MTGS Prize Giving 2016
Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School enjoyed a fabulous celebration of the previous academic year’s achievements at the annual Prize Giving Ceremony hosted at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Friday 18th November.
Commemorating a fantastic year academically, the girls were congratulated on outstanding performances at both GCSE and A level. Parents, guardians and staff were thanked for all their dedication and support. The girls were also rewarded for their commitments to the wide variety of extra-curricular activities on offer at Merchants. These activities help develop the pupils as rounded individuals and in many circumstances provide much needed support for the school’s community.
The ceremony was fuelled with inspiration as the pupils heard advice from the Head Girls, who eloquently told their peers to take advantage of everything their school has to offer. They reported on the variety of opportunities many had enjoyed, from the sporting and musical successes to the fantastic school trips that the girls are offered. Particularly fitting, Guest Speaker and former assisted place pupil Dr Leanne Eveson (nee Burgess) gave the girls an important message of “always make the most of every opportunity” and motivated the audience with her story of her own successes as a Medical Officer at RAF Marham.
The service was enjoyed by many distinguished guests including the Mayor of Sefton, the Master and Clerk of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, parents and friends of the school. Former staff and pupils were also warmly welcomed back to enjoy the event.
SaxPac Perform at Star Wars Exhibition
On Saturday 19th November, Saxpac were invited to play at the Atkinson Gallery, Southport for the launch of their new Star Wars exhibition ‘May the Toys be with you”. They played a number of times during the afternoon and included a few Star Wars tunes within their repertoire.
Senior Chamber Choir sing at St George’s Hall
Yesterday the Girls’ School Senior Chamber Choir sang at St George’s Hall during the Service of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims. This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the adoption of this day as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. The Service was held in the Concert Room and they performed Annie’s Song.
Year 3 Visit To CHET
Year 2 Science Visit
Year Two were thrilled to visit MTBS science laboratories last week! Linking to our History topic of The Great Fire of London, we wanted to explore the reasons why the fire spread so easily though London and why it was so difficult to contain. An afternoon at the Senior Boys’ School was a wonderful way to bring to life our History topic and explore practically the reasons why so much of London burned during the Great Fire.
We were invited to don our safety goggles, whilst the Senior School teachers helped the children to understand the effects of burning different materials, whilst exploring different methods to extinguish a flame. We concluded that water can be used to extinguish a fire and that flames needs oxygen to burn. We were able to watch a super experiment showing how fire spread along a row of connected houses and how a fire break can stop this.
The children also enjoyed other exciting demonstrations. Dr Clay held out his palm filled with bubbles. He chose a child to take a lighted taper and place it in the bubbles mixture on his hand. Imagine our surprise as he held a ball of flames in his palm. In a further experiment, demonstrated by Mrs Wright, the children watched in eager anticipation as she was able to make flour explode. The miracle of science!< All teachers emphasised the importance of safety at all times. Whilst enjoying ourselves immensely, we were constantly reminded that these experiments were only safe to conduct, because we were in the school science laboratories, watching demonstrations by fully trained scientists, who were using the correct safety equipment. Year Two thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon and really appreciated the time, effort and care shown by our colleagues in the Senior school- we are greatly looking forward to our next trip!
Junior Boys Support MacMillan Charity
This Wednesday we had an assembly about MacMillan charity because last year we did a Sportathon and we had a Cake Sale recently. We participated in fun games and prizes were passed out – and we raised £4,602.20! So some people from MacMillan and a mug called Muggy came in to school to collect a cheque.
Then they told the history behind MacMillan. A man called Douglas MacMillan started the charity and they have helped lots of people who do not have anybody to help them: MacMillan help people with cancer. So a big THANK YOU to all of the people of Merchant Taylors’ Junior Boys School. The nurses of MacMillan work a lot to help so we need to say thank you to MacMillan and everybody who helps the MacMillan charity in any way.
By Danish Rajkumar
Year 6 evacuation day
On 1st November 2016, Year 6 were taken down to the Girls’ School for an evacuation day to help us with our World War Two history topic.
When we arrived at school there was a steam train video clip on in our dark classroom to help us imagine what it would have been like for a real evacuee in World War Two. Everyone was dressed as evacuees except for the teachers who were dressed as Billeting Officers. They got us into lines and took us down to the Girls’ School.
On arriving, we were taken to the Lower Library. There were neat rows of tables and chairs, which we sat down at. Our teacher put on real footage from the war. It showed pictures of children that made you almost feel like you were in their position. When it had finished we were “billeted off” to different classrooms. I was sent to where the Year Tens were having a Spanish lesson. After the lesson, some of my friends and I were taken to have our photos taken for the school website.
A few minutes later, we found ourselves back in the Lower Library where we were told to write a letter home to our parents. We had to visualize ourselves as evacuees and imagine what they would have felt like. Group by group we were also taken to the Green Room to film a short piece of work about being evacuated. When it was finally time for lunch we were all starving but because of rationing, we could only have a meal of beef stew, bread and jelly. When we had finished lunch we had a short break and then went inside to watch some of ‘Carrie’s War’.
After a few hours, we were taken off to do PT (Physical Training). We did something called drills, which is when we all had to march around the hall in exact unison. We also had to do some of it in gas-masks (which we had made in school the day before) as they would have done back in World War Two.
After PT, we headed back to the library. Just as we were sitting down an alarm rang. Everyone recognized the sound from lessons immediately. It was an air-raid siren. There was a mad rush for our gas-masks and then we all hid under the large tables. Mrs Oakes put bombing sound effects on. Just the sound of them was enough to scare me and I could hardly imagine what it would have been like in real life. Finally, the “all clear” siren came on and everybody was relieved to get out from under the cramped tables.
When we arrived back at school we were all worn-out but happy after our long day experiencing the life of an evacuee!
by Sophia Neophytou
Helen Releases First EP as ‘Gazelle’
Since leaving MTGS in 2010, Helen Gaskell has embraced her creativity, turning her attention to music in pursuit of a dream career. Helen sang and played piano throughout school, having been captivated by jazz from an early age. On leaving Merchants however, she went on to study Chemistry at Newcastle University. During an exchange year in Versailles, her desire to pursue her creativity led her to quit the research project she was working on and move to Paris where she moved into an underground art commune and worked as an au pair by day. Here she developed her musical capabilities, quickly teaching herself to play the guitar and singing in a band with her housemates. This ignited her love for the seminal electronic rhythms of Jamie Woon and influential beats of Robert Glasper.
Inspired to write songs from an early age, Helen’s first composition ‘Jazzy Chocolate’ on clarinet was driven by discovering a love for Nina Simone. Helen has now traded in the clarinet for guitar and is writing her own material inspired by singers like Etta James, Melody Gardot, Lauryn Hill, and India Arie. Performing her music as ‘Gazelle’ regularly in Liverpool bars she was picked up by the management company ‘tri-tone’ and has since been working in Parr Street Studios on her EP.
Her unique vocal sound has impressed listeners on BBC radio 6. BBC radio Merseyside listeners tune in most Saturdays to hear her on the BBC Introducing show and Helen’s first official ‘Gazelle’ gig was for the BBC 1xtra music showcase. Helen is now working towards writing an album in hope of getting signed. These exciting steps for Helen have enabled her EP to now be available on Spotify, Apple Music and can be downloaded on iTunes here https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/undiscovered-love-ep/id1160325956
To stay tuned with Helen’s latest releases follow her SoundCloud account at www.soundcloud.com/thisisgazelle.
You can also find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thisisgazelle and follow her on twitter and Instagram @thisisgazelle.
Year 2 Visit to Staircase House
On Monday 10th October, Year 2 went to Staircase House in Stockport. We have been learning about ‘The Great Fire of London’ in History and we re-enacted parts of the story. We had the opportunity to dress up as Samuel Pepys, Jane the Maid, a Link boy, Charles 11, maids and soldiers.
We went into Jane the maid’s kitchen and made bread and ship’s biscuits. We designed our own fire marks and learned that they were used as a way of telling the insurance company which buildings were insured, so help would be given to put the fire out! We explored the use of wattle and daub in building.
We had an enjoyable and exciting day!