The energy across campus was palpable this week as the Senior School paused its regular timetable for the annual Senior Afternoon of Outreach. It was, as usual, a fabulous afternoon dedicated to the three core pillars of our mission: connecting with our local community, making a tangible difference to the lives of others, and fundraising to ensure that impact is sustainable. To truly understand the Marlborough Spirit in action, one only had to take a walk through the various initiatives that unfolded across the College and the wider Johor community, seeing first-hand the result of months of planning by Housemasters, Housemistresses, and their pupils.
Your journey might have begun with a wander down to the Pre-Prep School, where the air was filled with giggles and high-spirited creativity. Stepping into the classrooms, you would have found the senior pupils from Butler and Sheppard bridging the age gap with pure joy. Some were expertly painting the faces of our youngest pupils, while others organised relay races, led parachute games, gave drum lessons, or helped children build paper boats and decorate cookies.
From that wonderful noise and excitement, a walk back towards the Senior School you would likely have spotted a blur of red, black and yellow as the boys from Munawir Hill ran the mile as a collective. Working hard to run, jog and walk laps of the mile, they combined their individual distances to cover a staggering total of 109 miles, raising vital funds for the Yayasan Jantung Kongenital Malaysia (Malaysian Congenital Heart Foundation). This charity holds a particular poignancy for the house, and the sight of many exhausted boys recovering in their common room afterward was a true testament to their grit and dedication.
Continuing across the fields, the sound of cheering would lead you to the boys of Thompson, where a local school from Skudai had been welcomed for an afternoon of sport. The pupils engaged their guests in various games, team-building activities and running races on the track which culminated in the ever popular slide down the hill, with screams of delight echoing across the grounds!
Nearby at Court, the Bickerton boys were playing host to a local Orang Asli community school. Together, they spent the afternoon hand-crafting and decorating beautiful bird boxes, which the visiting pupils took back to their own schools and villages to provide a lasting connection to nature.
Further afield, several Houses took their efforts off-site to support communities in their own environments. The girls from Wallace visited a village near Masai, carrying food parcels they had funded and assembled themselves. Upon discovering an area that had recently experienced a fire, losing infrastructure and leaving residents struggling with massive amounts of debris, the girls grabbed litter pickers and bin bags. Though the sheer volume of waste meant their efforts barely made a dent in the overall scale of the damage, the girls worked with incredible heart through a wet afternoon, filling four large liners with rubbish. It was an especially moving moment when they handed over the food parcels, which included 5kg of rice and 24 litres of water, to the grateful residents.
In a similarly impactful journey, the red and black swipes of Steel visited the Orang Asli community of Pasir Salam. They arrived with food parcels for the less fortunate members of the community, having first arranged the supplies at the Rainbow Care Centre HQ before setting off to deliver them personally and engage in meaningful conversation with the local residents. The sight of girls skipping, playing in the playground with the youngest members of the community and adults interacting with the locals was what the connection of MCM outreach efforts seeks to achieve.
The outreach efforts extended deep into Johor Bahru, where the girls from Morley paid a visit to Hillville Care Home where they engaged with the elderly residents and provided a programme of entertainment, which included both soloist and group singing in Mandarin, Malay and English as well as dance performances. The girls also served Nyonya Kuih, bite-sized Peranakan steamed treats.
Meanwhile, in Skudai, you may have spotted the familiar colours of Wills visiting their long-term partners at the Rotary Care Home for orphaned and disadvantaged children. After a year-long project, the team was able to hand over a hugely significant sum toward a desperately needed new minibus. Before spending the rest of the day playing with the children, the boys rolled up their sleeves for an afternoon of cooking, cleaning, and gardening at the orphanage, continuing to strengthen the connections which started way back in September last year.
Finally, on the way back to the College, you might have spotted yellow and green swipes circling the Emerald Lake at Sunway Citrine. The girls of Honan were running with incredible gusto for Cahaya Surya Bakti, an organisation supporting refugee education. By the end of the afternoon, they had clocked over 125km a fantastic physical effort for a purposeful future collaboration with the organisation.
All in all, the afternoon was a remarkable example of our incredible pupils and students making a difference to the lives of others with genuine compassion. In the process, they continue to develop that unique Marlborough Spirit, a blend of empathy, leadership, and community that they will undoubtedly carry with them wherever they go.
Mr Ciaran Treloar, Deputy Head Pastoral (Senior), PE and Games
