Girls’ Boarding Blog

Pentreve/Malvern House Weekly Blog

(Monday 20th September – Sunday 26th September 2021)

This weekend feels like it’s flown by!

The school week was odd, with a few of our Malvern and Pentreve girls feeling a bit under the weather with colds. Thankfully, by the weekend, everyone was back to being their usual cheerful selves, which was lovely to see.

It’s always warming to know that our boarders are forming friendships at school; this weekend, Macarena, Freya, Rosie and Alice were invited out for the night or all weekend with day pupil families. Sophie and Holly spent large parts of the weekend out with their parents who were visiting, and Graci headed back to Bath for a weekend with her mum. Both boarding houses were a little quieter than usual as a result this weekend.

On Friday evening, our Chinese boarders had a celebratory get-together in the dining hall to eat treats in honour of The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. AJ, our Malvern Head of House, organised a complete spread for them all; what a feast! This was followed by festivities together in Trennick.

The rest of us welcomed the weekend in other ways, including some hitting the gym for a workout. America’s Got Talent provided many laughs in Pentreve, while in Malvern, the common room was used as a social space with some of the Trennick boys visiting.

After a slower start on Saturday morning, the girls busied themselves with town visits, rugby match watching and baking. Each Friday, we get a Baking Kit from the Cookery School, which includes all the ingredients and an easy-to-follow recipe for a delicious baked treat to make ourselves.

This week we needed to play catch-up, so we had two things to make; Pentreve’s Marley did an excellent job at making Butterscotch Cookies (rumour has it they were delicious!), whilst Luzia and Pippa helped Issy, Leona and Aim to make Lime, Coconut and Ginger Cake. The smell wafting through the house was delightful!

Rugby is the main boys’ sport this term, and this weekend they played against Blundells, yearly rivals, so we headed up to support the age groups who were playing at home on Truro’s pitches. An hour outside in the fresh air was lovely, and thankfully we didn’t get anywhere near as dirty as the lads playing.

On Saturday evening, the 1st – 4th years took full advantage of the fantastic facilities we have up at the SBA. A few friendly competitive rounds of ‘shooters v dribblers got everyone relaxed and mixing well in teams before a game of basketball.  We then pulled the racket sports out of the equipment room for badminton, soft racket, and even an inventive form of indoor tennis. Marley, Pippa and Lily showed off their hula-hooping skills, which were very impressive too.

Meanwhile, the senior boarders chose either a pamper evening in Malvern or a Poker Night in Trennick. The girls were split in their preference, and it was great to see them all enjoying something on a social level.

On Sunday, we headed off on a coach to Holywell Bay Golf Course at 11:30 am. The most wonderful scenic views welcomed us, and we spent a few hours either pitching and putting or enjoying a round of crazy golf. About half the boarders set off in small groups to try Pitch and Putt. The course’s rolling hills provided a real challenge, especially if the ball flew too long and over the horizon! The other group may have thought they opted for the easier challenge on the Crazy Golf course. It was a shorter game, but the cleverly designed short holes kept everyone entertained, trying to figure how best to tackle them!

There have been many lovely little moments this weekend. Watching the girls chat and help each other while they baked on Saturday was great. They felt a well-deserved sense of satisfaction when the goodies came out so well.

We loved seeing the boarders lose their inhibitions and enjoy the sports together on Saturday evening.

It was great to hear the boarders laughing at some of the silly AGT acts on Friday or trying to keep a straight face through their charcoal and mint face masks.

But one of the highlights was hearing the open chatter of 9 or 10 boarders asking each other what their favourite word is in their home language; pronouncing the word, translating it, discussing if it has the same appeal when said in different languages and so on. It has been so lovely to see young people from different cultures engaging in such a fun way, wanting to learn more about each other, what makes another person tick and what makes them happy!

We returned to Truro at about 4 pm, giving us some relaxation time before knuckling down to start preparations for the week ahead. The fresh air had made everybody hungry, so everyone savoured the delicious Sunday Roast served in the Dining Hall. The girls headed to bed with bedrooms tidied, the last bits of homework completed, and bags ready for a new day.

We are grateful to all our parents and guardians for allowing us to have the girls with us here in Pentreve and Malvern; they are a wonderful group, and we enjoy getting to know them.

We wish you all a wonderful week.

Mrs Muffy Dawson (Pentreve Resident Tutor) and Mrs Sarah Mulready (Head of Girls Boarding)