Senior Reflections Week 17 January 2025

Dear parents,

This week has been a busy one, again, for our admissions team with offers going out today to pupils who have recently sat 11+, 12+, 13+ and 14+ entrance assessments and with our open house this morning. It is always a pleasure to welcome prospective families to the school and your children do an excellent job as ambassadors, showing them around and talking about their experiences as Exonians.

Maths department news

On Monday we were delighted to hear that Mrs Emma Cartwright, teacher of maths, had her first baby, Casper, and we look forward to meeting him in due course. We wish Mrs Cartwright and her husband every happiness as the new arrival settles in.

We also welcomed a visitor to the school on Wednesday; Zoe Griffiths, who runs Think Maths, an organisation originally founded by stand-up mathematician, Matt Parker. Her talks to all ages were really fascinating and really got the pupils, from Upper Two to sixth form, thinking about maths in a different way. I much enjoyed ‘the mathematics of the Simpsons’ which was the talk she gave to the sixth form mathematicians, and it was our pleasure to welcome three primary schools to enjoy her presentation to the Year 6 and Year 7 pupils; Wynstream, Newtown and St Michael’s.  I hope that the pupils enjoyed it as much as I did – and certainly learnt some maths alongside the entertaining delivery. You can read more about Zoe here.

Holocaust survivor talk

Also on Wednesday, we were privileged to be able to join an event by the Holocaust Educational Trust ahead of Holocaust Memorial day on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lower Fifth and Middle Fifth pupils heard the testimony from holocaust survivor, Mala, as it was livestreamed and she was interviewed by journalist Natasha Kaplinsky. It was a compelling presentation, specifically designed for young people, and it was clear that Mala is a remarkable woman, who has lived an incredible life since being liberated by British troops from Bergen-Belson on 15 April 1945. I hope that your Fifth Form children discussed the experience with you and I encourage you to explore the materials that the Holocaust Educational Trust provides to help us all remember the atrocities of the war, and why it must not be allowed to happen again.

Click here to learn more about the Holocaust Education Trust

The website states, “On and around this day (27 January), schools, communities, faith groups and others across the UK join together in national and local events to commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well (as) victims of other acts of Nazi persecution and of subsequent genocides. Each year’s HMD has a different theme, chosen by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as a focus for educational and commemorative events. The theme for 2025 is For a Better Future.”

The arts

Our musicians, artists and dramatists have been busy this week with the informal percussion concert raising the roof of the music hall after school on Wednesday and the A Level musicians doing their trial performance exams this week. In addition, on Thursday, the LAMDA drama exams were held. Looking ahead, we wish the best of luck to those pupils who have National Youth Theatre auditions this weekend. We are so lucky to be surrounded by talented pupils, so expertly supported by their inspiring teachers in the arts and these performances are always a real treat. We were also very pleased to welcome into school, on Tuesday evening, parents of pupils studying A Level and GCSE art, craft and design for an information meeting at which we learnt about the assessment structure and how parents can support their young artists in their work. This was really enlightening and I know that we all enjoyed the chance to look at some exemplar sketch books to demonstrate the different levels of work and see how it is assessed. Huge thanks to all our teachers in the arts for the great work that they do with your children. At Exeter School, the arts are highly valued and you might be interested to read my piece for Talk Education on the importance of the arts here.

Lower Fifth parents’ evening

Many thanks to Lower Fifth parents for turning out to parents’ evening on Thursday for their first in person event of the year. This is a very important time for this year group, as they focus on making their choices for GCSE study which will occupy them over the next two years. I hope that you enjoyed meeting teachers and discussing your children’s areas of passion and also what we can do to support where perhaps things are a bit more challenging. It was lovely to meet parents whose children were new to the school in September and also to see how well they have settled in and been welcomed by the year group as a whole.

Sport

This weekend the girls have netball fixtures on Saturday morning at home to King Edward’s School in Bath, whilst the boys are playing a mixture of home and away hockey fixtures against West Buckland School. We wish all those playing sport an enjoyable and successful time in their matches and hope that the stormy weather does not come this far south!

Have a lovely weekend.