9th June 2020 — Many congratulations to Jane Wu (Year 13) who has had her artwork selected for exhibition at the prestigious Young Artists' Summer Show 2020 by the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The submitted artworks were judged by a panel of art experts including Royal Academicians, RA curators and RA Schools students.

Here, Jane provides some background to the exhibition and her artwork:

'This is my second year submitting an artwork to the Young Artists’ Summer Show (YASS) for the Royal Academy of Arts in London. I was thrilled last year when my 'Self Portrait' oil painting was chosen to be exhibited onsite, and that was what boosted my confidence and motivated me to participate this year. The competition was much tougher this year, with over 17,000 entries, and the artwork I submitted was a photograph titled 'Monochrome'. I used bold colours as the main idea which created contrast towards the traditional views of Monochrome.

The photograph will be exhibited live online on the Royal Academy website from 12th July 2020, and it will stay on the website indefinitely.

You can view my 'Self Portrait' oil painting from YASS 2019 here: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/2019/323 '

22nd May 2020 — This week, St Mary’s Young Enterprise company, ‘Perspective’, represented the school at the ‘virtual’ Wiltshire County Final, held online for the first time.

The girls, led by Rebecca (Year 12), submitted a ten-page report telling the story of their company, a digital image of their trade stand and a four-minute video presentation.

Perspective aim to bridge the gap between parents and teens by encouraging story sharing and creating a more open environment for all perspectives. They have created a book called ‘Note To Self’, written by 28 members of the team; full of art, anecdotes and articles sharing their personal viewpoints on a range of topics close to their hearts. They have sold over 300 copies of their book and garnered effusive praise from many readers. Furthermore, they have supplemented the book with a podcast, ‘Pod To Self’, in which Susie (Year 12) interviews the authors of the articles to develop the conversation in more depth.

The judges gave glowing praise, with judge Bruce Oliver saying, 'They are the best Wiltshire team I’ve seen in 20 years with Young Enterprise' highlighting how impressed he was with their values, resourcefulness and sense of responsible empowerment. Another judge said, 'The product is both imaginative and practical, delivered to the consumer in a number of novel and creative ways. The podcasts were terrific, the video was very well delivered and the fact that they achieved downloads in every continent made this submission all the more remarkable.'

The girls won awards for Teamwork, Customer Focus, Brand Creation, Social Responsibility and the overall trophy for the Best Company in Wiltshire.

Congratulations to the girls on their achievements and their efforts throughout the year. It has been an exciting journey and they have developed a whole host of skills that will be invaluable in their careers. Having been crowned the best Young Enterprise company in Wiltshire, they are now looking forward to representing St Mary’s at the South West Regional Final to be held online on Tuesday, 2nd June.

14th February 2020 — Some of the Art students at St Mary's Calne enjoyed an Art trip to Lisbon earlier this Spring Term. Here, Annabel (Year 11) sums up the weekend. 'Our first trip was to a castle (or ‘castelo’ in Portuguese) which was a lot of fun and provided an opportunity to get our sketchbooks out, inspired by the view. On the Saturday we visited a beautiful monastery before heading on to visit The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. We had a passionate and memorable guide who encouraged us to think and ask questions about contemporary art. After this came the long-awaited evening swegway tour which absolutely lived up to our expectations! We learnt a lot about the history of Lisbon on the tour, which included sites such as the 25th April bridge (Ponte 25 de Abril), which is quite similar to the Golden Gate Bridge and built by the same people, and the Casa dos Bicos. It was a lot of fun trying to balance on the swegways and a brilliant way to end the day.

For our final day in Lisbon we were lucky enough to have a bit of time for shopping in the Time Out market, culminating in a lunch of mainly sushi and pizza which was extremely good. Finally, to finish the trip with a bang, we toured an aquarium. There, we loved seeing the penguins, otters and most of the cast of Finding Nemo! Overall, the art trip was a great balance of being both fun and informative with snippets of information being thrown our way about the interesting history and culture of Lisbon.'

26th November 2019 — Many congratulations to Year 13 Art Scholar, Jane Wu, who has been offered a place on the Royal Academy of Arts attRAct 2020 programme. Only 50 places were offered, so Jane should be very proud of this achievement.

'attRAct' is a free, one-year long programme for young people aged 16-18, run by the Royal Academy of Arts in London. It is for those who want to take part in creative workshops such as life drawing and screen printing, receiving careers advice from art professionals and temporary work placements during the summer. There will also be many lectures, university open days, graduate shows and exhibitions throughout the course, enriching Jane's experience.

Jane commented: "I heard about this programme through the Head of Youth Management at the RA when I applied for the Young Artists’ Summer Show earlier on this year. It seemed like a fantastic opportunity as I will be able to study in the buzzing city centre of London, alongside being in school. The RA offered me a group interview upon the submission of my personal statement. As there were well over 100 applicants invited for interview, we were divided into smaller groups to carry out different activities. The interview session included unseen art work critiques, making models from Play-Doh, drawing self-portraits, mark making from observation and much more. It was a good chance for me to get to meet other people who also have an interest in art. There were questions asked by the programme staff throughout, testing our ability to discuss art in a non-formal yet spontaneous way. After I take my A Levels and leave St Mary’s, this programme will run alongside my Art Foundation course. I believe this course will also push my artistic boundaries, as professionals within the field will be present throughout. The course will also enable me to develop useful connections in the creative industries which will be of great benefit to me in the future."

26th November 2019 — St Mary’s Calne features in the top of the best independent schools in the South West in The Sunday Times Schools Guide, Parent Power 2020, published on 24th November 2019. The 27th edition of this schools guide identifies the 2,000 highest-achieving schools in the UK, ranked by their 2019 A Level and GCSE examination results. In addition to being second in the South West, St Mary’s Calne is ranked 64th independent secondary school in the country (ranking based on 2019 examination results, with A*-B grades at A Level double weighted).

The girls at St Mary’s Calne consistently achieve excellent A Level results and, in 2019, 64% of the entries were graded A*-A, an impressive 23% graded A* and 45% of the girls were awarded all A*/As. In addition, all of the girls who held Oxbridge offers secured their places and almost 90% gained their first choice of university. In terms of ‘Value Added’, some pupils achieved over one and half grades better than expected per subject and the year group as a whole recorded very good Value Added results. The girls also achieved a superb set of GCSE and IGCSE Level results, with 40% of the results graded 9, 64% 9-8 and 82% 9-7 (equivalent to A*-A).

Headmistress, Dr Felicia Kirk, commented: “We are delighted that St Mary’s Calne has been recognised in this way by The Sunday Times Parent Power Schools Guide. This reflects the hard work of the girls and also the support from all the staff here and the exceptional teaching at St Mary’s. In addition to our outstanding academic results, the girls are well-rounded and enjoy a very busy school life pursuing many extra-curricular activities, whether that be in Sport, Music, Art, Drama or participating in one of the many clubs and societies on offer at St Mary’s.”

11th October 2019 — St Mary’s Calne Artists have generously supported the latest Erlestoke Prison (Wiltshire) fundraising initiative to create sporting facilities at the site by contributing original artworks for cARTes postales 'Art on Postcards', alongside works by professional Artists, which include that of Antony Gormley. The pieces will be auctioned and the proceeds will go towards this worthwhile cause.

An amazing array of leading and local artists, writers, actors and musicians (including Marika Hackman) and other talented people, have generously created unique artwork on a postcard for this initiative by The Friends of Erlestoke Prison and The Salisbury Museum. Purchasing a postcard voucher could mean becoming the owner of a postcard.

Postcards created include those pictured by St Mary's pupils, Nina Waterlow (Year 12 Scholar) and Gigi Lane (Year 11 Artist).

'It is wonderful that our Artists recognise the local opportunities that benefit the wider community, to be thinking, making, ethical artists.' Kimberley Appleyard Pallot, Director of Art at St Mary’s Calne, commented.

Further information about this initiative by The Friends of Erlestoke Prison and The Salisbury Museum can be found on the The Salisbury Museum website, where postcard vouchers are available for the public to buy online. The allocation of vouchers to postcards will be randomly generated on 29th October and postcards dispatched to their lucky recipients by the end of October. See https://salisburymuseum.org.uk/support-us/cartes-postales