Senior Reflections Week 9 November 2024

Dear parents,

ISI inspection

As you know ISI, the Independent Schools Inspectorate, has been in school this week with a routine inspection as part of the standard three year cycle. Since we last had a routine inspection (in December 2021) the framework for inspections has changed and the feedback takes a different form, with no qualitative one word judgements being made. The feedback was on Thursday afternoon after two and a half days in school and we are very pleased with this. The final inspection report will not be available for a few weeks yet, whilst editing and quality assurance checks are carried out. We will, of course, share it with you when it is published, possibly early in the new year, and we hope that when it comes you will enjoy reading it. Having inspectors in school adds something to the daily ebb and flow of school life and it has been a pleasure to share our fantastic school community with them. Your children have, as ever, been fantastic in their interactions with the inspectors, both in the classroom and elsewhere, and I am very grateful, also, to those of you who completed the survey at the beginning of the week, this is much appreciated.

Events this week

Quite apart from the inspection team being with us, it has been a busy week. Last weekend saw a busy Saturday afternoon of fixtures, and I enjoyed catching up with parents at tea and also on the side lines of the hockey and rugby matches against both King’s and Queen’s Colleges in Taunton. On Sunday, the Ten Tors training teams were out on Dartmoor polishing up their navigation skills and teamwork. As ever, grateful thanks to my colleagues who spend so much time and energy supporting the pupils in these challenging endeavours.

Remembrance

Monday’s remembrance service was a real treat, with the CCF cadets all smartly turned out and leading the school in laying their wreaths to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our freedom. One of our governors, Brigadier Steve Hodder, a former pupil of the school, also joined us to lay a wreath alongside the heads of school (who also read Psalm 23), senior cadets and our alumni representative. The music was lovely as always, with Abide With Me being sung beautifully by the school as a whole and also by wonderful soloists, and accompanied by a fantastic brass ensemble. Theo K (U2) read In Flanders Fields brilliantly, and the Last Post, played from the top of the tower by Felix G (U6), was evocative and really set the mood. It is impossible not to have tingling in one’s spine at such an event and I am very grateful to all who were involved in making it such a success. The warm winter sunshine really helped too.

Click here to watch our Remembrance day video on YouTube

Anti-bullying week

This week is anti-bullying week and it was great to see so many odd socks on display on Tuesday – I wonder what the inspectors thought! There have been a host of assemblies and tutorial activities on the theme throughout the week, and on Tuesday afternoon the Fourth and Third Forms had a lot of fun with their anti-bullying colour run, dashing around the field and being sprayed with bright coloured powder paint as they did so. It was a great way to remind us all of the importance of inclusion and support in school and to celebrate all of our differences and show respect.  Many thanks to Mrs Daybell for her leadership of this great lower school event. Photos can be viewed at the bottom of the newsletter.

Click here to watch our odd socks short video on YouTube

The arts

Tuesday was a day for showcasing the arts, with an open mic event, run by Darcy Beau in the Upper Sixth, in the evening. This extremely relaxed event allowed senior pupils to share their favourite pieces in an informal concert. It was a lovely moment of calm in the business of the day. GCSE drama pupils in the Upper Fifth presented their component 1 coursework performances in the drama studio to a supportive audience of friends and family. As ever, the four devised pieces showed great creativity, innovation and variation in style and some incredible talent across the board. The use of music, lighting, fantastic costumes and some very clever props all added in to make this a very entertaining evening of drama. Many thanks to the pupils and to Mr Chris Harknett, Mr Jamie Brough and Miss Caitlin Smith who all support them in their dramatic endeavours so brilliantly. Wednesday afternoon saw a diverse group of pupils play in the strings informal concert. How wonderful to see so many junior school pupils taking to the stage, with two Form One and ten Upper One pupils playing. Pieces covered a range of genres and composers, from Baklanova to Beethoven and from Handel to Küchler. Well done to all involved. The future of music at Exeter School feels very secure indeed with such strength in the lower years, and it is great that our strings programme in the junior school is paying dividends. In drama, the senior school play Blue Stockings is starting to take shape and we look forward to the performances later this month.

Exonians in Bath

It was a pleasure to be able to meet with former pupils in Bath at an alumni event on Wednesday evening. Bath is a popular university destination for Exonians and 2023 was a bumper crop, with lots of familiar faces who are now in their first or second year of studies. These events always attract a wide range of alumni and it was lovely also to talk to former pupils who had left school in the preceding decades, including one from the class of 1961! It is interesting to reflect on their memories of their time at school. Stuart, who sat his A Levels in 1975 reflected on the excitement of being able to wear ‘own clothes’ in the sixth form, alongside the smaller classes and the strength of relationships with the teachers at that stage in his Exonian journey. These are all comments that current sixth formers would also make; it is good to know that this is valued so much by our most senior pupils and continues to be a strength of our fabulous sixth form. Photos can be viewed at the bottom of the newsletter.

Busy weekend of activities

Over the next few days, pupils are out and about with a trip for the sixth form artists to the RAMM in Exeter centre for the RIBA competition today, the MUN group are off to a conference at Queen’s in Taunton, and we have fixtures this weekend against Mount Kelly and Wellington.

I wish them all an enjoyable and successful time.