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Malvern College

Coordinates: 52°06′14.97″N 2°19′34.30″W / 52.1041583°N 2.3261944°W / 52.1041583; -2.3261944
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Malvern College
File:Malvern CoAgreen.png
Address
Map
College Road

Great Malvern

Worcestershire
,
WR14 3DF
Information
Funding typeFee paying
MottoSapiens qui prospicit
(Wise is he who looks ahead)
Religious affiliation(s)Christian
DenominationChurch of England
Founded1865
HeadteacherAntony Clark, MA (Cantab)
ChaplainThe Rev. Andrew Law
StaffCirca 100
GenderCo-educational
Age13 to 18
Number of studentsc600
Houses10
Colour(s)Green and White    
SongCarmen Malvernense
PublicationThe Malvernian, The Malvern View, The Gryphon, Inklings
School fees£5423-£5591 (Day); £8183-£8731 (Boarding); £9211 (Sixth Form Boarders) per term(2008/2009)[1][2]
AlumniOld Malvernians
Websitewww.malvern-college.co.uk

Malvern College is a coeducational British Public School, founded in 1865. It is located in Malvern, Worcestershire.

The Good Schools Guide called the school a "Traditional co-ed rural public school with a surprising number of aces up its sleeve."[3]

History

Main Coll in snow
The College chapel with the Porter's Lodge and the Malvern Hills in the background

The school opened in January 1865 to two dozen boys and half a dozen masters. Initially, there were two Houses but expansion was rapid and by 1877 there were six Houses and 290 boys.

Further expansion of pupil numbers and buildings continued after the Great War, but during the Second World War the College suffered more than any other comparable independent school, being twice ejected and shrinking to half its former size. Required to make way for the Admiralty between October 1939 and July 1940, it found a temporary home at Blenheim Palace. The College underwent a further period of exile from May 1942 to July 1946. Ordered out at one week's notice, the school was housed with Harrow School. The College's premises were then occupied by the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), and the modern QinetiQ and DSTL are still sited on former College land.

Until 1992, it was an all boys' school, taking boys from 13 to 18 years old. In 1992, it merged with Ellerslie Girls’ School and Hillstone prep school to become coeducational with pupils from 3 to 18 years old.[1] In September 2008, it merged with The Downs prep school on The Downs' existing site in Colwall.[2]

The presence of girls within the college and the teaching of the IB has seen academic standards improve dramatically. In 2007 Malvern College was ranked by The Times newspaper as the 5th best co-educational independent school in the country.

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.[4] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period when fee information was shared.[5]

Malvern College declared income of £14,675,313 [6] for 2007.

Sport

Malvern College is currently investing in an multi million pound state of the art sporting complex and swimming pool. Planning permission has been granted for the College to build an all weather athletics track and another astro-turf at the sports pitches. Until 1995 Boy's sport at Malvern was split between the original major sports Football, Cricket and Rackets (rugby was added later) and minor sports and colours were awarded for each major sport as appropriate. After 1995 the distinction between major sport and minor sport was removed.

Traditionally Malvernians would consider the college to be a football school. Indeed the school sides in the 50's and 60's as well as the early 80's were as good as any in the country.

Recently many fine cricket sides have been produced resulting in the Old Malvernians matching the dominance of the Old Tonbridgians in the Cricketer Cup in recent years.

Somewhat contraversially in 2005 Malvern swapped its traditional football term from the Autumn to the Easter and is now playing Rugby before christmas. This has led to the loss of the traditional block fixtures against Shrewsbury, Repton, Bradfield etc although 1st XI games are arranged to keep the most traditional fixtures going.

The College has some pupils go on to perform at international level. The girls main sports are hockey and lacrosse in the winter, lacrosse and netball in the Lent Term and tennis and rounders in the summer. The School also plays a multitude of other sports such as Rackets, Fives, Athletics, Tennis, Squash, Croquet, Basketball and Badminton. Some boys' hockey and girls' football and cricket are played.

School Terms

The Senior - 1st XI Cricket Pitch

Twenty Two/ The Junior - 2nd XI Cricket

Mem Lib - Staff Room (Originally Memorial Library)

Big School - Large hall in the main building

Main Coll - Main College Building

Housem - Housemaster/mistress

The Barker - Area of grass outside the Mem Lib

Year names

  • Foundation Year (FY) -Year 9
  • The Remove -Year 10
  • The Hundred -Year 11
  • Lower Sixth -Year 12
  • Upper Sixth -Year 13

Houses

There are eleven houses at Malvern. Each house has its own house colours. The houses, in order of foundation:

School House Boys Black,Magenta and Blue

     

No. 1 Boys Red and White

   

No.2 Boys Blue and White

   

No. 3 Girls Light Blue

 

No.4 Girls Maroon

 

No.5 Boys Red and Black

   

No.6 Girls Yellow

 

No.7 Boys Purple and Black

   

No.8 Girls Pink

 

No.9 Boys Green and Black

   

Ellerslie House Girls To be decided

   

Two new boarding houses are currently being built between No.9 and the music department. No.7 will be moved to one of the houses while the other will be a new girls' house named Ellerslie which will be open in September 2009.[7]

Malvern is unusual in that the names of houses are numbers (1-9) with the exceptions of School House and Ellerslie House. (It shares this distinction with Roedean, which was founded by the sisters of Sir Paul Ogden Lawrence, an Old Malvernian and eminent Judge). There are six boys and four girls houses. Nine are situated on the school's campus while House 7, uniquely, lies further out close to the school's '9 acre' field.

Events

  • Commemoration Day

Commemoration Day, or "Commem" as it is known in the School, is the main social event of the school calendar. It is held on the Saturday of Half-term in the Summer term to commemorate the founding of the school. Sunday dress is worn and following a service in the Malvern Priory speeches are made and prizes are awarded at the Malvern Theatres. The day is an opportunity to bid farewell to the Leavers, recognise academic achievements and for Old Malvernians (OMs)and parents to visit the school. While lunches and drinks are served in the Houses’ gardens the 1st cricket XI play their annual match against the Free Foresters. The inter-house Athletics competition and the Summer Concert take place on the Friday before Commem.

  • The CVS Ball

This is a charity ball which takes place in the 5th week of every Autumn Term. The School Council is responsible for the Ball's preparation. It takes place in St. Edmunds Hall and the Longy below and is always lavishly decorated. Black Tie is worn. The theme for 2007 was ‘The Masked Ball’. There is a similar event for the Lower School (FY to Hundred) called The Autumn Ball. This takes place in The Rogers Theatre.

  • The Ledder

The Ledder, or Ledbury Run, is a 7.5-mile (12.1 km) cross country race that starts at Ledbury, goes over the Malvern Hills and finishes on the Senior, the main cricket pitch in the centre of the College. The first 9 runners receive Ledder Caps. In its early days there was no organised route and pupils simply had to get back to college as fast as they could.

St. George and the Quad on Remembrance Sunday

Held on the Sunday closest to the 11th of November, the entire college assembles in front of St. George at 10:45 and waits for a procession of parents, OMs, guests and masters to line the Quad. At 11:00 there is a two minutes silence followed by The Last Post and a reading. Representatives of the student body (the Senior Chapel Prefect {the Head Boy or Girl}) and of the Old Malvernian Society then place wreaths at the foot of St. George. Afterwards the college makes its way into the chapel for a remembrance service to commemorate the more than 400 Malvernians who lost their lives in the Great War.

Innovations

The school has played a significant role in the development of educational projects. In 1963 it was the first independent school to have a language laboratory, it pioneered Nuffield Physics in the 1960s, Science in Society in the 1970s, and the Diploma of Achievement in the 1990s.

Also at the beginning of the 1990s, Malvern College became one of the first schools in Britain to offer the choice between the International Baccalaureate and A-Levels in the Sixth Form.

Each summer the staff and some older pupils run a summer school, Young Malvern, which incorporates many sports, activities and learning experiences.

Malvern College is one of the two schools in the country to offer Debating in the curriculum, with all FY pupils taking one lesson per week The other is Dulwich College.

Carmen Malvernense

The school song was written and composed by two masters, M. A. Bayfield and R. E. Lyon. Although not sung for the past decade it has recently been revived and was sung at the 2008 Commem.

Exultemus, O sodales,
Iam cessare fas novales,
Paululum laxemus mentes,
Dulcem, domum repententes,
Age soror iuxta fratrem,
Celebremus Almam Matrem,
Quae nos ornat, haec ornanda,
Quae nos amat, adamanda.

The same song became the school song of Eastbourne College when Bayfield became headmaster there in 1895.[8]

Notable Old Malvernians

References

  1. ^ http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/malvern-college.html
  2. ^ http://www.schoolsguidebook.co.uk/schools/view/279/Malvern-College/HMC/Malvern-College-Malvern-Worcestershire-WR14-3DF
  3. ^ http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/malvern-college.html
  4. ^ Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees - Times Online
  5. ^ The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
  6. ^ http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ShowCharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=527578&SubsidiaryNumber=0
  7. ^ Headmaster's half term letter. October 2008
  8. ^ A history of music at Eastbourne College from its foundation in 1867, 18 August 2008, retrieved 5 January 2009.

52°06′14.97″N 2°19′34.30″W / 52.1041583°N 2.3261944°W / 52.1041583; -2.3261944

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