Maggie Adair Books in Order
Part ofJenny Colgan Books in OrderExplore the Maggie Adair, School by the Sea books by Jenny Colgan in order, with short summaries, series background, and where to start.
Last updated: December 26, 2025
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Publication Order
7 books
Studies at the School by the Sea / Studies
by Jenny Colgan
2024
Exam season arrives, and stress spreads through Downey House, from the students to the staff. Maggie juggles academic pressure, personal doubts, and unexpected surprises that threaten the stability she has worked for.
Lessons at the School by the Sea
by Jenny Colgan
2023
With the school settling into rhythm, Maggie thinks life might calm down, until a fresh wave of secrets and rivalries hits the corridors. Balancing the girls’ needs with her own complicated life becomes Maggie’s hardest lesson.
Rules at the School by the Sea
by Jenny Colgan
2022
A new school year brings new students, new rules, and new trouble for Maggie Adair at Downey House. Between strict traditions, staff politics, and teenage drama, Maggie learns that keeping order is never simple.
Lessons: Part 3
by Jenny Colgan
2019
As the end of term approaches, choices have consequences, and Maggie has to decide what kind of teacher, and person, she wants to be. The final installment wraps up the season’s biggest conflicts.
Lessons: Part 2
by Jenny Colgan
2018
The term continues with fresh crises, secret crushes, and the constant pressure of keeping a school running. Maggie tries to stay professional while the students, and the adults, keep raising the stakes.
Lessons: Part 1
by Jenny Colgan
2018
Maggie is settling into boarding-school life on the Cornish coast, and the first term is already full of rule-breaking and staffroom drama. This is the first installment of a serialized School by the Sea story.
Class / Welcome to the School by the Sea
by Jenny Colgan
2008
Maggie Adair arrives to teach at a seaside boarding school and quickly learns the staff and students are their own kind of chaos. Between strict rules, homesick girls, and her own messy past, Maggie fights to find her place.
Series background & context
Maggie Adair is the teacher at the center of Jenny Colgan’s School by the Sea books, a boarding-school series set on the Cornish coast.
When Maggie arrives, she expects a straightforward job. Instead she finds strict traditions, staffroom politics, and students who are clever, homesick, and very capable of getting into trouble.
The books mix warm school-story comfort with adult problems, like career doubts, family baggage, and romantic complications. The seaside setting matters, too, because the school can feel both sheltered and slightly cut off.
Reading them in order works best, starting with Class / Welcome to the School by the Sea and continuing through Rules at the School by the Sea, Lessons at the School by the Sea, and Studies at the School by the Sea / Studies.
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