CHANGING HEADS
Mrs Olivera Raraty is joining Malvern St James Girls’ School, the leading all girls’ boarding and day school based in Malvern, Worcestershire, as its new Headmistress in September.
She is delighted to be moving to the beautiful Malverns area with its inspiring landscape and is looking forward to becoming part of the local community and enjoying all that it has to offer. She shares an enthusiasm for hill walking with her husband David, and a love of painting and the arts, and knows that she is coming to the perfect place for this!
She comes from Notting Hill and Ealing High School, a leading girls’ school in London where she has been Senior Deputy (Academic) for six years. Before that she had extensive senior leadership experience in academic and pastoral roles during a long career at Wycombe Abbey School including Head of History and Politics, and Assistant Director of Studies. A graduate historian from the University of Leeds, she completed her PGCE at London University, and is looking forward to sharing her interests in history, literature and science with the girls at Malvern St James. She speaks three languages and is keen to promote the value of languages to better understand different cultures and heritage.
As a mother of two daughters, (one of whom was a full boarder and is now in her second year at Cambridge university, and the other who is currently completing her A levels) she has worn a number of different hats and appreciates the joys and challenges of modern family life. She has also seen from her daughter’s experiences the many benefits that girls’ boarding brings, including being able to access an extraordinary range of extra-curricular opportunities on site immediately after the regular school day, not to mention fun in the houses and socials, and have quality time for work as well!
Mrs Raraty is a passionate advocate of the benefits of an all girls’ education where teaching, learning and pastoral care are rooted in a style that best suits girls, and where girls are free to be themselves and to try out new things. She is an alumnus of Grey Coat Hospital, Westminster which she credits with having given her an excellent start in life. All the ‘old greys’ that she met at a recent reunion had all forged interesting and successful career paths and recognised the part played by the girls’ school in instilling a sense of purpose, ambition and achievement underpinned by a firm set of values.
She is excited to be joining Malvern St James which has an ethos of combining academic excellence and intellectual rigour with a modern and forward looking approach to holistic education. The school is an exceptionally warm, friendly and supportive community, in which learning in its widest sense flourishes. It provides a wealth of opportunity across the curriculum, in sport, the arts, as well as leadership roles – there is a real sense of creative and intellectual energy, as well as heart – all of which enables each girl to enjoy life and learning, to make a positive contribution to her wider community, and to fulfil her potential.
Mrs Raraty starts her new role at the beginning of MSJ’s tenth anniversary year. The school was formed in 2006 from the merger of Malvern Girls’ College and St James’s School, West Malvern. The Governors and whole school community look forward to welcoming Mrs Raraty for the next exciting chapter for MSJ.