Senior Reflections Week 24 March 2025
Dear parents,
It is starting to feel really spring like with the lighter evenings and some warm sunshine this week. I hope that the Ten Tors training programme’s 1633 event enjoys such lovely weather on the moor over the weekend.
CCF night exercise
Last Friday night saw our annual NightEx event – with the CCF cadets out on Woodbury Common en masse, with lots of team building, navigation and other activities to keep them occupied. All the reports I have heard have been excellent – with pupils from Middle Fifth up to the Upper Sixth enjoying the opportunity to be out in the field together, developing their skills and having fun. Well done to them all and many thanks, as ever, to the staff who gave up their time last Friday to be involved and to supervise the activities.
Senior prefects
On Saturday 15 March we interviewed over 50 members of the Lower Sixth for prefect positions. They were a very impressive bunch and this week we have been scratching our heads and thinking about the composition of the team for the coming year who will take up their posts at the very end of this term. The current Upper Sixth team will be a very hard act to follow and we much enjoyed their light-hearted farewell assembly on Wednesday, when they shared their creativity and enthusiasm in a video that they had put together, and thanked all those people (pupils and staff) who have supported them in their Exonian journeys to date. We will be announcing the new prefect team to the school community at the very end of this term and we thank the outgoing team as they enjoy their final few weeks as pupil leaders. They have been brilliant.
Academic enrichment and challenge
This week has seen a number of academic enrichment activities; on Monday the art scholars had a workshop using recycled cardboard to make creations and through the week we have enjoyed the Arts Gold Award pupils’ installations in the library as a backdrop to our fabulous reading space. Over the weekend the art scholars have an exhibition in the Positive Light Projects space in Sidwell Street.
Click here to read more about the Positive Lights Projects
Monday saw the Upper Fifth chemists present their research posters on a range of chemical themes from spider silk to bioluminescence. These were fascinating and showed care and high quality research in their completion. The sixth form psychologists headed off to Bristol for a conference on Tuesday and through this week the Upper Sixth have been presenting their EPQ presentations to their peers. This Extended Project Qualification is a brilliant way to develop independent learning and research skills in preparation for higher and further education, and the quality and range of this years’ presentations really was fabulous. Rob Eastaway was in school on Wednesday to talk about his latest book, ‘Much Ado About Numbers’ – which I very much hope that the Middle Fifth enjoyed. You can find out more about him here.
Many thanks to all my colleagues who do so much to give your children so many opportunities beyond the curriculum and to enrich and develop their learning in new and exciting ways.
Sports
Of course, the week has also seen lots of sporting activities and matches – with hockey, netball, swimming and football on the agenda. On Saturday we have a full fixture card for the girls playing netball against Wellington School and the boys with hockey matches against West Buckland. I wish them all every success and hope to see some of you on the touchlines.
As is usual at this time of the year, we have been busy recruiting new staff to replace our leavers and have seen some excellent applicants for both teaching and operations and professional services roles. We are lucky to attract such strong fields every time we post an advert for a new colleague and I will update you at the end of term on the newly appointed colleagues.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
