Fee support

The Governors are proud of the school's record in providing a range of financial assistance to support girls from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. In 2007/08, 56 girls (12% of the total number of pupils) received means-tested bursaries. The usual maximum discount available for girls in receipt of a these bursaries is 45% of fees, and 15 girls received this level of support in 2007/08. The Maynard is also strongly proactive in helping low-income families to secure additional financial support, and, thanks to the help of external charitable trusts and private donors, five girls attended the Maynard on completely free places last year. We also offer Scholarships to recognise academic achievement. For more information on all types of Fees Assistance at the Maynard, please click here.

Benefits to education within the wider community

The Maynard also offers benefits to wider educational development in Devon. For each of the spring and summer terms, the school hosts a group of 3 trainee teachers from the University of Exeter's School of Education. The students can be placed in any department, but at least one usually joins our PE team. Each student spends half of his or her work placement with the Maynard, and half with another school, in a scheme designed to ensure that trainees receive contrasting experience. The Maynard is particularly strong in providing training for teaching PE to junior girls, as the breadth of this experience is often not available elsewhere. We have a well-established induction programme for newly qualified teachers and two newly qualified teachers have gained national awards for the quality of their teaching after their induction programme here. An Ofsted inspection team visited The Maynard as part of Exeter University's inspection. Ofsted were very impressed by the good practice witnessed in the PE department and will be working to disseminate our good work to other schools.

Individual members of the Maynard staff also contribute to wider curricular and subject development by, for example, co-authoring GCSE text books, marking public examinations and contributing to the work of national curriculum and subject development groups. We also provide facilities for students educated at home or through correspondence courses to take their public examinations, a service offered by a very limited number of centres. The Maynard has informal links with state schools through a member of staff who gives Classics lessons in a local primary and through the three staff members who are Governors for other schools.

Charity and community

The Maynard has a responsibility post of Charity and Community Co-ordinator, to reflect the strong and growing nature of its civic responsibility programme. Students at The Maynard are very active in support of local and international charities, and a number of fundraising events and activities are arranged every year. Events include a Summer Fête, sleepover, Christmas shoppers' bag packing, concerts and Junior School productions, mufti days, and class fairs. The money raised is donated to charities such as the Bishop Simeon Foundation and Rwanda Aid, to support education projects that will benefit girls in Africa, and also the Make A Wish Foundation and to charities supporting suffers of Asthma and Parkinson's Disease. Maynard girls also volunteer their time and skills to help community projects and have helped with Singing for the Brain to help Alzheimer's suffers, the St Thomas Play Scheme, and a summer camp for disabled children.

Lettings

The Maynard has excellent facilities for sciences, music, drama and the arts, and a first-rate indoor sports hall, which are made use of most evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays by a variety of local community groups and schools. In most cases, the hire fees are nominal, and certain groups have the use of our facilities at no charge (such as small local schools needing a larger location for musical or dramatic productions).