House No. 6
Nichola Cage arrived at the College in September 2007 to take up the role of Housemistress of No.6. Married to Mark, they have three children; James and Charlotte are both at The Downs, Malvern College Prep and Sophie was born in 2008, much to the delight of the extended House family. The Cages have a Springer Spaniel called ‘Bailey’ who loves being part of No. 6!
Nichola enjoys boarding-house life enormously and strongly believes in the ethos, “try your best and enjoy making the most of the opportunities which present themselves”. Number 6 aims to be a friendly, happy house, where girls are encouraged to fulfill their potential.
No.6 Go ‘Speed Dating’!
Friday 26. of February 2010
Don’t panic! It is not quite as it seems… rather an inspired ‘House Bonding Experience’ suggested by Head of House Toni Gold and her team of seniors.
They had long felt one of the real strengths of No.6 had been the way that the girls were friends across the age ranges, but they had also felt that this took some time to evolve and that it could be ‘improved’ with a little encouragement……
So, moving on to a dull and chilly Sunday evening, our own version of “Speed Dating” was set up, with the Seniors all sitting in the dining room arranged in a huge horseshoe with the Juniors in chairs opposite them. The rules were that each ‘Couple’ had two minutes to ask questions of each other, and during the conversation every person would ‘let slip’ a key fact about themselves or their family which they had already told Mrs C in secret……sounds complicated? Well it worked surprisingly well and the evening was a hive of focussed conversation, all ably directed by Miss West as MC for the night (that PE department whistle came in very useful-I can tell you)
Who would have thought that Deenah Faruque had once met Kiera Knightly, or that Anna Llewellyn had acted in a Bollywood movie, before coming to Malvern?
All this and more was up for discovery as the evening unfolded…. The quiz became increasingly competitive and fuelled by supplies of chocolate brownies, snacks and refreshments, the questions flew thick and fast….
Whose ambition is to be a film director? Who has exactly the same name as her mother? Who always sings in the shower? Who used to live in the ‘White House’? Whose youngest brother plays 6 musical instruments? And who once climbed a volcano in Guatamala?
As the photos show, a great deal of fun was had by all, and everyone agreed this was to become a new House 6 ‘tradition’. The only problem will be trying to think of things that we DON’T know about each other for next year’s quiz!
(The answers to the above are: Vicki Jurewicz, Anne Geuther, Steffi Borner, Natalie Kingdon, Margarita Cesar, and Felicitas Niedel.)
No.6 - House Baking Competition for Haiti
Monday 22. of February 2010
Just before half term, in what was possibly one of the busiest weekends of the year (FY Lunch and Parents’ Meeting, 100 Parents’ Meeting, and House Drama Competition), Sunday afternoon found House 6 filled with industrious activity.
Both the ‘private’ kitchens in the House (Mrs Marshall’s and Mrs Cage’s) were taken over by 5 teams of bakers, keen to produce their very best efforts for the InterHouse baking competition in aid of the Haiti earthquake appeal.
Interesting concoctions were created, reflecting the multicultural influences in the House. An Italian marble cake (Guilia and Yulia, Chloe and Ros), chocolate Chip cookies, white chocolate and fresh raspberry cake (Toni, Anjelika and Olga), chocolate slab cake and more!
The creativity in the baking was mirrored by the ‘creativity’ with the use of just about every kitchen utensil in the house, but an impressive effort in cleaning up (mostly by Olga and Angelika it seemed to me!) resulted in my kitchen eventually returning to vaguely ‘kitchen –shape’ by the end of the evening.
Some fabulous cakes were produced and a huge quantity of ‘extras’ seemed to be left over and therefore available for consumption in the House (to the delight of the rest of the girls!)
Well done to all who took part, especially those who went on to take part on the House play later that evening too!