Senior Reflections Week 18 2024

Dear parents,

Careers convention

It was lovely to welcome so many of you to the careers convention on Tuesday evening with your children. Exploring next steps beyond school can seem like a daunting prospect, and it is never too early to start thinking about what opportunities there might be for further study beyond school, gap year projects, and careers more formally. We had a great range of visitors here talking about their own professions and excellent attendance from pupils across the age range. I hope that you and your children find it helpful. Grateful thanks to Mrs Melanie Szender, our careers pathway advisor, for her hard work in setting up the event, and to Mr Luigi Chu and Mrs Tracy Costello for running the event on the night. Assisted, of course, by our fantastic operations and professional services team, whose work is invaluable.

Staff news

The spring term is always the busiest time for recruiting for teaching posts for the new academic year. The first of these that we have appointed is Mr Paul Fennemore, who will be joining us in September to be our Director of Learning and Teaching. This senior leadership role is an exciting post which is supporting the work of Dr James Wilson, as Deputy Head, Academic, and will work closely with the heads of departments on learning and teaching initiatives. Paul is currently working at Dunraven School Trust in SW London, where he is director of English and an associate member of SLT, working in his own school and across the trust on teaching and learning initiatives. He is a graduate of Royal Holloway (first class) and has a masters of teaching from the Institute of Education in London. We are delighted with his appointment and look forward to welcoming him and his family to the Southwest.

The arts

This week has been one enriched with the arts. Last evening, we enjoyed the A Level theatre studies practical component. An essential part of the pupils’ final assessment, this included two separate performances, one a devised piece inspired by Complicite and the other a scripted piece in the style of melodrama. Both were stunning — very different, but equally innovative and exciting dramatic performances. Very well done to Rhiannon, Poppy, and Samuel for providing such captivating entertainment. Grateful thanks also go to Mr Jamie Brough, Mr Chris Harknett and Mr Alex Sorlie-Pring for all their hard work on the technical support and direction. In music, we were treated to a fabulous Informal Brass Concert on Wednesday, with pupils from the junior school up to the sixth form demonstrating their talents. My personal favourite was the James Bond theme by Nathanial in Lower Two — on the French horn. Fantastic! I am only sorry I was not able to stay to the end and see all of the performances. Of course, the choral society continues to make progress on our rehearsals for the concert in the cathedral on 13 March. We hope to see many of you there to enjoy the music. Ongoing thanks to Mr Peter Tamblyn, and Mr Matt Davies, and the whole music team for directing us all in our singing.

Cadet force activities

We are lucky to have a CCF with three sections, which provide the pupils with a range of opportunities on land, in water, and in the air. This week on Thursday, a small group of Middle Fifth cadets had a great opportunity to go flying and enjoyed perfect clear skies and wonderful flying conditions as they swooped over Stonehenge. Many thanks to Mr Adam Cunningham and SSI Mr David Jones for facilitating this trip. This weekend, 14 RAF cadets are competing in the RAST challenge, the Royal Air Squadron Trophy Competition. We wish them well as they head off to Blandford Camp in Dorset. Grateful thanks to the staff who are supporting this weekend activity.

Ten Tors

This weekend, the Ten Tors training continues with a weekend out on Dartmoor. I continue to be impressed by and grateful to the huge team of parent volunteers who give their time so readily to support the boys and girls on the moor. Mr Ben Hall, who leads the Ten Tors programme, really could not do it without the generosity of time given by staff and parent volunteers, and we are very grateful to you all, especially on the wettest and coldest weekends! I hope to see some of you on an expedition this weekend.

Sport

Last weekend, twenty of our younger netballers had a fantastic experience in Manchester, and those back home were playing against Plymouth College. Goodness me, what a nailbiter the first team match was — rightly ending in an exciting draw, 42 points all. Well done to all who played last weekend, and we wish them well against Mount Kelly and Taunton School this weekend in a triangular fixture. The boys are playing hockey against Mount Kelly, and we also have representatives from all age groups in the SW Schools Cross Country Championships. Good luck to all involved, and again, thanks to the coaches who made this all happen.

Looking forward

I look forward to seeing some of you at the junior school parents’ quiz this evening and tomorrow at junior school assessment day. Next week is the final week before half term, and I am sure we are all looking forward to a break after that.

Have a lovely weekend, and thank you for your ongoing support.