Pre-Prep Reflections Week 11 2023
Dear parents,
December is here already! We’ve even had a flurry of light snow, which excited the children and shocked the adults in equal measure. We certainly had some freezing hands in the icy temperatures outside this week, so please do send your child in with a warm coat, hat, scarf, gloves, etc. Any style is allowed – the warmer, the better!
To add to all this excitement, we’ve had a planned fire drill this week, in which everybody evacuated the building within 1 minute and 30 seconds. The children were fantastic as usual, walking calmly to the nearest fire exit and lining up silently on the tennis court. Yesterday, children in Reception to Year 2 had their nasal flu immunisations, so hopefully this will help keep everyone well through the winter months.
British values
In assemblies this week, we have revisited the topic of British values, with a particular focus on the rule of law. We have also been learning about the power of the word ‘yet’ in helping us to develop a growth mindset when faced with a challenge; how making mistakes can be an important part of learning, and how the journey to success is often a bumpy road rather than an easy, flat one. Yesterday, there were bagpipes aplenty as we talked about patron saints of the UK to mark the celebration of St Andrew’s Day in Scotland.
Independent Schools Conference
On Wednesday, Mrs Van and I took the train to London for the Independent Schools Conference in Westminster. We were asked to present a talk on mergers and acquisitions, based on our experience of The New School (as it was) joining the Exeter School family. This was a great opportunity to promote both schools and I have already been contacted by school leaders wanting to come and visit our setting in the new year.
Christmas
Thank you to those parents who came in yesterday to decorate the hall ready for the start of December – it looks really beautiful. Our Christmas trees went up today and are looking very festive. We have also installed the Christmas post box in the front entrance hall for children to post cards to one another, if they would like to. Please check that the recipient’s name and class are written on the envelope to help the Year 2 children deliver them correctly.
Next week
As part of my training to become an ISI team inspector, I will be shadowing an inspection at another school in south London from Tuesday to Thursday. Mrs Richards and Mrs Martin will be leading the school in my absence, and I look forward to being back in school on Friday. Please look out for emails from Mrs Furniss about clubs and lunch choices for next term, as we would like to get these finalised before the end of term.
