Dear parents,
I have to say I am rather pleased to be entering February. January seems to have gone on for a rather long time and I don’t think the weather has helped, although the end of the week has been rather more pleasant than the storms we have encountered. Assembly on Monday was sharing with the pupils the origins and festivities of Chinese New Year which took place this Wednesday. This year is the year of the snake and the pupils (and staff) had fun thinking about what animal they were and some children even went off to research their characteristics.
School council
We held our first school council of the year, this week, and we welcomed Mr Graeme Swan, our catering manager, to the meeting. The school councillors were full of praise for the food and choice available but also offered some very sensible suggestions that Mr Swan is going to take back to his team. One suggestion last term was to have sushi on the salad bar… Mr Swan was pleased to share that this will be coming soon and I think there will be some happy children; what a treat.
District 4 heads
On Thursday I spent the day at Wellington for our District 4 heads termly meet up. It is always so valuable to network with local fellow heads. We are all working hard in this difficult climate to ensure that the education on offer is the best that it can be and sharing ideas with other heads, I find invaluable.
Sports fixtures
This week, the U11 football team had an exciting day at the EFL Kids Cup local area finals. They had a great day on the pitch, had the opportunity to meet several Exeter City players and capped off the day by winning the plate competition after a penalty shoot-out in the final. On Wednesday, the U11 boys competed in the Devon Hockey Finals, narrowly missing out on a place in the final. Thursday saw a block fixture against West Buckland and Plymouth, where every child in F1 and U1 represented the school. The afternoon was filled with fantastic hockey and netball matches in the sun at Exeter Junior School. Looking ahead, we have another busy week of sport with several block fixtures. Squash against St Peters and our swimmers heading to Millfield for the IAPS Regional qualifiers.
Strategic planning
As part of our rolling strategic planning, the board and members of the leadership group will be working on strategy later this term. In order to hear the views of parents, we will be sending out a questionnaire on Monday 3 February, which should only take a few minutes of your time. Please look out for this and we look forward to hearing your views. Following this, on Tuesday 11 February there will be a parent forum giving you the opportunity to contribute to this through a facilitated discussion. Details of this will be included within the email sending you the questionnaire link on Monday. We appreciate your contributions as we plan for the future together.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to welcoming new families and their children for our assessment morning; let’s hope the rain stays away.
Have a good weekend.
