Abingdon School

Newsletter 8/2008-9
May 2009

Dear Parents,

I have recently been invited by Mr David Lillycrop, our new Chairman of Governors from January 2009, to present a paper on ‘Abingdon’s Balance’ to the Governing Body. This will be at a conference they are planning to hold at St Catherine’s College Oxford in the autumn, at which they intend to discuss the School’s broader strategic direction and to debate issues of both interest and relevance.

My view, which seems to dovetail happily with Abingdon’s post-war history, is that we should aspire to academic excellence over a broad front – scientific, linguistic, classical and in the humanities – but not become fixated on League Tables (perhaps a dangerous statement as the exam programme winds up). We hope that teaching will both prepare and inspire intellectual curiosity in our boys to set them on a path of life-long learning, even after academic results have receded into relative insignificance. At the same time we hope to achieve skills in all areas to allow us to compete on favourable terms with the very best schools in the country, whatever the sport or activity. I have always been a great admirer of Abingdon’s colloquial term ‘the Other Half’, as it serves to emphasise at an almost subconscious level that there is just as much to life outside the classroom as there is within it.

In this regard an Orchestral Tour to Beijing, a debating team in a national final, a film that gains national recognition, a rowing crew that wins a medal at the National Schools regatta, a sports team that achieves an undefeated season or a major accolade, give just as much pleasure and represent the achievement of our aims just as much as sparkly academic statistics.

I like to think that academic success represents the height of our achievement, that the Other Half represents breadth and that the School should also nurture what we might call ‘depth’. To explain a little further, it is important that the School provides the opportunity through Chapel, service opportunities, CCF, charitable fundraising and debate speaker meetings, to allow boys to develop their own views and beliefs in a way that encourages them to make positive contributions to the societies and the world within which they will live and work.

I apologise for wandering into slightly esoteric territory in a normally fairly factual newsletter, but as I prepare my paper for the Governors I should be grateful to receive any views on ‘Abingdon’s Balance’ that might inform our debate. Please send an email to me at hm@abingdon.org.uk with any views or opinions you would like us to consider.

We are conscious of the fact that even though our fifth and sixth form pupils are about to embark on their study leave, we have a full set of summer sporting fixtures to fulfil. Abingdon has always been proud of the fact that we offer an all-round education, and the summer term is no different. Pupils are encouraged to participate in physical activity throughout their study break. It is important for them to take a break from their books and revitalise themselves by taking some form of exercise. Team practices will continue to take place throughout the term, and where feasible boys are encouraged to take part. This fits in well with the additional tutorial sessions which are taking place on a daily basis.

Academic Matters

Fifth years: activity after exams. Fifth year boys do not return to school after the completion of their last examination, but obviously there is a significant degree of variation in that last date depending on a boy’s subject choice. We strongly encourage all fifth year boys to participate in some form of work experience in the very long holiday after examinations and before the start of the new academic year in September. Those who still feel they need advice on this should contact Dr Gibbs on 01235 849003.

Collecting Statements of Results. The Charles Maude Room will be open for collection of statements of results on the following days

• A/AS results - Thursday 20 August
• GCSE results - Thursday 27 August

The doors will open at 8.30 am and results will be available until 11.00 am. A number of members of staff will be present to offer congratulations and advice if needed.

For A Level candidates needing post-results services urgently and for requests of photocopied scripts, the Exams Office will be open from 9.00 am until 11.30 am on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 August. Candidates should bring a cheque-book with them. All other post-results services will be dealt with at the beginning of the Michaelmas term. A sheet explaining the post-results services available will be included in the pack provided.

Candidates who are going to be on holiday overseas may leave an email address with the Exams Office. Candidates on holiday in the UK may phone in for results, but should be aware that the lines are going to be very busy.

01235 849035 Exams Office
01235 521563 Common Room Secretary

Lower Sixth Induction. All of those fifth years who will be returning next year into the sixth form are reminded that there will be a Lower Sixth Induction Day running from 9.00 am on Monday 7 September. Buses will not run on this day so it is wise to prepare your travel into school ahead of time; we expect to finish at about 4.30 pm. Academic options for the sixth form will take place on that day too. Boarders will therefore need to return a day earlier than planned if coming into the lower sixth.

Leavers’ Service - 9.30 am on Saturday 27 June in St Michael's Church, Park Road. This is always a special and memorable service, as we say farewell to those leaving school. The more leavers and their families, the more special and memorable it will be. Do come!

Lower Sixth Subject Choices: At the time of writing, all clashes have been resolved and boys in next year’s Lower Sixth will be able to pursue the A levels of their choice. However, many sets are now at levels that we would consider to be ‘full’ and so any boy who wishes to apply for a change in his subject choice should contact the Director of Studies, Dr Peter Willis, as soon as possible by email (peter.willis@abingdon.org.uk). Though we will always do our best to be accommodating, we do have to stress that changes may not be possible at this stage in particular subjects and it is certainly the case that the earlier we receive a request the more likelihood there is of us being able to satisfy it.

Royal Academy. Congratulations to Oliver Mumby who has been shortlisted for this year’s Royal Academy A Level Online exhibition for his Artwork ‘Spinnaker’. His work is one of 120 shortlisted from over 1,000 submissions from schools across the country. We will have to wait until 8 June to see if his piece is selected for the final online exhibition. ‘Spinnaker’ was created as a temporary sculpture from shaped canvas and timber, and installed in the Arts Centre garden last summer.

Hermitage Ensemble. The Amey Theatre resonated to the vibrant sounds of Russian music when the Hermitage Choir from St Petersburg gave a stirring and memorable concert. The five men - counter-tenor, tenor, baritone, basso and basso profondo - sang a cappella both Russian Orthodox Church music and Russian choral works in Old Church Slavonic, and Russian folk songs, which they sang dressed in national costume. The richness of their voices was thrilling, and conveyed a strong feel of traditional Russia, as they sang of the Virgin Mary, the repentant thief, and the tsar. The folk songs told of steppes, cossacks, robbers and Volga boatmen.

Chemistry successes. Five upper sixth pupils have built upon the success of last year and gained Gold Crest Awards for their research project. Fayaaz Ahmed, Kris Cao, Tomer Faraggi, Andrew Phillips and Mark Scott continued the work on the metallization of polymers, and although not every experiment was successful they managed to take the chemistry in new directions. Congratulations to the five for achieving the awards.

At the Chemistry Olympiad, out of 2,200 students three Abingdon boys were placed in the top 200 and achieved gold awards: Gregory Craven, Mark Scott and Ian Houlsby. Ian Houlsby was in the top 25 and asked to attend a second-round training camp. From this he was selected for the team of four who will represent Great Britain in the summer Olympiad. This is the second year running that Abingdon has had a representative on the final team. Andrew Hones also achieved a silver and Julian Thorn a bronze.

Shadowing the Carnegie. A keen group of boys from Lower School are taking part in this annual literary event, reading the seven shortlisted titles for the Carnegie Medal at the same time as the national judges – as are thousands of other like-minded students across the country. They are also part of the Abingdon group, formed from students from the six secondary schools in Abingdon. The first shared event was the Carnegie Tea, held this year at John Mason School, which provided an opportunity to exchange initial impressions of the books, their covers and blurbs, over squash and cakes. Next event: Testing knowledge of the books, at the Carnegie Quiz to be held at Abingdon School on Tuesday 9 June. For more information and to read the boys' reviews see the Shadowing site.

Drama. It has been a whirlwind half term in the Drama Department. The first week saw lower sixth pupils in a frenzy of preparation for their AS Theatre Studies productions, which took place at the St Helen's studio theatre. Four wonderfully varied plays were presented: The Clink, Stephen Jeffreys' modern take on the last days of Elizabeth I's reign; East, Stephen Berkoff's portrait of life in London's East End; Fen, Caryl Churchill's examination of the hardships of agricultural life in rural Norfolk; and an ingenious adaptation of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. All plays were directed by the Abingdon and St Helen's drama department staff.

The evening after the exam performances saw Abingdon's fifth years on an ambitious ‘two in one’ theatre trip in preparation for the final elements of their course. Half the pupils saw the visual splendours of The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, whilst the other half enjoyed the terrors of A Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre.

The following week saw the lower sixth on duty again, this time in performances of around 30 monologues and duologues as the final part of their AS Theatre Studies course. This new element of the Theatre Studies examination brings a new degree of individual performance challenge, which the candidates rose to meet magnificently.

The evening of 8 May saw the upper sixth Theatre Studies students sitting down to a formal three-course dinner in the dining hall at the second annual Drama Dinner. This event serves in part as a valedictory occasion but more importantly, perhaps, as a way of introducing budding actors and directors to the realities of professional life. A significant number of established theatre professionals joined the students to chat about routes into the profession, including OA and West End theatre producer Julius Green, and Abingdon parent and well-known actor, Sir Jeremy Child. The occasion was much enjoyed by all.

Finally, last week brought the Film Unit's sixth annual screening, and fourteen new films with arguably a wider range of styles, subjects and locations than ever before. A large audience was entertained and intrigued by films that took us to the bustle and glamour of Hong Kong, the arid mountains of Afghanistan and the linguistic delights of Ireland, Spain, Peru and Palestine. Local subjects included Didcot Power Station, greyhound racing at the Cowley Stadium and of course, a number of in-school productions focusing on aspects of life at Abingdon. Whatever else the Film Unit might offer its members, it helps to ensure that Abingdonians get out and meet people!

Music

Bands Concert, 6 May. Congratulations to the many musicians who took part in two major school concerts last week. We heard all the School bands, together with the School choir. The Big Band was in particularly fine form as they prepare for their concert tour to Tuscany in July. The performance was also notable for the appearance of Mr Balderson, his debut as director of the band at short notice.

Summer Orchestral Concert, 8 May. The orchestras were in action in a range of music, some of it in a lighter vein. George Bone, in particular, is to be congratulated on a fine performance of Franz Strauss's horn concerto with First Orchestra, a very fitting finale to his musical contribution at Abingdon over the years. We also heard again Simon Whalley’s new work, Abingdon-Tokai, a Festive Overture and the concert ended with a medley of melodies by Burt Bacharach, which received an encore. We are grateful to the dozen leavers for whom this was an orchestral farewell.

For your diary: Two events not to be missed after half term include our guitar teacher, Ray Burley’s recital with outstanding percussionist, Keith Fairbairn, on Wednesday 17 June. These musicians have a loyal following so we expect a good audience – please apply early for tickets.

On Friday 19 June the Big Band entertains and ASPA (formerly TASS) will serve strawberries and champagne. Don’t miss the chance to hear the Big Band as they prepare for their tour to Tuscany in July: I am told that they are in great form.

Congratulations to Michael Summers, who has raised £1,200 for the Addison’s Disease Self-Help Group by organising a very successful jazz concert last term.

Sport

Athletics. Peter Barnshaw had a successful Oxfordshire Athletics County Championship. He won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze, setting or equalling his personal best on all events. He ran the 400m hurdles for the first time, winning gold and setting a new championship best performance of 58.05s. This is five hundredths of a second outside the ESAA qualifying time. He also won gold for 400m in a time of 53.5s, and he won silver for 100m hurdles (14.85s) and bronze for high jump (1.70m).

On 25 April, the athletics team travelled to Harrow School to compete against Haberdashers’, Eton, Highgate, Harrow, St. Albans, St. Paul’s and Radley. The team faced stiff competition, but showed excellent promise for the season ahead.

There were a number of outstanding individual performances and eleven school records were broken over the course of the day. Special mention should go to Thomas Watkins, who dominated the 2000m steeplechase and won comfortably, improving on his previous time by over forty seconds. Other notable senior performances came from Alex Muir in the 800m and Michael Summers in the 200m. The intermediate team also seems to have great potential and Peter Barnshaw continued his sweep through the record books in the 400m and sprint hurdles.

Badminton. The team was invited to enter Solihull School’s U14 and U15 tournament on the first Sunday of the summer term, and after a couple of practice sessions to get over the influence of tennis and/or squash, the U14s won their part of the tournament and beat four schools from the Birmingham area in the process. They were also allowed to enter the U15 competition in which they still beat a couple of schools, although they lost to Abingdon’s U15s who came third in quite a challenging competition against seven other Birmingham teams.

The U14 team consisted of James Zhou and Maxwell Brittan (third year) and Daniel Chen and Adam Uberoi (second year, ie U13s!). The U15 team was Jonathan Chung, Edward O’Brien, Timothy Li and Nicholas Topping; Mark Lee came as travelling reserve and scorer.

Cricket. The 1st XI will arrive at half term undefeated, having played 10, won 9 and drawn 1. On their way they have played some wonderful cricket with some ‘electric’ fielding, strangling talented opposition into slow-scoring malaise. Particularly notable was a fine 20/20 victory over Bedford School, to reach the knock-out stages of the national competition. We wish them well in the second half.

Many congratulations to Timothy Deeks, who has been listed in the top school bowlers in the country in this year’s Wisden, on the basis of his figures last summer.

Rifle Club. Abingdon School Rifle Club attended the Oxfordshire Rifle Association 2009 small-bore championship held at Chesterton rifle range on 10 May. The day began well with members of the Lower School starting first and also shooting outdoors for the first time. The competition is 40 shots at 50 metres and 40 shots at 100 yards, in four classes. Adults and Juniors compete together in the same class. Our team members acquitted themselves admirably and were a credit to the school: Finn Ryley won the U18 Junior Championships; Peter Wood won Class D; the two together won the Class C and D pairs; Harry Wood and Peter Wood won the Sharp Shooter for the Markland Cup; Finn Ryley, Ben Bryant and Peter Wood won the Symonds Bowl; and the Tyros trophy for best novice went to Peter Wood. This stands us in good stead for the national championships in August.

Rowing. The Boat Club has participated in numerous events over the past weeks. Results deserving special mention are J18 coxed fours victory at the Wallingford Regatta where the crew of Rory Copus, George Rossiter, Jakob Schleu, Felix Wood and Jamie Cook achieved the fastest time recorded by a British school crew over the standard 2,000m distance of 6:30.8. Four of the boys from the crew and Andrew Hatzis have made it through to the final round of Great Britain trials in July for the Junior World Championships. At the Bedford Regatta it was the J16s’ turn to bring home the silverware with an impressive victory in the Novice VIIIs race where they beat off competition from twenty other crews to win the title. The 1st VIII travelled to Ghent for the 91st International Regatta hosted by Sport Ghent. The crew split up into numerous smaller boat types and enjoyed tough racing over the two day event. In the VIIIs race on the Saturday they led a strong field including the French National team and Belgian National team over the first half of the course. One of the two French crews put in a strong performance over the second half of the course to push Abingdon into second, a very creditable result.

Rugby. With the new Rugby season fast approaching, some of the boys have already begun their 'strength and conditioning' programmes and are benefiting from use of the new sports facilities. The senior squad will begin to do some handling sessions following their exams and I am pleased to say that the pre-season camp dates are finalised. The camps are primarily designed for those players with the potential to play rugby for their A or B team age group. It is an important part of the season as this year’s fixture card has been altered to include fixtures against Clifton College, Warwick and Oundle School. The dates are intentionally late and therefore we hope to benefit from a high level of participation.

Swimming and Water Polo. In the first ever home water polo fixture and Abingdon's fourth ever competitive water polo game, Abingdon faced Stowe, their opponents in the first match – a good measure of their progress so far. The U18 reduced a 14-0 defeat to a 5-0 defeat in a competitive and physical match. The U16 team reversed a 6-2 defeat to a 5-0 victory, with a goal from Joe Hogan and four goals from Sam Delo (captain). The teams are looking forward to next season when they will take part in the English Schools' tournament and collaborate with the Oxford University squad.

We have also experienced our first ever ‘inter-house’ swimming gala, a wonderful event, involving 200 boys. There were some superb displays by members of the Abingdon School Swimming Club, but also excellent times recorded by others who have now been invited to join the club. The U18 and U16 Cups were won by Phelps’ House, the U14 Cup by the Lower School.

As we move into the exam season proper and a period of time during which boys will be expected to take even greater responsibility for their own learning, I should like to wish them all well. At such moments I deliberately avoid the adage ‘good luck’, because they should not need it!

Yours sincerely