Junior Reflections Week 33 June 2024

Dear parents,

String concert

Last Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of listening to all the Form One pupils play in the string concert. The concert featured all the pupils in the year group, who have benefitted from paired lessons on either the violin, viola or ‘cello, plus whole-class sessions. Along with performing all together, the concert also featured smaller group pieces, duets and solos from the pupils. String teachers Miss Willson, Miss Hayek, Ms Hill, Mrs Allnatt and Mr Gillett were all on-hand to support the children in their performances, and also provided inspiration in what can be achieved if musical learning is continued, by performing as a quintet The Queen of Sheba and highlights from the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was truly a wonderful afternoon of music from everyone who performed.

Form One Roman Day

The Romans were in town in the guise of Form One on Wednesday, with a guest appearance from our very own Gluteus Maximus AKA Mr Pidwell, sporting some shiny new armour. What a fun day everyone had, from green screening, storytelling and real live battles involving army formations (no one was injured). The day was crammed full of wonderful learning and lots of fun and a huge thank you to the team for their time and hard work to help make it such a lovely experience. We also welcomed Boomerang the bearded dragon to school, courtesy of Sandy who shared some wonderfully interesting facts about Boomerang and the whole of the lower school got to touch a very well-behaved dragon… every day is a learning day at EJS.

Sport

On Saturday, Alex, Rory D, Rory R and Monty took part in the IAPS National Swim Finals held at the London Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park. It was a superb experience for all involved, with our relay team proudly securing a 10th place on the national stage, knocking 8 seconds off their time from the qualifying round at Millfield. Alex KM also competed in the backstroke, and earned 3rd place with an outstanding performance; what memories to keep. Following this, on Sunday, our pupils had a really successful day at the Mount Kelly Athletics Meet. The Upper Two team represented the school in a number of events, resulting in numerous medals for our athletes. Several pupils will now qualify to represent the Southwest at the national competition. And finally, the U11 boys cricket team was in action against Blundell’s competing for a place in the Southwest finals. After a thrilling game, the boys put in a superb effort and were victorious securing their place which sees them head off to Kings Taunton on Monday; good luck boys.

New school uniform

Last week, and following on from our meeting with parents, we held pupil focus groups to look at the proposed uniform changes and meet with our new supplier to give pupils a chance to talk about their ideas and thoughts.  These were hugely helpful, and we are very grateful to the pupils across the junior and senior schools for their input and feedback.

Alongside this, we are aware that there has been some discussion in parent social media groups about the proposals, and we are also very pleased to have received direct feedback from some parents, sharing their views.

We want to reassure you that, at this stage, no final decisions have been made and that we continue to consider the feedback and perspectives carefully. We are very aware of cost pressures to parents, and these will be carefully balanced alongside the need for a smart uniform which pupils will wear well, and with pride. We will be in touch shortly, with more details and a timetable for any changes, hopefully before the end of the term.

Exeter Pre-prep school inspection

This week colleagues at the pre-prep have been visited by an inspection team from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). We have been waiting for a visit since the summer term of 2023, and Mr Dan Ayling (the Head) and his team have felt very well prepared over the last twelve months. The ISI inspection framework has changed recently, and so this is our first experience as a school of the F23 framework, although some of our senior leaders are inspectors themselves, and have been on teams inspecting in this new way. There are some significant changes to the structure and the feedback report, not least the removal of the single word judgements for the sections of the report. In addition, the whole basis of inspection has now moved to be focused on pupil wellbeing – which I think we can all agree is a positive step forward. The feedback from the ISI team on Thursday afternoon was very pleasing and we look forward to sharing the report with the school community when it is published in a few weeks. We hope to have it before the end of the school year.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at the school fete; I am not sure the sun is on our side but living in Devon I am sure that this won’t stop any of us from coming along with a brolly and enjoying the many stalls that our wonderful Family Society have organised.