This is the season of hockey, and soccer, and netball. Less visibly, as if in the background, it is the season of scholarships, too.  Already we have received some glad tidings. Three pupils, who must remain anonymous, have been offered awards at top schools, namely Canford, Sherborne and Badminton. There are more than a dozen other children preparing for their exams and interviews.

Some things, fortunately, never change. It remains important to look your interrogator in the eye. It is still alluring for a Public School Headmaster to sense enthusiasm on the other side of his desk. Cool though it may be to wear your tie low on the collar, it is not always appropriate. Any more appropriate, in fact,  than sloppy use of language, and a reliance on words such as ‘sort of’,  ‘stuff’, or ‘guys’ or the ubiquitous filler ‘like’.

Fortunately, our pupils understand the need for formality on formal occasions; the feedback that we have received from Senior Schools is most encouraging. Apparently, our top Year 8s have presented as articulate, well-prepared ambassadors. This is clearly a reflection of their general upbringing, but we like to think that the partnership between home and school – as well as the sense of discipline at St Peter’s – is partially responsible for this impression.

The season has yet some distance to run. We will be posting a comprehensive list of our Scholarship achievements in the Lent Term review, which will be in your hands, as is becoming usual, before the end of term.

Returning to the ‘Next Stage’ theme, I spent a day recently at Cheltenham College, attending a conference on Curriculum Development. Well known Public Schools such as Stowe, Uppingham and Oundle were represented, and there was a host of leading Preparatory Schools, too, all of us comparing notes, approaches, philosophies and syllabi.  It has been my vision from Day One at St Peter’s that we should be in the vanguard of  forward thinking when it comes to Curriculum Development. Like us, other Prep Schools are starting to take a thematic approach and to operate with a blend of Common Entrance and the Baccalaureate in Years 7 and 8. This change is gaining general acceptance and was warmly commended at Cheltenham. I am proud of the fact that IAPS (The Independent Association of Preparatory Schools) and ISEB (Independent Schools Examination Board) are endorsing our curriculum for other schools who are currently operating along more traditional lines.

This is a good moment for me to thank Lucy Ball for all her industry in this area.

We appreciate (and hope) that pupils might be going home with an even sharper sense of curiosity than has been usual. This we do not feel we should apologise for; but we are grateful for parental support – even if that extends only to allowing your children longer use of the Internet.

An encouraging cluster of parents came along to our Phonics Workshop, and I would like to thank all of them for their collaboration in a scheme which aims to help children realise their potential in literacy as quickly as is possible.

Meanwhile, our ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme, which operated recently, is to be further extended in the near future. Director of Music Chris Hoban will be orchestrating this, welcoming here children from local state schools. It is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to compare abilities and to mix with children from elsewhere, and for St Peter’s to reach out into the wider community.

On the younger front, Year 1 were part of that wider community in the past few days, taking a trip to Dinosaur World. Reception had a lot of fun visiting Exeter Library. Read more about it all in the Term Review – and about how our Rugby team lost one match in the Blundell’s Sevens event – and still came home with some silverware…..