students in class
Junior Reflections

Junior Reflections Week 18 2024

Dear parents,

Graham Keene visit

February has arrived, as have the first lot of daffodils in my office. A lovely feeling of Spring is nearly here. I joined the Upper Two pupils first thing on Monday morning to listen to our very own local mountaineer, Graham Keene. The pupils were mesmerised by his account of climbing the seven highest mountains in each of the continents, and he encouraged the pupils to follow their dreams – anything is possible.

Future-ready learning

Mrs Morgan and I visited Wells Cathedral School on Tuesday as part of the District 4 heads termly meeting and a chance for our digital leads to meet up. The discussion topic was “Future-ready learning”, and we had a very interesting and informative presentation from Lex Lang on the integration of AI in education. It certainly gave us a lot to think about, not just as a teacher but also as a parent.

Comets club

This week, comets club headed to the senior school for “Combinatorics – The Art of Clever Counting”. Mr Bowler introduced compositions to the group, where the pupils were asked to break down whole numbers. The Upper Two children were brilliant at identifying patterns, and they got to see how creative mathematics can be! A huge thank you to Mr Bowler for inspiring our pupils.

Informal Brass Concert

I attended the Informal Brass Concert, and what a treat I had. I was blown away, excuse the pun, by the talent, and a special mention goes to our very own Nathaniel in Lower Two, who performed the James Bond theme tune on the French horn. It was a brilliant performance. I do enjoy the Informal Concerts, and it is lovely to see many of our old junior school pupils play as well.

Junior school council

On Thursday morning, the junior school council welcomed three of our senior school council members, Alex, Jasmine, and Tom, to our half term meeting. They talked about their roles and the brilliant changes they have helped to influence before taking questions from the pupils, such as changes to school uniforms and school lunches. Alex, Jasmine, and Tom shared words of wisdom and encouragement as well as fond memories of their time in the junior school before hearing feedback from each class on what has been enjoyed, what was not quite so good, any worries, and finally, suggestions for the school council to discuss at future meetings.

Coffee morning

It was lovely to see many of the lower school parents at our coffee morning on Wednesday; as always, it was a great start to my day and great to catch up. This evening sees our annual junior school quiz, which I am very much looking forward to, and tomorrow I will be welcoming many new families and their children to our assessment day.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend, and I am sure I will see many of you this evening.

Playground people of the week

Archie F1C

Lysander  U2T

George U2E

U11 Hockey – Devon Finals

The U11 boys hockey team travelled to Blundell’s on Wednesday for the Devon Hockey Tournament. They displayed some fantastic skills and scored some great goals during the tournament. Exeter School progressed through the group stages in top place and came up against West Buckland School in the semi-final, where the game went to penalty shuffles. Exeter School narrowly lost the shoot out and West Buckland School progressed to the final. Well done to all the pupils involved!

Informal Brass Concert

15 players from across the school took to the Music Hall stage on Wednesday in the Informal Brass Concert. Featuring nine trumpeters, three trombonists, a euphoniumist, a hornist and a tubist, and ranging in age from Nathaniel in Lower Two to Oscar in Upper Sixth, the event offered huge variety in the instrumental disciplines on show and the experience of the players. The choices of piece also offered something for every musical taste, with movements from concertos by Hummel and Haydn, pop favourite Angels, film/stage classics including Raiders March, the James Bond theme and Castle on a Cloud through to jazzy numbers such as Chattanooga Choo-Choo and Funk. You can access the audio recording here.

The next Informal Concert event will feature the guitarists, and is taking place on Wednesday 7 February at 4pm in the Music Hall. Parents, pupils, staff and families and all welcome to attend.

Junior School News

Junior Sport News

Our Young Changemakers programme comes to an end for another year, with our young ambassadors going out into the world armed with real-world ready advice and ideas from @hospiscaredevon.

"Just to say thank you so much for all you have done to support Hospiscare for another year. Your pupils were a brilliant group of young people, full of enthusiasm and ideas, and I'm sure many of them will continue to be great ambassadors for Hospiscare in the future." - Laura, Public Fundraising Manager. 

#RealWorldReady #Fundraising #CoeducationToThrive #aspireandflourish #WelcomeAndServe #independentdayschool #exeterschools #devonschools #community #changemakers #sixthformlife

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Our Lower Two pupils enjoyed a fantastic geography field trip around Exeter city centre this week. From exploring land use in Princesshay and Southernhay to discovering the history of the Blue Boy statue and visiting the Guildhall dungeon, it was a day full of learning, exploration and sunshine. 

#ExeterSchool #OutdoorLearning #Geography #ExeterEducation #Princesshay #ExeterGuildhall #SchoolTrip #FieldTrip #RealWorldReady #CoeducationToThrive #ExeterJuniorSchool #JuniorSchool #IndependentDaySchool

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What a great day of cricket! Well done to the @exschsports U11s who finished as runners up at the Devon U11 hardball competition today. The eight a-side format gives each team the opportunity to play three matches during the day with the winners heading to the west finals! Well done on winning  @stpetersprepschool 

@exeterschooluk @devoncricket @esca_cricket #cricket #teamwork #exeterschoolsport #schoolofgreatcharacter

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Congratulations to Jacob and Freddie (both L6) who represented Devon U17’s last Sunday playing against Dorset & Wiltshire. Devon won 50-24. Freddie scored 2 tries and Jacob 1 @exeterschooluk @devonrfu #rugby #exeterschoolsports #schoolofgreatcharacter

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Huge congratulations to the 7 @exeterschooluk U14 boys who help secure their team’s place at the Hockey National Finals . Playing for ISCA Hockey they drew to Woking HC in the final pool game securing their place on finals day to be held later in May. 

Only 8 teams across the country qualify for nationals so this is an amazing accomplishment 👏🏻 @iscahockeyclubjuniors

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County champions 👏🏻🏆 - well done to our U14 rugby squad who rounded off a brilliant term with a 54-7 win in the county cup final yesterday. 

@devonrfu @exeterschooluk #champions🏆 #countycup #exeterschoolsport #schoolofgreatcharacter

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