Senior Reflections Week 26 2024

Dear parents,

Welcome back

As we come to the end of a short week following the holidays, I hope that your children are happy to be back with their friends at school, and that they have enjoyed the chance to be out on the field in the sunshine – albeit with a rather chilly wind at times.  It is always a great pleasure to see them enjoying our wonderful open space, and letting off some steam in their break and lunchtime.

We welcome a number of new pupils to the school this week, in both junior and senior year groups and I hope that they have all enjoyed the first few days of their Exonian journey.  It was lovely to see some proud families dropping them off at reception on Wednesday morning, looking very smart in their new school uniforms!

Adventurous trips

The holidays feel like a distant memory quite quickly, but, as ever, your children were very busy in the holidays, with about forty of the Middle Fifth having a wonderful time exploring in Morocco on the geography trip at the start of the holidays, and more than twenty of the same year group on adventure training in north Wales with the CCF in the middle of the break.  Both of these trips allowed our pupils to push themselves beyond their comfort zones, and have a lot of fun in some challenging environments, and facing some pretty stormy weather too in the case of the CCF.  I am very grateful to the staff who so willingly gave up their time to take the trips, and I hope that your children enjoyed these opportunities.

This weekend is the last of the Ten Tors training events on Dartmoor before the actual event, which is on the 11 and 12 May.  I wish Mr Ben Hall and the staff and parent volunteer team a great weekend of training, and in the weeks to come as they prepare for the final event.

Staff changes

Further to my announcement about new staff appointments at the end of the spring term, we have made some additional changes and promotions of colleagues within the current team.

We congratulate Dr Simon Smale, current teacher of chemistry, who is replacing Mr Richard Tear as head of chemistry from September.  Mr Tear has led the chemistry department successfully for ten years and has also been a great supporter of CCF, sport and the outdoor adventurous activities programme.  Mr Tear has secured the role of head of chemistry at Putney High School, in London and will be moving to be with his wife, who has been working in the capital for the last two years.

In addition, we are very sorry to be saying goodbye to Mr Tom Bowler, teacher of maths, who is leaving us after two years at the end of this term to be the Director of Education at a specialist mathematics education charity, the Good Thinking Society.  We wish Mr Bowler happiness and success in this innovative and exciting new maths education focused role.

Cricket season

The new cricket season kicks off with fixtures home and away this weekend, against Queen’s College, Taunton.  We wish all the players a great first match of the season.

Chamber music concert

I am sorry that I cannot be there to enjoy the concert at Sidbury this evening, in St Giles’ church.  This is always a wonderful occasion, in a stunning setting, and I know that the programme will be a fantastic one.  I wish all our musicians a successful and very enjoyable evening and thank them for their continuing talents and hard work to bring such creativity into life at school.

Sixth form refurbishment

The development and refurbishment of the sixth form centre began on day one of the holidays and is progressing well.  You will have seen at the western edge of the site that the contractors’ compound is having an impact on the entry from Victoria Park Road and also movement between the bursary, junior and senior school buildings.  Hopefully this disruption will not be too inconvenient, and I assure you that the completed sixth form centre will be well worth it!  I am especially grateful to the sixth formers, and to all who work on the upper floor of that building, whose space has been reduced whilst the work inside continues.  They are showing patience and resilience and we are very grateful to them for this.

As the Upper Sixth and Upper Fifth pupils really settle down to their revision, I wish them success as they have their final few weeks with their teachers before study leave commences.

I wish you an enjoyable weekend,