Thanks to Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School PTA who have sponsored the creation of a brand new library at Stanfield. Members of the PTA and all the schools’ librarians attended the official opening which took place just before half term. This is a fantastic new resource for all the pupils at Stanfield and they are extremely grateful to MTGS PTA for their continued hard work and generosity.
Since her election in February this year, Mrs Belinda Miller has successfully been juggling her role as Director of Studies at MTGS with the prestigious position of Lady Captain at Royal Birkdale Golf Club. It is the first time that a lady has been asked to combine this honorary position with full time work. Particularly fitting, the inaugural Lady Captain’s competition this year was held over a weekend to mirror the Captain’s Easter competition held for the men. The whole event was very successful, involving lots of sunshine and laughter!
Belinda’s hard work balancing these two positions has been extremely impressive and everyone at the school wishes her well in her remaining months in the role.
The boys and girls at holiday club enjoyed a lesson in shortbread making and tasting, proving to be very popular by all yesterday! Next week’s tasty treat is going to be Halloween themed, spooky jellies!
Old girl Sian Stephens (nee Evans) 1980-87 was sitting at her desk one Monday morning opening emails to the busy careers enquiries mailboxes she managed as the national Recruitment Manager for a UK luxury boutique hotel chain when an email from a TV Company caught her eye. Looking for lively couples to apply for a TV quiz show to win their dream wish list by answering general knowledge questions on a range of topics against the clock and is hosted by Shane Ritchie on the BBC Lottery show on Saturday night. Sian saw this as an excellent opportunity to try and win their dream holiday to visit their best friends who had moved to Perth in Australia and as both her and her husband enjoy quizzes and know their general knowledge and trivia so Sian applied. A few weeks later Sian had forgotten all about the show until she got a phone call from one of the show’s producers who invited her to audition there and then over the phone. Sian’s husband Phil also received a phone call which was somewhat of a surprise as Sian had forgotten to tell him! However they both passed the initial audition and were then invited to a live audition with 6 other couples in Manchester. We were very nervous and I made a few comical errors Sian recalls, but managed to win over the producers who selected them for the show.
In August 2015 the couple along with 5 of their friends who were invited to come and watch for support, travelled up to the BBC studios in Glasgow to film the show in front of a live studio audience. It was very nerve racking but Shane Ritchie was lovely and really made us feel at ease Sian remembers and we overcame our nerves to win an amazing 6 out of our 7 prizes which totalled £35,000 including our dream holiday to Thailand and Australia, a festival in our garden with live band, DJ and Hogroast, room makeover, a man cave for Phil and a spa weekend by answering all our questions correctly beating the clock to even get some as an instant win. Sian’s topics included nature and popular culture and has credited her Merchants education as helping to give her the thirst for knowledge and keeping up to date with current affairs – I knew my General Studies A Level would come in useful one day she states!
The couple had become somewhat celebrities after appearing in the local paper twice so decided to organise an evening for friends and family at a local tennis club when the show was aired to help raise money by holding a raffle for their friends charity Believe Organ donation (believe-ods-org.uk) started by the widow of local boy Stuart Bates who was tragically killed with his young son by a speeding driver last Christmas as they walked home from a family party. They continued their fundraising by collecting donations for the charity at their recent festival in their garden. Sian is a keen athlete and charity fundraiser and with her previous company Lloyd’s Register EMEA (marine surveyors) was chosen by the CEO as one of the runners in an international team from offices around the world to compete in the gruelling 250,000 anniversary Athens marathon in 2010 raising over 40k for various marine charities. In 2010 Sian also started a charity project called the Breakfast Club for local homeless shelter the Whitechapel Centre in Liverpool which involved volunteers from her office serving breakfasts to the Homeless on a weekly basis which launched the volunteer programme still going today.
After Sian left school she attended Surrey University achieving a Joint Honours in English and Sociology then continued living and working in London in Health Club Management for over 13 years. She then moved back to Crosby in 2002 and married childhood sweetheart Phil Stephens whose sister Elizabeth was deputy Head Girl in 1986/7 and eventually buying her childhood home which she shares with Phil and their 3 children.
Old Boy Justin Hughes attended Merchant Taylors’ between 1978-82 following his time at the prep school. He has now drawn upon his wealth of experiences to write a book illustrating how to transfer military approaches to working environments…
WHAT CAN A FIGHTER PILOT TEACH A CEO?
My first career was as an RAF fighter pilot. I flew the Tornado F3 for 6 years and was then lucky enough to spend my last 3 years in the RAF on the Red Arrows. I became the Executive Officer and flew around 250 displays worldwide. I had no real longer-term career plan, so it was a case of working out where else I might be able to leverage my skills and experience. I decided to set up a team building business applying my experience in the corporate world.
My break came before the business even started. During my last summer on the Red Arrows, I flew in a flypast over Buckingham Palace in formation with Concorde for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. As a result, I had the opportunity to take a flight to New York on Concorde. The co-pilot asked me what my next job would be. I told him about my plans for the business and he said I should meet his sister who was Head of Internal Comms at a large insurer. They became our first client.
Since then, the business has grown in breadth and depth and is now a consultancy which partners with organisations committed to high performance. There is a surprising commonality between the challenges faced by a fighter pilot and those which exist in large organisations. A fighter pilot’s world is characterised by ambiguity, imperfect information and time pressure. Sound familiar to anyone? Over time, we have deconstructed the key factors which drive high-performance in that world:
Bring these factors to life in an engaging way was the aim in writing my recent book: The Business of Excellence: Building High-Performance Teams and Organizations. The book draws on lessons from the military, commercial and sporting worlds to illustrate and explain tools and methods which the reader can apply in their own teams. Experience seems to show that the fighter pilot approach actually translates pretty well to other environments.
The Business of Excellence, published by Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4729-3022-4
Callum Davidson took gold at the North West Closed Judo Championship held in Blackburn in October. The young fighter, who trains at Wirral Judo Club, was in spectacular form which saw him power his way through and take the gold medal. Throughout the competition Callum who is currently in year 8, dominated his opponents and continued to show his impressive throwing techniques.
‘I’m happy with my performances today and am looking forward to competing at the British Championships in December,’ said Callum
This success follows a further gold medal at a regional competition in Kendal.
Former pupil and professional Actor Arthur Mc Bain took an Acting Masterclass for the cast of the Schools’ forthcoming joint production Grease. Sharing his expertise with the boys and girls of the cast Arthur was able to teach from some experience having played the lead part of Danny when the production was last staged at Merchant Taylors’ Schools in 2008. Arthur is about to begin rehearsals at the Lyric, Hammersmith for the pantomime ‘Aladdin’.
The following day the soloists in the cast worked with Paul Wynne Griffiths, a Voice Coach and Conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Paul, who is an school friend of Dr Gill, has had forty years of experience coaching opera singers and the cast benefited enormously from his expert guidance.
The cast continue to work extremely hard in rehearsals, this fantastic musical is very likely to be a sell-out so you are advised to purchase your tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Tickets are available from both schools, Pritchards or to book please visit https://trybooking.co.uk/679
Charlotte Dawe, who is currently in Year 10, has been working incredibly hard with her pony Jackets Dream Chance (Blossom) to attain some very impressive equestrian achievements. Charlotte has been competing at a high level in showing and dressage with both the British Show Pony Society and British Dressage. Her hard work has allowed her to secure several top 5 placements in National Championships for both disciplines and qualify for a place in the British Dressage Petplan Area Festival Championships. Charlotte competed in these Championships last weekend coming first out of 36 competitors.
Charlotte is very committed to her sport and has now qualified for the British Dressage Winter Nationals at Hartpurt College in April 2017. This is a huge achievement as few ever qualify for the Nationals and previously her target was to compete at regional championships only.
We congratulate Charlotte on this fantastic achievement and wish her the best of luck in April!
Roxanne Hallett in year 6 has done extremely well raising funds for charity this week. With the help of her friends she has been selling books and a variety of things that she has made herself and has raised an incredible sum near £550! Roxanne has worked very hard to raise these funds in memory of her Mum who sadly passed away this summer. Her wish is to split the money between Cancer Research and Woodlands Hospice who had cared for her mother.
