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Senior Reflections

Senior Reflections Week 14 2024

Dear parents,

Happy New Year! It has been a joy to welcome your children back to school after the holiday, and I hope that they have had a good first few days with their friends at school. I hope, also that you had a fabulous break, despite the rather gloomy weather.

The Upper Fifth have started the term with the first of their trial GCSE exams, and there is no doubt that they are showing great commitment in their endeavours in the exam hall. We know that they will have prepared hard over the Christmas break, and I hope that those of you with U5 formers in the family are feeling positive and that your daughters and sons have been happy with their assessments so far. We wish them well with their exams.

Staff changes

We have welcomed Mrs Jade Seaton-Burn back to school following her maternity leave this week. We are very pleased to have her back in the biology department. We also welcome a new colleague, Mrs Catherine Bending, who joins us to teach maths part-time. Mr Ben Masters will be teaching temporarily in the English department for the next few weeks, covering for staff absences. We wish them all well as they settle into the routine of school and the new term gets underway.

Pastoral restructure

As a result of the pastoral restructure, which will be fully implemented in September, this is a reminder that we appointed colleagues for the new posts of heads of year and heads of the new houses (five of them) last term. Just to remind you, these are the colleagues who will be taking on these roles in September. We will be sharing more with you about the new houses and the way in which you will communicate with the heads of year, form tutors, and heads of section in the coming two terms.

Head of Year (3F) Mrs Helen Sail
Head of Year (4F)   Mr Ed Seaton-Burn
Head of Year (L5) Dr Gary Robb  
Head of Year (M5) Mrs Kat Ridler-Murray  
Head of Year (U5) Mr Dan Trim  
Head of Year (L6)   Ms Steph Trica  
Head of Year (U6)   Mrs AJ Culley  
Head of House 1 Miss Emily Horn  
Head of House 2   Mr Richard Baker  
Head of House 3   Mr Rob Charters  
Head of House 4   Mrs Mel Sheehan  
Head of House 5   Dr Matt Commin  

Hockey season

This weekend, the hockey season starts for boys, with fixtures both at home and away against Blundell’s School. We wish all the teams every success, and I hope to see some of you on the side-lines.

Have a lovely weekend.

Artist of the moment

The art department regularly recognises the achievements of individual pupils in the senior school through the award of the title, ‘Artist of the Moment’. Entries cover a wide range of disciplines, including drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation and mixed media.

Sophie in the Lower Fifth inspired by the mixed media work of Lucy Jones. Sophie has produced this intricate and dynamic collage of her chosen ‘forgotten place’. Excellent work Sophie!

Senior School News

Senior Sport News

Alumnus Steve Dukes (1992-1997), CEO of @confused_com, returned to school this week to give an assembly. He advised pupils about aspiring to reach their goals, using negatives to fuel your journey. He said, 'when you’re at school, being called names like ‘odd, weird and awkward’ can often mean something completely different in adult life - these words become ‘creative, unusual and innovative’.  His top advice was to become like a sponge, find what learning method works best for you, learn fast and act on it. Great advice Steve - thanks so much for visiting us!  @exeterschool_alumni #visitingspeakers

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While it was hard to get a good photo of our sixth form linguists attending an online conference on Wednesday, pupil Sophia's feedback was that "it was really good to see how linguistics goes into so many areas and how some things seemingly unrelated (so far away from linguistics) can have a big/strong connection with linguistics."   They were treated to four diverse talks, ranging from how AI can help us learn foreign languages, how forensic linguistics can help compare different texts and ascertain if the same person wrote both texts (helpful in identifying and profiling criminals), how idioms are processed in our brains and used in social discourse, and how dormant languages can be reclaimed. The talks were 25 minutes each with a Q&A afterwards. As well as being informative, these talks allowed pupils to see what a course of study or a career in linguistics might look like. Many thanks to @oxfordhighschoolgdst for running the event.   #onlineconference #linguisticsevent #forensiclinguistics  #exeterschools #independentschoolsuk #sixthformlife

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Huge congratulations to Jack (U6) who continues to excel with his sailing and has recently been selected for 29er British Sailing Youth Team. The British Sailing Youth Team is an annual programme designed to support and develop the best sailors in the UK. The focus of the programme is to ensure sailor learning and individuals develop to fulfil their potential within the sport. There are a small number of boats in the team, and selection has been very competitive this year.   Jack also competed in the European Championships in Garda in July. He had also sailed at the Worlds in Porto. We can’t wait to hear about Jack’s progress.   #exeterschoolsport #exeterschool #schoolofgreatcharacter

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Netball success - well done to the U14 girls who won the Exeter round of their national competition winning all of their matches and progressing up the next round. @exeterschooluk #netball #exeterschool #exeterschoolsport #schoolofgreatcharacter

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Exciting week of national cup sport with the 1st XV playing @sherborneboys tomorrow (Home - 15:00) and the 1st XI hockey up against @blundells_sport on Thursday (Home - 16:30). Come along and support the school 1st teams. @nextgenxv @exeterschooluk #exeterschoolsport #exeterschool #schoolofgreatcharacter

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Great to get the football season underway! Last week the 1st XI played their first match of the season in a well contested match against King’s College, Taunton. We look forward to following their progress this year. @exeterschooluk #exeterschoolsport #exeterschool #football #schoolofgreatcharacter

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First competitive fixture of the season for our swimmers. Our teams competed at the South West regional round of the ESSA relays held at Millfield last Wednesday. The school fielded teams in all age groups with 8 pupils competing for the school for the first time. The senior teams performed particularly well, putting themselves in the running to make the national finals later in the term! @exeterschooluk #exeterschoolsport #swimming #swimfast #essaswimming

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