Students work display - in Exeter Nightingale Hospital - West Exe School
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Spring 2021
Students work
display in Exeter
Nightingale Hospital
GCSE Photography students at
West Exe were invited to display their
work at the Exeter Nightingale Hospital.
The work of twenty students is now on displayed in frames
kindly supplied by Ikea. Project organiser and parent at the
school, Bridget Brooking, liaised with Mr Tyrer in curating the
exhibition. We are extremely proud of our students and their
important contribution to the community, well done!
“Your photos are both beautiful and interesting
and are very much appreciated. Thank you
again for being part of Exeter Nightingale.”
Bridget Brooking
S E N S AT I O N A L S C I E N C E & T E C H N O L O G Y. . .
Spolight on
Creative Technologies
Our department vision: To nurture creative thinkers, problem solvers and makers.
Fostering innovation and developing communication skills through exposure to a wide
range of real-life contexts, situations and scenarios. To enrich the students’ experience by
preparing them to meet the needs of a rapidly changing, technology driven world.
›› Students have flourished within Creative Technologies, which comprises of Photography, Computer
Science, Design Technology and Business Studies. An exciting and challenging new curriculum has been
designed for students this academic year. In years 7 & 8 students are developing their knowledge and skills
across all the subject disciplines, which will help them to form decisions around their options choices.
The Bling of Enterprise
Brilliance £5 Challenge
›› Each term one student from each year Year 9 students have once again planned
group in Creative Technologies will be for their £5 Enterprise Challenge.
awarded the Bling of Brilliance.
›› In previous years, the students have hosted a
This award will recognise individual academic
Christmas market for Year 7 and promoted it in
endeavour. Students are nominated by their
assemblies and tutor times. Like many businesses
teacher for demonstrating relentless effort and
the students needed to be extra creative, conduct
curiosity together with endless ambition and
extra risk assessments and consider how they would
resilience.
sell their product or service this year. Many looked at
E-commerce options to make their fortune.
2
. . . AT W E S T E X E
The students’
perspective
“Technology gives me the freedom to think outside
the box and explore my creative side”
Amie, Year 10
“I like the fact that Creative
Technology is different to anything
I have done at primary and, besides
art, it is the most fun subject I do”
William, Year 7
“I like Creative Technology
because it teaches us stuff we are
likely to use in the real world”
Ben, Year 7
“My favourite thing about
Creative Technology is how it
prepares us for the future”
Olivia, Year 7
3
C A R E E R S AT W E S T E X E
New Careers Programme Launches!
›› This September saw the launch of our exciting new West Exe Careers programme. The five-year
programme is designed to immerse students in the world of employment and careers, from their first
week in Year 7, until they leave us in Year 11.
During the induction days every student was
introduced to the programme and made
three careers pledges that they will work
towards achieving throughout the year.
Opportunities have been embedded into
our curriculum cycles, with activities and
sessions taking place every week 1, 4 and
5 of every cycle to ensure our students
receive regular, engaging, and relevant
careers information.
Maria Masters, the Schools Careers Advisor, can help all students with any careers related questions at any time
– please contact Maria on Maria.Masters@westexe.devon.sch.uk and she will be able to help.
Employer Encounters Kind
Adaptable
›› We were delighted to welcome (virtually) Curious
our very first Employer Encounter sessions in Ambitious
Resilient
October. Students from Years 7-10 attended
Proud
some online sessions where they heard from
three professionals who all lived, studied, or
worked in Exeter during their careers.
Students engaged with pre-recorded videos in
discussion-based workshops to identify the key
employability skills, student attributes and activity
types involved with each profession. The aim of “You never stop learning.
the sessions was to encourage students to start Even after you’re qualified;
thinking about their future careers, the types of you’re learning all the time”.
activities these careers involve and the skills they Kevin Dadd, 10X fitness
would need to develop to be successful. Our three Co-founder & Coach
speakers also shared their words of wisdom on
what they think it takes to be successful in the
world of work.
The sessions concluded with students using the “Play to your strengths.
online careers planning tool, Career Pilot, to support Find out what you’re good
them in researching potential future careers. at and what you enjoy
and go from there”.
More information is available via
Adam Butterworth, Head of
www.careerpilot.org.uk or if you would like to get
National Operations, Goals
involved with future employer encounters please
Soccer Centres
email Hannah.Jones@westexe.devon.sch.uk
4
M A R V E L L O U S M AT H S AT W E S T E X E
Student reaches
100,000xp
in Sparx
›› West Exe students have continued to
surpass expectations, achieving great
things with their Sparx homework. We
also have some of our first students to
have even reached the momentous
achievement of 100,000xp. Year 10
student Keane T was the first to reach
this accomplishment. Keane’s Maths
teacher, Miss Lovell, said “We are very
proud of the exceptional efforts all our
students have continued to produce
during this time. West Exe students
continue to demonstrate resilience
and determination. Keane is a great
example of this”.
West Exe continues to have the best
homework hand-in rates in the Trust
and students now benefit from Sparx
content in lessons too. Feedback
in student panel groups has been
overwhelmingly positive and Sparx
continues to develop their offering in
close partnership with the school.
5
WEST EXE AND THE WORLD
Flying the flag for Languages
at West Exe!
Languages Staff have been amazed with the quality of work being produced this term
by our fantastic linguists, so we have brought back our popular reward scheme!
›› Each cycle, we will be running a weekly lottery for those pupils who complete their homework within the
deadline, and the winner, who will be announced each Tuesday, will receive some fabulous and fun prizes!
To recognise the hard work our pupils put into their silent starter tasks, we will continue to award a ‘high
stakes’ prize to the pupils who have consistently scored highly, and this will take place in week twelve at
the end of each cycle.
Finally, we would like to recognise those
pupils who have impressed us through their
linguistic prowess in lesson time. Elsie-May
H & Lily B, our lucky winners, received the
title ‘Linguist of the Week’, some languages
goodies and a signed certificate.
Good luck!
Bon chance!
!Buena suerte!
We Will
Remember
Them
›› Students from West Exe were
honoured to have been asked by
The Alphington Community to
recite a poem for their service on
Remembrance Sunday in November.
Year 8 students Layla B and Harrison
B recorded a wonderful reading of
'Poppies', which was also shared in
school as we commemorated those
who have sacrificed so much for our
freedom. As always, we collected for the
Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal this
year and held a 2 minutes silence.
6
O P P O R T U N I T I E S AT W E S T E X E
West Exe & ITV News Celebrate
a Successful Half Term
›› Back in October we welcomed an ITV film crew to visit the school to
write a piece on how successful our first half term had been.
The Head Prefects and Year 7’s did an excellent
job of explaining their experiences of their first
8 weeks.
We also treated the crew to an experiment called
‘elephant’s toothpaste’ and showed the school’s
everyday safe Covid-19 practices.
The feature was aired on Tuesday, 20 October.
Confident Bikeability Students Begin Training
After missing out on completing their Bikeability at primary school, over 50 of our Year
7 students signed up to complete their Level 2 this term. The purpose of the course aims
to assist students to become competent and confident road cyclists, as well as long term
cycle commuters.
Uniform Buy Back Positively
Supporting Families
Building on the success of last summer’s ‘uniform buy back scheme’ this September
we were able to support over 100 families with excellent, quality uniform items. We
were delighted and proud to be able to deliver this service to so many families.
To continue with our environmental efforts, we will be offering a skirt, jumper & jacket
swap as soon as circumstances allow. If you have any uniform related enquiries
please contact Chloe.Fox@westexe.devon.sch.uk
DID YOU KNOW: you can now save the delivery cost and buy PE socks and ties from the Library
shop? Ties are £5.95 and PE socks are £5.75 for the smaller sizes and £7 for the larger ones.
7
C O M M U N I T Y. . .
Mental Health Week
COVID-19 and the different
lockdowns continue to have
a devastating effect on
children and young people’s
mental health. It has been
unbelievably hard, but together
we can make a difference.
Students and staff alike have been busy promoting
good mental health at West Exe, changing the
culture, advocating ‘it’s OK not to be OK’ and
bringing home the message that during these
difficult times ‘no one is alone’.
In school activities included: wearing a yellow
accessory every day, year group assemblies to
promote the support available in and out of school,
various sessions running in the Wellbeing Hub
and Sensory Room and individual messages from
teachers promoting the strong pastoral support
in West Exe.
Throughout the
week we raised over
£100 for Young
Minds charity.
8
. . . AT W E S T E X E
More than 620 books and 20 million
words read by Years 7 & 8…
›› Congratulations to our Year 7
students who met their Half Term
Accelerated Reader reading targets.
Well done to Fareefta C and James S
who have read more than 1.2 million
words between them, this is a huge
achievement. Congratulations also, to
the Year 8 students who have already
reached their reading targets which
are set every term. You smashed it a
whole half term early!
House Donations to Exeter Foodbank
West Exe always strives to support the Exeter
Foodbank. Last year we tried extra hard to only
donate items on their priority list.
›› Donations from staff and students flooded in for House
Week, with Romero House holding the lead with the most
donations brought in.
We look forward to future events we will hold when the school
is open, to further support our wider community.
9
S P O R T. . .
Leighton G Duke of Edinburgh
Joins Exeter Awards Continue
City Football
Club Academy
›› In October Year 8 student
Leighton G signed with Exeter City
FC Academy, following some very
competitive and challenging trials.
A huge congratulations from
everyone at West Exe. We look ›› We are extremely proud of our DofE students who have been
forward to seeing Leighton turning working hard to complete their sessions despite the challenges
out for the first team in years to come! of lockdown. They have surprised us with their resilience and
versatility to enable them to continue with their awards.
With Covid-19 restrictions our silver and bronze teams were
unable to complete their award. However, being back at school
before Christmas break, they were busy planning for their future
expeditions which
we hope will take
place soon. We
wish them good
luck on their DofE
journeys!
10. . . AT W E S T E X E
Year 7 & 8 Co-Curricular Programme
›› Since September, the Year 7 and 8 students have been
completing their first sessions in their first co-curricular
activity. The students had the opportunity to choose 5
activities to take part in every Thursday afterschool.
This year, more than any other it has been vitally important for
students to experience opportunities away from the academic
curriculum. We are really proud that such a large proportion of
our student body has managed to access enrichment activities
during this first half term.
Fae M outdoes the competition
A huge congratulations to Fae M and her pony Marley who competed in The Pony Club
Show Jumping Competitions in Bicton (prior to lockdown restrictions). Fae did incredibly
well to finish 15th out of 42 riders!
›› Fae also competed at The Pony Club, Cross Country Tetrathlon (Shooting, Swimming, Running and Riding)
where she did a fantastic job and placed 2nd. The number of girls competing in these today outnumber boys
by a factor of roughly 2:1, So congratulations Fae on your determination and willpower to succeed!
11I N F O R M AT I O N S E R V I C E S
Support
services
• Have your circumstances changed?
• Is your child eligible for
Free School Meals?
• Is your child a Service Child?
• Is your child adopted from care, or left South West Teacher Training
care under a special guardianship or
residential order? is a school-centred initial teacher training provider
based at West Exe School. We are now taking
If the answer is yes or maybe, then please visit applications for Primary and Secondary trainees to
our website to find further information: join us in September 2021.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationand
families/school-information/school-meals Visit www.swtt.net to find out more.
Looking Ahead It is important that we
have the correct email
Term commences Monday 4 January 2021 address and mobile
telephone number for
every parent/carer.
Half Term Monday 15 - Friday 19 February 2021
Please inform us at
Last day of term Thursday 1 April 2021 admin@westexe.
devon.sch.uk if there
Term commences Monday 19 April 2021 are any changes to your
contact details, stating
May Day Holiday Monday 3 May 2021 the name and Year/
Tutor for your child/ren.
Thank you
Half Term Monday 31 May - Friday, 4 June 2021
Last day of term Friday 23 July 2021
Keep up-to-date and follow us on:
www.facebook.com/westexeschool
West Exe School, Hatherleigh Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 9JU.
T: 01392 660100 @westexeschool
E: admin@westexe.devon.sch.uk
westexeschool
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