PREP SCHOOL OVERVIEW
This past year has seen school life move back to normal as much as has been possible. Numbers in the Prep School have continued to rise and very encouragingly, September 2022 will see the Prep as large as it has been for many years.
Twelve months ago, I reported on the success of our Prep 1 and 2 class moving to the main Prep School building from Pyke. This year, our Reception class (now our youngest children in the school) joined them, as they also made the move up from Pyke. With our Reception children now a greater part of the school community, as well as joining the House system, it has had a very positive impact on school life and the strong sense of community, and relationships between year-groups and classes have been strengthened even further. With our increased pupil numbers, we have moved from having three Houses to streamlining with the Senior School and also having Pollard House. This has added an even greater element of healthy competition across the whole school. Following the departure of the wonderful Mrs Willis-Butcher, Mrs Emmerson joined us as a teaching assistant and she has been absolutely tremendous, working mainly with Prep 1 and 2, but also with other year-groups. Mr Fouche has also been a superb addition, helping across the Prep School with such an infectious positivity. Mr Middleton and Mrs Shaw shared the academic year leading Prep 5 and my sincere thanks to them both for being superb colleagues and great additions to Shebbear. We wish Mrs Shaw the very best of luck as she now moves to a teaching job in Somerset. We also said farewell to Mrs Thompson, after six wonderful years leading our Early Years setting, including the transition of the Reception move to the Prep building. We wish Mrs Thompson every happiness and success with her move. Throughout the year, the commitment and endeavour shown by all of the children in the Prep, from the youngest in Reception, under the wonderful
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THE SHEBBEARIAN 2022
