The latest private schools to merge are St James's School and Malvern Girls' College who from September will form a new school to be called Malvern St James.

An all girls school, it will be situated on the Malvern Girls' College site and take boarders and day girls aged between 7 and 18. The first Headmistress will be Mrs Rosalind Hayes, currently Headmistress of St. James's. Both schools were founded in the 1890’s and their famous alumni include: HRH Princess Alice, Barbara Cartland, Dame Elizabeth Lane, Penelope Leach and Carla Furze. For St James’s this new arrangement comes after previous mergers with The Abbey School (1979) and the Lawnside School (1984).

• www.st-james-school.co.uk

• www.mgc.worcs.sch.uk