Haberdashers' Monmouth Schools case studies (8)

Impact Statement

Monmouth Science Initiative
MSI has been recognised as sector leading practice which has bridged the gap between A level and undergraduate science courses. As part of the Monmouth Science Initiative, we offer interview practice to state school participants ahead of Oxbridge interviews. Our Head of Physics ran mock interviews for three pupils from the local state school, one of whom received an offer to read Engineering at Oxford and another Physics at Cambridge.

Monmouth Literary Festival
We are currently in the planning stage of the 5th Monmouth Literary Festival, organised by pupils and staff of Monmouth Comprehensive School, Monmouth School for Girls and Monmouth School for Boys for the benefit of pupils at these schools, local primary schools and the town of Monmouth. It provides boys and girls on the organising committee a unique opportunity to work together on event planning, fund-raising, marketing and managing. Audiences are introduced to a wide range of authors and performers and this has led to a noticeable peak in interest in these speakers and an increased number of book loans and books sales. Workshops have enabled smaller groups from all the schools to exchange ideas and get to know each other and various community events, such as poetry reading with old people at a local Community Centre, have brought the young and the old together very happily and inspired the individual schools to get more involved.

Chemistry Workshop
We host nine state schools (over 1000 pupils) in three different sessions and tied in with KS2 curriculum on the theme ‘the air that we breathe’ and is highly regarded by Yr5/6 teachers with repeat attendance bi-annually.

We held Mock Oxbridge interviews for six pupils from WyeDean School in Chepstow.

WyeHack runs every 3-4 weeks on a Sunday afternoon.
Children from the region, from schools in England, Wales and Home-schoolers, join to build hardware and software projects together. Generally our attendees are aged 9-18, however age is immaterial when they form project groups as each will have skills they can share and can learn from one another.

In November each year we run a Computer Science Fair. Again children from the region come to show what hardware and software projects they have built, and to see and be inspired by those that others have developed.

Periodically we host a week long summer holiday event for example Hydrogen Hack and Young Rewired State. Here pupils from the region come and form teams with others, then plan and build a computing solution to a given problem. These generally culminate in a national competition to which we take the pupils.

We provide all such events, including refreshment, kit, and staffing, free of charge to ensure they are as inclusive as possible.

Monmouth School Boys' Prep
Annual Six-a-Side football tournament
Teams from Osbaston, Overmonnow, Kymin View and Pentrepoeth take part in an afternoon of competitive sport. In its 22nd year, this is an excellent way to bring the local community together and promotes health and well-being through competitive sport.

Friday Afternoons Project
Our specialist music teachers from the boys’ and girls’ prep run an outreach singing project which brings 150 children together from all three Monmouth town primary schools to practise choral works during the Lent term. This culminates in a choral concert for parents and grandparents in our professional theatre, where the audience can hear the progress made. This has proved to be a very good vehicle to promote music and the joy of singing in a massed choir and has brought the community closer together.

Annual Science Fair
Monmouth School Boys’ Prep hosts an annual science fair to promote innovation and presentation skills amongst Year 6 pupils. Raglan Primary school submits a team and has used this to extend project work within its school curriculum.

Science and General Knowledge UK Quiz Championships
To extend general knowledge and improve memory and recall skills, we host local rounds of this national quiz. Three local primary schools regularly compete.