On Tuesday, 22 March the Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School hosted its 2016 annual Music Competition in front of a full and appreciative audience. Four weeks ago thirty five girls participated in the preliminary auditions from which the final nineteen musicians were chosen. Dr Alberto Sanna – professional violinist, musicologist and music lecturer at Liverpool Hope University was the guest adjudicator. Dr Sanna in his closing remarks commended the girls on their preparation and musicianship, and even went as far to say that some of the performances would surpass the standard of some undergraduates such was the quality!
The winner of the Middle School was Rachel Burnett [saxophone], and the Senior School competition was won by Chloe Jones [flute].
MTGS Music Competition
Easter Holiday Club
The children have had fun playing outside, making chalk drawings and baking chocolate plant pot muffins. More photos to come as the week progresses!
Easter Bonnet Parade
The children showed off some outstanding creations on Stanfield’s catwalk at the end of term – well done to the children and to all the helpers at home!
Wendy Hazlehurst Donation of Musical Theatre Books
The Schools’ have an excellent reputation for their musical and dramatic productions and Joint Schools’ Musical Theatre productions are eagerly looked forward to. Through a generous donation from Wendy Hazlehurst, a 1951 leaver, the Girls’ School has been able to purchase some specialist text books on this subject.
Seen here looking at some of the new books are, from left to right:
Charlie Apel, Neve Eyles, Zannamarie Ashton Sophie Miosga and Meghna Singh
Mad Science at Stanfield
This term our Junior Mad Scientists have had lots of fun investigating physics, chemistry and biology topics.
The pupils explored the senses and in particular how the others can affect our sense of taste. We carried out blind taste tests, learned about nutrition and then created our own Jelly Tot sweets.
Another session was centred around light and observing the light spectrum through various lenses. The children used torches and lasers to observe light beams. It was a challenge to work out some of the optical illusions but we had lots of fun making our own periscopes.
In our chemical reactions session we investigated how heat can change materials. We heated sugar and made our own candy floss – delicious! We also created fireworks by burning magnesium, sodium and copper. Our scientists got very messy making their own slime!
The session on electricity was very exciting. We used balloons to create static electricity and used a Van de Graaf generator to observe our hair standing on end! It was quite daunting to hold onto the generator and know the current of electricity was flowing through your body, but our brave scientists all enjoyed the challenge!
Charity Duathlon 2016
Our two Junior Schools and Waterloo Primary took part in a sponsored duathlon last week and raised over £900 for the Good Life Orphanage in Mombasa. Well done to all who participated and thank you to those who sponsored the event.
Year 4 Patterdale Hall Trip – March 2016
Year Patterdale Hall Trip – March 2016
The year 4 class at the Junior Boys’ School, enjoyed an active an fun-filled trip to Patterdale Hall. Here they tried new and interesting challenges such as canoeing, rock climbing and archery. They had an eventful trip, bursting with activities and were able to develop their own skills such as team building.
Amber Becomes Double British Champion
Congratulations to Double British Champion Amber Gregson who won two golds at the WKKC British Championships yesterday and will represent England at the World Championships in Dublin later this year.
We are the new Junior Schools Challenge Quiz North West Champs!
Merchant Taylors’ are the new Junior Schools Challenge Quiz North West Champions, having gone unbeaten against fifteen other schools at Bury Grammar School. With captain Ben Falconer in imperious form throughout and well supported by Marcus Baldwin, Daniel Naguib and George Farrar, the team defeated AKS in the final to lift the trophy for the first time since 2009.
An Italian Themed Day in Honour of Violinist Marino Capulli
Last week MTGS hosted an exciting violin recital with Italian virtuoso Marino Capulli. Marino, who flew in especially from Rome, is the lead player with the Italian string orchestra Gli Archi del Cherubino. The string orchestra had visited the School just before Christmas. The exciting opportunity came via Dr Alberto Sanna, who is the Senior Lecturer in Music at Liverpool Hope University.
To mark the occasion the Girls’ School adopted an Italian theme for the day and Dr Sanna came in to talk to the girls about Italian life, culture, language, history and food. All subjects adopted the Italian theme, for example the Maths Department looked at the works of Fiobonacci, and there was a football match at lunchtime between staff and girls. Pupils enjoyed an Italian lunch and gelato for dessert was a particular hit.
Liverpool artist and sculptor, Mike Badger, also got involved to work with pupils from each art group producing a stunning set of sculptures made up of broken violin pieces. These provided the backdrop to the recital.