OLD GIRLS

 

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF

MALVERN ST JAMES OLD GIRLS' ASSOCIATION

Held at Malvern St James

On Saturday 22 May 2010 at 2.30pm in Lawnside

Present:

Mrs Ros Hayes (Headmistress of Malvern St James and Honorary President), Miss Hannah Plant (Chairman), Mrs Elisabeth Rambridge (Secretary), 2 Patrons, 4 Honorary Vice Presidents, 9 Honorary Members, 37 Members

1. Minutes of previous meeting

The Chairman signed the Minutes from the previous meeting.

2. Chairman's Report

Hannah thanked the Headmistress Mrs Ros Hayes for welcoming the Old Girls, Dinah Cramp for the flowers, Steve Ewence and his team for setting up the Reunion and Cliff Powell and his team for the fantastic lunch.

‘What a year we have had! When I first sat down to write the speech, I was so excited because there is so much to fill you in. I want to get across how the OGA is changing and how exciting and vibrant it is becoming. An extra meeting was held last September at Charlotte Morrison's beautiful home. We want to hold onto our current members but also to increase our membership and the involvement of our more recent leavers. The drive has started with the website which is kept up to date by the OGA Secretary and it has been updated such a lot.'

The Old Girls' section of the School Website was viewed live and Hannah showed the OGA News at the bottom of the Chairman's Welcome, the ‘Contact us' section with the Contact Form. She encouraged those there to tell their friends to contact the OGA and also see if there was anyone they knew in ‘Where are they now?' This will make our MSJ ‘family' bigger. Please view our fantastic website.

Hannah referred to the database, saying that at the recent AROPS (Association of Representatives of Old Pupils' Societies) representatives were struggling to keep up with 1 school and we as an organisation represent 6 schools. There is an advantage in numbers and we are trying to update the database but we still have a long way to go. Please be in touch any way and welcome as many members as possible.

Hannah continued ‘Our most recent and maybe our biggest achievement is the Newsletter. We hope you enjoyed it: we wanted to inject colour, variety, photos and make it more readable. We hope you are encouraged to read stories about people you don't know. We have had good wishes emailed from those who wish us well and are sorry they can't be here. We received a lovely email from one member. "Glad to receive all your news. I love getting your emails. I will be 93 next week." There's news of the reunion at Oxford, news of Honours received, new wives, new mums, Olympic hopefuls. We are getting together to share what we are doing'.

‘I would like to make a plea for someone to verify the accounts. If you have an interest in figures, contact Elisabeth. Also, please be in touch if you would be prepared to join the trustees. There are also Area Representatives needed in some areas. I keep mentioning Elisabeth and would like to thank her for her outstanding work in representing us and in putting together the newsletter'.

Hannah ended by saying ‘The School goes from strength to strength and the boarding provision is outstanding – MSJ is an outstanding school. I know that the word outstanding is not bandied around – the result of a fantastic team led by Mrs Ros Hayes'.

Hannah invited the Headmistress Mrs Ros Hayes to give a presentation to everyone.

The Headmistress Mrs Ros Hayes addressed the AGM and thanked the Governing Body and all the staff very warmly. She gave a very full and informative address and began by quoting Abraham Lincoln, ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it.' She stressed how important it was to decide what you want to move forward. She spoke warmly of the Staff team, especially the Leadership Team, and referred to the accolade that the School was a ‘Lively, impressive place to be'. The excellent results last summer, with the particularly pleasing statistic of 64.2% Grade A at A Level and the subjects studied by the girls – with Science, Engineering, Maths at the top as well as the Universities they went on to, ranking in the top 50 in the world, as well as leading Art Colleges, were listed.

Ros stressed that what happened outside of the classroom is just as important to shape your character: she described the many varied achievements of all the girls and said that the School is vibrant and busy. She referred to the fact that all girls' education is not the ‘flavour of the month' and that co-educational is seen as the ‘real world'; and asked ‘Do you want 11 year olds to have to face the real world? We should be proud of the caring and supportive environment there is at Malvern St James. Girls learn in a different way with no distractions in the classroom. Girls take subjects that go against gender and they flourish in an atmosphere of encouragement and support that allows intellectual risk taking. There is excellent pastoral support and all positions of leadership are open to young woman. The self esteem is not just a confidence built on others but held within the individual'. Ros quoted parents' comments that there were no limits to what girls achieve.

Ros gave the Old Girls an update on ‘Going for Gold', the School's strategic plan to develop first class facilities and explained the need to get boarding facilities just right. The refurbishment of Batsford (which used to be the Bursary) was well underway and would provide facilities of the same standard as a Prep school. There was an excellent Housemistress there. Years 9,10,11 would go into the Main Building to use its facilities more easily; Greenslade would be a Year 12 boarding house and Benhams would be a boarding house for Year 13 with en suite accommodation, that can be used for conferences and to generate income. The plan was also to refurbish the swimming pool.

Last year, Ros told the Old Girls about the key risks and she reminded Old Girls of them, which were to get planning permission and the necessary funding. The Dome is now a listed building which has impacted on these plans. Ros stressed that Schools have to move forward and spoke warmly about the opening of Batsford in September and the confidence that this would attract more of the younger boarders.

Hannah thanked Ros for this excellent report and concluded by saying ‘Ours is an outstanding OGA!' Ros is retiring this summer and in November is trekking along the Himalayan range, raising money for Parkinson's UK. If any Old Girls would like to sponsor Ros, please contact Elisabeth for forms. Hannah concluded by saying that Ros had been contributing to Outstanding Girls' Education since 1989 and was much respected as a firm but fair Headteacher, who was also great fun (as an old photo showed!). On behalf of the OGA Committee, Hannah made a presentation to Ros.

Ros thanked her and referred warmly to the group of Old Girls present who she remembered from their days in Year 9.

3. Secretary's Report

Elisabeth Rambridge gave this report:

A very warm welcome to you all and my sincere thanks for your support. I hope you have looked at the notice board to see the good wishes sent by many members and also some of the news cuttings which I always alert the staff to and display on the OGA notice board in its prominent position at the top of the stairs to the York Hall.

It has been an incredibly busy year in the OGA and the contacts made are reflected in the vibrant OGA News and the news stories on the website. My main plea is for more news and for each of you to spread out a ripple of contact which then comes back to me so that we can continue to celebrate the diversity of achievement and interest in our flourishing Association. As long as I have a few bits of information and some photos, I can put together the ‘stories' for the newsletter and the website. Please in particular encourage any friends you have who did not actually become members to make contact with me and also encourage them to join the Association. We have the email addresses of about one-quarter of our members, but if we could collect more, this is the most efficient and cost-effective way of keeping in touch.

I would like to say an enormous thank you to Hannah – she makes a tremendous contribution to the life of the OGA by her monthly visit to School which means that she is well known by the staff and her personal appreciation of what I do always encourages me such a lot. I'd also like to thank Penny Smith who just by dropping in on a regular basis to see how things are has woven a much closer bond between the OGA and School.

Elisabeth also read out a message of thanks from Samantha Marfleet, Head of Careers, who this time last year had asked Old Girls to support the Careers Fair.

‘This year Malvern St James hosted a successful Careers Fair and an initial plea on the OGA section of the School website and working with Elisabeth, led to us welcoming Old Girls back to the School.

Annabel Rayer whose company ‘Silver Ball' represented Public Relations, Jo Charles is a Senior Lecturer in Equine Studies at the Royal Agricultural College, Nina Waddell is a qualified Dentist, and Ottoline Scriven is currently studying Overseas and was able to discuss her experiences with the Girls. We were also pleased to welcome Nicholas Burt, husband of Old Girl Isabel Bomford representing The Orchards School of Cookery and Stephen Bowen, representing accounting, who is the son of Penny Smith.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in the event for their time and for using their expertise to help advise the Girls on opportunities available to them in the future. To have Old Girls offering advice to current students make the experience all the more personal and relevant.

I look forward to working with the OGA on future events.'

4. Honorary Treasurer's Report

Margaret Wood gave this report:

I am glad to see so many Old Girls' present today, particularly the contingent from my era at College. It is hard to believe that it is 50 years since we left and, personally 61 years since I started in Parkfield. It makes me feel very ancient!

To move on to the accounts for the year to 31^st October 2009. We have finished with a surplus for the year, which I think is satisfactory, considering the fall in interest rates and dividend income. And, basically, that is the answer to any differences between 2008 and 2009. And, unfortunately, we have no control over the financial global situation. Hopefully this will change in the future, but again, the timing is out of our hands.

We are also sat with a lot of ‘cash' in our Balance Sheet, which we have been waiting to invest for the past two years. I am sure, when the time is right, the Trustees will organize the investment of this money.

If anyone wants to ask any questions about the figures, I will be only too pleased to try and answer them.

May I conclude, by saying we are still looking for an auditor to cast their eye over the yearly figures, and independently, confirm their correctness. Thank you.

5. Any other Business

• The Treasurer's Report was proposed by Di Cooley and seconded by Penny Smith. 
• The OGA bracelets with the specially commissioned charm were shown to the Old Girls. 

The meeting ended at 3.22pm