Moordale Secondary School

Moordale Secondary School is a location on the Netflix series Sex Education. It is a secondary school, however, the show's main focus is on the school's sixth-form (students aged 16 to 18). Demolition of part of the site began following the release of the third season.^[2]

The school was located in the small town of Moordale.

History[]

Season 1[]

At assembly, Jackson was announced as the new head boy.

After Maeve witnesses Otis' counselling abilities, she suggests running a sex therapy business. The counselling sessions are held in the derelict bathrooms behind the gymnasium.

After Liam's accident during the school dance, principal Michael discovers Percocet pills in his jacket, that were sold to him by Maeve's brother, Sean. Not wanting Sean to be sent back to jail, Maeve claims that she sold the pills, and was expelled from Moordale. Jackson attempted to convince Michael Groff to allow Maeve to stay by agreeing to compete in the swimming championships, in exchange for allowing Maeve to stay at Moordale, but Mr. Groff did not hold up his end of the promise. Later, Maeve read out plagiarised student essays over the school speakers, while Maxine, Chairman of Moordale, was visiting the school. Miss Sands then implied that she could reveal to Maxine that Adam's award-winning essay was plagiarised, pressuring Mr. Groff to allow Maeve to stay.

Season 2[]

After an outbreak of mass hysteria due to several cases of Chlamydia, Jean was brought to Moordale to observe their SRE classes and give advice to students.

Season 3[]

After Michael is fired, Hope is hired as the new principal. She tears down the derelict bathrooms and imposes strict rules. Signs with school rules and school values are put up all over the school building, students are required to wear uniforms and lockers are painted over. She also arranges for abstinence-only sex education and punishes students who criticise these methods.

Moordale has a new school anthem, "Non Sibi, Sed Toti", which is a latin song that means "Not for oneself, but for all." It was performed by the Moordale Choir at assembly.

When Hope's methods are challenged by the students, she begins publicly humiliating the students who break her rules.

Under pressure from the school board and investors, Hope decides to rebrand Moordale. She renames Moordale to Sparkside Academy and arranges for an open day to show prospective students and journalists that Moordale is no longer a 'sex school.' She even locks Cal in a room to prevent them from interrupting the open day. However, the students protest against Hope's rules and use the open day as an opportunity to show that Moordale is a sex positive school. The acapella group and swing band perform "F**k the Pain Way", the very song that Hope disapproved of.

After these events, Hope quits and Mark announces that investors have withdrawn all their funding. As a result, Moordale will be sold to developers and students will need to find new schools.

Season 4[]

Moordale Secondary is already closed and is about to be destroyed. Despite this, Maeve and Otis go there after their first official date and are about to have sex in the school's pool. Instead, Otis tells Maeve he spent the night with Ruby, which upsets her. To make matters worse, they get caught by the security guards, who later call Otis's mother to pick them up.

Known students[]

Students forced to end their education due to the school closure:[]

Expelled:[]

Sean Wiley

Graduated:[]

Hope Haddon

Staff[]

Hope Haddon (former principal)
Michael Groff (former principal)
Jean Milburn (former sex-therapist)
Colin Hendricks (former science teacher)
Emily Sands (former English teacher)
Swimming Coach (formerly)
PE Teacher (formerly)
Librarian (formerly)
Terry^[3] (former school bus driver)
Mr. Moorhouse (former chemistry teacher)

Principals[]

Mr. P. Henderson (1910-17)
Mr. C. Barnett (1917-24)
Mr. J. Poole (1924-38)
Mr. R. Edwards (1938-43)
Mr. E. Weber (1943-65)
Mr. L. Cain (1965-73)
Mr. E. Whitaker (1973-89)
Mr. N. Burns (1989-2000)
Mr. H. Ramsden (2000-01)
Mr. J. Ashley-Pitt (2001-08)
Mr. M. Cassell (2008-2011)
Mr. M. Groff (2011-2021)
Mrs. H. Haddon (2021)

Visitors[]

School activities[]

Aptitude Scheme
Quiz Heads
Moordale Swingers (Swing band)
Asking For Treble (Acapella group)
Moordale Choir
Swimming a.k.a. ''Moordale Dolphins''.
Drama

Events[]

Appearances[]

Season One[]

Season Two[]

Season Three[]

Season Four[]

Episode 5

Trivia[]

According to Michael, the derelict bathrooms behind the gymnasium is full of asbestos.^[4]
Prior to Hope's time as principal, Moordale had a school anthem, but it has only been heard in the show once. It was performed by Eric using the French Horn during assembly in Episode 1.
In real life, the secondary school is the University of South Wales - Caerleon Campus in Newport, Wales.^[1]
In real life, school uniforms are mandatory at almost all state and independent schools in the UK, whereas in the show, the school's lack of uniform for seasons 1-2 is regarded as normal. In fact, a lack of school uniform policy is found in most American public schools.
It is uncertain just what type of funding model the school uses. As the school is said to have "investors", this would normally make it an independent (private) school in the UK, but none of the students seem to pay for school fees, which an independent school would require (as that is where most of their funding comes from). Most schools in the UK are state-funded, meaning they do not have private investors. In addition, the Department of Education of the UK government would typically place a school in "special measures" if it was deemed to have inadequate standards, rather than close it down.