Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning. For those of you who I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet: I am Patricia Woodhouse, Headmistress of Malvern St James.I extend a very warm welcome to you all and thank you for joining us today for our Open Morning. Before you tour the School, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce MSJ. I hope you will not just take my word for this being an excellent School. Please talk to our girls, and to our teachers and House staff, and see for yourselves what makes this school tick. At our heart you will find a culture of vision, compassion, and tenacity; and an appetite for aspiration, passion and rigour. You will also find a School that cares about each and every individual. At MSJ girls grow intellectually, personally and spiritually. Malvern St James is a leading independent British Boarding School, for girls aged 4-18.Our unique heritage is woven from a rich tradition of progressive girls’ schooling, here in Malvern, a centre of educational excellence since the Nineteenth Century. We thank the extraordinary vision of a band of pioneering women who believed in girls’ education and founded the five schools which went on to become Malvern St James.We carry on their forward-thinking vision at MSJ today. Now we are in the twenty-first century, and whilst we cherish our past, we embrace our present and our future. A progressive and constantly extending curriculum, cutting-edge facilities, a culture of aspiration and an innovative vision of learning are at the heart of what we do. And, as you will see today, we make sure we do it really, really well. Roots and Wings At MSJ we talk about giving girls ‘roots and wings’: roots to keep them grounded and secure, and wings to enable them to soar. We see this reflected in the physical make-up of the School, which uniquely embraces and integrates girls from the Pre-Prep through to the Sixth Form. Our youngest girls come to us at 4. We nurture their imagination and their curiosity; we watch them grow, stand taller and stronger in every respect, and at 18 we see those same girls confidently take flight – on to some of the most rigorous and demanding Universities in the world and to some of the most competitive and rewarding career paths. More than A League Table Result MSJ continues to be recognised as one of the country’s leading girls’ independent boarding schools. But we are more than a statistic or League Table result. League tables play their part, but I would advise you not to look at League Tables in isolation. There has been much in the media which supports this view, particularly with regard to the independent sector. Look at leavers’ university destinations; look at the courses girls are going on to; look at the alumnae and what they are doing. And talk to our girls currently in Sixth Form to see how ready they feel for the next stage of their educational journey. We are giving our girls a toolkit for life. We are focusing on excellent teaching to deliver exceptional results at GCSE and ‘A’ Level; and equally on developing problem-solving, analytical thinking and leadership skills that Universities and employers will value. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-motivation: these are hallmarks of our girls. They are ready to seize opportunity; embrace challenge; and poised to ‘lean in’. Boarding at our Heart The boarding experience is at the heart of our School; and the girls regard MSJ as a true ‘home from home’ where they feel cared for, secure, and more than anything happy. Our boarding provision is outstanding, and we are justly proud of the wealth of activities that happen in the evenings and at weekends. Girls can start boarding on a full, weekly or flexi basis from Year 3 at our Junior Houses, Batsford and Benhams. They then progress at Year 9 into Senior Houses, Hatfield and Mount, before moving up into Sixth Form Houses Poulton and Greenslade. Taster sleep-overs at the Houses are available to all girls who are considering boarding. Day Girls are assigned to Boarding houses too – that’s why we call them Day Boarders; every girl is integrated within the MSJ community, regardless of whether she boards full-time, weekly, or on a flexi or occasional basis. Our dedicated Housemistress teams know and care for each girl as an individual and will always go the extra mile for her. If a child needs quiet time, she will have it; if she needs to sing and dance and jump, she can do it; if she needs support, she has it. Our girls are simply paramount to everything we do. A Typical Weekend at MSJ Here you can see snapshots of a typical weekend at Malvern St James from Week 1 this term. All girls are welcome to join weekend activities; they are not exclusive to our boarders. On Friday, Years 3 - 6 went to Aztec Watersports for a day of team-building activities, whilst Pre-Prep went to Priory Park on their Personal Development Day. On Saturday our lacrosse players went to the nail-biting Welsh Rally at Haberdashers, Monmouth, and our Years 8 and 9 hockey players competed against the Habs team at home. Meanwhile some of years 9, 10, 11 and 13 took part in the Malvern Hills Challenge, completing a 5 mile round trip of the hills to raise money for Help for Heroes; and some of Year 12 discovered shopping in Worcester. At school, there was pool kayaking in our on-site grade 2 listed pool. Saturday night entertainment was a barbeque and bouncy castle evening at Hatfield, followed by Cinema and Popcorn in all of the Houses. On Sunday the U11s and U13s participated in an all-day Hockey Festival at Cheltenham College. Back in Malvern, we had the new parents’ Sunday Service at Christ Church, followed by Sunday Lunch for all in the Alice Dining Room. After lunch, Batsford went rock-climbing in the Sports Hall, and the Junior and Senior Houses completed a Treasure Hunt in town. Not a bad 3-day social calendar by any account! Large Enough and Small Enough We have 450 girls on roll, with over half these girls boarding. Our size is critical. We are large enough to offer the most tremendous depth and breadth of opportunity on every level; at the same time small enough to really get to know each and every girl in our care. Ambition, aspiration and intellectual curiosity are at our core; our girls are not, however, the media-driven stereotypes of an academic pressure-cooker. We challenge this image of the academic ‘hothouse’ schools, not least in the way we are able to support and tailor the learning experience to each individual girl. Our school grows in size as the girls grow; from one form per year group in Prep; to 2 forms in Years 7 & 8; 3 forms in Year 9; four in 10 & 11, right up to ten forms in Years 12 & 13. This means that the further up the School girls progress, the greater the range and mix of opportunity on offer to them, in line with their ever extending and broadening horizons. By Sixth Form, the door is well and truly open, the world at their feet. Aspiration, Passion and Rigour At MSJ, girls benefit from: An Integrated School Independent learning and thinking are fostered from Prep through to Sixth Form. Our buzz words are: what?, why? and how? They lead to research, enquiry and discovery. It’s also great fun! In Prep, the girls can learn Japanese and Mandarin; every single one participates in the magical Prep department production each year; and there are a myriad of themed learning opportunities, from Spanish day to Careers Week. Our young girls also benefit from using our excellent Senior School facilities (for example Science Labs, Sports Centre, Drama Centre) and specialist subject teaching staff. They participate in major school events where the whole school goes off curriculum, for example in Science, Engineering and Technology Week and Expressive Arts Week. Our Prep Department and Senior School live happily together within the same buildings, enabling girls to seize every opportunity to mix, work and play alongside older students, who in turn act as wonderful role models and mentors. Sixth Form I hope you will take the opportunity today to look around our Sixth Form Centre. Based in the main building, it provides a dedicated area for studying, socialising and relaxing; it also gives the girls a strong sense of making a ‘step up’ to Sixth Form in preparation for University beyond. Through school, we ask our girls ‘Who Do You Want To Be?’ As they enter Sixth Form, the answer to this question really takes shape, thanks to a culture of greater independent living and learning, and the crystallisation of self-knowledge and self-confidence. Our excellent Sixth Form team, under the leadership of the Director of Sixth Form, and including our full-time Head of Careers, guide the girls onwards with extensive University application advice and interview expertise. MSJ also taps into its Old Girls Association to provide professional guidance, mentoring, internship opportunities, interview technique and more, from a bank of exceptional women, many of whom are industry leaders. Creative Career Ambitions Rewarded Our leavers’ destinations list speaks for itself. This Autumn, six girls (out of the 62 strong cohort) are taking up places at universities ranked in the top 5 in the world by QS World University and seventeen are going on to institutions ranked in the UK top 10. The Sports Department celebrated a clean sweep of A* Distinctions in the Sports BTEC for a second year running. The list of courses is as diverse as it is long; with over 45% of the cohort getting into their first choice to read STEM related subjects; and this sitting alongside Arts and Language degrees and traditional choices such as Law and Accountancy. The breadth of subjects and university pedigree is shown in the following sample of leaver destinations: We also have one girl who pursued a life-long ambition to join the Royal Marines Bands Service, and was offered one of 22 places from a field of 16,000 applications. The MSJ Aspiration Programme I am very proud of our Aspiration and Enrichment Programmes, which form a spine to everything we do at Malvern St James. The Aspiration Programme incorporates a focus on Oxbridge and Higher Education, including extending critical thinking and independent learning skills, preparation for University application and interview technique. It also includes academic lectures; Old Girl Association lectures from industry leaders; debating and public speaking; Academic mentoring; academic societies; and tailored University Open Days and specially organised Professional visits. For Years 10 – 13 there is the Somerville Supper Club. The purpose is to stimulate girls’ appetite for intellectual debate, to build confidence in public speaking, particularly amongst other intellectual heavyweights, and to structure and refine the communication of difficult concepts. A guest speaker at each Supper guides the girls’ ability to think independently and conceptually, to argue rationally, and to apply their knowledge base to an open-ended discussion. Enrichment at MSJ For all students there is a myriad of enrichment opportunities which include Japanese, Young Enterprise and STEM Challenges, academic Olympiads, History of Art, Model United Nations and Debating, to name but a few. Other enrichment activities include Leiths Cookery School, Journalism and Photography Societies, sport of every kind, music, drama and lots of girl-led clubs, for example Law Society and Medical Society, where pupils have identified what they want to do and are instrumental in the set-up and running of activities. Additionally, girls benefit from a wide variety of educational and recreational excursions, including the MSJ ski trip, music and sports tours, art and cultural trips and expeditions at home and abroad. We also boast a record number of girls completing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards up to Gold level. In Sixth Form, the EPQ is a recognised, valuable external examination which top universities are looking for; and we have also introduced the HPQ at GCSE level. As young as Year 6, we are involving girls in Independent Learning Projects. A place to Excel There is always so much going on here that I have picked out just a few key highlights from this year, which I think reflect what is on offer: Sports have enjoyed many triumphs. Our U18 Hockey team has won the County Tournament, our Year 11 Netball Team has won Silver at the ISA Midlands Tournament, and our Year 9 Hockey team has been crowned ISA National Champions. Penny, our Wales U19 Lacrosse Player, and Elysia, our U18 England Hockey player (and Head Girl), have both been offered lacrosse scholarships to American universities. Lucy retains her title of U18 Hereford and Worcester Junior Golf Champion, and Tegan has been selected to play for the Independent Schools FA U16 team at the FA’s National Football Centre. Our equestrians have enjoyed some great achievements recently. At Stonar, the MSJ team came first in a field of over 35 schools. Eve has competed in the young dressage class at the Blenheim International horse trials, and she will compete at Badminton in the Mitsubishi Cup next Spring. Evelyn has been training all summer to compete in the U21s showjumping this season against the very best in her class. And this will be a tense weekend for Zara as she prepares to compete in the Horse of the Year Show National Finals next week. Over the Summer one of our Year 13s, Cliona, took up a prized place on the prestigious STEM summer school at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Two year 11 students, Emily and Angela, fought off stiff competition to attend the Nottingham University BioSciences summer school for gifted students. In Expressive Arts, Roseanna in Year 3 has achieved Grade 8 Distinction in Drums. At the tender age of 8, she is believed to be the youngest student to have clinched this, and I take my hat off to her. She is a phenomenal talent. In Dance, Georgina won First place with Honours at the All England Dance Festival Regional Final. The MSJ musicians enjoyed an amazing tour of the Netherlands in the holidays, achieving standing ovations at each of the three concerts they performed. Twenty one girls have successfully completed their Qualifying Venture at Gold and Silver level. This is no mean feat; at this level the task are true challenges with the girls expected to negotiate everything for themselves – no adult intervention nor supervision. Thus the Awards are so well regarded by universities and employers around the world. This year we have been delighted to welcome a huge variety of visiting speakers into School for our MSJ Lecture Series, aimed at intellectually stimulating girls and providing them with career oriented expertise and advice. This week we had David Feldman, Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, to talk about his career in Law. Forthcoming speakers include many Old Girls including Isabel Evans, Senior Partner at City law firm Bird and Bird; Caroline Copeland, Neuroscientist at Imperial College, London; Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP; Victoria Prentis, MP; and Isobel Williams, former medical Consultant turned Shackleton specialist. In November, MSJ will host the academically-prized Model United Nations Conference for schools from across the country. I hope I have given you a flavour of what MSJ is. Can I also give a ‘plug’ for the Friends of MSJ, our Parent Association who have joined us today; they can be found in the Admissions corridor and welcome any questions you may have. If you have any admissions-related questions then our Registar, Emily Harris, will be delighted to help you. Likewise, our Boarding and Expressive Arts Teams, as well as our display on Enrichment opportunities at MSJ: Beyond the Curriculum, are all waiting for you in the Lawnside Room – do please pay them a visit. And finally, I will end with a couple of quotes from our girls and their parents, because really it’s what they think that counts. First, one of last year’s Y13s, proud to be going up to Oxford, “It feels like every moment has been worth it; every moment in this school has brought me here”. Then from the parents of Lucy, our champion golfer, on her sweep of A and A* GCSE results, “Everyone always assumes it’s all about the sport with Lucy, but MSJ has always without question provided so much academic support alongside, giving her the flexibility to pursue her sporting career.” And from another parent, “MSJ has always encouraged the girls both to study and to pursue enrichment interests. It has been a place where they are very comfortable being bright.”
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