Our School

Through the school’s teaching and learning, we aim to promote each pupil’s intellectual character, cultivating their capacity to combine thinking skills with knowledge, confidence and self-esteem, to believe in the legitimacy of their own thoughts, to speak their mind articulately (but change it when required), to contest poor thinking and prejudice assertively, and enjoy the challenge of mental sparring. We foster intellectual risk-taking and curiosity, independence, resilience and effective learning habits within an ambitious, supportive learning community where individual learning profiles are nurtured and celebrated, and where all children are encouraged to strive to achieve their very best.

We aim to instil an understanding, appreciation and love of healthy lifestyle choices by offering a wide range of personal development opportunities through sports, music, drama and an extensive array of activities to supplement and enhance classroom learning. Every aspect of school life is seen as a learning opportunity and a chance to promote the development of the whole child.

We encourage children to take a creative approach to all that they do. We aim to foster diversity, critical thinking, imaginative insights and fresh ideas through ensuring children are in touch with things that inspire and excite them. We encourage children to express themselves, to collaborate, to exchange ideas and build collective solutions to complex problems.

Happiness, confidence and self-esteem are key to living a fulfilled life and underpin great learning. We strive to develop children’s emotional intelligence, encouraging resilience, effective communication skills, empathy, forgiveness and respect for others. We want our children to develop their global awareness and social responsibility, to embrace energetically and contribute to the communities and environments in which they live.

We aim to awaken the children spiritually through the integration of Christian principles into the school’s everyday life, the provision of warm relationships, prayer, worship and opportunities for reflection and contemplation. We travel alongside the children on their spiritual journey, but we are not seeking a particular outcome or destination.

With close collaboration between home and school, we seek to achieve the successful transfer to the most appropriate senior school for each of our children, taking into account their interests, strengths, and character.

A stone’s throw away is Bruton, a small ancient town listed in the Domesday book of 1086, well-known on the art scene for the Hauser and Wirth Gallery as well as being home to some fantastic restaurants. Other notable places nearby are the historic spa city of Bath, the vibrant city of Bristol, the free-spirited town of Glastonbury and Wells, the smallest city in England.

At All Hallows, we place great value on being part of our local community. We take part in events such as the Frome Arts Festival as well as supporting the Bath and West Show and Nunney Horse Trials. We organise community concerts and our choir regularly ventures out to sing in various places including local parish churches.

The UK's seventh biggest county, Somerset has a landscape of rural rolling hills, coastal cliffs, cityscapes and quintessential villages. It is truly a diverse and interesting place to live.

The school was founded by Francis Dix in 1938 in Bognor Regis, with just one pupil. Numbers quickly grew but the outbreak of the Second World War meant safer accommodation was required. This was sought in Devon and, by the summer of 1940, All Hallows was at Scorhill near Chagford where the River Teign, running through the grounds, acted as a bathing-pool and Dartmoor was a magnificent playground. The school remained in Devon until the end of 1945 and relocated to its current home of Cranmore Hall in 1946. Originally a boys' school, All Hallows opened its doors to girls in 1972.

Cranmore, the name, comes from Crane Mere or Lake of the Cranes. This is why the head of a crane forms part of our school logo and why images of cranes can be seen around the school with some particularly fine ones in the art department. We were delighted recently when cranes were re-introduced to Somerset.

The main school building, Cranmore Hall, was formerly the home of the Paget family, and has history dating back to the 17th Century when it was owned by the Glastonbury Monks. Like many large country houses during the Second World War, it was put to very good use, perhaps unusually though, as a maternity hospital.