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Character building is the foundation stone of this venerable public school that sits in 250 splendid acres at the foot of the stunningly beautiful Malvern Hills. ‘League tables create pressure and stress,’ says head Keith Metcalfe. ‘Social intelligence needs to be developed meaningfully by character development.’ This holistic approach yields fantastic outcomes all round, with a boarding culture (which days pupils also share) that ‘gives you a family’ as one of our Year 13 guides puts it, and a ‘have a go’ spirit that is in evidence in the classroom, the sports field, on stage and in the many adventure events, from the annual Ledder, an eight-mile run from Ledbury to the school that dates back to 1879, to the brand new Race the Sun which sees pupils making their way from Whitstable at sunrise back to school by sunset.
Where is Malvern College?
This spacious Worcestershire campus with million-dollar views over the Malvern Hills nestles unobtrusively into its setting, and the steep inclines ensure a pretty high base level of fitness for even the most sport-shy pupils. The stunning chapel (where pupils meet thrice-weekly) is at the heart of the school; boarding houses are dotted down either side of the slope, with the cricket pitches and sports complex at the bottom and an abundance of sports pitches just over the road. In September 2027, The Downs Malvern, which is part of the Malvern College Family of Schools will move from the village of Colwall to the main Malvern site, linking the two schools from nursery to sixth form.
The school sits in the middle of Malvern, a former Victorian spa resort filled with lovely little independent shops and cafés. It’s very easily accessible by car and the train station is a 15-minute walk away, linking to Worcester and Ledbury as well as direct lines to Birmingham and London.
Headmaster at Malvern College
Keith Metcalfe has headed up the school for seven years now and in that time has successfully achieved his aim of creating ‘an environment which sets the tone for what we want to be’. When he arrived, his challenge was to make an already good school excellent and for him the focus was firmly on the pupils. ‘I want Malvernians to become a person with character; the academics happen along the way, but what you become as a person is more important,’ he tells us. He beams with pride when he talks about the young adults former pupils have become and says ‘role models for the pupils are based on Old Malvernians and their pathways beyond the school, and how they have done this’. He loves how they can ‘all go anywhere or do anything’ and just be ‘a positive influence on the world’. He describes the school as ‘a quintessentially British cricket square in the middle of a global village’ with opportunities to collaborate with its international family of schools in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Egypt.
Admissions at Malvern
Entrance at 13+ is usually via
Common Entrance or the school’s own exam, and the school accepts about 90 pupils into the Foundation Year (Year 9). A sizeable chunk come from the Malvern family prep,
The Downs Malvern,
with offers made from reports rather than exams. ‘Parents like the certainty,’ says Mr Metcalfe.
The sixth form sees the next big influx, based on subject-specific tests and minimum GCSE standards. Among the 100 new sixth formers each year, many are international students attracted by the IB, with an increasing number of Europeans among them.
Parents are advised to get in touch two to three years before entry and
book in for an open day or visit (tours are led by a combination of staff, parents and former pupils, who give a useful perspective).
Academics and destinations
Malvern may not be overly selective at entrance, but bright sparks do terrifically well here, and the head is adamant that the top third could go toe to toe with the top third anywhere. IB is well entrenched (‘It fits well with the Malvern ethos,’ says Mr Metcalfe), and the IB to A-level ratio consistently sits around the 50:50 mark.
Recognising that pupils learn differently, Malvern now includes a handful of BTECs alongside the A-level and IB portfolio, as well as arts, analytical thinking and PPE pathways alongside GCSE, which will allow pupils to focus on eight to 10 GCSEs while still receiving a broad education without the need for exams in every subject. ‘We wish to further broaden our offering, maximising the potential of every child and offering styles of teaching and assessments that work for the child you’ve got,’ says Mr Metcalfe. Most subject teachers offer regular weekly clinics to help pupils stay on top of the game, and in-house tutors keep a constant eye on both effort and attainment grades.
It’s worth noting that sixth formers get to choose their own tutors, a system that parents and pupils alike told us was hugely impactful and ensures that the latter are paired with a member of staff with whom they have a natural affinity. More good news for sixth formers came in the shape of a phenomenal new sixth form centre which opened in September 2024. Its design is pitched somewhere between ‘trendy London office’, with whiteboards and collaborative spaces, and ‘upmarket restaurant’, with enormous ferns in planters and individual study tables. Sixth formers also enjoy a new enrichment programme timetabled for half an hour after lunch every day, as well as university-style seminars. There are societies and lectures (many given by the pupils) that broaden the mind and challenge thinking, and life skills are also part of the curriculum, with pupils delving into key issues such as first aid, e-safety, consent, homophobia and drugs.
Results are solid, with the school consistently smashing the world average for IB diploma scores. Elite and Russell Group universities feature heavily on the destination list, and Malvern has been sending an annual cohort of students to US universities for the past decade. More and more are looking to European universities now too, while drama, fashion and flight schools are also growing in popularity. Close ties are maintained even when pupils have left, with the school holding events at many universities to which former students are invited; ‘It keeps the engagement working both ways,’ says Mr Metcalfe. Old Malvernians also help out current pupils by offering work experience opportunities.
Co-curricular at Malvern College
Sport is massive at Malvern and facilities are top-notch. The sports complex is no longer new but it’s still very snazzy (and open to the public), complete with a pool, two huge indoor halls, gyms and a climbing wall in the foyer. Add in beautifully manicured cricket pitches, squash, rackets, fives and tennis courts, two full-size Astros and more grass pitches than you could shake a stick at, and there is more than enough to keep sporty types content. A new director of sport has brought a fresh slant, and parents are already noting a less hierarchical vibe where all sports are given parity, irrespective of ability or gender.
Coaching is done by specialist staff, many with very impressive playing and national coaching credentials, and elite athletes have an additional pathway in place to further support their development. The eight-mile, cross-country Ledder race for the top three years is a fantastic annual tradition, maximising on the local hilly terrain, and staff and pupils either take part or cheer the exhausted runners on.
Drama is phenomenal. The recently refurbished Rogers Theatre is of a professional standard, and the number and standard of performances are astounding. Some parents told us that they often book seats for performances their own children aren’t even in.
Musically, Malvern now has thanks to a ‘significant’ donation that funded the purchase of 28 Steinway pianos.
The music department has been revamped with a new performance space on the ground floor and recording space next door. Mr Metcalfe tells us he wanted to create an environment where the musicians wanted to go and practise and hang out together.
Creative subjects are first rate: our junior spies were mesmerised by the sight of a 3D printer in action in the D&T workshop, and there’s wide variety in the art department, with specialist studios for ceramics, painting and drawing, printmaking, textiles, graphic design and photography.
The jewel in Malvern’s co-curricular crown is the extensive and ambitious outdoor-pursuits programme. CCF is popular, and DofE is par for the course at some point for almost every pupil, many of whom achieve gold. This energetic lot make the very most of their environment, heading out on cross-country runs, mountain biking or, in winter, snow-kayaking (a new one for us).
But it’s the annual Race the Sun and Hunted events that secure the headlines here. The former is based on Race Across the World and sees pupils dropped off in Whitstable in Kent at sunrise with the mission to be back at school for sunset. ‘The pupils involved change so much as people during the challenge,’ says Mr Metcalfe. ‘Pupils need to learn about themselves and how they fit into the wider world.’
Hunted, meanwhile, sees pairs of pupils (one from each house), given a time period to disperse and hide on the nearby Malvern Hills before being tracked down by appointed members of staff, dogs and even a helicopter on one occasion. The last pair to be found gets bucketloads of glory and maximum kudos for their house. ‘It’s a life-changing 24 hours,’ one participant told us, while the head summarised that these very Bond-like missions, along with all the outdoor pursuits, are part and parcel of Malvern’s function as ‘a safe place to take risks’.
Boarding at Malvern College
Just over three-quarters of pupils are boarders, and almost all of them are at school on Saturday night. There are 11 houses; as you head down the hill, girls are on the right, boys on the left, and a rolling refurbishment of each one is under way. We had a look round House 7, one of the boys’ boarding houses, where there are 40 dorms with interconnecting doors that are left open at the start of the academic year and then closed after Christmas when friendship groups have been formed; in the upper sixth, everyone gets their own study bedroom. Every dorm has its own en-suite bathroom and on the top floor there is a kitchen and common room complete with sofas, TV, table tennis table, a keyboard and a pool table. New housemaster Lee Hilton has put a darts board in his study so that conversations can be had while playing darts, a neat way of encouraging boys to open up. He also invites the boys over for a barbecue round the firepit in his garden on Saturday nights.
All meals are eaten in house except at weekends, when there is communal dining in the main school and day pupils are fully integrated; each has their own study space and storage as they are often in school until after ‘Hall’ (prep) at 9pm. They also have the option to board on an ad hoc basis, and the majority do so at some point. Malvern is brilliantly co-ed and inclusive, with pupils allowed to welcome friends to the communal areas in their boarding houses, as well as regular lunch swaps, which see boys trooping over to a girls’ house or vice versa.
Prospective pupils at Malvern are asked to nominate at least three houses. Although each house has its own merits, they also have their own character, colours and traditions – of which their members are fiercely proud – and house competitions are hotly contested, with everyone strongly encouraged to get stuck in or pitch up and support. Pastoral care is fully deployed in houses: peer mentors get proper counselling training and pupils belong to tutor groups within their house, with problems solved quickly and effectively, we’re told.
Pupils can pop into Malvern in their free time, and sixth-formers get to hang out in The Longy, their appropriately student-y and much-loved common room, where they are allowed a maximum of three drinks each weekend, with a heavily policed half-hour pause between each one. In the summer, the more open-air ethos results in a programme of pizza van one week, burger van and outdoor ‘unplugged’ concert the next.
Malvern College school community
With so many pupils boarding and a third from overseas, it’s perhaps no great surprise that there isn’t a strong parental presence here, but the past few years have seen Malvern make huge efforts to change that. Inviting parents of whole year groups at a time to drinks and dinner, arranging face to face and online seminars on key topics and always welcoming parents to sports matches, concerts and productions have all boosted involvement – as has the new café where pupils were playing live music on our visit. The local community is also welcomed, with the gym and the sports hall opened up for them (the Worcestershire cricket team are known to pop in to practise on the indoor nets).
Judging by the hordes of delightful, down-to-earth pupils with big grins on their faces, you get the impression this is a very happy environment. One of Malvern’s many strengths (and where some schools fall short) is enforcing discipline, and the school is run as a nicely tight ship.
And finally...
The school may have 160 years of history behind it, but there’s an ever-present sense of forward motion at Malvern College, where pupils are given all the opportunities they need to maximise their potential and make the world their oyster. We love how the paths taken by Old Malvernians spur current pupils on and the bonds made at school endure long after pupils have left. It’s a wonderful feedback loop that cements an ‘I can do this’ belief, as well as a priceless, lifelong sense of belonging.