Dear parents,
Houses
The week kicked off with house assemblies on Monday morning where the pupils met in their houses to talk about the summer term and to discuss the ways they can support each other in what is a particularly busy time of year. Each house learnt how they link to the new house system at the pre-prep school: Bridgwater, Brixham, Bideford and Devonport are the birth towns of our explorers – your child should be able to tell you more information about this. The house systems across both schools will allow for greater consistency for the pupils, especially for those joining us from the pre-prep in the future.
Learning this week
It has been a busy week in the classrooms with Upper One studying the instruments of the orchestra and their different families. They looked at the brass family, and made their very own instruments out of plastic bottles, hose pipe and duct tape! I have enjoyed hearing their musical sounds outside my window! Form One have been consolidating their learning in English and drama with some fun filled ‘parts of speech’ raps, some of which are available to view below. Using the ‘flip’ app has been a great way for them to share their performances with each other and to add a little extra personality to their work. We have some great musical talent in the school. The Form One pupils have also been learning about conductive materials in computer science to link to their topic all about sequences and programming. They created a human circuit with a Makey Makey controller connected to a Scratch program. When they touched the play doh, it played a different sound. They tested out Mrs Morgan’s cardboard guitar and will be making their own programmable musical instruments in their next lesson.
Club news
Our junior school librarians have got off to a great start showcasing the fantastic collection of books that have been nominated for the Carnegie award for Illustration, all of which are available to borrow from our library. This week they reviewed Erika Maza’s beautifully illustrated book: a powerfully, timely and beautifully illustrated story exploring the journey of two refugee children in search of safety. We are looking forward to seeing the masks they create in library club inspired by this wonderful book. Meanwhile, our green fingered gardening club pupils have been really enjoying the planting stage of the growing cycle. They have been deciding what to plant where, preparing the soil and carefully placing the seeds or new plants into the soil beds. So far, the pupils have planted broad bean, potato, onion and beetroot plants and tomato seeds. We can already see the plants getting bigger and taller! A huge thank you to Simon Lee, head groundsman, who has even created a fabulous sink for the pupils to wash their hands in.
Safeguarding reminder
Just a gentle reminder that when entering the junior school building, please always report to reception who will then be able to point you in the right direction with your enquiry. In line with our safeguarding policy, all visitors and parents need to be escorted around the premises by a member of the Exeter School staff.
Have a lovely long weekend.
