Junior Reflections Week 21 February 2025

Dear parents,

I hope you all had a relaxing half-term with your family and friends; it has been wonderful to welcome the pupils back for the second half of the spring term. At the start of the week, staff participated in two inset days, including our third annual conference, EdFest25. The day featured inspiring speakers and workshops, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity. There was a great atmosphere of collaborative learning, and on the second day, staff reflected on their insights and how they could apply them in the classroom. It was also fantastic to see so many parents attending the two afternoon sessions—Celebrating and Supporting the Teenage Brain and Mental Health with a Spotlight on ADHD—both of which were incredibly powerful and informative.

Extra-curricular activities

Fixtures and clubs started with a bang this week with the upper school in action on both Wednesday and Friday. I am off this afternoon to watch the netball and football tournaments hosted on site; the sun is shining, so some perfect weather for sport. It is always great to see so many pupils enjoying team sports; the sportsmanship, collaboration and simple enjoyment really is such a joy to see. Happy, muddy, red-faced pupils who, for some, are not really interested in the score but just that they have had a brilliant afternoon with their friends and meeting new ones.

Inside the classroom

Part of my job is popping into classrooms and just being generally curious as to what is going on. I popped into Upper One R on Thursday afternoon and joined a PSHE lesson, I ended up staying the whole lesson and thoroughly enjoyed working with my group; talking about plastic pollution and what we can do to help with the growing problem that our world has. The collaboration, enthusiasm, and curiosity that was on display was simply brilliant and it reminded me just how much knowledge and respect the pupils have, given their age. For me that gives me hope for a better future if this class of little people are anything to go by! I then hotfooted it next door to take a form time where our budding entrepreneurs, aka Upper Two C, were busy working on their Virgin Money projects. Market research was the order of this form time, which is an extremely useful exercise when thinking about pricing! I can’t wait to see the wares on offer and to break the bank with all the things I will want to buy.

Today is the beginning of Ramadan and we send our best wishes to all members of the community who are celebrating in the month ahead.

I hope the sun stays out for you all this weekend, and I hope you are all enjoying the lighter mornings and evenings. I know I am!

Mrs Saskia van Schalkwyk

Reminder

If you need to make any changes to end-of-day pick-up arrangements or club attendance, please email jsreception@exeterschool.org.uk as the first point of contact. Form tutors may not see these updates promptly due to teaching commitments.

Playground people of the week

Martha M U1W

Amelie S  U1W

Junior School News

Junior Sport News

Do you have a story or pupil achievement to share with our community?

If you have a couple of lines of information and a photograph that you and your child are happy to be shared we will try to post these at relevant times through the year.
Email our communications team
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

...

48 0
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

...

36 0
We love this quote emailed from one of our visitors to our most recent open day. If you didn't get the chance to visit, please get in touch with our admissions team to arrange a personal tour that suits you.  Scholarships are also available with more information available in the link in our bio - applications close 14 November.   #scholarshipsavailable #indpendentschoolsuk #talkeducation #goodschoolsguide #openday #exeterschoolopenday #parentreview #opportunitiesabound #exeterschools #exeterjuniorschool #exeterseniorschool #independentdayschool

...

53 0

EdFest25

Junior school swimming gala - 14 February 2025

Junior school vs Queen's College, Taunton - 7 February 2025

Exonian Lecture with Elizabeth Godwin - February 2025

4F Digestion Dome - February 2025

Jazz, Pop & Rock Concert - 12 February 2025