannot be used without permission, violators' phones are seized until the end of the day. Communication with parents is carried out through the school administration.

Schoolchildren are accommodated in one of two residences:

• The main house, where boys live from the 6th to the 9th grade inclusive;
• St. Anthony's House (from the 10th grade).

Junior school students are accommodated in dormitories designed for 6-8 places, older teenagers are accommodated in rooms for 2-3 people. Individual rooms are available for students in the final year, but their number is limited, all other things being equal, a private bedroom will go to a student whose family has previously applied and paid. Each child has his own sleeping place, locker and bedside table for storing personal belongings, bedding and uniforms, a place to study.

Students of the same class live together in a separate wing, under the supervision of a certain teacher; They have a shared shower room, toilet and a comfortable living room with upholstered furniture where children can socialize and play with each other. In the living rooms of junior school students, there is a game library with board and console games, books and TV, older students can play billiards or darts. The living rooms have kitchen utensils for preparing snacks, toasters, kettles and microwaves, refrigerators (the cooking process is controlled by teachers), and Sixth Form students have their own kitchen, where teenagers are taught to cook by specialists from the catering team.

Educators live in private apartments located near the place of residence of their wards - this allows us to provide proper care and supervision, the necessary level of support for each child both during the day and at night. Teachers and educators have the skills to provide medical care and can, if necessary, provide first aid, call a doctor. Access to wireless high-speed Internet with filtering of potentially inappropriate content is provided on the territory, children can use their own devices for access.

More House students are offered a wide range of extracurricular activities.

• Sport

The school adheres to an individual approach: they believe that for each boy you can choose a sport that suits him, which will allow him to develop, make him strong and healthy, and provide a full lifestyle.

Along with physical education classes as part of the school curriculum, all students participate in team competitive games in one of the school's teams - football, cricket, hockey or rugby, in individual sports such as cross-country, swimming or rowing. Within the framework of the national teams, students are united in teams in accordance with their abilities and capabilities, which provides a healthy element of competition, unites and contributes to the development of the values of camaraderie and fair play.

The cross country team regularly ranks high in the ISA national competitions.

• Music

More House offers an exciting and varied music program. Reporting concerts are regularly held, designed to demonstrate the success of students, performances of ensembles - three choirs, several jazz bands, a brass band, an ensemble of saxophonists and several string groups. More House regularly takes part in local and national festivals and music events, children travel abroad - only in 2022-2023 there were off-site concerts in New Orleans, Toronto, Austrian Salzburg and Dutch Rotterdam.

According to statistics for 2020, 73% of schoolchildren learn to play one or more musical instruments, and 52% play in one of the bands. Classes are held according to the Junior Band program offered in many schools in the United States, which encourages not only to learn to play, but also to compose their own music, which helps to develop responsibility and a sense of belonging.

Music is taught as an academic subject, including at GCSE and A-levels. Among the available courses: "Keyboard skills", "Music and context", "Music and media" - in total there are more than 10 available options.

In addition, a wide range of other extracurricular activities is available to schoolchildren. Within the walls of the school, classes are held:

• Swimming;
• Spinning;
• strength and fitness;
• storytelling;
• various plastic and expressive arts;
• Cooking;
• Football;
• Badminton;
• softball;
• cricket;
• Basketball;
• board and console games.

Off-campus available:

• laser shooting range;
• Climbing wall;
• hiking and hiking;
• bowling;
• trampoline;
• golf and tennis;
• day trips to London, Portsmouth and other metropolises;
• visits to museums and theme parks.

• Experience working with students with learning difficulties

Over the decades of work here, we have accumulated tremendous experience in working with children and adolescents in need of special support. This is possible thanks to an individual approach and a lot of information about each student, whether they are advantages or weaknesses.

• Influential alumni community

Among the graduates of More House are a dozen members of the British and Scottish parliaments, the Welsh Assembly, journalists, athletes and business representatives.

• Constant psychological support for schoolchildren and their parents

More House has its own psychological service: professional psychologists will give advice and help the child in a difficult situation, provide the necessary help and support to parents. Special support is provided to high school students, which allows them to overcome both the period of growing up and the difficulties associated with exams.

More House is equipped with everything necessary to organize the educational process in accordance with modern standards - from modern powerful computers and the necessary office equipment to an impressive library with access to full-text electronic databases, to cozy living rooms, a spacious and bright dining room, enough to accommodate all students at a time.

The sports infrastructure is diverse:

• a gym with three badminton courts and cricket nets,
• outdoor all-weather heated pool,
• a sports ground for cricket,
• two fields for mini-football and rugby,
• track and field stadium,
• gym.

The concert hall has a Boston Steinway grand piano, two excellently equipped classrooms, a professional recording studio with all the necessary equipment and five classrooms for practicing (each with a piano). The school chapel has a Wyvern chamber organ.

More House has a comprehensive step-by-step admissions program designed to inform applicants and their families as much as possible about all aspects of education. It includes a number of formal stages:

1. Completion and submission of the registration form and non-refundable application fee. After submitting the form, a member of the admissions committee will contact the applicant within a few weeks (up to a month). If the committee considers that the school can provide the child with a suitable learning environment, a letter will be sent to the parents with further instructions.
2. In the second stage, it is necessary to provide the latest school reports and transcripts, any additional diplomas and certificates will also be considered and can be an additional success factor.
3. In case of a positive decision based on the results of the review of the reports, the applicant and his family will receive an invitation to the school: the visit program includes a tour of the school, a conversation with the principal, and a short interview.
4. The next stage is a trial visit. This is a short-term - 2-3 days - event, in which the boys get acquainted with the routine of the More House, the peculiarities of the educational process and life in the boarding school; an informal assessment of oral and written speech, psychological compatibility is carried out.
5. In case of a positive decision, the applicant's family receives an offer. 14 days are given to make a final decision; During this period, you need to fill out and send a confirmation of enrollment and a non-refundable payment for booking a place.

The school offers a number of scholarships and discounts, including:

• scholarship for talented students;
• scholarship for excellence in studies, sports, music or art;
• discount for children from the same family (siblings).

The number of scholarships is limited, their size, as a rule, does not exceed 10-15% of the tuition fee (in rare cases, we can talk about large amounts).

• Guardianship services during the studies
• Student supervision