Approximately 1 in 10 pupils receive a bursary or scholarship. We are committed to ensuring an MCS education is open to the brightest pupils, no matter their personal circumstances.
Approximately 1 in 10 pupils receive a bursary or scholarship. We are committed to ensuring an MCS education is open to the brightest pupils, no matter their personal circumstances.
Thank you to all those who have recently written to the Master and Governors in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
We are heartened by the support for MCS as a tolerant, diverse community, yet hear the appeals for the school to do more to ensure that racism and white privilege are better understood through our conduct and teaching. Your remarks and comments are highly valued.
This week we share with you the Master’s Open Letter to the MCS Community on Black Lives Matter, which sits alongside the statement she made last Monday, and aims to amplify those messages.
Black Lives Matter – an Open Letter to the MCS Community
“We recognise that there will be more we can do, and look forward to what emerges from this process. I am fond of saying that if we want something done well at MCS we ask the pupils to do it, and I hope that this will be no exception.
Equally, we shall lead from the front, and there are some areas which are not open to the oversight of most, such as pupil and staff recruitment. I am having some creative conversations with other Heads about how we might continue to address the perennial difficulty of the pipeline of teaching post applicants so that we might best reflect and advertise the increasingly diverse makeup of our pupil body.
Last academic year we commissioned research on how we might secure the optimally diverse range of pupil applicants, and one of the results of that work is the MCS Bridge programme, to be launched in September, which supports targeted applicants to MCS in the years before they apply to us. On this as on all other matters I repeat that we are not complacent.”
You can read more about partnerships here and help with widening access through our bursary campaign here.
Virtual Chapel
In the light of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Master’s Monday Virtual Chapel podcast considers fallen statues, the role that History and English curricula play, and her faith in the MCS community.
MCS Founders’ Day
Tomorrow 19 June sees the inaugural MCS Founders’ Day. Students will be taking most of the day out from their formal studies to take part in a sponsored ‘1480’ House challenge in aid of MCS’ partner school, the Mustardseed School, in Uganda. Pupils will undertake tasks to do with the number 1480, such as running 14.8 km, playing a musical instrument for 148 minutes, ERG-ing for 1.48 miles…
Show your support for Mustardseed (and for your House…) via the JustGiving page.
Find out more about MCS’ partnerships, including the Mustardseed School, on the school’s website. The latest pictures from Mustardseed’s building works can be seen here.
Virtual Oxford Festival of the Arts
2020’s Virtual Oxford Festival of the Arts starts TODAY!
Celebrated tenor Joseph Calleja will be kicking off festivities with a specially recorded aria, to be broadcast tonightat8pm on the Festival’s YouTube channel.
All events are free. Visit the OFA website for the full line up, which includes:
• University of Oxford cultural historian, broadcaster and author Dr Janina Ramirez talking about goddesses – divine women of the past
• Oxford East MP and Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds in conversation with BBC Political Correspondent Rob Watson (OW 1979)
• Acclaimed cellist Gabriella Swallow performing a tribute to Jacqueline du Pré in this the year of the 75th anniversary of her birth.
Thank you to our Key Workers
This week we thank OW Clive Peedell (1990) for his tireless work as a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough, who has been adapting radiotherapy services in the response to the pandemic.
Clive has led a successful campaign to extend stereotactic radiotherapy services to all UK radiotherapy centres. This technique allows very high doses of precisely targeted radiation to be used to treat patients in just one to five treatment visits, instead of 20-30 visits using conventional radiotherapy.
Fewer hospital visits reduces the risks of viral transmission and also increases radiotherapy capacity by freeing up treatment slots. This form of treatment will be crucial in addressing the expected future surge of cancer cases and cancer waiting lists caused by the COVID-19 crisis, which has had a profound effect on routine NHS cancer services.
We are so proud to hear how OWs and MCS Friends are making an impact on the current situation – please keep sending photos and updates to the Waynflete Office.
In memoriam
We are grateful to OWs who keep us in touch with news of their friends.
Sadly, that does include news of those who have passed away. Those names are published on our website and in The Bridge each year. We are glad to include the obituaries and tributes sent to us by family and friends, and we add those whenever we receive them.
And finally… Happy Fathers’ Day!
(Baby Hearmon, born during lockdown, daughter of Dr Hearmon, Head of Mathematics at MCS)
Happy Fathers’ Day to OWs and Friends of MCS!
A particular Happy Fathers’ Day to any OWs who have become fathers during the pandemic- we’d love to hear your stories and share any baby photos- please send them in to the Waynflete Office.
Keeping in Touch
We are always thinking of our MCS community and endeavour to help you feel connected to the school during this unprecedented time.
In order for us to keep in touch with you, please notify us if your contact details change via the new online form on our website.
If you would like to organise a virtual reunion or reach out to long lost school friends, please let us know via email. The MCS Strava group is also serving to keep members of the MCS community healthy, connected and motivated.
We are pleased to continue to receive your submissions to the Pandemic Papers.
MCS ranks among the top independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024, placed seventh nationally and third in the Southeast.
MCS ranks among the top independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2024, placed seventh nationally and third in the Southeast.
28 of our pupils achieved 10 or more 8 or 9 grades in 2024.
Your donations contribute over £150,000 a year to bursaries as well as building an endowment to fund bursaries for the future.
28 of our pupils achieved 10 or more 8 or 9 grades in 2024.
Your donations contribute over £150,000 a year to bursaries as well as building an 
