Junior Reflections Week 27 April 2025

Dear parents,

It’s been a pleasure to see so many of you at the gate this week and, of course, to welcome your children back for the start of the summer term. A warm welcome to our new pupils and families as well and I hope that your first week with us has been an enjoyable one. It was also wonderful to see so many lower school parents for coffee this morning, and I look forward to meeting the upper school parents next week.

Our school grounds are looking fantastic; thanks to the hard work of our wonderful estates team, who were busy over the holidays making sure everything was looking its best. A huge thank you to them for ensuring such a great start to the term.

Fire drill

We also carried out our termly fire drill this week to ensure all pupils are confident with the procedures. As always, our pupils behaved impeccably, quietly and quickly exiting the building. Well done to everyone.

New staff

We’re delighted to welcome Mrs Louise Stevens to the team as our new learning support teacher. She’s already made a fantastic start getting to know the pupils and learning the ropes of the junior school—welcome, Mrs Stevens!

Charity collection

We also welcomed in Sian from The Hygiene Bank this week, one of our chosen charities, on Thursday to collect all of last term’s donations. Helpers from Lower Two helped squeeze everything into Sian’s car and we apparently collected a whopping 140kg of donations. Thank you all for your generosity; these small donations make such a massive difference to families in our local community.

Staff departures

Many of you may have read in Ms Simpson’s end of term newsletter that sadly Mrs Katie Jones has made the decision to step away from the classroom and will be leaving us at the end of this academic year. Mrs Jones has been a part of the junior school for nearly 20 years and has had a huge impact on so many pupils both in and out of the classroom, although I have a feeling she will be back. We are also saying goodbye to my wonderful and ever-patient PA, Mrs Corten, who will also be retiring at the end of the year to enjoy the next exciting chapter of her life. Both will be greatly missed and have been a huge part of our school community. We will of course make sure they have a proper send off at the end of term and I will update you in due course once their successors have been appointed.

With the sunshine set to continue over the weekend, I hope you’re able to enjoy it—and fingers crossed it sticks around next week too!

Mrs Saskia van Schalkwyk

Playground people of the week

Benjamin W U2E

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.
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Exeter Junior School pupils are off timetable today for a wonderful roundabout of activities in aid of the @national_literary_festival. We're going all in for the @go_all_in_2026 and some pupils, like Bel here, performed their pieces in assembly in chapel this morning. Well done Bel! 👏

#GoAllIn #reading #poetry #CreativeWriting #PoetLaureate #NationalYearOfReading2026 #ExeterJuniorSchool #NationalLiteracyTrust #DevonSchools #IndependentSchoolsUK 

🎵 Copyrighted music licensed from Lickd. https://lickd.co

Hawaiian Magic by 101 Strings Orchestra, https://t.lickd.co/l/1PENMPJKwkv

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This Sunday is @thegreatwestrun and our very own Mr Harknett will be running his first half marathon on behalf of @charityforcecancer! He ran the 10K for them last year and raised just over £100 so he would love to take it further this year and get to £300. 

Cancer care is very close to his family’s heart and we know that is true for many in our school community so please do give if you feel able and help him to smash his goals!

His JustGiving link is available in our Linktree in our bio

#WelcomeAndServe #Charity #FundRaising #HalfMarathon @exeterschool_alumni @exschsports #Support #Community #ExeterSchools @ExSchDrama

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We've been busy preparing for our visitors to the @devoncountyshow and can't wait to speak to you all over the next few days! Stop by Ave A, stand 94, for a chat, some shelter, a seat...🥳 We love showing what our young people get up to, letting you know of scholarships, bursaries and other opportunities available and in store for anyone dreaming of becoming an Exeter School pupil. We'd also love to catch up with any @exeterschool_alumni.

🐶Labradors Murphy and Ketchup will be visiting with us as well as our much adored Bichon Frise, Ruffles, from @exeterpreprep on Saturday. Can't wait to see you! 😎

#devoncountyshow2026 #countyfair #devon #westpointexeter #RealWorldReady #CoEducationToThrive #ComeAndChat #WelcomeAndServe #Exhibitors #Summer #Admissions #School #DevonSchools #Scholarships #Bursaries #Welcome #OpenDay

🎵 Copyrighted music licensed from Lickd. https://lickd.co

On The Move by CALVO, https://t.lickd.co/l/kVB3yow3Rr4

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One of our teams takes an old, off the grid, Sony Cyber-shot point and shoot camera (no microphones so watch out for dodgy captions) on their @armytentors challenge to give everyone a real behind-the-scenes look at what it's really like to complete such an immense challenge. 

From the crowds of the start line to the middle of nowhere and the emotional rollercoaster and blisters between, their emotions shine through in this real-life feature filmed entirely by Lower Sixth pupils from Exeter School.  Head over to our YouTube channel to watch the full video now.

#tentors #cadetsinschools #exeterschools #devon #RoyalNavy #RoyalAirForce #RoyalArmy #CCF #rambling #dartmoor @exeterschool_alumni @exeterschooltentors 
 

🎵 Copyrighted music licensed from Lickd. https://lickd.co

Tiger Feet by Mud, https://t.lickd.co/l/9PqmP4a2pMZ

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AMAZING! Firstly, we'd like to say to the original poster that we are so glad you're ok and we hope you are recovering well. 

Secondly, what impressive young people our boys and girls are to step in to help when others passed by, on a day when they probably had expected their GCSE Chemistry exam, completed earlier, to have been the most significant occurrence on their minds that day.

It's easy for school's marketing campaigns to be whimsical, flimsy and expected but these pupils have shown that we are teaching our pupils to be 'Real-World Ready'. Well done - we are very proud of you for demonstrating our school's values so fearlessly.

#realworldready #coeducationtothrive #firstaid #medicalemergency #gcses #welcomeandserve #independentschoolsuk #amazingpupils #schoolofgreatcharacter #welldone #upstandingcitizens #exeter

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Ishaan, Eli, Hari and Leo in Lower Two played with their team Exeter Central City in the plate final yesterday. 

They absolutely smashed it 2-1 and won the u10 Exeter & District League Plate 🎉🏆

@exschsports #aspireandflourish #teamwork #football #winning #cupwinners #juniorsports #exeterjuniorschool

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CCF Adventure Training, Snowdonia - April 2025

4F-M5 ski trip, Austria

Sports Gala Awards - 2 April 2025

Junior school cross country - 31 March 2025

CCF RAF Nitex - March 2025

L5 House Hockey and Netball - March 2025

Abstract art workshop by Liese Webley - February 2025

Informal Woodwind Concert - 12 March 2025