Abingdon School in Partnership

The Partnerships team is made up of a group of staff members led by Director of Partnerships, Robin Southwell-Sander. The team is supported by Partnership Coordinator, Jess Burns.

OX14 Learning Partnership is a formal partnership between Abingdon School, John Mason, Fitzharrys, Radley, Larkmead and St Helen’s. There will be events and activities that fall within OX14 Learning Partnership with a focus on the core aims below:

• INSPIRE: To provide opportunities for aspiration and challenge though widening horizons for all stakeholders.
• CHALLENGE: Use extra-curricular activities to develop character, promote cultural engagement and support civic pride.
• SUPPORT: Support the mental health and wellbeing of students, staff and parents using a whole partnership approach.

Through these aims we hope to provide mutually beneficial, sustainable opportunities for students, staff and parents across the town.

Visit the OX14 Learning Partnership website

The Abingdon Science Partnership (ASP) is supported and funded by Abingdon School. The aim of the ASP is to strengthen participation in science in a wide variety of ways across the Abingdon district and beyond. The ASP works with local primary and secondary schools; community groups such as Scouts and Guides and local organisations.

The ASP can offer support for science related events in many different ways including school visits, equipment loans and use of our dedicated and well equipped science teaching laboratory. These facilities are available to all types of school and community groups. Further information.

Subject areas will look to provide opportunities for students within our cluster of schools to collaborate with each other, and with staff, to further their knowledge and deepen the passion for the subject. This includes sixth form Academic Coaching where older students support younger students through the coaching conversation. This helps develop core skills of collaboration, communication and initiative.

In addition, curriculum subjects that fall beyond the areas available in our partner schools such as classics and astronomy are also offered by Abingdon staff to students from across the town, ensuring a broad and rich curriculum for students with a particular interest or passion. Again, this has CPD benefits for our own staff who experience teaching new subject matter to a variety of students.

Developing leaders partnerships provide the opportunity for students within our cluster of schools to take on leadership opportunities and work collaboratively with other students. This may include activities such as Model United Nations, sports coaching, academic coaching, pastoral mentoring and primary school liaison. These opportunities can help develop skills fundamental to future success such as communication, teamwork, public speaking, creativity and initiative. Leadership achievements where appropriate can contribute to accreditation such as the Duke of Edinburgh award.

With growing pressure on our young people, our mental health and wellbeing partnerships focus on a cross partnership approach for prevention and early intervention for mental health related issues. We aim to support students, their families and staff with a range of support. These include webinars, toolkits, training for staff and peer mentoring training for students. Our partnership work gives students and staff the opportunities to share experiences and best practice to help promote positive mental health and wellbeing in the local community. Sixth form students can take part in our flagship Peer Support Lead programme where they will receive training alongside peers from across the town to enable them to support younger students through their school journey.

For information on our mental health and wellbeing provision, and to book, click on the links below:

• Primary schools
• Secondary schools

Our team

Natalie Hunt is the Mental Health & Wellbeing Coordinator for Abingdon School. Having previously taught Drama for 10 years, she developed a strong interest in young people’s mental health and retrained in Youth Mental Health First Aid (England) and Relationships & Sex Education (with Acet UK). She now supports schools in implementing a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing through staff training, parent talks and working with students on a wide range of issues. Most recently she has helped students in years 11-13 to manage their anxiety over exams and strongly believes in the importance of early intervention and prevention of mental ill health. Natalie is a DDSL and supports safeguarding teams in the schools she works in.

Henry Barnes is a teacher of Philosophy and the Head of Yoga at Abingdon School, where he has worked for nine years. Having had a number of mental health battles himself over the years, and having a background in schools from a young age (with his own father having been his headmaster!), Henry is now well placed to support staff and students alike, and is a passionate advocate of self-development and personal betterment. While some argue that an approach to this important area is just reflective of the ‘snowflake’ generations, Henry disagrees profoundly, arguing that building mental health strategies and techniques into our everyday lives will only make us stronger, as well as more resilient, complete and content, people.

Arts Partnership activities at Abingdon began in September 2018 in two areas – filmmaking and playwriting – and there are also plans for Abingdon students to work with their counterparts at partner schools on the staging of a music theatre production.

The Abingdon Film Academy launched in 2019 with filmmaking programmes run by the AFU tutors. Drama collaboration sees Abingdon running the National Theatre’s New Views playwriting scheme in which professional playwrights guide students through the process of creating their own thirty-minute plays for entry into a national competition that offers winners the chance to see their work staged by the National Theatre.

The Oxfordshire Academy for Broadcast Journalism is a new opportunity for students to delve into the world of the media with taster and development sessions in creating a podcast, writing a blog post and learning how to present. This provides a platform for students with a story to tell.

Our Primary Partnerships Lead forges further links between Abingdon School and our surrounding primary schools through the running of various extra curricular activities which include Fun with Languages, an introduction to humanities, business challenge, sports clubs, reading mentors and extra curricular clubs. These activities help develop mutually beneficial partnerships, where primary school students and staff are supported both with academic and extra curricular activities and our own staff experience a completely different teaching environment which supports their CPD. There are also opportunities to promote student leadership with many of our Key Stage 4 and 5 students supporting these primary school activities.