Welcome from the Head
Welcome back to St Peter’s! The 2023-24 academic year has been packed with opportunities and achievements, with our pupils experiencing the very best that the School has to offer and I thought to share some of my highlights.
It was the first time ever that St Peter’s has been involved in a whole school pumpkin pick, due to a fortuitous (for us!) circumstance of the local farmer having his pumpkin buyer pulled out! The children loved walking across the fields to pick their pumpkins; a very St Peter’s event.
It’s been a year of new initiatives. Lots of children have been enjoying cooking with Diana Richards, our Catering Manager, and this new initiative will continue throughout the year. Our biggest triumph has been the introduction of the St Peter’s Orchestra music scheme for Year 4. Every child in the year group has been given the opportunity to choose an orchestral instrument to learn over the course of the year, with a concert in the Summer Term. It has been a joy to watch the little ones lugging their cellos and trombones about and the inaugural Year 4 orchestral production was a great success.
We have enjoyed all the usual Christmas celebrations with a very memorable ‘special visitor’ arranged by the PTA, the wonderful Nativities and the ever beautiful Carol Service, which are always a highlight of the year!
The school remains a busy place and we have had the usual full programme of sporting fixtures and musical concerts/assemblies. At the end of the Spring Term, 44 pupils visited Madrid as part of the Culture Tour and we enjoyed two fantastic performances of ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, at the Blackmore Theatre in Exmouth, where the talents of some incredible young actors in Years 6 to 8 were showcased as part of our ‘Upper School on Stage’ activity. Indeed, we have a growing number of St Peter’s pupils who regularly perform in professional productions locally. Our Year 5 pupils delivered a much-acclaimed performance of ‘Peter Pan’, again at the Blackmore Theatre, to mark the end of their Lower School journey. My thanks to Cordelia Morris, Kelly Dunne and Deborah Evans in particular for these wonderful shows.
There have been some really excellent sports fixtures this year and, given our size, St Peter’s really does excel on the rugby pitch. One of the highlights of the Autumn term was the U7 tag rugby tournament, mixed girls and boys for the first time this year. We hosted five local schools in a learning skills tournament and the feedback from all involved was excellent. We had a busy sports calendar overall, with lots of rugby, hockey, football, netball, cricket and athletics (including triathlon) fixtures and enjoyed four wonderful sports days. In the IAPS Sailing championships, our Under 13 team came third overall out of 36 teams which was a very commendable achievement. We also had a fantastic set of results at the Drakes Athletics regional qualifiers at Mount Kelly where we recorded five first overall finishes and six second place finishes. Our Year 6 boys finished first overall in their age category. As a result, several children have qualified for the National Prep Schools Athletics (NPSA) finals at the Alexandra Stadium in Birmingham in July. As a small Devon prep school, we certainly punch well above our weight in sport!
We have enjoyed great success this term with Year 8 pupils securing senior school places and scholarships. A total of 15 scholarships have been awarded across academic, drama, music and sport and pupils are taking up places at Blundell’s, Bryanston, Exeter, Queen’s College, Stover, Taunton and Wellington. One pupil is moving into the maintained sector.
I hope you enjoy reading about all the adventures and community events that have taken place at St Peter’s, during the most recent academic year. We are always delighted to hear from former pupils, such as yourselves. Please do enjoy reading about life after St Peter’s from Natalie Conboy, a former Head Girl, who attended the school between 2014 and 2018. If you would ever like a trip down memory lane, we would be only too pleased to welcome you for a tour.
Head
If you would like to share your fond memories of St Peter's, or even have some photographs of your time at our school, please get in touch.
Email hmoffice@stpetersprepschool.co.uk with your memories.
Rev Alfred Theodore Wren
1882 - 1890
Rev Henry Johnson Hodgson
1890 - 1913
Harold Arthur Falkner
1913 - 1942
Theophilus Rhys Jones
1942 - 1959
Basil E Lake
1959 - 1974
Philip D Pike MEd
1974 - 1983
Charles N C Abram
1983 - 2004
Rob Williams
2004 - 2009
Noel Neeson
2009 - 2016
Charlotte Johnston MEd
2016 onwards
St Peter's was founded in 1882, by Rev. Alfred Wren, on Boarden Barn, Exmouth. The school began with about a dozen pupils on roll. He took the name from Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was an undergraduate. Upon his retirement in 1890, the school was taken over by Henry Hodgson. He and his wife made considerable improvements to the school during that time. For example, it was the first school in Devon to take up the game of hockey only four years after its introduction to the country.
Hodgson grew the school to about thirty pupils, before his retirement in 1913. His place was taken by Harold Falkner, who was Headmaster for 29 years, until his death in 1942. Harold made St Peter’s a leading Devon prep school by expanding and improving the buildings andactivities offered. By 1926, the school had 70 pupils and eight staff.A prospectus from the 1930s advertises the school as a “preparatory for boys aged 7-14 for Public Schools or the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth”. Among the subjects taught were Scripture, Latin, French, Maths, Drawing and Elementary Science. There was extra tuition inpiano, singing, dancing, swimming, carpentry and language. The 30s saw the school’s sporting standards reach an impressive level. In 1936-37, the football, hockey and cricket XIs won every single game they played, and so daunting were they that opposing schools cancelled further matches.
Falkner’s successor was Theophilus Rhys-Jones, who joined the staff at St Peter’s in 1937. He was Senior Master when Harold Falkner died, and took over the reins. The number of boys had dropped to about 40 at this point because of World War II, but numbers gradually increased to over 70 by 1949. On 12 July 1949, he sent a letter to the parents announcing that “After much careful and anxious consideration, we have decided to move the school to new premises, and we are in negotiation with Admiral Sir Arthur Peters for the tenancy of Harefield House, Lympstone”. This was to alter the whole course of St Peter’s history.
Rhys-Jones became seriously ill in 1954 and his Senior Master, Basil Lake, ran the school during his two-year absence. He had been a pupil of St Peter’s and a member of staff prior to active service in the Second World War. When Rhys-Jones died in 1959, there were just under 100 boys in the school, with ten full-time staff. Basil, with his experience of running the school, was readily equipped to take over. The Lakes further improved the new site, converting the stables and coach house, and adding the classroom block adjacent to the Bungalow. In 1974 Philip and Coral Pike took over. They also made their mark, changing to weekly boarders and accepting girls for the first time. They were also responsible for building the sports hall, so whatever the weather, some form of exercise could be taken. They ran the school until 1983, when Charles and Di Abram arrived.
Under the care of Charles & Di Abram, the school expanded in numbers and premises. Outside storerooms and the old school gym were converted into a junior school complex to create the Pearson Block, named in honour of David Pearson’s long and outstanding service both in the classroom and on the games field. The sports hall was extended to incorporate a new Science lab and an Art room, along with storage and changing rooms. The main house was also developed to include a new dining room and kitchen facilities and the creation of more extensive houseparent accommodation, Rhys-Jones House. New outside classrooms were added to the senior school and the boarding house accommodation was renovated. On the footprint of the old orangery, beyond economic repair, a new Head’s house, Peterhouse, was built.
Along with these building developments, school numbers began to steadily increase and a two-form entry for each year group was introduced. As numbers grew the school morning assembly was moved from the music room to the Sports Hall. This led to the creation of a revamped music room renamed the Hope Bardrick Room to mark Hope Bardrick's long service to St Peter's, both in the school office and the music department. Extensive new playing fields both aroundthe sports hall and later, the Hallett Field, at the end of the school drive, were also acquired. The school also began to be more involved in national IAPS’ events and quickly made its mark at Badminton and Squash. Alongside the greater impact in sports, national and European music and drama tours were introduced.William Tee (bursar) and Charles Abram were co-owners of St Peter’s until 1998 and in 2005 Jon Middleton teamed up with Charles Abram. From 2013, Jon has owned the school outright.
In 2004 Rob Williams, previously Director of Studies, became Head. Rob redeveloped the management team at St Peter’s. He also pioneered Mind Gym as a way of supporting children in their studies and built a formidable Friends of St Peter’s parent body, which today (now known as the St Peter's Prep School PTA) still supports and funds many aspects of school life.
Noel Neeson took over the headship in 2009. Noel championed assessment for learning working with a great team to develop the St Peter’s School Baccalaureate®, which has generated interest in educational circles. Boarding flourished, with the boarding house being adapted to reflect modern parental needs and flexi-boarding becoming a popular option. During this time, the school numbers flourished. Charlotte Johnston, the school’s first female head, joined the school in September 2016. She is passionate about a Prep School education, where children have the chance to shine in all areas: Sport, Music, Art, Drama and Academics. She has already developed the provision for Outdoor Education, so the school can fully make the most of its unique position near to coastland and moorland, and in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Charlotte is also keen to extend and develop the innovative approach to Education which runs through the Curriculum at St Peter’s.
St Peter's celebrated its 140th birthday in the 2022-23 academic year. Nods to our past can be found in our House names: Wren, Falkner, Lake and Hodgson and the names of our buildings and in our school values and ethos. That St Peter's spirit is very much alive and we are excited for what the future has in store, for the next 140 years!
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