Students are nominated to receive a Head’s Praise for exceptional achievements and contribution to school life.
Headmaster’s Praise – 18 September 2020
18 September 2020
Today 11 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Toby Baker for helping the Abingdon C Rifle Club Team to win their division in the Spring 2020 British Schools’ Smallbore Rifle Association League.
- Ben Broadbent for creating the JBS Coach Departures app.
- Mike MacLennan for writing an excellent essay entry for the Sheffield History prize and he received a letter from the History Department highly commending his essay, one of only two to achieve this accolade. Mike can be immensely proud of his achievement.
- Kipp Mainstone for the hockey first XI final game of the winter season, in which they won the league with a goal scored by Kipp.
- Archie Malcolm for writing a very impressive essay entry for the Sheffield History prize and he was given a special mention for an essay ‘of extremely high quality’. Very well done.
- Alfie Marshall for producing an outstanding life size tonal drawing of his dad over the summer holidays.
- Freddy Martin for helping the Abingdon C Rifle Club Team to win their division in the Spring 2020 British Schools’ Smallbore Rifle Association League.
- Johan Nerlov for winning the Cambridge Vellacott History Essay Prize. This is one of the most competitive pre-graduate essay competitions in the country and I have never had a pupil achieve better than second place in 13 years of teaching, so this is extremely impressive!
- Freddie Nicholson for creating the JBS Coach Departures app and for assisting with running of an ASP workshop for Autism Family Support Oxfordshire during the summer holiday and subsequently spearheading a new, international initiative to update CERN’s ATLAScraft software and to assemble a team of students and researchers to film a virtual tour with a famous YouTube star.
- Will Shorrocks for helping the Abingdon B Rifle Club Team to win their division in the Spring 2020 British Schools’ Smallbore Rifle Association League.
- Jake Wallis for setting up and evaluating Raspberry Pi air quality sensors for ASP’s SCAMPA project funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Jake did this work voluntarily during the summer holiday and collaborated with local and international scientists to provide feedback on the sensor data collected.
Headmaster’s Praise – 26 June 2020
26 June 2020
Today 32 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Billy Backhouse for being an excellent joint editor in chief and leading The Polyglot through many sessions during lockdown.
- Harry Batchelor for a fantastic video and worksheet for Primary Science Club remote activities.
- John Cairns for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done!
- Rory Cameron-Martin for excellent performance and participation in Economics lessons throughout this academic year.
- Ethan Chen for making an outstanding start to his Pre A-level course.
- Freddie Clark for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done!
- Benjamin Crofts for excellent performance and participation in Economics lessons throughout this academic year.
- Harrison Cruikshank for doing lots of extra drawing in a variety of styles and to a great standard.
- Ben Cuthbert for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done!
- Oliver Glover for being consistently excellent all year and setting a good example for all in his set for Biology.
- Thomas Harding for narrating an excellent video tour of a nuclear power station for his 4th Year Physics homework.
- Jakob Hobbs for being an excellent joint editor in chief and leading The Polyglot through many sessions during lockdown and for contributing and helping plan Timeline magazine.
- Lachlan Keene for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done! Lachlan’s parents also matched his distance of 133.5 miles each over the two day challenge.
- James Kilroy for recording himself as a clarinettist laying both the solo and accompaniment to a video of Wiegenlied. Outstanding!
- Philip Kimber for being consistently excellent throughout the year. His report is packed with praise ‘the most able linguist I have ever taught’, ‘one of the brightest I have ever taught’, ‘top mark in the year’. Philip is never boastful, he is quietly amazing.
- Venya Kiraikou for writing and helping plan Timeline.
- Nicholas Ko for achieving a gold award in the Intermediate Biology Olympiad.
- Gavin Lam for taking on leadership of the Abingdon Investment and Trading Club and doing a great job of keeping it going in lockdown.
- Mike MacLennan for excellent performance and participation in Economics lessons throughout this academic year.
- Freddie Merrett for excellent performance and participation in Economics lessons throughout this academic year.
- Rory Mitchell for excellent performance and participation in Economics lessons throughout this academic year.
- Johan Nerlov for editing and writing articles for Timeline.
- Samuel Price for achieving a remarkable 100% in the Latin exam, after a brilliant year’s effort.
- Jack Rickman for achieving a remarkable 100% in the French exam, after a brilliant year’s effort.
- Frank She for starting the Abingdon and Linux Association and leading their Wednesday sessions each week.
- Ollie Sherratt for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done!
- Thomas Sherwood for being short listed (1 of 3) for a national writing competition run by Young Enterprise. Result to be announced.
- Mark Taylor for incredibly in-depth research on the Mayan civilisations for an Archaeology Club Project – Mark has produced a very detailed and comprehensive family tree, a booklet and a timeline of events. Really impressive research.
- Boco To for submitting a lovely recording of Tchaikovsky’s Canzonetta from the Violin Concerto, playing to a backing track provided by his teacher, Mrs Pringle.
- Harry Vinall for taking up the slack on the 2M “Back to School” Challenge and travelling above and beyond the expected average distance, fostering excellent team spirit to achieve the goal and to get the job done!
- Sam Wormald for his great effort on a research project about the Roman fortress of Vindolanda, for Archaeology Club. Sam has made an excellent presentation of his findings.
- Jeroan Yip for achieving a Gold award in the Intermediate Biology Olympiad.
Headmaster’s Praise – 19 June 2020
19 June 2020
Today 20 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Philip Ashton for trying extremely hard in art, he also comes to clubs and does extra work outside lessons.
- Ben Broadbent for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Josh Bromley for making a brilliant booklet about his local church in South Leigh for Archaeology Club – it’s a really impressive piece of research, almost professional standard. He’s put a huge amount of time and effort in. Josh has also excelled himself all year in his approach to Biology. Every piece of work submitted reflects excellent care, understanding and attention to detail.
- Alexander Bryant for excellent and consistent effort in Chinese throughout the whole year. Alex has made significant progress.
- Nick Case for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Ethan Chen for making an outstanding start to his Pre A-level course.
- Tristan Clark Lam for being motivated and skillful, he has come to extra clubs and attended weekend activities. Consistently high achieving over the year.
- Mark Hanlon for submitting a fantastic video clip of himself playing the harp, which demonstrated the outstanding progress that he has made since starting harp lessons less that six months ago.
- Matthew Jones for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Lachlan Keene for being very motivated and skillful, he has come to extra clubs and attended weekend activities. Consistently high achieving over the year.
- Ben Lisemore for creating his own boardgame under lockdown – covid-opoly.
- Gus Nelmes for consistently outstanding art work produced during remote learning
- Alex Oldham for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Luke Ramsden for being very motivated and skillful, he has come to extra clubs and attended weekend activities. Consistently high achieving over the year.
- Finnbar Scott for consistently producing excellent work and doing extra art out of lessons.
- Ed Spackman for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Matthew Stone for consistently producing excellent work and doing extra art out of lessons
- Luc Tucker for making an outstanding start to his Pre A-level course.
- Jake Wallis for producing a canoe polo coaching handbook in other half sessions.
- Sam Wormald for doing such a lot of work at Collage Club this term. He has been highly motivated and has taken lots of brilliant photos of him working and the quality of his outcomes are amazing.
Headmaster’s Praise – 12 June 2020
12 June 2020
Today 13 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Philip Ashton for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Oliver Clark for excellent work on writing a short play.
- Mark Hanlon for submitting a fantastic video clip of himself playing the harp, which demonstrated the outstanding progress that he has made since starting harp lessons less that six months ago.
- David Hrushovski for the joint best entry in Physics Tracker video challenge, tracking and calculating the momentum of his dog.
- Alexandre Peuch for preparing an excellent Primary Science Club activity worksheet.
- Samuel Price for an excellent start to adapting His Dark Materials into a comic book with speech bubbles in English and German. He has also designed the new “Be More Griffen” logo for use in Lower School from September.
- Sam Siriwardene for outstanding work on a performance of a diary entry.
- Ted Smethurst for submitting an excellent final draft of an original play to the National Theatre’s New Views playwriting scheme, prompting highly complimentary feedback from the NT’s professional writing tutor.
- Luc Tucker for receiving superb feedback from his pre-A Level subject teachers and taking remote learning, and the uncertainty of the last few months, in his stride.
- Jake Wallis for preparing an excellent Primary Science Club activity worksheet.
- Harrison Walton for the joint best entry in Physics Tracker video challenge, tracking and calculating the velocity of his RC car.
- Harry Watkins for the best sporting highlights video submission in the first half of term, showing Harry swimming, running, rowing, cycling and weight training.
- Jayden Zamler for running 200km in May for NHS charities.
Headmaster’s Praise – 5 June 2020
5 June 2020
Today 19 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Oscar Bennett for throwing himself into work on the family farm during lockdown. Including planting crops, manning the family market stall at East Oxford, working on fulfilling the massively increased orders for veg boxes and helping his mother to improve her online workflow to cope with the increased demand. He has done this along with doing his best on his academic work and rising to the challenge of house/tutor challenges. He has also been working on the farm blog.
- Nelson Chan for writing a letter to his MP on the problems and solutions for fast fashion, as part of a unit of work on the impacts of the fashion industry.
- William Darbishire for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Sean Hanlon for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- James Kilroy for writing a letter to his MP on the problems and solutions for fast fashion, as part of a unit of work on the impacts of the fashion industry.
- Oskar Muller for running a full marathon during lockdown.
- Daniel Phillips for doing very creative things without direction and to a very good standard.
- Samuel Price for consistently excellent & creative work in art lessons, art other half & independently in producing a graphic novel inspired by ‘Northern Lights’.
- Arthur Robertson for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Nathan Shestopal for creating a podcast (in English and German) about lockdown life, to teach other young people about a language.
- Leo Shipley for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Sam Siriwardene for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Henry Tattersall for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Fran Trotter for setting himself the very highest standards all the time and consistently outstanding work in Greek, which is becoming ever more accurate and impressive. No one (apart from his brother) can match him on his knowledge of vocabulary and accidence in particular.
- Louis Trotter for setting himself the very highest standards all the time and consistently outstanding work in Greek, which is becoming ever more accurate and impressive. No one (apart from his brother) can match him on his knowledge of vocabulary and accidence in particular.
- Harry Vinall for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Ben Wallis-Smith for completing 21 of the “35 Things To Do Away From Your Screen” …. an amazing effort in just 9 days and all ratified by his father’s e-mail with descriptions on how he achieved each one.
- Harry Wildgoose for having his poem chosen for publication in the Oxfordshire Libraries ebook Poem Competition.
- Sam Wormald for creating a presentation about his family in German as a voluntary project.
Headmaster’s Praise – 22 May 2020
22 May 2020
Today seven boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Jai Biswas Gladwin for producing the first remote learning resource for Primary Science Club and keeping the mission of the Science Ambassadors alive in times of adversity.
- Oliver Glover for trying really hard in art with limited materials and taking professional standard photos.
- Leon Guan for consistently trying really hard in art and working to a high standard.
- Oliver Millbourn for making excellent progress with his AFU documentary about the impact of multiple sclerosis on a member of his family. Oli has nearly completed his film after a number of marathon editing sessions, and it promises to be a powerful piece about the importance of kindness, especially in adversity.
- Johan Nerlov for taking control of Timeline editorial whilst school is on lockdown – commissioning articles and collecting them.
- Jack Rickman for working really hard and producing some superb English work during remote learning. He has consistently gone above and beyond my expectations.
- Chester Shen for working independently during lockdown and producing work of a high standard
Headmaster’s Praise – 15 May 2020
15 May 2020
Today 13 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- John Bonchristiano for his fabulous final, end of iGCSE Course video: an interesting answer to an interesting question.
- Benjamin Broadbent has now made more than 600 PPE masks, that have been distributed to care homes and recently to hospitals, but today he missed registration because his mom’s school IT specialist has gone down sick and he was asked to help out. He just has that “can do”Heffernan attitude.
- Rohan Chandrasekaran for producing simply superb work all year, even during this remote learning period. His contributions in lessons, assessments and his notes not only demonstrate his extremely sophisticated understanding but they have also benefitted the entire class.
- Oliver Clark for making excellent progress with his AFU documentary about his world record breaking windsurfer uncle, who has overcome the challenges of a debilitating kidney condition in order to pursue the sport he loves. Oli has made tremendous progress on his film and is now very nearly finished.
- Laurie Clark for winning the Crescent House Lego MOC competition.
- Alex Heffernan currently holds the “yellow jersey” as the points race leader in the boat club for 3rd year. The boys accrue points for training and activities they are doing each day during lockdown. Alex is unique in this in that not only does he lead the 3rd year standing but he also leads the boat club overall having scored more training points than even the Senior Boys. Alex has also made excellent progress with his AFU documentary film project about the scandal of illegal pollution of rivers by water companies. Rarely have the AFU tutors encountered a student of equivalent age with such a passion for an environmental issue. He has very nearly completed his film, and it promises to be a powerful and thought-provoking piece.
- Alexander Lees for making excellent progress with his AFU documentary film project about The Watermill Theatre in Newbury. Provisionally entitled “A Love Letter to the Watermill”, and with the bulk of the footage shot over Christmas and the New Year it has of course taken a new poignancy and resonance in the light of the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on theatres and entertainment venues. It promises to be a very affecting piece.
- Harry Litchfield for making excellent progress with his AFU documentary about midwifery in Uganda despite the challenges of lockdown. These saw him having to cancel a planned trip to Uganda over Easter to film. Undaunted, Harry has contacted his subjects in Uganda, and arranged for them to send in mobile phone footage, and to use Zoom to record interviews.
- Oliver Millbourn for making excellent progress with his AFU documentary about the impact of multiple sclerosis on a member of his family. Oli has nearly completed his film after a number of marathon editing sessions, and it promises to be a powerful piece about the importance of kindness, especially in adversity.
- Harry Nye for winning the Boarders’ Online Quiz.
- Luka Shanidze for his fabulous final, end of iGCSE Course video: an interesting answer to an interesting question.
- Ted Smethurst for his fabulous final, end of iGCSE Course video: an interesting answer to an interesting question.
- Isaac Tan for his fabulous final, end of iGCSE Course video: an interesting answer to an interesting question.
Headmaster’s Praise – 7 May 2020
7 May 2020
Today 13 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Philip Ashton for being an absolute super star and a guinea pig for the LS art activities. He really helped to get the video working for all.
- Euan Baldwin for the interview he conducted with a physicist at Oxford University to gather information for his EPQ project. His approach was mature, well thought out and sensitive to the personal opinions and privacy of the subject. He followed up with a thank you email and a transcript of his notes for the subject without any prompting to do so.
- Sam Carter for making a special effort for tutor period last week creating an NHS poster with an O’doherty’s theme. Sam spent two hours making his poster out of Hama beads.
- Noah Chakravarti for producing information on behalf of the eco-committee about what we can all be doing to help the environment during lockdown, which demonstrated a lot of thought and has given everyone something additional to focus on during this difficult time.
- Jacob Drew for producing information on behalf of the eco-committee about what we can all be doing to help the environment during lockdown, which demonstrated a lot of thought and has given everyone something additional to focus on during this difficult time.
- Jonathan Evans for writing a superb article for the History and Politics Society magazine, on whether Donald Trump should be removed from office, that will go to publication this term.
- Sam Gething for producing an absolutely magnificent video of the 1st XI rugby season/game against Radley. He spent a considerable amount of time and effort on it and it has ben appreciated a huge amount by his peers and staff members.
- Samuel King for being the Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term.
- King Ko for his extended analysis of his 4th Year Physics Momentum and Impacts Challenge project showing effective investigation of different methods for preventing a ball from bouncing on a hard surface.
- Oliver Glover for recording and sending to his teacher a beautiful oboe performance of Morricone’s “Gabriel’s Oboe”, the sound track for the film The Mission, in response to a solo oboe competition challenge.
- Ruairi Tilley for writing a superb article on Norse Mythology for the History and Politics Society magazine this term.
- Kevin Yuan for his excellet work ethic and self-drive over the Easter break and into the start of this term, with lots of effective revision completed and submitted for review.
- Charles Maddison for winning the runner-up prize in Lancaster University Modern Languages Creative Project Prize – learning languages to build bridges.
Headmaster’s Praise – 1 May 2020
1 May 2020
Today 14 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Rory Bishop for being Deputy Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term. Also for his work on design.
- Josh Bromley for outstanding variety, detail and content in his PE Personal Activity Log.
- Lachlan Jones for being Features Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term.
- Philip Kimber for an outstanding Oliver Twist essay completed in chaotic circumstances at the end of term. Philip’s writing is well beyond the standard I would expect of Third Year. He has also received full marks in every assessment this year so far.
- Samuel King for being Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term.
- Ben Lisemore for being Sports Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term.
- Freddie Merrett for an outstanding virtual assembly on his half term community charity work in Kenya. A very detailed, personal and thoughtful account with messages transferred to the situation we are in now.
- Pranit Narain as winner of the Great Abingdon MFL Easter Challenge.
- Johan Nerlov for being News Editor of The Martlet – for putting together a terrific edition of the Martlet at the end of last term and for stepping up and helping manage the remote working of The Martlet this term.
- Sam Penrose for being Chief Designer of The Martlet – for being utterly reliable and always rising to the challenge of putting The Martlet together. He has now added writing for the paper to his contribution and his article on organ donation was excellent.
- Oliver Sherratt for being joint runner-up in the Lower School Holiday Challenge.
- Harry Stephens for winning the Crescent House Virtual Road Relay, completing the 2.6km in 17:03.
- Finn Walsh for being joint runner-up in the Lower School Holiday Challenge.
- Sam Wormald for being overall winner of the Lower School Holiday Challenge, completing all 9 tasks to a very high standard.
Headmaster’s Praise – 24 April 2020
24 April 2020
Today 27 boys received Headmaster’s praise:
- Francesco Bartolini for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- David Bicarregui for a terrific performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 2 which was recorded with First Orchestra in lieu of the Spring Concert performance that had been scheduled for that same evening but had been cancelled. It was great to have been able to share that performance with the school community on the website.
- Joe Bradley for a terrific performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto which was recorded with First Orchestra in lieu of the Spring Concert performance that had been scheduled for that same evening but had been cancelled. It was great to have been able to share that performance with the school community on the website.
- Ben Broadbent for manufacturing 3D printed PPE for NHS workers as part of the Crowd3d group initially, but then crowd funded his own activity and is almost up at £1000 to cover the cost of material.
- Oliver Bury for voluntarily spending the Easter break researching and writing an essay on his Great Great Grandfather who was an OA, and who fought in the First World War.
- Nelson Chan for writing an outstanding diary account of the Syrian migrant crisis which uses GIS to tell a story of why migrants are fleeing Syria and heading to Europe.
- William Darbishire for winning the Great Abingdon Language Challenge. He managed to cover 993 lessons of German, showing incredible dedication and application.
- Jake de Jongh for an amazing contribution and versatility, appearing on three different instruments on the remote recording project that appeared on the school website over the holidays! On the same track Jake played guitar, trumpet and clarinet!
- Charlie Franklin for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- Rohan Gathani for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- James Gibson for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- James Henderson for being awarded joint highest number of commendations (31) in the first year in the Lent Term.
- Lachlan Keene for being awarded the highest number of commendations (30) in the second year in the Lent Term.
- Philip Kimber for his huge efforts all year in producing excellent Quizlets for the Latin set to use to test themselves on vocab and derivations.
- Shi Hong Kuang for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- Dhruv Lakhani for being awarded joint highest number of commendations (31) in the first year in the Lent Term.
- Toby Lee for manufacturing 3D printed PPE for NHS workers as part of the Crowd3d group.
- Dilan Mandalia for working with the key worker children in the holidays, being very patient and kind with them, joining in and helping with activities designed for them. Several teachers from the Prep School have commented what a help he has been.
- Tristan Mann Powter for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- Zebedee Marsh for using time in the Easter break to enhance his university application for next year by completing a MOOC in AI from the University of Helsinki and planning to do another one on web programming from Harvard.
- Alfie Marshall for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- Freddie Merrett for an outstanding virtual assembly on his half term community charity work in Kenya. A very detailed, personal and thoughtful account with messages transferred to the situation we are in now.
- Freddie Nicholson for entering Primary Science Club teams in the Fluor Corporation Cricket Wicket Engineering Challenge resulting in a team from Rush Common Primary winning $1000 for Primary Science Club. For manufacturing laser cut PPE face shields for the JR Hospital. For winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge and for creating the most incredible ‘egg challenge simulator’ following a Maths Enrichment problem.
- Toby Pinnington for his huge efforts all year in producing excellent rival Quizlets for the Latin set to use to test themselves on vocab!
- Nicholas Raptakis for making the most amazing and funny video showing his determination, and eventual success, in the O’Doherty’s House teabag challenge over Easter.
- Ben Reed for winning first prize in the Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge.
- Harry Watkins for manufacturing 3D printed PPE for NHS workers as part of the Crowd3d group.
