With over 100 performers and artwork provided by the Year 10 GCSE pupils, our spring concert treated a full house to an evening of fantastic music just before the beginning of the Easter break.
Guests enjoyed a drinks reception afterwards, with jazz music from the A level group setting a lively mood. Well done to all our performers.
As the Summer term approaches, we have an abundance of cricket action to look forward to across the entire school.
Merchant Taylors’ has a proven record of producing county cricketers at youth and professional level, with the likes of Ben Aitchison at Derbyshire and George Lavelle and Tom Hartley at Lancashire now playing regularly for their respective first teams.
George Lavelle is one of a number of recent Alumni who have gone on to play professionally. (Image: Lancashire CC)
As the next generation of young cricketers follows in their footsteps, they will enjoy access to our excellent indoor and outdoor cricket facilities and top-class coaching at lunchtimes and after school, led by our head of cricket coaching and former Lancashire Academy director, Gary Yates.
Former Lancashire Academy director, Gary Yates is head of cricket coaching at Merchant Taylors’.
Indeed, our credentials mean we were chosen by Lancashire CCC as their only development centre on Merseyside and our pupils have taken part in nets and other coaching throughout the winter months, including specialist holiday cricket camps which are also open to external pupils.
We have an established boys’ cricket team at every year group from Year 6 to Year 13, with two teams in Years 7 and 8, and each season we enter a variety of regional and national T20 and cup competitions.
Girls’ cricket is also flourishing at Merchant Taylors’, with coaching available across the year groups. This season, our girls will play their first competitive matches on behalf of the school, against Nottingham High School, following an extensive period of summer and winter training.
For those pupils with the talent and ambition to pursue professional careers, we support them with detailed knowledge of player pathways, strong links at Club and County level and bespoke invitational training within school.
We have an established boys’ cricket team at every year group from Year 6 to Year 13
A highlight of every year is the MCC Invitational match against our current first team, which takes place this year on Thursday 12 May, while we can also look forward to a season finale tournament, hosted jointly with Ormskirk CC, when we will welcome teams from The Perse School in Cambridge, Newcastle School for Boys and Durham School.
If you love cricket as much as we do, this is the school for you.
Over the past week we have been planting trees across our three school sites for The Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 which invites people from across the United Kingdom to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”.
With a focus on planting sustainably, the QGC encourages the planting of trees to create a legacy in honour of The Queen’s leadership of the Nation, which will benefit future generations.
On Monday 28 March we held our traditional Easter Hat Parade at Stanfield. Pupils, with help form their parents and guardians, had each decorated a hat with an Easter theme, and we had so many brilliant creations on show. During assembly pupils modelled their hats down the Stanfield catwalk and it was wonderful to see everyone getting into the spirit of the event and clapping and cheering each other.
Congratulations to our Easter Hat Parade Winners:
Reception – Emily
Year 1 – Jake
Year 2 – Vivi
Year 3 – Nico
Year 4 – Lottie
Year 5 – Freya & Will
Year 6 – Sofia & Jacob
In the afternoon the pupils completed a charity walk (and conga!) around Stanfield in aid of two chosen charities, Marie Curie UK and Therapy Dogs Nationwide. Thanks to all of your kind donations we managed to raise £305.71.
On Friday 18th March, Year 12 Biology students visited the University of Liverpool to spend the day working in a laboratory in the Life Sciences Building.
The students undertook a series of practical techniques using specialist equipment to isolate and separate muscle proteins from a fish sample. Such techniques included electrophoresis, pipetting and SDS-PAGE. The work stretched the sixth form students beyond their A level specification whilst enabling them to test new practical skills.
Throughout the day, our students worked closely with current university students, allowing them to also learn more about degree courses such as Biological Sciences and Zoology, as well as what life as a university student may be like.
Stanfield Preparatory School was proud to host the AJIS Under-11 Rugby Festival 2022.
A total of 12 schools from across the North West took part in the day-long event, which was held in a round-robin format across four pitches on the Boys’ School site.
Pupils from each school played the matches in a great spirit of enthusiasm, while there was some excellent, committed rugby on display from every team.
The full list of schools to take part is as follows:
Newcastle Under Lyme School
Cheadle Hulme School
Stockport Grammar School
Birkenhead School
Manchester Grammar School
Kirkham Grammar School
AKS Lytham
The King’s School, Macclesfield
St Mary’s College
The Grange School
Bolton School
Stanfield Preparatory, Merchant Taylors’
Manchester Grammar School and Stanfield Preparatory, Merchant Taylors’ were each able to field two separate teams and we were proud to see our Golds team emerge unbeaten at the end of the day.
Mr Benbow, head of juniors at Stanfield Preparatory School, Merchant Taylors’ said: “Rugby has always been an essential part of life at Merchant Taylors’ and features heavily in the tradition of our school.
“It was a pleasure to be hosting another AJIS rugby event here, especially considering the challenges of the last 2 years. As always, the emphasis of the event was to allow our players to develop their rugby skills in a competitive environment and I was very impressed with the levels of play and sportsmanship on show across each team.”
Last Monday and Friday over 200 students ‘virtually’ travelled 5,000 miles to the heart of Chengdu, China for an immersive online experience alongside Hampton Gurney CofE Primary School, University College School Hampstead London, The Perse School Cambridge, Hitchin Boys’ School and Tiffin School.
Pupils were greeted each day by their host ‘live’ in China before they embarked on a day of exploration and learning. During the virtual trip, the students visited famous landmarks and museums, learned about ancient Sanxingdui culture, took a tour around the local street food markets and experienced life as a student in China. Pupils enjoyed the practical element of the trip and created their very own Chinese rubbing painting.
Two of our pupils, Alex Edey and Ethan Horspool, have been awarded Gold in a prestigious national Chemistry competition, placing them among the top 10% in the UK.
The UK Chemistry Olympiad is organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry and is now in its 54th year. It is a unique opportunity for students to push themselves further and excel in their knowledge of Chemistry.
Budding chemists are challenged to develop critical problem-solving skills, learn to think more creatively and get a chance to test their knowledge in new, real-world situations.
A total of 8668 pupils took part nationally, with only 8.9% achieving a Gold Certificate.
Well done, Alex and Ethan.
Following the unveiling of our new Strategic Plan we are delighted to announce three new senior appointments to the Executive Team at Merchant Taylors’ School.
Mr Deiniol Williams will take on the role of Head of School at the Boys’ School, Mrs Bridget Ward is to become the Head of School at the Girls’ School and Mr Jonathan Andrews has been appointed to the post of Academic Director across all areas of Merchant Taylors’ School.
All three appointments are effective from September 2022 and the new members of the Executive Team will support Mrs Claire Tao, our Executive Head, on the implementation of the new Strategic Plan. They will join Miss Elizabeth Lynan, Head of Stanfield Preparatory School, and Mrs Lynn Hill, Chief Operating Officer.
Mr Deiniol Williams will take on the role of Head of School at the Boys’ School
During his career, Deiniol Williams has served in boys’ and co-educational schools, including four years as the Head of Sixth Form at Wisbech Grammar School and more than seven years as the Deputy Head, Pastoral at the Boys’ School, including a year as Acting Headmaster in 2017-18.
Mrs Bridget Ward is to become the Head of School at the Girls’ School
Bridget Ward has worked in girls’ and co-educational schools, including two years as Deputy Head at Woldingham School in Surrey and three years as the Director of Academic Administration and Compliance at Queen’s Gate School, London immediately prior to joining Merchant Taylors’ last September.
Mr Jonathan Andrews has been appointed to the post of Academic Director
In his new role as Academic Director, Jonathan Andrews will lead on the academic provision and all aspects of teaching and learning for the whole of Merchant Taylors’ School. During his career, he has worked in boys’ and co-educational schools including four years as Director of Teaching and Learning at Oakham School, before joining Merchant Taylors’ in September 2019.
On behalf of the entire Merchant Taylors’ community, we extend our warm congratulations to Mr Williams, Mrs Ward and Mr Andrews.
Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School was pleased to host an Under-16s rugby sevens tournament on Saturday.
Teams from Wirral Grammar School, AKS Lytham, Lancaster RGS, Birkenhead School, St Mary’s College, Stonyhurst, St Anselm’s, Cheadle Hulme and Manchester Grammar School took part in the day-long event, held on Saturday 5 March.
St Anselm’s emerged as the eventual winners and boys from every school played their part in a great day of school rugby sevens.