Here at The Maynard we aren’t ones to let our lively brains go to waste and our Upper 5 (Year 11) students have already embarked upon their first few weeks of A-level studies in earnest. In Physics, they tackled the Miniature Machine Challenge to test their knowledge of Newton’s laws of motions and we love

There are so many great charitable things happening during the coronavirus lockdown with so many of our students doing their bit to help out! Rose in Upper 3 and her siblings are running 143.1 miles to raise money for the UK’s Covid-19 vaccine development at the University of Oxford, while Betsy in Lower 6 is

Well done to our Young Enterprise team, Bee Bothered, who have won the Sustainability Trophy in the remote Young Enterprise Devon Finals! The girls have also decided to enter another competition – the Arconic Foundation Innovative Recycling and Reuse Competition. The finals of this competition will take place on 3 June and we wish them

We were thrilled to hear that Hayley in Year 6 has been offered a much coveted place at the Elmhurst Ballet School to pursue her dream of becoming a ballerina. This is a phenomenal achievement as only approximately 16 girls are chosen from a vast number of applicants at home and internationally. It also comes

A selection of creative artwork from the Senior School girls over the last couple of weeks, including Lower 5 Natural Forms in the style of Andy Goldsworthy and Pattern and Colour in Leaves using Watercolour, Upper 4 ‘A City in a Jar’ and Upper 3 faces based on Arcimboldo.

There has been so much going on in the Food & Nutrition department with students continuing with their practical work in their homes. The Lower 5 GCSE students have been enjoying some technical work – Harriet has successfully boned a chicken, Chloe has made beautiful Angel cakes and Anna has made a delicious Bakewell tart

The girls in the Pre-Prep have been very imaginative with their creations as part of the Eggcellent Engineering Challenge to design a boat that can successfully carry an egg without sinking or breaking it. Rosamund (Year 2) even made hers with a working propeller! It is great to see so many budding engineers!

School has remained open for our younger children of Key Workers, who have been taking part in lots of fun lessons and activities, albeit in slightly strange circumstances! From creating rainbows for the NHS, Forest School fun, making pom poms, decoupage, enjoying a pamper morning and taking part in various challenges!

Congratulations to our Under 18 Hockey squad who finished sixth at the National Tier 4 Hockey Finals at the London Olympic Park on Tuesday 3 March 2020. Unfortunately, just one loss in the opening match – of four games in their pool draw – against Bancroft’s School ruled them out of a place in the

Our Under 15 Netball team triumphed in all their five games on Tuesday 3 March 2020 to convincingly win the Regional Finals tournament.  “The girls were superb, having to fight back in the second half on more than one occasion,” said their coach, Mrs Wood. “This was their final tournament of the season and it was

The penultimate Biz Whizz careers talks for this academic year took place on Friday 28 February 2020 with another fine set of brilliant speakers. Dr Ceri Lewis, an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Exeter, spoke to a packed room about her research on the impact of global changes and microplastic pollution

Our Lower 5 GCSE Food & Nutrition students have been working on some new techniques in their lessons. They made their own flaky pastry and turned it into raspberry or passion fruit Mille-Feuille in one of their recent lessons – delicious!

Year 2 spent an exciting day at Paignton Zoo to support their topic ‘Animal Magic. The girls enjoyed a session about habitats at the education centre, before spending the rest of the day exploring the zoo! 

Our U14 netballers were happy after some fabulous matches v Exeter School before half term. The As played superbly winning 41-18 & playing some of the best netball we have seen them play this season. The Bs also worked hard and finished really strongly, winning  23-12.  The U15 teams also played some super matches with the

Well done to our team of codebreakers, Hannah, Tess, Maliha and India, who competed in the second round of the GCHQ Cyber Discovery Challenge at the MET Office before half term.  The girls took to their laptops to solve a series of online puzzles in the first co-ordinated event of this kind run by the

Our Sixth Formers thoroughly enjoyed their Masked Ball which took place just before half term – an annual event to relax after their mock exams. The games of ‘Musical Chairs’ and ‘Over Under’ were highly entertaining and amusing – only at The Maynard! The photo booth with its many different accessories also proved to be

42 of our girls set off on the much anticipated Ski Trip to the Austrian Alps over half term, accompanied by Mrs Davey, Miss York, Mrs Thorne, Miss Lavelle and Dr Rudling. They had a fantastic time – as well as developing their skiing in some beautiful conditions – and a couple of tougher snowy

All of Year 3 – Year 6 took part in the Junior School Swimming Gala on Wednesday 26 February. The girls were superb; they swam brilliantly, showed excellent support for each other and showed real perseverance! The 10 x 1 Y6 relay was a real sight to see! The results were: 1st Haberdashers (161 points) 2nd Armourers

Following on from our mufti-day to help raise money for the Australian Bushfire victims, we are thrilled to say that we have so far raised £628.91 and the figure is still rising. The Lower 6 Geographers have a number of koala bracelets for sale (at £3 each) in School Reception for anyone hoping to contribute

Congratulations to our equestrian team Isobel, Zoe and Kitty who came 2nd in the 90cm at the Eventer’s Challenge at Pontispool on Saturday and have qualified for the Championships at Hickstead!  Isobel also won the 1m, qualifying as an individual! Well done!

There have been a lot of muddy legs across the Junior School these past couple of weeks as the girls learned their courses and then competed in their House Cross Country races. Congratulations to them all for persevering in the somewhat slippery conditions! In the final placings, Merchants came out on top followed by Goldsmiths,

Upper 3 (Year 7) went to the Eden Project on Wednesday 5 February as part of their Geography course and took part in workshops about ‘Rainforest Adaptations’ and ‘Natural Selection’. They were able to use their existing knowledge of adaptations to apply this to the rainforest and learnt some very clever ways to survive!  The

Year 6 went on their eagerly awaited trip to Plymouth Aquarium on Friday 7 February where they had the opportunity to not only take a personalised tour around the site (and get to ask dozens of questions!) but also use the Aquarium’s fantastic laboratory facilities to dissect a squid. ‘We found its beak, the lens

Children’s Mental Health Week took place from 3 – 9 February 2020. The theme this year was ‘Find your Brave’ and Year 4 have been discussing this topic and writing about what it means to be brave: ‘Being brave means standing up for yourself or someone, doing things you’re afraid of. It’s about overcoming sadness

On Thursday 6 February, along with schools, libraries and bookshops all over the world, we celebrated Harry Potter Book Night at lunchtime in the library. Activities and decorations were organised by our librarian and a very enthusiastic group from Lower 5!  The highlight was the traditional treasure hunt around the school, with other activities including

Devon Wildlife Trust joined the Junior School this week for a morning of environmental activities. We are always delighted to welcome the DWT back to school and have been a partner with them for over ten years now, working on many projects here at school and around the city, including in the past planting wildflower

Further to the publication of the Department for Education’s Performance Tables, based on the A-level and GCSE examinations 2019, we are delighted to again be ranked as the highest scoring independent school across the whole of Devon whilst also nudging the very top of the tables on a national level. At GCSE we are the

The Under 14s played some terrific matches against very competitive teams at the Regional Finals in Bournemouth on Saturday 25 January. They recorded wins against Truro High School and St Edwards, Dorset and lost by very small margins to both Dean Close (5-8) and the eventual overall winners, Taunton School (7-10). It was such a

This week’s artwork comes to you courtesy of Lower 6 A-level artists, Lowena and Peggy. Lowena’s pieces are following a “gothic” theme, whilst Peggy is focusing on her portrait work.

Huge congratulations to Natalie in Lower 5 who has been selected onto the England Basketball Talent Programme for 2020 and can look forward to playing some national and international tournaments over the coming months. This is a fantastic achievement and very well done to her!