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JUNIOR HOUSE
In Junior House, there are many opportunities to shine, in both curricular and extracurricular activities. There are also a number of scheduled gifted and talented activities, ranging from Thinking Skills lessons with Mrs Maycock, Head of the Junior Department, to an Able, Gifted and Talented programme jointly run with nearby Robertswood and Thorpe Schools.
St. Mary's hosts an annual Thinking Skills Day for Years 4 and 5, to which we invite other local schools, from both the state and the independent sector. This is a very popular event, which tests the creative, logical and lateral-thinking skills of the students taking part.
The Languages department run a French Verse Speaking Festival each year for Years, 3, 4, 5 and 6. More than 20 local schools from both the independent and the maintained sector take part, with over 100 pupils performing individually on stage.
Each term we produce a dramatic performance, one for Early Years in Autumn, one for Years 1 and 2 in Spring and one for Years 3,4 and 5 in Summer. There are opportunities to act, dance, sing and to get involved with staging and production.
The annual Gym and Dance Show in May is a whole school production, involving girls from Year 1 up to Year 13 and including gymnastics, ballet, streetdance, tap, Bollywood and even belly dancing.
Every girl with an individual talent is encouraged and supported to stretch herself and develop her potential as far as she can, in whatever area her talents lie.
SENIOR HOUSE
In addition to the regular extra challenges provided in the classroom, there are many activities aimed at the gifted and talented cohort at St Mary’s. The fact that the school offers four modern languages, plus Latin, is in itself a huge opportunity for those with linguistic talents.
The English department encourages many of our most successful creative writers to enter the ‘Young Writers’ short story and poetry writing competitions. There are also opportunities for public speaking as the school enters teams in the ‘Youth Speaks’ public speaking event, in addition to running our own well established Judy Winder reading competition.
In Mathematics, preparation for the ‘Team Maths Challenge’ involves lunchtime sessions for the brightest in Years 8 and 9, (with sometimes a few from Years 6 and 7 invited as well); the most talented have also successfully taken challenges aimed at older age groups.
In the Science department the top sets in Year 11 are extended well beyond the GCSE specification and the most gifted are encouraged to take leading roles in our annual Science Week. As in Mathematics, the department runs an internal competition in order to select the school team for the ‘Top of the Bench’ inter school event.
In the more practical subjects, there are also many opportunities for the most talented to play in high level sports tournaments, perform in a wide range of musical groups and develop their artistic, acting and cooking skills.
The school's membership of Dr Challoner’s School Sport Partnership gives those girls who are talented at sports more opportunities to get involved with a wider range of sporting activities and events. The annual Gym and Dance Show, mentioned above, gives girls the opportunity not just to perform but to get involved with choreography, staging, and production too.
We often have girls with a particular sporting talent, ranging from swimming and badminton to ice skating and tennis. Many of these girls play or perform for England or County teams and require additional time away from school to take part in National team training. We work with these girls and their families to ensure that they can fit in their sporting activities without affecting their academic studies. This allows them to achieve success both in sport and in their GCSE and A level examinations.
St. Mary's offers music scholarships and our music scholars have a long record of success in local and County music festivals. There is also a very popular inter-house music festival as well as a top quality close harmony group and various orchestras, singing groups and smaller ensembles.
All year groups are provided with acting opportunities and previously girls have entered and been successful in the Rotary Club Young Chef Competition.
All departments work hard to ensure that girls with a special talent fulfil their potential by raising their expectations and encouraging them to reach higher. Extra reading material is also offered whenever any girl shows a particular interest or aptitude. The above provides just a flavour of the additional opportunities and challenges, which supplement regular classroom provision for those capable of that bit extra.
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