The Grange School

The Grange School was founded in 1933 as a small co-educational preparatory school in the village of Hartford, near Northwich, Cheshire, by a group of local families who wanted a co-educational independent option for their children at a time when separate boys' and girls' schools dominated independent education. The school has grown steadily from its original prep-school roots into a major all-through co-educational independent school of around 1,204 pupils aged 4-18 — making it the largest independent school in mid-Cheshire and one of the strongest A-Level performers in the region.

The Headmaster is Christopher Jeffery. The school is a member of the HMC, the IAPS (for its Junior School) and is inspected by the ISI. The integrated Junior School (ages 4-11) feeds directly into the Senior School (ages 11-18), allowing pupils to progress through the school's curriculum continuously without an 11+ transition.

The school's academic profile is strongest in the sciences, mathematics and modern languages, with a particularly strong Oxbridge and Russell Group medical-schools pipeline reflecting the proximity of the great teaching hospitals of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. The school maintains traditional independent-school co-curricular activities — hockey, netball, cricket, music — alongside a particularly strong drama and choral programme.

The school operates a substantial bursary programme intended to provide access for local Cheshire families regardless of family means, and is a regular feeder to Oxford and Cambridge from its Sixth Form. Old Grangians are particularly well represented in the professions across Cheshire and the North West.