Pre-Prep Reflections Week 11 November 2024
Dear parents,
The Christmas trees are up, the school is echoing with the sound of festive songs, and the decorations are being dusted off in readiness for the start of December! This is a particularly busy time of year with so much going on. Please do take a moment to read through the newsletter so that you don’t miss anything.
Mr Heath
You may be aware that Mr Heath has not been in school this week. He injured his knee at the weekend and is currently suffering with a full leg brace and strong painkillers. We wish him a speedy recovery. In the meantime, Ms AJ and I will be covering one of the buses to and from school between us, as well as the transport for Year 1 and 2 swimming lessons. We now have the bus phone if you need to contact us to amend a booking or let us know you are running late. Please note that the buses depart from Exeter School at 8.10am every morning. Miss Moore and Ms AJ are doing a brilliant job at managing the lunch service between them. Please be aware that this will take Ms AJ out of the office over lunchtime and away from the phone.
Swimming
On Wednesday morning, I drove half of Year 1 over to Exeter School for swimming and had the pleasure of staying to watch their lesson with Mr Dutch. This is the first time I have been able to see the children swim and I was so impressed with their behaviour, independence and understanding of safety rules. They clearly had lots of fun and are proud of the progress they are making each week.
Parents’ evening
It was lovely to see so many parents on Wednesday evening at parents’ evening. We hope you found the meetings useful and came away with a clear idea of how we can work together to support your child with their next steps.
Safeguarding training
On Tuesday, I attended the termly Devon safeguarding forum, a meeting of designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) from schools across the county, which keeps us up to date with training and key changes in child protection and safeguarding, both locally and nationally. Mrs Lawrence-Jones will be out of school next Friday to complete her level 3 refresher training as our Deputy DSL. Ms Richards will be covering her teaching for the day.
Visitors
Earlier this week, I gave a tour of the school to three local estate agents. Don’t worry, the school is not up for sale! This was an opportunity to showcase Exeter Pre-Prep in the hope that they might promote us to potential families moving to the area. They also brought along some Christmas cards for the children to colour in, which we will give out next week.
Jiu Jitsu success
This morning, our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club leader, James Wood, came in to present promotions to participants during assembly. These ‘stripes’ were added to their belts to indicate the good progress they are making towards their next belt. The children were very proud and those without uniforms were given a special certificate of recognition.
Next week
The Christmas post box will be making its annual appearance from Monday. If your child would like to write Christmas cards for friends and staff, they can be brought in any time up to the end of term. Please ensure that the recipient’s name and class are clearly written on the envelope so that the Year 2 children can deliver them to the right places. On Wednesday, we are excited about holding our very first Pre-Prep Disco! Please do support this Family Society event if you can – further details below.
Have a wonderful weekend and good luck if you’re putting up the tree!
