Junior Reflections

Junior Reflections Week 20 2024

Dear parents,

I hope that you all had a restful half term with your family and friends. It has been great to welcome the pupils back for the second half of the spring term. The staff had two inset days at the beginning of the week with our second education conference being held – WellFest24. It was a day of wellbeing, inspirational speakers, and workshops with guest speaker Alicia Drummond from Teen Tips. A lot of collaborative learning took place, and hearing the whole school community sing, with thanks to Mr Pete Tamblyn, was a highlight.

Fixtures and clubs

Fixtures and clubs started with a bang this week, although the weather was not always on our side. It is always great to see so many pupils involved in the wide range of clubs on offer as well as having the opportunity to represent the school. I know that this half term is going to be a very busy one, so do have a look at SOCS to see if your child is playing in any of the many fixtures.

Informal woodwind concert and New York deli style lunch

I was blown away by our junior school pupils who played in our Informal Woodwind Concert on Wednesday – they were brilliant – and clearly a lot of practise has taken place over the half term. Well done to Evie, Henry, and Sophie. The pupils were also treated to a New York deli style lunch as well, which was delicious, I hope your children enjoyed it as much as the staff. A big thank you to our catering team, who always do a fantastic job of providing a varied and nutritious lunch every day. It puts my culinary skills to shame!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Playground people of the week

Henry F1H

Elliot F1H

Rupert U2T

Junior Artist of the moment

The art department regularly recognises the achievements of individual pupils in the junior 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.

Form One have enjoyed exploring the themes of friendship and family in Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Georgina in Form One has used one of the illustrations in her beautiful sketch of the central characters, and added a very fitting quote.

Informal Woodwind Concert

The Music Hall was filled with the sounds of saxophones, flutes and a bassoon on Wednesday after school, at it was the turn of many of our woodwind players to perform in their Informal Concert. With pupils ranging in age from Form One up to Lower Sixth, a pleasing selection of repertoire was selected, with some jazzy sax numbers by Bennett and Buckland, traditional songs played on the flute, including Mockingbird Song,  Hot Cross Buns and Pease Pudding, We’re off to see the Wizard from the musical The Wizard of Oz and the classic Pink Panther. Sixth form pupils Matt, Lucia and Chi were especially inspirational to the younger players with their mature and technically impressive renditions. You can access the audio recording here.

World Book Day

Mark your calendars, everyone! On Thursday, March 7, Exeter Junior School will immerse in the enchanting world of literature for World Book Day. We are delighted to host author Sam Sedgman, who will conduct engaging workshops for each year group. We invite you to join the festivities by participating in our biennial tradition of dressing up as your favourite book character. We would like you to step into the shoes of any one of your most cherished book characters. Let’s make this World Book Day a memorable celebration of the magic found within the pages of a good book! Happy reading, Mrs Hardy.

Junior School News

Junior 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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