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Headline News
29th April 2008
Dear Parents
I would like to bring you up to date with the latest news on our progress towards the merger in September.
Boarding House
I am delighted to be able to announce the new boarding team to you. Following the interviews of an extremely high quality field, Brian and Linda Richardson have been appointed as Houseparents. Brian and Linda are currently Houseparents at Cheltenham College Junior School where Brian teaches PE and Games and Linda teaches English. They bring with them their three children, Ellie, Sarah and Jonathan, and are extremely enthusiastic about developing a caring, friendly, boarding atmosphere to match the wonderful facilities that are being built. The Richardsons will be supported by Elizabeth Cole who is well known to Malvern College Prep parents having been the Housemistress of Southlands, the girls’ Boarding House, since last September.
Mandy James, who has been working at The Downs for 19 years, will lead the Matrons‘ department and will be responsible for all aspects of medical care for both day and boarding pupils. Mandy will be assisted by Teresa Smith, who has, as many of you know, been working at The Downs for the past 5 years in this role. The boarding team will be supplemented by Gap students. In September these will be Luke Tsolakides (currently at The Downs) Sarah Chapman and Kate Simpson (currently at MCP) as well as full time academic staff on a rota basis.
Phases I and 2 of the Boarding House development are now complete and children are already enjoying their brand new dormitories and two large and newly fitted recreation areas. These two areas are refurbished to a high standard and we would be delighted to show any parents around the boarding facilities at any time. Please contact either Karen Ramsay or Mandy James to make an appointment.
There will be an Open Boarding afternoon on Sunday 1st June (return from half term) at 4.00pm. Any pupils and their parents who have an interest in boarding are invited to join us for a cream tea and will have the opportunity of meeting the full boarding team, including the Richardsons. We do hope that as many people as possible will join us for this afternoon, which is open to current full boarders and those who feel they may make use of boarding in the future. As well as meeting the team, there will be an opportunity to tour the facilities and also games for the children.
Both groups of boarding children met recently for a ‘fun evening’ in the new Boarding House and we had a very happy and enjoyable evening. There will be a number of these combined ‘fun evenings’ during the course of this term. If you would like to sign your children up to join such an event, please do contact either school office.
Pre Prep Staffing
Sadly, I have to announce some changes to our Pre Prep staffing for September. Mrs Gillian Hancock has, after many years of devoted service to The Downs, decided to retire and Tim Jones of MCP has been promoted to Head of Digital Learning at Malvern College. We would like to take this opportunity of wishing Gillian a very happy retirement and congratulating Tim on his exciting appointment. Advertisements have been placed to recruit two new Pre Prep staff and we have already had some very high quality applications. I will, of course, inform you as soon as we have appointed our new staff.
PE Post
You will notice that our Houseparent, Brian Richardson, also teaches PE & Games and, as a fully qualified PE specialist, he will be joining the PE Department to assist Jill Brierly in September.
Lower School
I would like to offer our congratulations to Karen Mountain, who has been appointed as Head of Pre Prep at Bow School, in her home area of Durham and wish her the very best of luck in her new post. Obviously we will confirm arrangements for next year’s Year 3 in the near future.
Building Works
All of our building works continue on schedule. As stated earlier, the Boarding House renovations are now into Phase 3 and some aspects of Phase 4. The roof will shortly go on to the pre-prep building and completion has been brought forward to 29th July. Preliminary works have started on the Sports Hall site and the main build will commence on 12th May. Work has started on the Astroturf pitch. The redgras has been removed and new drainage and grading is complete. The completion date for this project is the middle of June, currently 4 days ahead of schedule, but this is the most weather dependent of all of the projects so we must keep our fingers crossed for the mid-June deadline. Work is due to commence on the new playgrounds in the second week of May. This project has been delayed by some 2 months due to the need to tie the drainage of this area into the new drains being fitted for the Sports Hall. There were significant advantages in combining these two projects, which had led to the delay of the playground. With a 6-week construction period this project will be completed close to the end of term.
Uniform
It is wonderful to see so many children proudly wearing the new school uniform. There are uniform booklets available in the offices of both schools should you wish to collect one. There have been one or two very minor changes of which you should be aware for September.
Forest School
There has been a great deal of work taking place over the past 6 weeks to ensure that the new school will have an active Forest School classroom from the start of next term. Both sets of staff have been meeting regularly and the design of the new Early Years’ building will lend itself easily to further Forest School development for our youngest children.
Contract
You will have received a new Contract and Terms and Conditions for the new school in your Easter mailing. May I remind you to sign the Acceptance Form and return it to your school office by 5th May? Just to confirm, no additional deposit is required for existing parents (except Malvern College Pre-Prep parents) whose children are transferring to the new school.
Please could Malvern College Pre-Prep parents make a deposit payment of £150 to Sue Pickett (payable to Malvern College) by May 5th? This will then be transferred over to The Downs, Malvern College Prep with the other deposits held.
There is much still to achieve in the coming 4 months but please rest assured that all staff are working extremely hard to make September and beyond a very successful and happy time for your children.
I will continue to issue merger updates throughout this term and please remember that Karen and I, as well as Peter Moody, are available at any time to discuss any concerns you may have.
Yours sincerely
Alastair Ramsay
Headmaster
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