This week's mailing is:
Letters
- To all parents of third year boys - Third Year Parents' Social Evening
- To all parents of Lower School - Author Event, Wednesday 14 September
Notices
Start of Term
Term begins at 8.35 am next Tuesday 6 September. First year and lower sixth have their induction day on Monday 5 September.
Tuesday 6 September - Sport and PE
Please note that all 1st and 2nd Year boys have a Sports lesson on Tuesday afternoon. It is important that boys bring their sports kit with them to School on this the first day of term. We will be working outdoors and it is therefore important that they bring the appropriate kit.
Open Day for all pupils on Saturday 1 October
All boys will need to be in school for Open Day. The weekday bus schedule will run half an hour later than on normal weekdays.
Term Calendar and Key Dates
For the benefit of new parents, I am repeating an item I sent early in the holiday.
As you will be aware the School is not printing a hard-copy calendar for the next academic year so parents should refer to the online calendar (http://calendar.abingdon.org.uk) which is kept regularly up to date. Each week there will be a link from the Friday Weekly Mailing to the 'The Week Ahead' which you will find on the top right of the weekly mailing page. Any amendments to Michaelmas 2011 events made after today will be indicated clearly. In addition, a new 'Key Dates' page for 2011/12 (Michaelmas 2011 edition) is also available on the website under the calendar tab and directly at www.abingdon.org.uk/key_dates. This page highlights events such as parents' evenings, Head's receptions for current parents, social evenings and evening presentations to parents.
Information for parents - policies
Parents are reminded that Policies are available under the 'Home' menu of the website. They are reviewed and updated from time to time.
Abingdon Parents Prayer Group
Twice a term a group of parents and teachers meets to pray for the boys, staff and life at both schools. Our first meeting of the year will be on Thursday 6 October, 8.00 - 9.15 pm in Avernus (next to the Dining Hall) at Abingdon School. The next meeting will take place at the Prep School on Monday 21 November 8.00 - 9.15 pm in the Library. Refreshments will be provided at both events.
Our social evening this year, with a speaker, will take place on Thursday 9 February at Abingdon School. A meal will be provided by school at a cost of £10 per head and will take place in the Sports Hall Entertainment Suite. This is a great opportunity to meet with the many teachers and parents linked to the group.
Please contact Caroline Haines: ahchwh@btinternet.com or 01235 868946 for more information/maps to venues.
Saturday Bus Service - September 2011
It was very encouraging to receive such positive feedback in relation to our proposed Saturday Bus Service. I can confirm that this Service will be operating on a Saturday, starting on 10 September 2011. Please see the Saturday Bus Service document which identifies the six different bus routes, including the individual stops and the designated times.
We are very keen for as many boys as possible to use this service. It has been set up to ease the burden on parents of getting their sons to School for the inter School fixtures. There is no charge for this service. We have sought to combine as many of the existing bus routes as possible, and we hope that it will make a considerable difference to your planning.
The buses are scheduled to arrive at School at 11.30am, allowing the boys time to have lunch in the Dining Hall, have a brief team meeting, and depart for their fixtures on time. Those boys who are involved in home fixtures will be catered for and supervised until the start of their matches. This service applies to all boys involved in sport on a Saturday afternoon, whether it be in cross country, badminton, rugby or any other sport. If you would like to make any comment, or have any queries in this regard, please contact the Director of Sport and PE on andrew.hall@abingdon.org.uk.
Inter School Fixtures
Abingdon has a strong tradition of participating in inter school fixtures across the age ranges. In recent years we have strengthened our fixture list, and been more ambitious in the schools we have been playing. Boys are expected to be available for matches against other schools unless specific permission has been sought from, and granted, by the Head. Please avoid asking for leave of absence. Any request should be made well in advance, at least one week before the fixture. The Director of Sport and PE should be copied in on any such leave of absence request.
To assist parental planning, the Sport and Physical Education Department will be emailing teamsheets for each of the age groups to parents on a Thursday evening. This will be sent to the primary contact, which we have stored on Schola, our internal database. There are a number of primary contacts, for whom we have not got email addresses attached, and these contacts will therefore not be receiving the email. Please do check this data with the School, so as to ease our paths of communication.
The teamsheets for each age group will also be attached to the online calendar, which can be found at http://calendar.abingdon.org.uk/. By clicking on the appropriate fixture for your son, you will be able to download a teamsheet, which will include all details of match arrangements, as well as contact details of the relevant staff member for each of the teams. It is vitally important that parents contact the appropriate member of staff in cases of illness on a Saturday morning so that replacements can be sought, and to ensure that the buses are not held up, waiting for someone to arrive, who is not going to arrive. Sanctions will be applied to those boys who fail to comply with this request. Parents may also contact the Abingdon School Sports Centre Reception on 01235 849062 in case of any problems arising.
Further information is available on the match fixtures and match arrangements pages.
