Malvern College and Malvern St James

[MrPickles73]

Does anyone have any recent / current experience of Malvern College and / or Malvern St James. We have a son and a daughter and prefer for them to go to school in the same town if not the same school.

Son is academic but slap-dash, very sporty (main sport is cricket but can play most things) and very amiable so gets on with just about anyone.

Daughter is academic but harder working, sporty (hockey and cricket) and enjoys joining in with everything. A bit more choosey with who she hangs out with and more sensitive.

Daughter tends to be eclipsed by her brother so we may consider sending them to separate schools. We would prefer them both to be day students.

Does anyone have any feedback on either of these schools and the kind of children that thrive there and how day students fit in please?

Not recent, my sister is 28 and was a boarder at Malvern College and had one of the happiest boarding experiences of everyone I know - much happier than I had at my very elite boarding school. It seemed to be an ‘enough’ place - academic enough, sporty enough, artsy enough - and very very happy (perhaps because of its ‘enoughness’ not its ‘excellence’)

Aboutnow you're making me curious.. where is 'elite'?

Sounds encouraging re Malvern. Did your parents consider MSJ as well? Is there a Malvern College type person v a MSJ type person?

@MrPickles73 She's a half sister I am a little older! No, I boarded at a top sports school as I was in to a very specific sport, you can probably guess but a bit outing to mention! It was a deeply unhappy experience, I was put off my sport and I was subject to sexual harassment and bullying. It is a school known for excellence but sadly there are some terrible horror stories along the way - maybe less so now than in my day which was like the Wild West in terms of pastoral care. I developed a severe eating disorder but luckily I managed to recover in time for A levels at a sixth form college and then flourished again at Uni.

I don't know much about MSJ. My sister is still in contact with a ton of her friends who I get on brilliantly with - I would say really top 'all rounders' - bright, sporty and really approachable and fun. But of course I only met her specific friends, there would have been other types of characters there like all schools. It suited her type of character down to the ground, she particularly liked the house system and keeps in contact with her housemaster and she went on to Uni in US and then a really good career.