Girls’ Boarding Blog – 13.01.21

Malvern House Weekly Blog

(Tuesday 6 January – Sunday 10 January)

Happy New Year to all of our boarding family around the world and welcome to the first blog of 2021. Lockdown 3.0 arrived, not wholly unexpectantly, just as our girls were due to arrive back from their Christmas break. We were already set up for remote learning for the first 3 – 10 days however the announcement on Monday night left us in no doubt that we would be remote learning until at least February half term. Mrs Mulready welcomed 5 girls into Malvern on Tuesday. We have amalgamated our junior and senior girls boarding houses and all girls are currently living in Malvern. Angie and Leora have settled in well into their new single, Malvern bedrooms. Lisa was only with us for a few days before heading back to her family in Germany.

The girls have handled the stricter lockdown rules and the remote learning with calmness, flexibility and positivity. Remote learning is not easy for many students, but with support and some adjustments we are planning for success for all. Our girls really are superstars.

Friday arrived at just the right time. Despite it being a little chilly, Angie and Leora engaged in a post school table tennis match! After pizza supper, prep time, and quick showers it was time for a movie and popcorn. Sat in the common room with the girls had very much a family feel. The Pentreve girls have been learning from the older girls who are showing them some independent living skills such as how to use the washing machines and dishwasher, and generally providing them with a good role model.

Saturday morning, we all had a little lie-in followed by brunch at 10am. A rendezvous in the kitchen afterwards set the plan for the day. As you will see from the photos, the girls have made use of our lockdown time. They have, in accordance with government guidance, taken some exercise to our local park and have made their one essential shopping trip to the supermarket.

We have had a “weekend jigsaw” on the go and as you can see it was a 500-piece picture of a Marmite pot. It took me over an hour to sort the pieces and put together 10 pieces, thankfully the girls were on hand to help me out. It was not easy, but the girls all had a go and I have to say that Jess and Hattie successfully finished it after supper on Saturday night. It was beginning to frustrate me! The question from Leora was, “what is Marmite?”. At which stage I thought it my duty to provide a proper British education on what Marmite is and how it came about. For those of you who don’t know, it is a by product of the brewing industry and is a yeast extract-based spread. In my family we love it – some people hate it – and eat it on toast, with cheese and even mix it with hot water and drink it! Leora was very brave and gave it a try. She said it was “ok, but didn’t want to try it again for at least 10 years!” I am not sure that I have a new fan for Marmite!

The girls also had a go with my calligraphy set and enjoyed playing a great card game called “Emoji”. Saturday evening after a scampi supper it was another movie and a chocolate fondue. Perfect end to our first Saturday lockdown.

Sunday has been reasonably quiet. The girls have been for a walk, done some prep work, played games, made more sushi, completed another jigsaw and generally taken it easy ready for our first full week of remote learning. We miss all the girls who didn’t make it back for the start of this term, but Mrs Mulready and I are thinking about them all and are, of course, just an email or TEAMS call away.

Please keep safe and well wherever you are. Until next time.
Mrs Joanna Wood – Resident Tutor – Malvern