- About MCS
MCS ranks among the top independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024, placed seventh nationally and third in the Southeast. - Admissions
Approximately 1 in 10 pupils receive a bursary or scholarship. We are committed to ensuring an MCS education is open to the brightest pupils, no matter their personal circumstances.
- Junior School
“The Junior School is a very busy and happy school and here, a smile goes a long way.”
MCS ranks among the top independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024, placed seventh nationally and third in the Southeast.
- Senior School
28 of our pupils achieved 10 or more 8 or 9 grades in 2024. - Sixth Form
Over 25% of our Sixth Form pupils take up places at Oxford and Cambridge every year.
- Supporting MCS
Your donations contribute over £150,000 a year to bursaries as well as building an endowment to fund bursaries for the future.
28 of our pupils achieved 10 or more 8 or 9 grades in 2024.
Your donations contribute over £150,000 a year to bursaries as well as building an - About MCS
MCS ranks among the top independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024, placed seventh nationally and third in the Southeast.
- Admissions
Approximately 1 in 10 pupils receive a bursary or scholarship. We are committed to ensuring an MCS education is open to the brightest pupils, no matter their personal circumstances.
- Junior School
“The Junior School is a very busy and happy school and here, a smile goes a long way.”
- Senior School
28 of our pupils achieved 10 or more 8 or 9 grades in 2024.
- Sixth Form
Over 25% of our Sixth Form pupils take up places at Oxford and Cambridge every year.
- Supporting MCS
Your donations contribute over £150,000 a year to bursaries as well as building an endowment to fund bursaries for the future.
Andrew Halls joined Magdalen College School in 1997, taking over as Master after Peter Tinniswood was appointed Headmaster of Lancing College. He joined MCS with an impressive pedigree, having read English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first. His first teaching post was at Whitgift School and he left there to become Head of English at Bristol Grammar School. After transforming that department he moved to become Deputy Headmaster at Trinity School, Croydon, under Barnaby Lennon before being appointed Master at MCS.
He joined a school that was finding its feet after being given freedom from Magdalen College control and now having to make itself financially independent. This brought with it freedoms in decision making, and already boarding had stopped and a Junior Section established using the vacated space. Saturday school was quickly in Andrew’s sights and almost immediately after it was abolished, academic results rose. This result wasn’t simply due to the Saturday school change, but his focus on ensuring that pupils were ambitious for themselves and that the teaching supported them in those ambitions.
Much to the Bursar’s delight, he grew numbers in the school and parental confidence in MCS was reflected by a great increase in applications. MCS became the Sunday Times Independent School of the Year in 2004 as not only academic results improved, but so did the sport and school facilities with the building of the Sports Hall and making Milham Ford a floodlit all-weather facility. Academic League tables confirmed that MCS was a leading academic school and the regular high numbers of Oxbridge and Russell Group university places confirmed that this was through well-established systems allied to strong pastoral support. Andrew enjoyed the full support and trust of the Governors in his vision for the school, but with the Michael Peagram Building nearing completion, he was lured back to London and Kings School, Wimbledon to end of his transformational Mastership.
In his new Headship Andrew has continued in a similar vein. Having left MCS just before it went co-educational in the Sixth Form, he successfully created a co-educational Sixth Form at the same time at King’s. He restructured the school to increase the 11+ intake and offer more opportunities for pupils from maintained schools. The success he generated brought various accolades and amongst them King’s became Sunday Times School of the Year in 2014, making him the only Head to win the honour for two different schools. He was a founding governor of King’s College London Mathematical School in Lambeth, the most successful state Sixth Form in the UK, and licensed the King’s Wimbledon brand in supporting schools in China and Thailand whose income supports bursaries for children at King’s.
Andrew has become increasingly influential through his writing and newspaper blogs and is held in high esteem by his contemporaries. He was awarded the OBE for his services to education in the New Year’s Honours List 2020.
