Abingdon School

Newsletter 3/2009-10
December 2009

Dear Parents,

My recent report to the Governors suggested that the term had had something of a surreal quality to it. It has most certainly been rather strange to go through the routine events of the school year for the last time. In addition, there was the flurry of media interest over the appointment of Miss Felicity Lusk as the 52nd Head of Abingdon School from September. In the aftermath of the announcement of this appointment it has been excellent to be able to meet Miss Lusk and welcome her officially to the School. This process of liaison will be continued over the course of next year.

All this news notwithstanding, the boys have very definitely kept their collective eye on the ball in all respects. Our 170 new boys have settled remarkably well to the rhythms of Abingdon life. Already they appear to have found their sea-legs and to be beginning to understand our expectations of them.

Looking back over the last few months, there appear to have been more than our usual quota of triumphs, a situation that makes the selection of highlights particularly difficult. In my mind at least, the achievements of the Debating Society in winning the National Schools’ European Youth Parliament Debating Competition, and then being chosen to represent Great Britain in the finals in Helsinki stands out along with the achievements of our talented U16A rugby side. Their match statistics of played 11, won 11 – the first A side to have gone undefeated in living memory – speak for themselves. Amongst the rich diet of cultural activities on offer, the quality of the First Orchestra playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue featuring a piano solo from Ozy Tack, will linger long in the memory, as will the foot-tapping high entertainment of West Side Story.

Just as I was hoping to sign off this letter, we have had news from South Africa that the 1st VIII have won the South African Schools Rowing Union Boat Race.

– not a bad start to the rowing season!

Staff News

We were delighted to hear just after half-term that Alun Watkins (Deputy Head Pastoral) had been appointed to the Headship of Victoria College, Jersey. Victoria College is a prestigious HMC School that boasts five Victoria Cross winners amongst their alumni and a 40-match unbeaten record for their First XI soccer team! No doubt Alun’s reputation for moral courage and his sporting acumen stood him in good stead. Alun Watkins follows Thomas Garnier, who moved on from Abingdon in 2005 to the Headship of Pangbourne College. No doubt there will be opportunities a-plenty for appropriate farewells, but for now I am delighted to offer Alun and Sue our collective congratulations.

Rather more imminent is the departure of David Carson, after 15 years as Estates Bursar. During his time in charge of grounds, cleaning, maintenance and building projects, the school sites at Abingdon Preparatory School, Cox’s Fields, the Park Road campus and the Boat House have been transformed beyond recognition. David’s attention to detail, commitment to quality, and a belief that any building should enhance the aesthetic quality of the whole have served us extremely well. Mention should also be made of David’s contribution as Commanding Officer of the CCF, which has risen in prominence and reputation to a point that it is now respected as one of the best contingents of its size in the country.

The School community was saddened to hear of the death on 6 November of Veronica Walker, erstwhile Head of Modern Languages. The School was well represented at Veronica’s funeral, held on Monday 16 November.

Congratulations to Miss Lois Glenn, who was married on 12 December and will now be known as Mrs Glenn-McKibbin.

Academic Matters

Oxbridge. Best wishes to our 61 Oxbridge candidates, who have been attending interviews in the last week or so of term. I would ask that results are emailed to me at headmasters.sec@abingdon.org.uk, please, so that we can keep up to date as news comes in.

Lower sixth November tests: Parents of lower sixth boys will by now be aware of how their sons have performed in the November tests. Mr May, Mr Wickes and Mr Evans have interviewed boys whom we have identified as particular underperformers and several boys will have been instructed to take resits on the day before the Lent term begins, Tuesday 5 January. Instructions and timings will be given in a separate letter for those boys affected.

GSCE Mock Examinations. Without wishing to throw too much cold water on your festive cheer, I have been asked to remind fifth formers that they will have mock examinations starting on Wednesday 6 January, and finishing on Tuesday 12 January. Boys not taking an examination are timetabled to be in revision sessions; however, they are expected to continue to fulfill their Other Half commitments.

Fifth formers have a week after New Year before their mock exams, and are advised to engage in thorough revision. Those who perform poorly will be expected to account for their results: they will be seen by the Deputy Head (Academic) and the Middle Master, and parents may be contacted. Experience tells us that leaving everything until Easter is too late. In many subjects the mocks are the last opportunity to do a full length examination under supervised conditions.

The entry requirement for the Sixth Form is 3 A, 2 B and 2 C grades, including at least C grades in English and mathematics. Anyone who may be concerned about the implication of these criteria should arrange to discuss the matter with either myself or Mr May. In addition I would ask, please, to be informed as soon as possible of any boy who may be considering leaving Abingdon after GCSEs, for whatever reason. There is significant demand for places in our Sixth Form and we would like to know how many vacancies there are to offer as soon as possible.

Fifth form boys have already indicated their preliminary AS preferences this term to aid us with our planning. Following the mock exams and the parents' evening next term, they will be asked to make firm choices which we will use to build the timetable. As ever, we will do our very best to meet the subject combinations of all boys, though every year there are some unavoidable disappointments. Peter Willis, the Director of Studies, will be administering this process.

Upper Sixth February Mocks and AS retakes. Upper sixth formers will have mock examinations, in lesson time, in the week after half term. To make use of the opportunity to practise their examination technique, they will need to spend some time revising in the half term of the Lent Term and during the first half of next term. Boys doing AS retakes in January are urged to revise fully over Christmas, to avoid a further re-take in the summer.

Chapel

Prayer: At 8.00am daily prayers are said in Chapel for all members of the School family: boys, staff, support staff, OAs, and their families. Requests for prayers for the needs of anyone in particular can be sent to the Chaplain, e.g. by email (chaplain@abingdon.org.uk) or by a note through his Ananias Room door near the Chapel.

Floral Appeal: The beauty of the Chapel is enhanced by displays of flowers. Sadly in the summer we must say goodbye to Mrs Elizabeth Turner, our chief arranger. If you are willing to help by arranging a vase, even occasionally, please tell the Chaplain (chaplain@abingdon.org.uk).

Edmund Society. A busy Lent term of lectures begins at 4.00pm (tea 3.45), on Tuesday 12 January in the Charles Maude Room. Claire Foster from the Ethics Academy will give a talk, illustrated with film, on: ‘How to be a hero today - overcoming challenges, walking with others and embodying virtue and ethics’. All are welcome.

Careers Convention. This year's Careers Convention is to be held on the evening of Friday 19 March at Our Lady's. This annual convention is run jointly by Abingdon's three independent senior schools: St Helen and St Katharine, Our Lady's and Abingdon School. The evening will start at 7pm with a keynote speech by John Ryley, Head of Sky News. This is followed by individual consultations with over 60 representatives from different careers. There are also talks throughout the evening on careers in teaching, finance, healthcare (physiotherapy, nursing and occupational therapy), and advertising. The convention is open to fifth and sixth year pupils from all three schools. It is compulsory for Abingdon fifth years. Parents are also warmly invited to attend.

Art Department. From a Big Sculpture day for fifth formers, a Big Draw workshop for the fourth year, workshops and talks from visiting artists Nick Sharratt, Steven MacIver and Pete Fowler, to gallery visits to see (the other) Turner at Tate Britain and American abstraction at the Saatchi collection, and a sixth form trip to Paris at half-term, this has been one of the most exciting termly art programmes ever.

Morning Registration. May I remind parents that if their son is absent, they must let the School know by telephoning Mrs Bosley, the Attendance Secretary on 01235 849031 Mondays-Fridays, and 01235 849032 on Saturday morning, or by emailing: attendance@abingdon.org.uk (and copy the email to their son’s tutor), by 9.30 am each morning. Parents should give their son’s name and tutor group. If a boy is late for School he must register at the Attendance Office (Room B10) as soon as he arrives. If a boy fails to register, the School is obliged to ring the parents to ascertain the whereabouts of their son. Failure to do this has led to a number of complications, not least Mrs Bosley having to ring parents only to find the boy is in school. This can set alarm bells ringing with parents.

Work Experience. Fifth year pupils are strongly encouraged to arrange their work experience placements as soon as possible. If your son is struggling to find a placement, please do ask him to speak to Dr Gibbs as we have contacts with previous placements, parents and old Abingdonians that will be of interest. Once a placement is arranged, please complete and hand in the three-party agreement form (you do not need to obtain the employer's signature).

Arkwright Scholarship. Alexander Iley was awarded his Arkwright scholarship at a ceremony in London at half term. Congratulations to him on this extremely prestigious award, given to highly talented sixth formers who are considering a career in engineering, product or industrial design, or architecture.

Essay Competition. Tom Lowenthal was runner-up in the High Sheriff’s Law Lecture Essay Competition for 2009. The standard of essays submitted for the competition was high and the judge commented: ‘all were interesting and well argued, so it was very, very difficult to choose between them. But someone has to win the prize, and, in the end, I selected a prizewinner.’

Cranmer Reading Competition. The Diocese of Oxford heat of the national Cranmer Reading Competition took place in Oxford. We provided seven of the 25 candidates, who each read for four minutes from the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The two sections were won by James Yan (Senior), as last year, and Charles Pope (Junior), who will both take part in the national final in February in London.

UK Mathematics Trust. On 23 November Josh Stedman, Geoffrey Penington, Joon-Ho Sung and Tom Salt represented the School at the regional final of the UK Mathematics Trust's Senior Team Mathematics Challenge. In a field of 25 schools from the area Abingdon ran out comfortable winners with a very impressive score of 175/192, nearly 30 points ahead of the rest of the field, with St Helen’s coming second and Magdalen College School third. The team will go on to the finals of the competition in London in February.

Bank of England Competition. On 26 November Matthew Choi, Eric Gartz, Sam Newman and Jonathan Wong competed in the Bank of England’s ‘Target 2-0’ Competition. The team was required to give a fifteen-minute presentation on the current state of the economy and then field questions from three Bank of England judges. The team decided to hold interest rates at 0.5% and, by a vote of 3 to 1, maintain quantitative easing at £200bn. They beat teams from Radley College, Headington School, Wood Green School and Royal Latin School; they now go on to compete in the South East of England final.

Art Department tour to Paris. The group managed ten of the superb galleries and museums of Paris in their five days at half term, plus some tourist spots as well. The boys had all been given new sketchbooks to fill and they drew in the Eurostar train, in front of the art, while having meals, even walking through the parks.

Classics Trip to Tunisia. Forty-two boys, accompanied by five members of staff, travelled to Tunisia over half-term to visit the rich array of surviving classical remains there. Modern Tunisia is the location of Rome’s greatest enemy, Carthage, but the home city of Hannibal was later refounded by the Romans and became the capital of one of their richest provinces, Africa: it became the granary of Rome. This wealth was reflected in the archaeological remains the group saw, whether in the rich mosaics in the Bardo and other museums, the huge quantity of bath houses, the impressive temples of Dougga and Sbeitla, the monumental amphitheatre of El Djem, the richly decorated and partially subterranean dwellings of Bulla Regia, or at Carthage itself. They also found time to visit some Islamic sites, including the great Mosque of Khairouan and three Medinas, at Khairouan, Tunis and Sousse.

Classics event. On 13 November, Abingdon hosted a meeting of the Oxfordshire Classical Association in the Amey Theatre. The event had been organised by Dr Rebecca Armstrong and Dr Felix Budelmann, of St Hilda’s and Magdalen Colleges respectively, and was attended by all sixth-formers studying Greek or Ancient History, as well as the fifth-form Greek set. They were also joined by pupils from Oxford High, Radley, St Edward’s and Magdalen College School. A stellar line-up of speakers addressed questions ranging from ‘Herodotus the Racist’, the reception of the Persian Wars, a discussion of the iconography of the memorably rude ‘Eurymedon Jug’, and the links between Homer and earlier, eastern epic, opening the boys’ eyes to a great deal of new evidence and setting the texts, art and history within a much broader context.

Drama

After the success of the senior production of West Side Story, members of the cast are keen to continue working with the show's professional choreographer (and OA) Matthew Hawksworth. Discussions are currently taking place with Matthew to try and arrange a new weekly dance activity for senior pupils, to take place in the impressive new dance studio of the Sports Hall. If all goes well, we hope to be able to launch the activity in the New Year, and a little further down the line, to organize a dance presentation in the Amey Theatre during the summer term.

Meanwhile, productions and preparations for other drama productions continue apace. In the last full week of the term, many of our lower and upper sixth actors have been appearing in a fabulous production of Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, directed by Oliver Hogben in the St Helen's drama studio. Third and fourth year pupils have embarked on the Middle School production of Marlowe's Dr Faustus under the direction of Graeme May, while the Junior Drama Club members are getting stuck into Robert Bolt's The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew under the guidance of Andrew Loughe. It is marvellous to see such a hive of dramatic activity involving pupils at every level of the School.

The Film Unit's members are no less busy. Matthew Copson, Tom Bateman and Will McDowell face a demanding editing schedule over the Christmas holiday if they are to reduce some twenty hours of footage to a thirty minute film, in time for the premiere of their film about life in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova. Other young filmmakers are tackling subjects as diverse as the impact on a variety of people of the 2012 Olympics; a claymation about the Battle of the Somme; a day in the life of a city and many more. The annual screening next May promises to be a bumper affair.

Music

Choral Society Concert, 28 November. Congratulations to all who participated in an exciting performance of David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus. Please see a review on the School web site.

Christmas Concerts. Congratulations to all the many musicians who participated in this year’s Christmas Concerts on 8-9 December. There were some tremendously exciting performances from Lower School Choir, First Wind and Big Bands and First and Chamber Orchestras. Special congratulations to Osman Tack for his performance as soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. We are thrilled to be able to send a cheque to Ben Wells OA at the Nightingale’s Children’s Project in Romania, for £1,074. This will go a long way in helping his work with the HIV infected young people in Cernavoda (www.nightingaleschildrensproject.co.uk).

Individual Musical Achievements. A number of boys have scored some notable successes. David Mears has gained a coveted place as a clarinettist in the National Youth Orchestra of GB. Osman Tack has progressed to the next round of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in the piano division. His next round is on Thursday 17 December; we wish him well. Joseph MacNamara will sing as treble soloist with the Oxford Philomusica in Howard Blake’s The Snowman under the composer’s baton on 18 December. We are delighted that Caspian Mitchard and Joe Mason have secured offers for organ scholarships at Peterhouse, Cambridge and Lincoln College, Oxford.

Music Calendar – Lent term. Attached to this mailing is the Lent term Music Calendar, which includes some particularly interesting events.

Looking ahead – dates for your diary. Please be aware of some important musical fixtures for next year’s calendar, which are attached. In particular, please note the early New Year Charity Concert on 21 January, which will include performances from Big Band, Brass Band, Junior Strings, Second Orchestra, School Choir and First Orchestra.

Sport
Badminton. The Badminton Club has had a successful half of term, with wins against Bloxham, Radley, Cokethorpe, Wellington and King’s Bruton. Out of the usual rotation they played the Michaelmas 2009 Cheltenham/Malvern/Abingdon triangular fixture in Malvern College’s brand new, £17m, sports centre. Abingdon overwhelmed Malvern 9-0 and beat Cheltenham 6-3. On 9 December Abingdon’s U14s and U16s played Magdalen College School. The score line (5-0, 4-1) looks like a heavy defeat for MCS but many of the games ran to scores of 17 or 18/21 and some tired Abingdon players had to dig deep to get the winning couple of points.

It has been a good term: when key players have been unavailable others have filled in readily and capably, sometimes surprising themselves with their resourcefulness under pressure.

Abingdon cricketers in representative squads. During the successful 2009 summer holidays Abingdon found a large number of its boys representing teams at both district and county level. This was the case throughout the school and suggests a strong future on the cricket field. Eighteen boys represented county teams. With lots of cricket on the agenda for 2010 including a 1st XI tour to Dubai the boys are already in practice for the 2010 season.

Rowing. The 2nd and J16 eights competed at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia over half term. Both crews performed exceptionally well and recorded excellent results in the Non Varsity Eights event. The 2nd eight came first and would have come fourth in the 1st eights division, and the J16 eight came 11th out of the 37 crews entered. The winning crew included Neil McKenzie, Jamie Copus, William Sadler, Andrew Nagi, Charlie Uden, Alexander Hatzis, Angus Innes, Ed Griffiths and Will Davey. As mentioned in my introduction, we have just heard the First VIII have won the Southern Africa Schools’ National Championship. No doubt more news from Cape Town will follow.

Rugby. The Rugby Club ended their season with a creditable 59% win ratio in one of the most difficult fixtures card that the school has been faced with in some considerable time. The teams have been tested on a weekly basis against some of the best rugby playing schools in the country and will now hopefully go on to even greater achievements, becoming more competent against these tougher opponents. The Junior Teams (first and second years) play on a slightly different circuit and have had a tremendous season: they have amassed over 1,000 points between the four teams in the space of ten matches. The U16A team have won all of their games this term – as mentioned above. The 1st XV have fought their way back from a difficult position to win as many games as they have lost, but more impressively have reached the last 32 teams in the National Daily Mail Cup. They play away to Gryphon School, Sherborne, on 15 December and if they were to win, we would see rugby being played into the Lent Term. I must applaud all coaches, players and parents for another worthy season and am very pleased with the developments that the Rugby Club has made in the first two seasons. We are definitely moving in the right direction.

Squash. The home match of the now regular fixture with Radley was a close-run affair. The juniors played first: Sanjay Bhattacharya and Yusuf Safa both played well to win, but Tom Godfrey and James Dewar, rusty from rugby and broken limbs, both lost to strong opponents. The match came down to Joel Morris, who came from behind to win the game, and tip the balance 3-2 to Abingdon.

The seniors also had a close match. Ben Etherton won well 3-0, and Nigel Emodi recovered from losing his first game to win 3-1. Jamie Hutchings lost a hard match at third string, and captain Toby Warren was uncharacteristically slow to get going: by the time he got into his stride, it was too late. The match came down to the tremendously improved Josh Ridley. He played superbly against a strong opponent, who eventually despaired of killing the ball against such committed retrieving: Josh won his match 3-0, and won the fixture for Abingdon 3-2.

Annual Fund. I am delighted with the response to my last annual fund appeal. It appears that both the chapel windows and the bursary fund have struck a real chord with our parents and other members of our wider community. Over £10,000 has already been raised and we have received a generous pledge to cover the cost of a panel for one of the chapel windows from a group of our alumni. To those of you who have chosen to give, a sincere thank you. To those of you who have not yet considered a gift, I urge you to do so. It would be wonderful to see our chapel windows replaced with a unique cycle of artwork which represents the school year; and the gift of education is a precious one which we can, and should, offer, to those able boys whose families really cannot afford an Abingdon education. Please help if you can.

The FASBC Annual Dinner will be on Saturday 13 March 2010. Guest speaker will be Mark Hunter MBE, winner of a Gold Medal in the Lightweight Double Scull with Zac Purchase at the Beijing Olympics.

Community Service. The boys have been very active, bringing Christmas cheer to the residents of Abingdon. The Music in the Community group performed a selection of music at Old Station House, and the Drama in the Community group performed an extract from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales at Cygnet Court as part of the Third Year Service and Citizenship scheme. The visits of the boys to Cygnet Court are greatly appreciated and they were featured in the Oxford Mail.

Christmas carols were performed by a group of musicians at the University of the Third Age and Ozy Tack volunteered to entertain Mrs. Simmons, who loves his playing. The termly tea party was held in the dining room on 8 December with Charlie Beirouti and Mihai Clapaniuc acting as Masters of Ceremonies.

Parents’ evenings. Please make a note in your diaries of the dates that apply to you.

Exeat and ASEE. As the Abingdon School Entrance Examinations will take place on Friday 22 January, the Lent term exeat weekend will run from 5.00 pm on Thursday 21 January until the evening of Sunday 24 January.

Open Morning. This will be held on Saturday 16 January. In the past, the Lower School boys have been an invaluable help at this event, as guides and as helpers, and so once again we appeal to parents to encourage their sons to take part, and we would be extremely grateful for their willingness to bring them in for this important occasion. As you will know from my talks at parents’ evenings, we value the word of mouth publicity which our parents can give to the School: please tell your friends.

Revision leave
Fifth: revision leave begins Saturday 15 May, 5.15pm
Lower sixth: revision leave begins Wednesday 19 May, 5.15pm
Upper sixth: revision leave begins at the start of half term

As in previous years a programme of fifth year tutorials will be arranged for each timetabled period for the two weeks before half term.

The lower sixth return on Monday 14 June at 8.30am, when A2 courses begin.

As we look forward to a period of rest and peace in the run-up to Christmas, Elizabeth joins me in sending you all best wishes for the festive season.

Yours sincerely