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Our view
Malvern’s campus is groaning with film-set-worthy architecture and breathtaking in its own right, but add in the outstandingly beautiful Malvern Hills as a backdrop and you have a first impression that’s hard to beat. The hallowed turf of the quintessentially English cricket square is at the heart of this very global community where pupils may start the day with a rousing chorus of ‘Jerusalem’ and end it by collaborating over a lecture with a Malvern College school in Hong Kong, China, Egypt or Tokyo. A British education for pupils who will have the world at their feet.
Where is Malvern College?
This spacious Worcestershire campus with million-dollar views over the Malvern Hills nestles unobtrusively into its setting, and the steep inclines ensure a pretty high base level of fitness for even the most sport-shy pupils. The stunning chapel (where pupils meet thrice-weekly) is at the heart of the school; boarding houses are dotted down either side of the slope, with the cricket pitches and sports complex at the bottom and an abundance of sports pitches just over the road.
The school sits in the middle of Malvern, a former Victorian spa resort filled with lovely little independent shops and cafés. It’s very easily accessible by car and the train station is a 15-minute walk away, linking to Worcester and Ledbury as well as direct lines to Birmingham and London.
Headmaster at Malvern College
Keith Metcalfe arrived in April 2019 (following a 19-year stint at Harrow), bringing along his wife, Clare, who is a talented photographer, and his three children.
Now very much into the Malvern stride, Mr Metcalfe is already beginning to see the advances made by wheels he set in motion, and there is pace gathering for ambitious plans that span from the curriculum to infrastructure. Malvern College has long been known for turning out all-round ‘good eggs’, and that ethos now seems to be back at the forefront but with a supercharge of global ambition, helped in part by the school’s longstanding and successful IB programme. Recently meeting up with some Old Malvernians in Milan, Mr Metcalfe noted how much he loved their ‘go anywhere, do anything’ attitude: ‘Not flash or fancy, just a positive influence on the world they’re in.’
Admissions at Malvern
Entrance at 13+ is usually via
Common Entrance or the school’s own exam, and the school accepts about 90 pupils into the Foundation Year (Year 9). A sizeable chunk come from the Malvern family prep,
The Downs Malvern, but are held to exactly the same high standards (all-rounders are valued here) and, once in, they are distributed evenly between the houses to ensure they don’t dominate.
The sixth form sees the next big influx, based on subject-specific tests and minimum GCSE standards. Many incoming sixth-formers are international students attracted by the IB, with an increasing number of Europeans among them.
Parents are advised to get in touch two to three years before entry and
book in for an open day or visit (tours are led by a combination of staff, parents and former pupils, who give a useful perspective).
Academics and destinations
Malvern may not be overly selective at entrance, but bright sparks do terrifically well here, and the head is adamant that the top third could go toe to toe with the top third anywhere. IB is well entrenched (‘It fits well with the Malvern ethos,’ says Mr Metcalfe), and the IB to A-level ratio consistently sits around the 50:50 mark.
Recognising that pupils learn differently, Malvern is adapting the current offering to include a handful of BTECs alongside the A-level and IB portfolio, as well as arts, analytical thinking and PPE pathways alongside GCSE, which will allow pupils to focus on eight to ten GCSEs while still receiving a broad education without the need for exams in every subject. ‘We wish to further broaden our offering, maximising the potential of every child and offering styles of teaching and assessments that work for the child you’ve got,’ says Mr Metcalfe. Most subject teachers offer regular weekly clinics to help pupils stay on top of the game, and in-house tutors keep a constant eye on both effort and attainment grades.
It’s worth noting that sixth-formers get to choose their own tutors, a system that parents and pupils alike told us was hugely impactful and ensures that the latter are paired with a member of staff with whom they have a natural affinity.
More good news for sixth-formers comes in the shape of a phenomenal new sixth-form centre, ready for use in September 2024. We were given a sneak peek of the architects’ plans, and the design is pitched somewhere between ‘trendy London office’, with whiteboards and collaborative spaces, and ‘upmarket restaurant’, with enormous ferns in planters and individual study tables.
Also on its way is a new staff, pupil and parent café, a social space for every member of the school community. It will update the much-loved but underused Grub.
Older pupils are given a taste of university-style seminars, and the state-of-the-art Lewis Lecture Theatre evokes a university environment – which, we are told, is deliberate. There are societies and lectures (many given by the pupils) that broaden the mind and challenge thinking, and life skills are also part of the curriculum, with pupils delving into key issues such as first aid, e-safety, consent, homophobia and drugs.
Results are solid, with the school consistently smashing the world average for IB diploma scores. Elite and Russell Group universities feature heavily on the destination list, and Malvern has been sending an annual cohort of students to US universities for the past decade.
Co-curricular at Malvern College
Sport is massive at Malvern and facilities are top-notch. The sports complex is no longer new but it’s still very snazzy (and open to the public), complete with a pool, two huge indoor halls, gyms and a climbing wall in the foyer. Add in beautifully manicured cricket pitches, squash, rackets, fives and tennis courts, two full-size Astros and more grass pitches than you could shake a stick at, and there is more than enough to keep sporty types content. A new director of sport has brought a fresh slant, and parents are already noting a less hierarchical vibe where all sports are given parity, irrespective of ability or gender.
Coaching is done by specialist staff, many with very impressive playing and national-coaching credentials, and elite athletes have an additional pathway in place to further support their development. The eight-mile, cross-country Ledder race for the top three years is a fantastic annual tradition, maximising on the local hilly terrain, and staff and pupils either take part or cheer the exhausted runners on.
Drama is phenomenal. The recently refurbished Rogers Theatre is of a professional standard, and the number and standard of performances are astounding. Some parents told us that they often book seats for performances their own children aren’t even in.
Musically, Malvern now has
All-Steinway School status thanks to a ‘significant’ donation that funded the purchase of 28 Steinway pianos. The music school is one of a number of areas that will see development in future years.
Creative subjects are first rate: our junior spies were mesmerised by the sight of a 3D printer in action in the D&T workshop, and there’s wide variety in the art department, with specialist studios for ceramics, painting and drawing, printmaking, textiles, graphic design and photography.
The jewel in Malvern’s co-curricular crown is the extensive and ambitious outdoor-pursuits programme. CCF is popular, and DofE is par for the course at some point for almost every pupil, many of whom achieve gold. This energetic lot make the very most of their environment, heading out on cross-country runs, mountain biking or, in winter, snow-kayaking (a new one for us).
But it’s the annual Lost and Hunted events that secure the headlines here. Unique and daring, Lost sees pairs of pupils blindfolded and dropped at an unknown point, tasked with using their wits (and manners) to race home for the glory of their boarding house. (Each pair has an accompanying member of staff who is there to safeguard but cannot interact or help in any way). Hunted sees pairs of pupils (one from each house), given a time period to disperse and hide on the nearby Malvern Hills before being tracked down by appointed members of staff, dogs and even a helicopter on one occasion. The last pair to be found gets bucketloads of glory and maximum kudos for their house. ‘It’s a life-changing 24 hours,’ one participant told us, while the head summarised that these very Bond-like missions, along with all the outdoor pursuits, are part and parcel of Malvern’s function as ‘a safe place to take risks’.
Boarding at Malvern College
Just over three-quarters of pupils are boarders, and almost all of them are at school on Saturday night. There are 11 houses; as you head down the hill, girls are on the right, boys on the left, and a rolling refurbishment of each one is under way. Prospective pupils at Malvern are asked to nominate at least three houses. Although each house has its own merits, they also have their own character, colours and traditions – of which their members are fiercely proud.
Day pupils are fully integrated; each has their own study space and storage as they are often in school until after ‘Hall’ (prep) at 9pm. They also have the option to board on an ad hoc basis, and the majority do so at some point. Malvern is brilliantly co-ed and inclusive, with pupils allowed to welcome friends to the communal areas in their boarding houses, as well as regular lunch swaps, which see boys trooping over to a girls’ house or vice versa.
For the first three years, pupils tend to sleep in dorms or shared rooms upstairs and work downstairs; in the Upper Sixth, everyone gets their own study bedroom. All meals are eaten in house except at weekends, when there is communal dining in the main school.
House competitions are high quality, varied and hotly contested, with everyone strongly encouraged to get stuck in or pitch up and support. Pastoral care is fully deployed in houses: peer mentors get proper counselling training and pupils belong to tutor groups within their house, with problems solved quickly and effectively, we’re told.
Pupils can pop into Malvern in their free time, and sixth-formers get to hang out in The Longy, their appropriately studenty and much-loved common room, where they are allowed a maximum of three drinks each weekend, with a heavily policed half-hour pause between each one.
In the summer, the more open-air ethos results in a programme of pizza van one week, burger van and outdoor ‘unplugged’ concert the next – so popular that it is set to continue.
Malvern College school community
With so many pupils boarding and a third from overseas, it’s perhaps no great surprise that there isn’t a strong parental presence here, but the past few years have seen Malvern make huge efforts to change that. Inviting parents of whole year groups at a time to drinks and dinner, arranging face to face and online seminars on key topics and always welcoming parents to sports matches, concerts and productions have all boosted involvement – and the new café will undoubtedly be a welcome hub for parents too.
Judging by the hordes of delightful, down-to-earth pupils with big grins on their faces, you get the impression this is a very happy environment. One of Malvern’s many strengths (and where some schools fall short) is enforcing discipline, and the school is run as a nicely tight ship.
And finally...
The (Malvern) Hills are alive with the sound of pupils – whether they are collaborating over a lecture about the use of colour in the film Jaws, whooping with delight as their hockey coach arrives at training dressed as Ted Lasso or conversing in hushed whispers as they evade capture in Hunted. There’s an unmistakable air of momentum at Malvern College, a feeling that the less perceptible propagation phase is about to give way to a more overt flourishing of options, opportunities, facilities and flexibility, which are all designed to maximise the potential of every pupil and make the world their oyster.