Headmaster's Blog 5th December 2025
Last Friday’s Winter Wonderland was thoroughly enjoyed by all and thank you to The Friends of St. Mary’s and volunteers for all the hard work preparing and delivering the ‘sugar-fest’ fueled spending frenzy. Thank you to parents for funding the stalls on display which included: attempts to guess the number of sweets, face painting, guess the name of the giant dachshund, decorate a cookie, tombola, estimate the weight of the cake, Magic Mog’s Marvellous Magic Show, and my personal favourite - identify the Form 8 baby from an amusing montage of pictures.
Marshmallows around the firepit and Santa’s Grotto further set a festive scene, greatly complemented by the ensuing carols around the tree accompanied by the nationally renowned Jed Brass Band with guest performances from Caleb and Mairi. The switching on of the Christmas tree lights was seamlessly performed by Mia, our youngest prep school pupil.
In keeping with the tireless and happy momentum in both boarding houses throughout the term, the Gaps’ Surprise followed soon after the lighting of the tree, and the boys’ house donned South African and Zimbabwean attire to celebrate James’ homeland, and the Girls’ house acknowledged Rosie’s dual citizenship by dressing in Australian related wear. St Mary's Melrose - Boarding Blog week ending 5th December 2025
Fountainhall amusement esplanade was the secret destination, and a fun evening of ten pin bowling and crazy golf was dissected by dubiously nutritious happy meals for the party of 43. The coughs and
weariness among some did not dampen the spirits and the same applied throughout the rehearsals for the Form 5 and 6 scheduled rehearsals early in the week. Miss McRae led by example, digging deep to carry out her director’s responsibilities, ably and quietly supported by Miss Renwick, whose wide range of skills and expertise are very often called upon in various roles in the school.
On Monday and Tuesday, a largely productive set of Form 7 parent teacher meetings set a tone of useful collaboration from which all parties benefit, and winter flu vaccinations were administered by our wonderful NHS nurses who visited the campus, and pre-prep visited Priorwood for some fun Christmas activities.
At this stage in the term, with challenging winter driving conditions and fatigue levels at a termly high, fixtures against our friends from Crieff -Ardvreck School- can be a big ask of staff, pupils and parents. However, as is always the case with a fellow, like-minded, stand-alone prep school, all matches were well balanced and hospitality both here and there was typically warm. This cordiality makes all the effort very much worth it. St Mary's Melrose - Sports Reports
This morning, we were treated to a colourful array of Christmas jumpers worn by an equally wonderful 
collection of Form 1 and 2 pupils who hosted a picnic lunch for the staff leaving us at the end of term, it was a lovely event with lots of tears from all and a fantastic job on their Christmas songs. They nearly put on the best performance of the week, only narrowly trumped by the brilliant Form 5 and 6 stage players who wowed us all with two brilliant evening performances of Matilda Jr. St Mary's Melrose - Matilda Jr - Forms 5 and 6 Show
The acting and singing were captivating enough, but the story known to us here at school about how the entire cast stepped up, when they absolutely had to, is a great source of pride to Miss McRae, Miss Renwick and the many staff who rallied to keep the show on the road. We have many ‘Honeys’ here at St. Mary’s and not really any Trunchbulls. But beware of complacency you pupils and get plenty of rest this weekend ahead of the final week of term!
Finally, a presentation was made to Julie in the staff meeting to recognize her ‘secret’ wedding to Dougie taking place this weekend. Julie wanted no fuss, so we kept it to ourselves…until now!
Congratulations Julie and Dougie.