Northleigh House School, located between Warwick and Shrewley, was established by a retired couple, Viv and Fred Morgan, in their home in 2012, after they heard about a 14 year old schoolgirl who committed suicide due to bullying at her secondary school. After looking into the options available to teenagers in a similar situation, and finding very little available, they decided to create Northleigh House School.

Children come to Northleigh for a variety of reasons: bullying, anxiety, learning difficulties, depression, socialising issues – but all of the children who do come here are generally very withdrawn, lacking in self-confidence and have low self-esteem. At least 50% of the pupils who come to Northleigh have attempted suicide. Often, many of these children have been missing school for months on end, and so their education suffers and family life is impacted too.

Northleigh can take a maximum of 30 secondary school aged children, who are supported by a full- and part-time teaching staff of 25, class sizes are small with a ratio of 2-3 children per teacher, following the national curriculum, allowing the children to sit GCSE exams. The school provides a safe and nurturing environment for our pupils to continue their education and to receive any counselling or support they may need to rebuild their confidence and self-worth. The children leave us with life skills and confidence to enjoy their lives and each summer many move onto mainstream colleges of further education, something their parents never thought would happen.

In October 2015, Viv & Fred Morgan travelled to London to be presented with a ‘Special Recognition’ award at the ITV Pride of Britain Awards, for their work looking after vulnerable children. Viv was also interviewed alongside a former pupil of Northleigh by Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield on the ‘This Morning’ ITV programme. The former pupil, who had been bullied at her previous school, had attempted suicide and didn’t want to leave the house for nearly two years, is now a happy, bubbly and attractive young lady who is studying for her A levels at a mainstream VI form college.

Further recognition was to follow in the New Honours List in January 2019 when Viv was awarded an MBE for Services to Education.

Although the school receives funding from the local council for each child who attends, this money just about covers their education and not much else. So, much time is taken up with fundraising and applying for grants. Additionally, the school has a loyal following of corporate charity partners who enable their employees to come and work at the school for free as part of their corporate charity programmes and assist with the countless tasks involved with the upkeep of a school: gardening, painting, cleaning, renovations.

As word about Northleigh House School spreads and local authorities ask us to take on board more and more children, we now have a waiting list of around 30 children and receive at least 10 enquiries per week. It goes against everything we work for to turn children and their families away, but sadly we just don’t have the room.

However, finally, after a year of negotiating change of use with Warwickshire Council, we are now in the process of purchasing a house further down the road from our school, which will serve as our second site. Hopefully we will exchange contracts this week and then complete by the end of Summer.

It is our aim then to furnish the school with the necessary furniture, books and learning equipment so that we can begin using it later in Autumn. We have begun fundraising, and are so grateful to many of our loyal corporate supporters who have donated items like desks that are no longer needed by them.

We will need extra money though to make sure we can turn the house into a school and be able to open it as soon as possible.