Dear parents,
The chill is still in the air, and the excitement in the junior school is mounting. As I write this afternoon, I am preparing myself for the first junior school disco that is taking place this evening. Thank you to our parent volunteers who have taken the lead on this. I am sure that it will be a huge success. There are certainly a lot of very excited children. The elves have been busy delivering Christmas cards. As a little reminder, please put the name and form on the front of the cards, as this will help the elves deliver the cards to the correct person.
WaterAid Concert
On Tuesday, I spent the most enjoyable evening in the Cathedral for the WaterAid Concert which was led by Exeter School. It was a beautiful event, and it was lovely to see many junior school parents and pupils supporting and hopefully being inspired to take part in the future when their time comes. It certainly lifted my spirits, and huge thanks to the wonderful music department for orchestrating this phenomenal event.
History Expedition Day
The whole school was out on a History Expedition on Tuesday, organised by our head of history, Mr Evans. I joined the Upper Two pupils at Cold Harbour Mill, a fascinating (and cold) experience where the pupils got to dress up and role play as children from the Victorian times who worked in the mills for 13 hours a day; I don’t think they quite realise how lucky they are! Form One made their way to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, just down the road, for their History Expedition Day trip. They are studying Ancient Egypt, and the museum put on several exciting activities for the pupils, including mummification and handling ancient artefacts. Upper One returned to Tiverton Museum to study the Anglo-Saxons, specifically their impact on Devon. They enjoyed exploring the museum and completing different activities, and many pupils (and staff too!) enjoyed having their photo taken in a warrior’s helmet! The Lower Two again returned this year to Buckland Abbey. This was to explore the dissolution of the monasteries and discover the home of Sir Francis Drake. A bonus was in store for them when they arrived, as the whole abbey had been decorated for the festive season and brought lots of Christmas cheer to the classes. All the pupils enjoyed a fun-filled educational day, and the staff were very complimentary about our pupils.
Christmas jumper/hat day
On Wednesday 13 December, pupils in both the junior and senior schools are invited to wear a Christmas jumper or Christmas hat, along with their normal school uniform. A voluntary contribution of £2 would be welcome, with half of the money raised being contributed to funding the Community Service Christmas tea party, where we invite over 100 older residents from the community to enjoy some much-needed festive cheer, while the other half is donated to the work of UNICEF.
Quiz night
Once again, and by popular demand, we will be organising a junior school quiz night. The date for this is Friday 26 January in the main school hall. We will be organising a small raffle, which again was very popular last year; if you feel that you are able to donate something to go in the raffle, it would be very much appreciated. Please just pop any offerings into the junior school office.
Wishing you a warm and festive weekend.
