New Hall School

New Hall School

New Hall School in 2014
Established	1642 (in Belgium) 1799 (current school)
Type	Independent day and boarding
Religion	Roman Catholic
Principal	Katherine Jeffrey
Chair of Governors	Prof Michael Alder
Location	The Avenue Chelmsford Essex CM3 3HS England Coordinates: 51°45′47″N 0°30′45″E / 51.76307°N 0.51241°E / 51.76307; 0.51241
DfE number	881/6001
DfE URN	115387 Tables
Students	1000~
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	3–18
Former pupils	Old Fishes / New Hallians
Website	www.newhallschool.co.uk

New Hall is a coeducational independent day and boarding school in the village of Boreham in the borough of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It was founded in 1642 in Belgium by Sisters of the female Catholic order Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre and moved to its current location, a former Tudor Palace of Beaulieu in Essex, in 1799. The school is now mostly run by lay staff but still retains its Catholic ethos and ties with the local diocese. It is the only independent Roman Catholic school in the Diocese and one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the country.

The school operates in "diamond" format. The preparatory school and sixth form are coeducational while the senior school teaches in single-sex classes. The senior girls' section is a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the school principal is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

The school was founded in Liège, Belgium in 1642 by Susan Hawley, who also formed the English Community of the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre. The founding Religious Order, the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, is one of the most ancient in the Church and was established in Europe long before the English Religious Community was founded in 1642. The school offered a Catholic education to girls who were denied this in England in the Post-Protestant Reformation period. In 1794, the French Revolutionary Wars forced the nuns to leave the Low Countries. The school reopened on its present site in 1799.