Senior Reflections Week 34 June 2024

Dear parents,

VAT on fees

With the announcement of the general election next month, we know that the imposition of VAT on fees is uppermost in your minds. As you will know from previous communications, we have been planning for this, and there is much work ongoing behind the scenes with leadership and governors at present.

The board is meeting on 26 June and we plan a more formal communication with the parent body, setting out as much detail as we are able to at this stage, at the end of next week. We know that your children’s education is the most important thing to you, and to us, and we do not underestimate the commitment that you show to us as parents. We are working hard to ensure that we continue to provide the very best provision, and the best value to our parent community, and we will continue to do so.

New uniform

You are aware that we are currently reviewing the school uniform with a view to making changes in the years to come. We will be in touch with you about this before the end of term, but I am happy to reassure you that no changes will be compulsory for existing parents until September 2028. This long transition period is in response to the current cost pressures that we know parents are under and means that you can manage any move to the new uniform (and the purchasing of new items) as makes best sense for your own family circumstances. Obviously, you can adopt the new uniform immediately for your children if you wish, as soon as it is available for September 2025. Pupils will not be able to wear a mixture of the two uniforms.

Upper Two play – Alice

What a phenomenal show!  I was lucky enough to be able to see the U2 show on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and it was a riot of energy, creativity, colour and a little bit of madness on both occasions. How lucky we are to have such talented children in the junior school, and such a wonderfully committed and gifted staff team to lead them and support them in their dramatic performances. I hope that those parents who were here enjoyed the show as much as I did (including our own rendition of the Croquet Song!) and that your children loved the experience as much as the audience did. It is clear that our music and drama is secure for the future with so many extremely able children in the year group – we look forward to watching their dramatic development in the senior school.

Field Day

Today is the senior school summer field day and we have a whole host of activities and trips on the agenda. The Third Form are off to explore our city with a historical walk in Exeter city centre, the Fourth Form will be communing with the animals at Paignton Zoo, the Lower Fifth are either going to Bristol for a historical visit and to visit British Aerospace, or completing their DofE bronze practice expedition. In the Middle Fifth and above the Friday8 activities will be taking the pupils on a range of activities, including DofE expedition work both locally and on Dartmoor for all three levels (bronze, silver and gold).  In the CCF the Army have been on night manoeuvres on Woodbury Common since yesterday afternoon, and the Middle Fifth RAF section are going to be doing a high ropes course as they learn about leadership and team building, with the Lower Sixth RAF section going to Raceworld. The Middle Fifth naval section are out on a day walk in the local area to practise navigation and team skills, with the Lower Sixth staying in school for some training exercises. The sixth form sports leaders will be helping to run today’s junior school sports day, and the musicians are visiting a local primary school to share their musical talents with the pupils there. Meanwhile our community service group are accompanying a group of senior citizens on a daytrip to Buckland Abbey, and our Exonian editing team and Arts Award Gold pupils will be remaining in school to work on their projects.

Family society fete

The Exeter School Family Society was started to develop community spirit and to support school events just a year ago. When we put this group together, we hoped that they would be a great catalyst for further community engagement and on Saturday we were delighted with the fantastic inaugural school fete, which demonstrated what a great force for good they are! Everyone had done their bit across the pre-prep, junior and senior schools – donating prizes for the raffle and bottle stall, and putting together sweetie bags, and devising and running the house stalls for the senior school – which were great fun for all concerned. It was also great to see local traders and businesses supporting us with food and drink and artisan stalls. We could not be happier with the wonderful feeling of connectedness on the day and I lost track of the number of times that parents and colleagues asked about what we would be doing next year. I can already see that this is going to be a permanent fixture in the calendar, and we have already decided on 7 June, 2025 as the date for next summer’s event, which we hope will be just as successful. Grateful thanks go especially to the family society committee, particularly the chair, Mrs Ruth Hughes, for leading this wonderful, willing band of parents. If you want to be part of the success story for next year – please do contact us.

Speech Day

A reminder that this year, there will be two events on Thursday 27 June

• • Middle school (Lower-Upper Fifth) 11am-12:30pm
  • Sixth form (Lower and Upper Sixth) 3-4:30pm

And the lower school (Third and Fourth Form) will have their event on Tuesday 9 July from 2 to 4pm.

Junior school will have their own event on Monday 8 July at 3pm.

We look forward to celebrating with you and your children at the end of the term.

DofE pupils will be out on expedition over the weekend as a follow on from today’s field day, and we have cricket fixtures for girls against Millfield Prep and for the boys against Wells Cathedral School on Saturday. We wish them all the best and remind them to wear sunscreen and drink lots of water, as the weekend is set to be a hot one.

Have a great weekend.