Pre-Prep Reflections Week 18 January 2025
Dear parents.
Happy Lunar New Year! As we reach the end of January in what is now ‘the year of the snake’ in many Asian families, the germs have really started to come out in full force and we have sadly had a number of children and staff off sick. We wish all those who are still poorly a speedy recovery.
Chickenpox
We have had multiple cases of chickenpox in Years 1 and 2 this week. Please see the NHS guidance for further information on the symptoms to look out for. Children with chickenpox should remain off school until all their spots have crusted over – this usually takes around five days from the first spots appearing. Please let us know if your child has chickenpox or any of the related symptoms (high temperature, aches and pains, loss of appetite or generally feeling unwell).
IAPS district meetings
On Wednesday, I spent the morning at Wellington Prep School with other pre-prep heads from across the south west who are members of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS). We meet once a term to discuss a range of topics and to have a tour of the host school. This is always a great way to share good practice and refresh our ideas. Yesterday, Mrs Van and I also attended this term’s meeting of IAPS prep school heads, which took place online.
7+ assessment morning
Well done to our Year 2 children who took part in the 7+ assessments for Exeter School this morning. Please do not worry if your child was absent due to illness – we will arrange a second assessment date for this group of children as soon as we know that everyone is well enough to return to school.
Strategic planning
As part of our rolling strategic planning, the board and members of the leadership group will be working on strategy later this term. In order to hear the views of parents, we will be sending out a questionnaire on Monday 3 February, which should only take a few minutes of your time. Please look out for this and we look forward to hearing your views. Following this, on Tuesday 11 February there will be a parent forum giving you the opportunity to contribute to this through a facilitated discussion. Details of this will be included within the email sending you the questionnaire link on Monday. We appreciate your contributions as we plan for the future together.
Next week
Every day next week we will be celebrating children’s mental health week. Mrs Lawrence-Jones will be exploring this year’s ‘know yourself, grow yourself’ theme with each class in their wellbeing lesson, while class teachers will be reading stories with a mental health focus every day. We will also be heading out on our ever-popular wellbeing walks, where we do a daily lap of the grounds after lunch as a whole school.
Wishing you all a restful and restorative weekend.
