Sex Education filming locations – where is it filmed?

❘ Updated: 2023-09-27T08:44:39

Netflix

Out of all of the Netflix original series, Sex Education might be the one that has the most distinctive look – so, here’s a guide to its filming locations.

While the show may supposedly be set in the UK, it can sometimes feel as though Sex Education is more like the US. Moordale doesn’t look like a typical British school, and Otis and Jean’s (Gillian Anderson) house seems like a magical spot in unfamiliar countryside.

Following Otis (Asa Butterfield) and a group of students who get to grips with their own sexuality, the locations shown have changed up until Season 4, though there are a few key settings that remain.

With Sex Education Season 4 now out, here’s a rundown of the show’s frequent filming locations.

Where is Sex Education filmed? Filming locations explained

Sex Education is neither filmed in England nor the US, but is instead mostly filmed in Wales’ Wye Valley.

Filming locations extend to the Forest of Dean, which sits on the Welsh border. Wide-angled shots the feature a river are almost always of the River Wye, with Otis and Jean’s house actually based in a chalet in Symonds Yet. Rest assured – those views aren’t CGI.

Though Moordale isn’t actually a real town, the actual location that Sex Education is supposed to be set in is vague on purpose. There’s an obvious mid-Atlantic style that extends to what the students do and don’t get up to, with creator Laurie Nunn having previously mentioned that some of her inspirations for the series were The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.

Where is Moordale school in Sex Education?

Before Moordale closed down for good at the end of Season 3, school scenes were filmed at the Caerleon campus in South Wales.

It used to be a part of the University of Wales, but closed down back in 2016. Luckily for fans, it provided the perfect opportunity to be used as a set, with elements of the building dating back to the early 20th-century.

Additions such as the campus clock tower bridge the gap between the UK and US feel, as this is a style more typically found in the likes of Yale or Harvard.

Where is Cavendish College in Sex Education?

On the flipside to the traditional Moordale campus, the gang’s latest home of Cavendish College is ultra modern and high-tech.

Eric and Otis at Cavendish College in Sex Education

It might be surprising to learn that the filming location isn’t a school at all, but actually a bustling tourist location. Scenes were filmed in Cardiff at St Fagans National Museum of History, which is also in the South of Wales.

These aren’t the only filming location that Wales has had to offer Sex Education, with scenes on the approach to Cavendish College filmed in the nearby town of Cwncarn.

Where is Maeve’s new school in Sex Education?

While her friends settle into college life at Cavendish, Season 4 follows Maeve (Emma Mackey) as she ventures across the pond to continue her studies.

In fact, Mackey didn’t go to the US at all, but instead filmed her new school scenes much closer to home in Tetbury. Exterior shots are filmed at Westonbirt School in Gloucestershire, which has changed hands as a stately home to private boarding schools since the late 1800s. At the time, it was thought to be one of the most expensive houses in the U.K.

Internal shots – mostly for Thomas Molly’s (Dan Levy) office – were actually filmed in the Wills Memorial Building at Bristol University. While Maeve has her own school journey, Adam (Connor Swindells) leaves school behind altogether, with his external farm scenes being filmed in Abergavenny.

Monmouth was also a key filming areas for external scenes in Sex Education Season 4.

Find everything we know about Sex Education Season 4 here. In the meantime, check out our other upcoming movie and TV hubs below: