Senior Girls’ Boarding Blog

What better place to celebrate International Women’s Day than in a Girls Boarding house, with a group of talented, creative, smart, independent, beautiful, kind, funny – with just a smidgen of crazy – young ladies who are literally making their mark on the world TODAY. I can already see that these girls will be our future politicians, economists, doctors and astronauts. This week has seen several of the Malvern girls showcasing their talents – and that is definitely worth sharing today of all days.

This week across the whole of the boarding community we have been looking at a healthy eating initiative called “eating the rainbow”. Boarding staff have been encouraging boarders to eat across the food groups focusing on a variety of colourful vegetables, fruit, and salad items. Jess and Leanne utilised their baking skills to create little rainbow…cookies….no sign of a fruit or vegetable, but I have to say they were very tasty! These two are so creative with their baking, I’m going to have to enter them into a competition pretty soon!

Monday this week saw the first of two student organised charity concerts at school. Our Katie brought Mrs M to tears with her confidence, beauty and sense of fun whilst she sang and played the piano, accompanied a friend on the piano and sang a duet with Ben – “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”. Amazing performances of which we are all very proud! Well done Katie!

The Senior Concert on Wednesday did not disappoint either. More talented performances with Lowenna and Helena G taking part. Lowenna was the witch from the musical Wicked, complete with green face paint (much to Mrs M’s surprise – the thought of the colour in the bathroom later on when washing it off was almost too much for her!). Both girls sang beautifully with no sign of nerves at all! Well done girls!

Friday night came around pretty fast, which for most was a relief as it had been another busy week with rehearsals, concerts and matches. The boys from Trennick and Poltisco popped over to enjoy some baking – this time it was strawberry and banana bread – and several girls headed to the SBA to play Badminton or use the gym.

Saturday morning dawned surprisingly with no rain. A rare occurrence in the past few months. After our usual brunch provided by our ever patient and accommodating chef Kath, the girls headed up to the SBA – with the Trennick boys – to take part in our weekend activity; which had the intriguing name of “Out Fox The Box”. We had no idea what to expect but the girls and boys basically had a 90-minute problem solving, team building activity session very similar to an escape room. As ever the girls entered with an open mind and quickly got cracking (no pun intended). With twelve combination locked boxes/suitcases laid out before them and only a very brief introduction. The boarders had to work together;
sharing clues, thinking creatively and communicating were key and with the timer counting down and the knowledge that the junior houses were going after us, the pressure was on!

A lot of fun was had with everyone mixing brilliantly; it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves and playing as a team; leaders inevitably emerged and the organisers made particular comment on the quick witted thinking and rallying of both Marie and Phoebe! The final clue was eventually sussed and the master box opened to signal completion! 13 minutes and 59 seconds remained on the clock but could the juniors from Poltisco and Pentreve beat it? Errr…no! Thank goodness! The prize? Cadburys Cream Eggs of course; well it is nearly Easter after all. Well
done to all the Malvern girls – and Trennick boys (I suppose they might have helped us win a bit!).

Saturday afternoon – I know you won’t be able to guess what happened – there was more baking. This time it was chocolate volcano cakes and meringues!

Saturday evening’s activity was led by Helena G and consisted of…soap making. What a fab idea! The house was filled with the scent of lavender as the girls made a plethora of rainbow soap.

Sunday has proved to be a quieter day with the girls popping into town, going to the gym, cooking for friends and of course Chorister commitments for Katie and Helena P.

We are so proud of all of our girls, but today I couldn’t let a blog pass by without drawing attention to the talents of Helena P. Helena was commissioned by Radio 3, along with 6 other women, to compose a movement of a multi-generational piece of choral music that reflects on each composer’s decade and what it means to them to be a woman in 2020. Each female was asked to base their movement on a text that meant something to them. Helena, who was the youngest composer and was representing the 00’s, chose a poem by Charlotte Bronte which she said still had relevant themes for today such as taking life as it comes and enjoying all opportunities. Seven women representing seven decades and it was no coincidence that it was premiered today, International Women’s Day, on Radio 3. I listened to this earlier on and I have to say I was amazed at the sheer talent of someone so young. Well done Helena, we are very proud of you!

So, as I sit in the office listening to the rain falling outside, I start to think about the week to come. Play rehearsals for Helena G and Marie, GCSE drama rehearsals for Louise, French speaking GCSE for Katie and for me? Well I get to sing four movements of the Requiem with some of the talented girls that I have highlighted in this blog. Roll on Thursday and here’s hoping that I can keep up with these strong and confident young ladies.

Joanna Wood, Malvern Resident Tutor