OLD GIRLS
Autumn Reunion at Oxford
Forty Old Girls met for lunch at Worcester College, Oxford on Saturday and were joined by Mrs Sarah Musgrave, the Deputy Headmistress and Alice Porter, the Head Girl who brought news of the School to the Old Girls.
A committee meeting was held beforehand and there was an excellent turn out with 15 members attending. One of the most important things to do was to offer congratulations and very good wishes to our Chairman, Hannah Plant, who has recently become engaged to Kersten Rice. Committee members had travelled long distances to attend: our treasurer Margaret Wood came from Yorkshire, as did the Social Secretary Tricia Wilkinson. Jenny Arrowsmith brought last year's Head Girl, Fiona Sedgley, who is reading Latin at Leeds University, with her. Francesca Clixby came from Durham University where she is reading Law. Veronica Blackmore came from another direction, from Devon. Hannah led the Committee very efficiently through the first meeting she has chaired and soon the other members stared to arrive. Barbara Coghlan, the most senior member of the committee, sent her apologies and her blessing for the event.
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The venue of Worcester College was suggested by Sarah Austin, one of our Vice-Chairmen and it was very good of Cate Lockwood, who lives locally, to check it out. It was an excellent choice, with the purpose built Linbury Rooms accessed through the historic buildings of the college. The walls of the Linbury Rooms were lined with fascinating pictures and there was a view out onto the extensive grounds, looking down to the lake.
It was very impressive that four members of the Malvern St James Council attended the Reunion: Anne Borrowdale, the Chairman, Charlotte Morrison (both Committee members) and Libby Anson and Elizabeth Mullenger, the former Headmistress of St James' s and the Abbey. The OGA very much values their support, especially at the end of an extremely busy week at School that included a Boarding Inspection.
A particularly special moment was seeing three Head Girls from the MSJ years meeting up – Francesca Clixby (joint Head Girl with Jenny Haighton in 2006-7), Fiona Sedgley (2007-8) and Alice Porter, the present Head Girl.
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The lunch was delicious and afterwards everyone listened with much interest as Hannah told us about the history of Worcester College, originally founded as Gloucester College in 1283. The picturesque row of medieval cottages in the main quad are among the oldest residential buildings in Oxford. The dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 ended the existence of Gloucester College. It was re-founded as Worcester College in 1714 after a Worcestershire baronet, Sir Thomas Cookes, left a generous benefaction for the foundation of a new college. Although Worcester College is close to the centre of Oxford today, it was on the edge of the city in the eighteenth century. This has allowed the College to have its sports fields within the grounds and to retain very extensive gardens: 26 acres in fact! The Linbury Building is set in those 26 acres and was built in 1990 due to a more recent generous gift.
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Hannah continued to say:
‘Now onto what has brought us all here today, we were all educated at fine establishments in Malvern, which have now all come together to be represented by the Malvern St James Old Girls Association.
I am keen to bring Old Girls from all the schools together. My key aims are to increase membership numbers and to encourage recent leavers from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s to return to Malvern and become more involved in the OGA, whilst continuing to welcome the many Old Girls who support the OGA faithfully. It has been a very exciting six months and we have been working really hard to start to achieve these aims. '
Hannah thanked Elisabeth Rambridge warmly for her work as the Old Girls' Association Secretary and told those present that the number of members we now have on the database are nearing 7500! She also thanked Penny (Smith) for all her help. She urged everyone to look at the website regularly and spread the word about it as Elisabeth is constantly updating it with news of Old Girls, their families and both OGA and School events; for example the School production of Dido and Aeneas on 27 and 28 November, which is being directed by Elizabeth Mullenger. She also said it would be much appreciated it if those present would encourage any Old Girls they are in contact with to complete the form in the 'Contact us' section, as this would help us to re-acquaint ourselves with lost members or confirm contact details.
In July, as an Association and a School we were all truly honoured and excited to welcome an Old Girl to Commemoration. Phyllida Lloyd, the award winning director of the ABBA musical ‘Mamma Mia!', presented the prizes and entertained us all with her stories.
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| Taken at Prizegiving July 2009 |
Hannah stressed that every single member of our Old Girls' Association is just as successful as Phyllida in their own right and whether they want to come and describe their path to the girls at a Careers Fair, write a story for the website or the newsletter, or just pop in for a cup of tea and a catch up the doors are always open and we would love to hear what everyone has been up to. She said that as an association we value every single member, but also thanked the special contribution made by two members, Charlotte Morrison who hosted an additional meeting for the committee at her house in September and Clare John who unfortunately cannot be here today. She served on the MGC committee for many years and then came through the merger to sit on the MSJ committee. We are extremely grateful for everything Clare has done and very thankful for her commitment to the OGA.
Hannah ended by saying 'Sadly Mrs Ros Hayes, has decided to retire as Headmistress of Malvern St James from the end of August next year. Mrs. Hayes has demonstrated outstanding leadership of Malvern St James throughout its formative period. She will be sorely missed but we wish her all the very best in her retirement. We are hoping to link our next reunion in May with a special get together to thank Ros for her dedication and to invite her past pupils to celebrate her contribution to outstanding Girls' Education in Malvern. We look forward to welcoming Ros at future reunions as a Patron of the OGA.'
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Hannah then welcomed Mrs Sarah Musgrave, the Deputy Headmistress who had brought news of MSJ. She gave a very full account of life at the School, from the excellent results last summer, placing the School in the lead in the local area, to the many extra curricular activities that take place. She too stressed how delighted the girls and their parents had been to hear Phyllida Lloyd speak and present the prizes as part of the end of year celebrations. The girls were thrilled when Phyllida autographed their prizes. Sport continues to have an important place in the life of the School and with the support of the new lacrosse coach from the USA, the squad members have improved their skills further. There is also now a School Eventing team and some keen and talented golfers at School. The Music Calendar is very full and varied. Sarah mentioned particularly the role the MSJ Singers had taken in a play "Survivorship - to Cancer and Beyond!" written by one of the parents and presented in Solihull in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. The girls received many compliments and were a real credit to the School. Over half term the Choir went on tour to Prague and Vienna. Another group was taken by the Classics Department to classical sites around the Mediterranean. Fifteen girls had represented MSJ at a Model United Nations Conference and three returned with awards. She described the expansion of the Junior Department which has 50 girls and paid credit to the Marketing and Admissions Department for their hard work and success in keeping the numbers stable in these difficult economic times. Sarah was delighted to be invited by Hannah to become an Honorary Vice-President of the Old Girls' Association.
It was lovely to have Alice Porter, the Head Girl at the lunch and her final sentence of her speech was given a very warm round of applause by everyone present:
'Therefore I look forward to the future of the OGA, and I know I will want to be a part of a programme that allows everyone's yesterday to be part of today, making tomorrow a much greater future.'
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Christopher Wilcher got the prize for bravery as he was the only gentleman at the lunch and Elisabeth Rambridge, the OGA Secretary, had the pleasure of sitting next to him. He insisted he was a dinosaur, but Elisabeth thought he was a very nice one. His wife Julie has sent in wonderful photos celebrating the life of her mother Ann Westmacott who was 100 last year. Please have a look at the story in the News section of the Old Girls' section of the website. It was super also that Nina Waddell brought her son Nicholas along to have a drink, he didn't have far to go, as he is a student at Worcester College.
A large group of the class of 1980 attended, centred around Penny Smith, one of our Vice-Chairmen (also a current member of Staff at MSJ) and Rowena Westacott, a Trustee and Committee member, consisting of Joanna Aitken, Lynnsay Dulley, Elizabeth Lule-Shillingford, Harriet Pope, Philippa Quesnel, Sarah Renwick and Jane Walker.
Lynnsay has very kindly offered to be the Area representative for Somerset and she met Tricia Wilkinson, our Social Secretary, who is going to be in touch with the Area Representatives to rally their support. Tricia has just returned from a wonderful holiday in India with her daughter, Sarah, also an Old Girl.
People were still chatting at 4 o'clock when Alice, who is studying History A Level and Elisabeth decided they would brave the crowds and visit the newly restored Ashmolean Museum. The refurbishment is stunning and the whistle-stop tour taking in the Alfred Jewel and the Pre-Raphealist section especially was much enjoyed. Elisabeth had already confided to Alice that she is a Museum Shop junkie so they parted company there. Elisabeth and Penny had left on the 6.30am train but were chatting away at 7pm when they arrived back in Malvern.
Members attending
Joanna Aitken (Napier) St J/1980
Libby Anson (Maude) St J/1957
Jenny Arrowsmith (Orwin) MGC/1971
Sarah Austin (Skinner) MGC/1987
Cate Bennett (Lockwood) St J & A/1994
Veronica Blackmore (Bashforth) MGC/1959
Anne Borrowdale (Lea) MGC/1970
Helen Burns St J & A/1997
Honor Collins (Doll) MGC/1946
Lynnsay Flavell (Dulley) St J & A/1980
Julia Hodgkins MGC/1986
Diana Lewis (Matthews) MGC/1975
Elizabeth Lule-Shillingford (Lule) St J & A/1980
Takako McLoughlin (Edayoshi) St J & A/1994
Rachel Mifsud (Moore) MGC/1974
Katharine Morgan (Moore) MGC/1970
Charlotte Morrison (Page) MGC/1973
Anne Muir MGC/1952
Rosemary Nye (Painter) MGC/1974
Jill Oldham (Cornes) MGC/1972
Hannah Plant St J & A/1997
Harriet Pope St J/1980
Helen Pugh MGC/1974
Philippa Quesnel (Le Neve Foster) St J/1980
Sarah Renwick (Haggas) St J/1980
Fiona Sedgley MSJ/2009
Penny Smith (Reay) St J & A/1980
Sarah Stoddart (Hartley) MGC/1987
Nina Waddell (Ince) MGC/1976
Jane Walker (Ashwell) St J/1980
Rowena Westacott (Evans) St J & A/1980
Julie Wilcher (Westmacott) MGC/1962
Tricia Wilkinson (Marsden) MGC/1956
Margaret Wood MGC/1960
Elizabeth Mullenger (Patron), Headmistress of St James's and The Abbey, 1986 -1997
Sarah Musgrave (Honorary Member), Deputy Headmistress of Malvern St James
Elisabeth Rambridge (Honorary Member), Old Girls' Association Secretary and School Archivist
Alice Porter, Head Girl of Malvern St James
Guests attending
Christopher Wilcher
Nicholas Waddell
The support of those Old Girls who attended is hugely appreciated by Hannah and Elisabeth. Please do put a note in your diary for the Summer Reunion at Malvern on Saturday 22 May 2010 and encourage your friends to attend.
Malvern St James