Senior Reflections Week 16 2024
Dear parents,
It has been a chilly week, but with glorious blue skies and frosty mornings, I think we would all prefer this to the wet weather that we experienced during the Christmas holidays. When the history trip headed off at about midnight last night, bound for Berlin, it was a beautiful night – but they will certainly need their thick socks and woolly hats whilst they are away. We wish the forty or so sixth formers and four staff a safe and pleasant journey and a fascinating visit. As ever, I am very grateful to Mr Trelawny, Mrs Culley, Mr Baker and Miss Nye for giving their time and energy to lead the trip over the weekend. Gute Reise!
Admissions events
The sun certainly shone and made the campus look lovely for the families who visited on Tuesday morning for our open house event. It is always a pleasure to welcome visitors, and your children are such great ambassadors when they do tours with prospective pupils. We are very grateful to them for their enthusiasm and input into this process. On Saturday, we welcome candidates for the 11+, 12+, 13+, and 14+ assessments, and I very much look forward to hosting those children here tomorrow. If your own child is coming for assessment, we wish them every success and hope that the morning goes well for them.
Looking ahead – Speech Day
We are currently finalising the details of events to mark the end of the school year and would like to highlight these to let you know. Speech Day will be in the same format as last year, during the school day, with all pupils in Third Form to Middle Fifth plus Lower Sixth expected to attend and all Upper Fifth and Upper Sixth warmly invited to attend. We hope that all prize winners and their parents will be able to join us in the marquee on the field and afterwards for drinks. The date is the afternoon of Thursday 27 June. Please make a note in your diaries.
Lower Fifth Parents evening: DofE bronze
It was a pleasure to welcome Lower Fifth parents to meet with teachers on Thursday this week and to hear so many positive conversations with you and your children. They are enjoying school by all accounts, and I hope that the meeting was helpful to clarify choices for GCSE subjects, which will be uppermost in their minds at the moment. Two pieces of advice from us remain, as ever, do what you love and what you are good at. This will help the boys and girls enjoy school and get the most from it. Please remember also that your children need to continue to embrace all the many opportunities that lie ahead for them, and this week they have heard about the launch of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme (bronze level) for this year group for the first time. We hope that many of your daughters and sons will sign up for the scheme and get involved in the many activities it offers. Please do get in touch with Mrs Ridler-Murray or Miss Rose if you have any questions on this.
Staff news
We welcomed candidates for a new teaching and senior leadership position, Director of Learning and Teaching, on Thursday. We had an exceptionally strong field of applicants from overseas and all over the country for this new role, which will work closely with Dr Wilson to continue to ensure ongoing innovation and challenge in the classroom. We hope to have some news on this soon. We are delighted to congratulate Mr Phil Hyde and his wife, Frankie, on the birth of a new baby girl just before Christmas. Mr Hyde returns from paternity leave on Monday. Congratulations also go to Mr Mike Glanville and his wife, Vicky, on the birth of a baby boy this week. Mr Glanville will return from paternity leave at the end of the month. Dr Matt Commin is also expecting a new addition to the family any day now, and we wish him and his wife, Gina every success and happiness when the baby arrives.
The arts
Choral society is up and running, and I joined my first rehearsal on Tuesday. It was great to see so many parents and friends of the school there, and I encourage you to come along if you are interested. It really is food for the soul to sing (however well you might feel you do it!) once a week in a large choir. Uplifting stuff, and my grateful thanks go to Mr Matt Davies and Mr Peter Tamblyn for continuing to support all things musical. The vocal concert on Wednesday was equally uplifting, and I was so impressed by the breadth and depth of talent on display. From the junior school to our two diploma-grade singers, all were confident and showed great commitment and style in their singing. It was a lovely way to end the working day, and it was a pleasure to see so many parents in support of their sons and daughters. Thank you for coming. On Wednesday morning also, we had our annual public speaking competition for the Upper Two pupils, Youth Speaks. The range of topics was impressive – the Elgin marbles debate, ultra-processed food, homelessness, and AI – and the pupils showed excellent research skills as well as oracy in their presentations. It is always really tricky to select a winner, and I commend all those who participated, especially the finalists on Wednesday. They were all super. Well done, and thank you to Miss Cox for organising it so well.
Sport
Last weekend we had an intra-school netball tournament in the morning, and it was great to see over fifty girls from Third and Fourth forms playing in this friendly competition. This weekend is the Devon Schools Cross Country Championships – we wish all those running every success and look forward to some great performances from our athletes. The girls have ten fixtures against Wellington School in netball (home and away), and the boys also have ten fixtures in hockey against King’s Bruton and Wellington. Good luck to them all.
Have a lovely weekend,
