Abingdon School

Newsletter 2 2009-10
October 2009

Dear Parents,

I am pleased to be able to report that after the initial frenzy of the start of term, we have now had the opportunity to lengthen our collective stride a little to establish the comfort of a well-worn routine. Our 183 new boys have already settled in well and increasingly appear to be fully-fledged Abingdonians, amply demonstrated by the displays of house commitment and loyalty through the House Singing Competition. This event, more tribal than musical, provides a wonderful opportunity for boys from all year groups to get to know one another better through shared experience.

Thank you to those who made their views on the topic ‘Abingdon's balance' known to me. At the Governors' Away Day held at St Catherine's College, Oxford, the issues related to balance were amply debated. Although no formal resolutions were made, it was good to reaffirm Abingdon's commitment to rigorous intellectual enquiry as well as a more holistic view of education through the broad range of Other Half opportunities.

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Simon Balderson, on the birth of their son Toby, on 1 October.

Annual Fund 2009/10. Most of you will, by now, be familiar with the concept of our annual fund, which aims to raise money for a variety of school projects and for bursaries. To those of you who have contributed over the last few years, a heartfelt thank you.

Since the annual fund was started two years ago, we have raised in excess of £150,000 and Jan Glover, our Development Director, will be reporting more fully on this later in the year. All the money raised will be used towards equipment and facilities, which enhance teaching and learning, or towards bursaries. The School has always maintained an open access policy and our continued aim is to ensure that not only are as many talented boys as possible able to take advantage of the opportunity of an Abingdon education, but that those who are already at the School can be helped if the need arises due to a change in their family's circumstances.

In the next week or so, you will receive our annual fund brochure for the current academic year. As it is my last year at Abingdon we have slightly changed the focus and will be concentrating on bursaries and one other area which I believe is particularly important: the Chapel windows. It would be wonderful if we were able to build our bursary funds to an even greater level and replace at least one of the Chapel windows before I depart for Shrewsbury. I urge you to read the brochure when you receive it and to contribute as much as you can afford.

Edmund Society Lectures. Professor Nigel Biggar, of Oxford University, will be giving a lecture on ethics from 4.00 to 5.00 pm on Tuesday 3 November, in the Charles Maude Room (tea at 3.45 pm). All welcome.

Cranmer Reading Competition. Last year James Yan won the Oxford section of this national competition which involves candidates, aged 11-15 and 15-18+, reading for five minutes from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. This year's competition, for which there are financial prizes, will be in Oxford from 4.00 to 6.30 pm on Thursday 12 November. Boys interested in taking part should meet in Chapel at 10.20 am on Tuesday 3 November.

Academic Matters

GCSE coursework deadlines. Parents of fifth-year boys will receive, via electronic mailing, a letter from Dr Willis, Director of Studies. It is important that each pupil paces his coursework sensibly; if he expects to have difficulty in meeting a deadline, he should discuss the matter with his subject teacher in good time. Coursework deadlines issued by the examination boards are the latest dates by which Abingdon has to submit work.

Examinations. The only set of examinations this term will be the Lower Sixth Tests, which take place during lessons in the week beginning 16 November. Boys who perform poorly in these exams are liable to be required to take resits on the day before the Lent Term begins (Tuesday 5 January). It is likely that departments will have already been talking to boys about the content of these tests and may even be recommending that specific revision of topics be done over half term.

GCSE mock exams take place for fifth formers (and 'early take' fourth formers) immediately on our return after Christmas (running from Wednesday 6 into the next week). Boys will want to be using the second half of this term to secure their knowledge of what will be tested in these exams, and to plan their revision for the Christmas holiday. We will be asking fifth formers to indicate initial, non-binding, preferences for AS subjects towards the end of this term for our own planning purposes, but the more formal selection of options will not take place until after the mock exams and the fifth form parents' evening next term, which is on Tuesday 26 January.

AS exams for upper sixth boys: upper sixth boys have now entered themselves for those AS units they wish to retake in the January session (up to a maximum of four units) and the Examinations Office has published the timetable. You can find this on the School's website under Calendar/Examination Timetables/January 2010. Boys should use the second half of this term to ensure they know what they need to do to improve on last summer's results and to plan an effective revision programme. As ever, guidance will be available from departments in the form of advice, the issuing of practice materials and/or the provision of specific clinics.

Access Arrangements. In order for arrangements to be granted to enable candidates with learning difficulties to have special arrangements when they sit examinations, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) requires a history of need to be provided by the School. This means the candidate should have had the arrangement for lessons and examinations for much of his time at school. Some arrangements, such as use of a word processor, are designated type A arrangements and for these we have to make application to the relevant boards. Others, such as extra time, are designated type C arrangements and we can grant these ourselves provided we have the relevant evidence. The evidence, usually in the form of a report produced by an educational psychologist, is held in the Examinations Office. The School Examinations Office needs to receive the request for access arrangements by 31 January 2010 in order to meet the application deadline.

It is important that access arrangements are carried out during the academic year, in lessons and examinations. Provision is made for this to take place. The JCQ is not duty bound to accept applications and is unlikely to accept those that do not meet the criteria outlined. Any queries about these matters should be directed to the Examinations Officer.

Reports. You should by now have received, or will soon be receiving, the first report of term for your son. This report is designed to be a snapshot of performance and progress since the beginning of term and, as such, teachers' comments have been deliberately kept brief and to the point. Lengthier comments, alongside Other Half and instrumental reports, will come in the end of term report. Most of you will already know that the Effort and Achievement grades are turned into average percentages, which appear after the subject reports. This gives you and us a simple benchmark by which to measure progress from one reporting session to the next. As a guideline, an average of around 65% might be seen to indicate that things are going well, 80% and above that things are very positive and averages below 50% might indicate that there are a number of problems that need to be addressed. Please direct any comments or questions on the workings of our reports system to the Deputy Head (Academic), Mr May.

The Mick and Nick Show. Abingdon School was delighted to host the second year of the Oxfordshire Book Awards on 9 October. One of the highlights of the day was Michael Rosen, ex-children's laureate, and Nick Sharratt, illustrator, receiving their award for Dear Mother Goose. The event was attended by schoolchildren from nearly 20 schools across Oxfordshire, who, like Abingdon boys, had made their selection for the shortlist and taken part in the final vote. A BBC TV crew filmed one of the participating schools in the morning at their own school and then filmed the Awards in the afternoon. Our librarian Mrs Cooper was interviewed in the morning by BBC Radio Oxford, talking about the awards and children's reading. It was a good day for the celebration of reading!

Middle School History Trip to Berlin - 29-31 May 2010. Please could any parents who would like their son to go on the Middle School History Trip to Berlin from 29 to 31 May 2010 be reminded that the deadline for returning forms or emails to Mr McGill is 21 October.

Drama/Film Unit news. Pupils in Middle School have experienced two live theatre productions in the first weeks of term. Fourth and fifth year GCSE drama candidates travelled to London to see Stephen Daldry's record-breaking interpretation of An Inspector Calls, and found themselves sharing the stalls with the director himself, whilst third year pupils visited Dial M for Murder at the Oxford Playhouse and much enjoyed the play's tense climax. In the same period, sixth form Theatre Studies students enjoyed a three hour workshop with a member of the Theatre de Complicité company ahead of their visit next month to its London production of Endgame, and a chance to chat with the director and leading actor, Simon McBurney. Meanwhile, rehearsals for the three senior productions at the end of this term are gathering momentum both at Abingdon and St Helen's. Ticket order forms for West Side Story will be available shortly after half term.To order tickets for Our Country's Good and Zoo Story at St Helen's, please contact the St Helen's office on 01235 520173.

The Film Unit's members have visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History to shoot their first footage of the year to make short films that will help the museum to mark their 150th anniversary. On 16 October, they attended the fifth New Shoots Festival of work by pupils from six Oxfordshire schools.

Music

1. Parents' Evening with Visiting Music Staff, 12 November. Parents of musicians have been invited to speak with their sons' instrumental teachers on Thursday 12 November and should contact the music department to request an appointment, if they have not already done so. The letter recently sent by the Director of Music clarifies which of the visiting music teachers will be in attendance at that Parents' Evening.

2. Scholars' Concert, 13 November. Please note that our Music Scholars' Concert after half term is on Friday 13 November. These are excellent opportunities to hear some of our exciting solo talent - admission is free.

3. Choral Society Concert on Saturday 28 November - a date for your diary. Rehearsals for the Joint Choral Society's performance of Fanshawe's African Sanctus are well under way and will result in a concert on Saturday 28 November at 7.30 pm in the Amey Theatre. Please see the Director of Music's letter attached for a ticket application.

4. Christmas Concerts, 8 and 9 December. Please apply in good time for tickets for these popular concerts. Both concerts will share the same programme, which will include Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (soloist, Osman Tack), together with the normal fare of bands and choirs, including Lower School Choir.

5. Congratulations to Oxbridge Musicians. We are delighted to hear that Joe Mason and Caspian Mitchard have won organ scholarships at Lincoln, Oxford and Peterhouse, Cambridge and Adrian Lo a provisional choral award at St. John's College, Oxford. Congratulations all three.

Sport

Badminton. On 6 October Abingdon revived an old fixture with Bradfield College's Badminton Club. Injuries caused a dilution of Bradfield's strength so we responded by leaving David Choy and Adrian Lo behind, which allowed us to play Duncan Chow, Gary Ling and Peter Zeng in their first matches for Abingdon. All four pairs won their doubles matches, although Edward Callow and Ramon Bonfield took three games to beat Bradfield's first pair. Unusually the generous space at Bradfield allowed a round of singles: Richard Moon lost by a narrow margin but everyone else won their games.

On 10 October Abingdon played Cheltenham College at A and B team level. Cheltenham's impressive new top player is fresh from Hong Kong, where we gathered that he had been active at the highest level. Certainly he and his partner got through the afternoon undefeated, but they were the only Cheltenham players to manage this. Benny Liang has now played his first official fixture for Abingdon, while Adam Uberoi and Gem Vongseenin are beginning to look as established old hands as Daniel Chen - also in the third year but in his second season in the A team! Eventually our A team won 6 - 3 and the B team won 9 - 0, which was an excellent result, especially by the Bs as five likely team players were missing. Indeed Ed O'Brien and Jonathan Chung (second pair in the Abingdon B team) made a point of challenging the Cheltenham A team's third pair and beating it!

Cross-Country. On 19 September runners from the cross-country club attended the Longworth Village 10k race. The weather was gloriously warm and sunny lending perfect conditions for our runners, including three members of staff with which to open their season accounts. Out of a field of around 80 recreational and club runners, Thomas Watkins, Alexander Muir and Joshua Ridley scored third, fourth and fifth place overall with comfortable sub-40 minute times. Other notable performances included Alistair Duff, Stuart Jones, Luke Terry and Christian Reedman scoring time comfortably under the 43 minute mark.

This was a good start to the training and preparation season, which continues with four sessions per week for team runners, and weekly sessions with our new guest coach Mathew Ashton. The highlight of the term will be the Bicester 10k which will also act as the 2010 Knole Run team-member qualifying race.

Fencing. Will Fotherby flew out to Poland with nine members of the GB under 20 fencing team. At the fencing world cup in Sosnowiec he competed with the best fencers from the USA, Russia, France, Hungary, Italy and Germany amongst other countries. In the group stages Will had many good wins and a narrow loss by one hit, to a previous World Champion. Having done well enough he proceeded to the next round and lost a very closely fought match against a Polish fencer. He was one of only three Britons to get this far, and this bodes well for the next international in Germany.

Rugby. This season the Rugby Club has set itself a difficult goal by consciously altering the fixture list, to include fixtures against some of the top rugby schools in the country. We have replaced last season's fixtures against Shiplake, Tiffin and Stowe with opposition that can provide our teams with full block fixtures - Clifton College, Warwick and Oundle. These schools will also provide our sides with a sterner test.

The Club hopes to maintain the sixty percent success rate that it achieved last season. Pre-season trips to Bath University (1st XV), King's Bruton School (U15A), and both residential (U16A) and day camps (U14A and U12 Squad), held at the school, provided the boys with an opportunity to prepare for this difficult season.

The School has also strengthened its links with Oxfordshire rugby, by getting involved with the élite development squad system that the county provides for its players. It is pleasing to see many Abingdonian players being included in the ‘Schools of Rugby' at various age groups.

To date the Rugby Club has played fixtures against Clifton College, Eton, Magdalen College, Bedford and Warwick, and have managed to achieve our set target of sixty percent success against this opposition. The U16A side have managed to win all their games and are hoping to continue this throughout the season. The Junior sides (U13AB and U12AB) have also gone undefeated in their first three fixtures, amassing a colossal 335 points for and 17 points against.

Both our 1st XV and the U15A have made it through to Round 4 for of the Daily Mail National Cup Competition.

Squash. On 13 October, Abingdon played St Edward's for the first time at the Esporta Courts in North Oxford. The team consisted of captain Toby Warren, Josh Ridley, Joel Morris, Ben Etherton, Jamie Hutchings, Nigel Emodi, Alex Park and Tom Spears. Tom, Nigel and Jamie all won convincingly, but the fixture was poised for a close finish in the top matches. Josh Ridley then showed how much he has improved with a superb 3-0 win against their strong number two. St Edward's might still have secured a draw by winning the first string game, but Toby Warren gave an exhibition display to crush his opponent 3-0. We look forward to the return match on the new courts in our Sports Centre.

History Trip. Please could I draw your attention to the Third Year History Trip to the Battlefields from 16 to 18 April 2010 (the last weekend of the Easter Holiday). These trips are normally a great success. Your son should have received a letter with details of the trip in class. There is another copy attached to this Newsletter. The deadline is 4 November so please could you return in by this time.

ASPA Third Year Parents’ Supper, Friday 13 November
I would like to encourage as many Third Year parents as possible to come along to the Parents' Supper organised by ASPA, the School's parent body. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet the parents of new boys as well as those who have been in the Lower School. Please use the booking form on the ASPA News page:

Yours sincerely