Philip is navigating his way to the top
Former pupil Philip Cave has been recognised by his sponsor company, Princess Cruises, for his dedication and achievements throughout his training.  Philip, who is the youngest officer in the fleet, is currently studying at Fleetwood Nautical College.
The maritime industry is of crucial importance to the UK. It brings £14 billion per year to the UK economy. An essential part of this is the vibrant maritime training programmes available to train new seafarers.
The award aims to encourage and recognise quality within the maritime industry. Nominations are made by nautical colleges alongside the trainee’s sponsoring company. The winner is decided by a panel of judges, including representatives from the MCA and other industry figures.
Philip said:
“Ever since I was invited onto the bridge eight years ago whilst on a cruise, I have wanted to be a Deck Officer, and qualifying as a 3rd Officer makes me feel that I have achieved my goal. I would like to thank my lecturers for their tireless and continuous support and Princess Cruises for giving me a First Class Cadetship. I know I have a great future to look forward to as a fully qualified officer with the company.”
Philip Naylor, Director of Maritime Safety and Standards at the MCA, said:
“In presenting this award to Philip Cave, the MCA is absolutely delighted to recognise the enthusiasm, commitment and positive attitude that he exhibited at all stages of his training. These are qualities that will help to shape the future leaders of our maritime industry in the UK and which will ensure that we can maintain the UK’s position of global leadership in maritime business.
“I would also like to offer Philip my very best wishes for an enjoyable and fulfilling career at sea.”
James Hallé, HR Manager at Princess Cruises, said:
“During the last three years, Phil has been an absolute pleasure to deal with. A model cadet, Phil always conducted himself in a professional manner and has attained high academic results through nothing other than hard work and determination.
“Phil has been favourably reported upon during each of his ship appointments and I believe this is down to his respectful and courteous manner. Phil has developed in to a competent Junior Officer who will go from strength to strength. We are all very proud of him and wish him every success in his on-going career.”

The award was presented at the Marine Society and Sea Cadets Ninth Annual Court in London yesterday by Shipping Minister, Stephen Hammond MP.

It’s been five years since Merchants’ alumna Ilsa Parry won the BBC Design for Life T.V. show on BBC2. Aired in 2009, the programme saw 12 young product designers battle it out to win a placement with world renowned professional Philippe Starck.

Being crowned the winner meant that Ilsa spent 6 months working in the Starck agency in the heart of central Paris, launching her career at the top end of the scale working on projects for some of the world’s most revered furniture and product brands.

Since returning, Ilsa has been busy working freelance on a range of projects for private clients whilst running her design-led product realisation and retail business REthinkthings LTD. The brand has grown over the last four years to employ five staff and three interns and has assisted 60 designers to create over 100 new products for market in various sectors, through licensing and sales.

Ilsa’s vision was to set up a company that collaborated with young UK design professionals to realise creative and ambitious design-led products for the home and gift industries:
“I wanted to provide an opportunity for those design professionals finding it difficult to catch a break, as well as encouraging consumers to aspire to possess products with more meaning. I was lucky when attempting to launch my own career as I had a fantastic opportunity to learn quickly. Working with Starck provided me with the press interest to assist me with marketing my brand and my vision, both cheaply and effectively. So many new graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to launch their careers. They too strive to make a difference to peoples’ lives through design, and often already have the creativity and technical know-how but lack the commercial acumen, contacts and industrial knowledge, to see their ideas through to reality.”

Ilsa is continuing to grow her brand and is focussing much more on the future of the industry by seeking to realise CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) based downloadable products and “make-it-yourself kits”, with an increased focus on family time, product value and visual communication as an engagement tool. She hopes to eventually secure larger premises in the Liverpool area and to encompass a broader range of hireable employee skillsets for bespoke projects, to compliment the creative product range currently on offer.

Ilsa Parry
(1999 Leaver)

The trophies Ilsa designed for the Liverpool Music Awards

Ilsa Parry

Jonathan Stone (2005 Leaver) was interviewed on the Radio 4 “Today” programme on Friday 30^th August 2013 about his work with community based monitoring of volcanoes.
The interview came about as a result of work that Jonathan was presenting at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference.

Jonathan’s research involves something called ‘citizen science’, where he works with volunteers to collect data. By using kites and quadcopters with cameras attached, people living around volcanoes can not only provide valuable data, but also learn about the risks that they face. The project is about empowering people to get involved with monitoring volcanoes, so that we can increase our understanding of how they work and how they affect the population around them. Many of the volunteers were 6^th form students from a school in Montserrat, West Indies.

It is worth noting that the first time Jonathan flew a kite like this (powerful enough to lift a camera) was with Dr Patchett and a few others from his physics class after games on a Wednesday….!

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @jonathanstone10

Francesca Defty was a student at MTGS who finished Sixth Form in 2010. Since then, she has gone on to become an international model and recently gave us an update on her incredible achievements:

My modelling career has allowed me to travel all over the world and I am on the books at several International agencies which has allowed me to live in Barcelona, Milan, Sweden, Madrid and most recently Capetown, South Africa. I am currently based and living in London and making New York my next venture!

I have been fortunate enough to work with many brands and clients including El Corte Ingles, Asos, Bershka and shot several editorial features such as the one featured in the Sunday Express as well as Harpers Bazaar, Glamour, fabulous, Cosmopolitan and Company magazine.

I feel very lucky to be able to travel and be a part of the fashion industry especially as I chose not to go on to university. I really value the experience I have gained through working in fashion and the artists I get to meet on a daily basis. I know I am lucky to have a career in such a competitive field and I’m looking forward to finding out where it will take me next!

The photographs below are taken for a Wimbledon shoot which appeared in The Sunday Express last month:

From Fortnum & Masons to Fabulous Gifts Online

I left Merchant Taylors’ Girls School to study for a BSC in Business Studies at Aston University Birmingham, unsure of what my final career would be. After University I moved to London and entered the world of Recruitment for a short while, after which an opportunity came up to join the Queen’s Grocer, Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, as a Christmas member of staff. I loved it there and was happily recruited on to the Fortnum & Mason Management Scheme, where I worked my way up from the Sales Team to Senior Buyer for Hampers, Christmas, Stationery, Cookshop, Homewares and Books. I enjoyed the fast pace that the role brought, and the opportunity to excite customers by choosing amazing goods to buy.

My role allowed me to travel the globe and to build up a network of suppliers and contacts whom I am still in touch with to this day.

The dream for the “AlexanderandShaw” website came out of my positive experiences at Fortnum & Mason, and the desire to make fabulous gifts more readily available on-line. It took until I left my job in London and ventured back up North with my lovely partner Paul and our baby son Thomas, before this dream was realised.

I have a passion for Buying, and I missed being out and about sourcing great products, seeking the next best thing on the market, the most exclusive product, or supporting great new businesses to succeed in their goals. So after some persuasion from Paul (whose own passion is web & graphic design), I set up my the affordable luxury gifts website.

Claire Shaw
Old Girl (1991 Leaver)

The life of an opera singer can be a bit hectic at times, particularly as I am also a parent of a gorgeous and very lively 4 year old daughter, but despite all of the problems that arise from travelling (lost bags, no legroom on planes, uncomfortable hotel beds), they are fortunately outweighed by the rewards.

Over the past year, I’ve become a BBC New Generation Artist, made my solo recital debut at Wigmore Hall broadcast live on Radio 3, found my operatic niche singing Wagner and featured in the Ring Cycle at Opera North, made my debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and travelled the globe, singing in Dallas, São Paulo, Dubai, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Vienna, Budapest, Cologne and London. Recently I sang Handel’s Messiah with the wonderful RLPO in Liverpool, 18 years after leaving the Phil Choir, which was a real homecoming.

Right now, I’m in Munich, where I will make my debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, and then it’s back to the UK and the start of the Benjamin Britten centenary year with his Spring Symphony in Cardiff and London.

2013 is an exciting year for me, with engagements including the lead mezzo role in Birtwistle’s Gawain and the Green Knight at the Salzburg Festival, Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the London Symphony Orchestra, and my Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Finally, at Xmas, I get a rest and travel to New Zealand with my family for a very special engagement, singing at the wedding of one of my closest friends. The truth is, though, a career like mine would be impossible without the support, patience and understanding of my husband and parents, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. I feel very lucky indeed.

www.jenniferjohnston.net

Old Girl – 1995 Leaver

I remember the School Careers Advisor briefing me on the results of my assessment in the small library just off the main entrance hall. He said that I should consider a career in either agriculture or the uniformed services. Bad news for some who had maybe hoped for Medicine or Law; excellent news for me as, from my earliest memory, I had always wanted to be a soldier.

Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School gave me a great start and in particular I must thank Mr Wallace and the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) for giving me my first taste of Army life. Armed with that, I went from school to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and an Infantry Battalion then stationed in Catterick. Since then, my military service has taken me to a variety of posts and stations across the world; Germany, Cyprus, Oman, Zimbabwe, Pakistan to name but a few. That world has rarely been without its trouble spots and I have been privileged to command soldiers on operations in Northern Ireland, Kuwait, The Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. There has certainly never been a dull moment.

I am now commanding the 7th Armoured Brigade – better known as ‘The Desert Rats’ from its time in North Africa. I have no doubt that there are yet more challenging and turbulent times ahead; a rapidly changing strategic landscape and, much closer to home, an uncertain future for the Armed Forces. As I look back, one thing is certain; that I am very grateful to my Careers Advisor all those years ago. I have had a fantastic adventure and can honestly say that I haven’t regretted a single second – although I’m sure farming would have been equally as rewarding!

Paul Nanson
Old Boy 1978 – 1983
Brigadier PAE Nanson MBE

I vividly remember announcing to my careers teacher that I wanted to study Landscape Architecture when I left MTGS in 1980. In return I received a rather blank look and the suggestion that maybe I should think about something sensible like Accountancy instead!
For many people, Landscape Architecture was, and still is, a slightly misunderstood profession and I am constantly amused to be asked how I’m getting on with my ‘gardening’! In reality, it is a hugely varied profession and I have specialised in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a number of years which has enabled me to work on projects which are particularly relevant to the problem of climate change.

Until 2010 I was employed as a Technical Director in the Manchester Office of RPS which is the largest environmental consultancy in the UK with offices around the world. As part of my role I was a Project Manager on projects as diverse as Wind Farms, Energy from Waste Incinerators, quarries and major highways projects including the A1 in North Yorkshire. Much of my work involves assessing the impact of these huge projects on the wider landscape and also on the people who live there. There is a very fine balance to be achieved in meeting the needs of future generations through sustainable development without compromising the countryside character, ecology and cultural heritage that we currently value. Many of my projects, such as Wind Farms, are situated within National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it is my job to ensure that this is taken into consideration in the location and design. I also regularly get involved in Public Inquiries and I enjoy the challenge of appearing as an expert witness.

In 2010 I decided to take a year out for professional development and study for a Master’s Degree in ‘Town and Regional Planning’. My year at the University of Liverpool has been very worthwhile and enjoyable but now I am looking forward to graduating and returning to work in the environmental planning sector.

From Radio City to CNN

Just how the years have flown by! It seems but a moment ago that the Reverend Dennis Smith was taking our First Eleven cricket team to new heights. While there’s no doubt I developed admirably as a player under his astute guidance, it was quite clear that I was never going to make a living out of the game. The next best thing in my view was to embark on something that would get me as close to the field of play as the players themselves, if not quite out there at the crease!

I’m truly blessed to have enjoyed a wonderful Sports Media career spanning around two decades now and I most assuredly say that covering the recent ICC World Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean was no hardship at all! Not that I got to see too much of Saint Lucia and Barbados of course but it was an occasion made extra special by an all too rare English achievement on the world stage and it was a real pleasure to be there to witness it first hand.

I’ve worked at CNN International for ten years now and have been based at the Network’s world headquarters in Atlanta for the last six, after spells earlier in my career in England with Liverpool’s Radio City and Granada Television.
One of the great things about my job is not just CNN’s ability to encompass the biggest names in sports, but also the fact the Network’s global reach is so huge it means we literally do have viewers in every corner of the world. Receiving emails from some of the more remote and far-flung reaches of the earth can certainly be very rewarding and with so much “new media” available to us now like Twitter and Facebook, the world truly can be a much smaller place. A lot of our viewers are always keen to get our thoughts and predictions on the hot topic of the day and those two powerful social media tools are a great way to enhance that communication.

When I’m not attending events, my time is spent writing and presenting our global sports news show “World Sport” which airs for half an hour several times a day. At the time of writing, I’m currently preparing to fly out to America’s West Coast to cover the United States Golf Open at the famed Pebble Beach course in California. That’s a venue I’ve always wanted to visit and there’s no doubt this is very much a case of career ambition being fulfilled!

Patrick Snell
(1981 – 1986)