Head’s Letters

Thursday 5 June 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed the half term break and were able to spend time with friends and family.

Our Year 7 and 8 pupils have been working hard all week with their exams and I know they are looking forward to finishing tomorrow. Next week sees them off timetable to pull together their musical, ‘The Lion King JR.’, with the performance on Thursday evening at The Amey Theatre at Abingdon School. If you have not yet bought tickets for the show and would like to come, there are still a few seats available for anyone who would like to watch it, no matter which year group your child is in. It should be a fantastically entertaining evening if the brief snippets that I have seen being rehearsed are anything to go by.

Friday morning sees our poetry recital competition for Years 3-6 taking place. I know that the form and English teachers have had a very tricky time deciding on who to put through to the finals with the standard being so high once again. I am very much looking forward to hearing the children deliver their poems, with a range of themes including family, comedy and the environment.

On Wednesday we were visited by two of the Nasio Trust’s representatives who delivered an inspiring assembly to our pupils about the children that the school sponsors in Kenya. It was great to hear about how they were getting on at school in Kenya and also to hear about the book that our Year 4 pupils have written stories for. These have now been published alongside those of their Kenyan counterparts.

Congratulations to our four Year 5 and 6 cricket teams who performed admirably on Wednesday coming away with a clean sweep of wins against Hatherop Castle. Our B team were especially impressive with some tight bowling and swift running between the wickets. Our senior tennis team thoroughly enjoyed their matches this week and our U11 tennis team are also in action later today. Swimming finishes off our sporting calendar for the week tomorrow with the Year 7 and 8 house swimming gala taking place at Abingdon School.

Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to all of the children, parents and staff who came along to our sponsored swim on the last Sunday of half term. We welcomed 32 children and their parents, who were counting lengths, alongside Hannah, a 17 year old medal winner in the pool from the recent Down’s Syndrome Olympics, who not only swam lengths alongside our pupils but also brought along her medal to show them. So far we have raised an incredible £3000 for our school charity, Down’s Syndrome Oxford. Thank you to all those who have generously sponsored the children to enable us to raise such a great sum of money.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 22 May 2025

Dear Parents

It seems hard to believe that we have almost reached the half term break. The children have accomplished so much already and congratulations to our Year 3-6 pupils who have successfully completed their assessments this week.

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on some upcoming staff changes for September. We will be very sad to see Roger Owen leave Abingdon Prep at the end of this term to take up an exciting new teaching role at Radley College. I know you will join with me in wishing him all the very best in his new endeavour and thank him for all his work with our pupils over the past 11 years. Charles Newbury will be taking up the role of Head of History alongside his Deputy Head Academic post.

Rebecca Robinson-Slater, an experienced primary school teacher across Key Stage 2, will be joining us from a primary school in Newbury as maternity cover for Danielle Campbell. Rebecca loves teaching all the core subjects and is really excited to contribute to our Other Half programme as well.

We will be welcoming Aimee Whitehouse back into our Pre-Prep in September after her maternity leave. I know that you will also want to congratulate Rachael Freese, our Acting Head of Pre-Prep, and her husband, on their exciting news that they are expecting their first child later this year.

Year 7 and 8 are taking part in our public speaking competition tomorrow morning and it will be terrific to hear them putting forward their arguments across a wide range of topics, in front of the other pupils. It is a wonderful skill to be developing at such a young age and I am always delighted to see so many pupils attending the lunchtime debating club every week.

House meetings took place today which were based around the theme of playground games. Mixed year groups played games like French cricket and foursquare and I know that the children thoroughly enjoyed the chance to play with children they do not normally get to play with at break times.

Cricket fixtures this week were sadly rain affected for the first time this season. Despite starting on Wednesday, all the away matches were rained off, but we did play all of our home matches, with the highlight being a 2nd XI victory after scoring an impressive 144 – 1 off 20 overs. Good luck to our 1st XI who travel to Millfield Prep today for the second round of the IAPS National Knockout, and also to our U8 and U9 teams playing this afternoon.

Our first swimming gala of term takes place tomorrow at Abingdon School for all of our Year 5 and 6 pupils. I know that they are looking forward to competing against their friends and earning points for their respective houses.

Finally, huge congratulations to Arthur in Year 8 who performed brilliantly in the IAPS National Triathlon finals in Bath last weekend, finishing on the podium in an incredibly impressive 3rd place.

I hope that you and your children have a wonderful half term holiday when it arrives.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 15 May 2025

Dear Parents

The sun has continued to shine this week at school with the pupils enjoying their break times in the beautiful weather.

The children in Years 3-6 have been working exceptionally hard at the start of their assessment weeks. A mix of computerised tests and exams are taking place and it is great for our younger children to get used to the process of assessments, becoming more comfortable with them every time they undertake similar tests.

It was lovely to welcome so many of you into school on Tuesday evening for our Artsweek exhibition, showcasing the childrens’ Art, DT and even Drama. Every child in school had their work on display and it was amazing to see such incredible creativity in so many different areas of the arts.

Consent workshops took place for our Year 7&8 pupils with the Head of Wellbeing at Abingdon School delivering thoughtful and informative sessions to the children. It was great to see our pupils so engaged in the topic and prepared to ask and answer questions throughout the session.

On Wednesday, our Year 1s and Year 3s had a wonderful talk from a Thames Valley Police Community Support Officer, telling them all about the work that the police do to keep everyone safe. The children came up with some brilliant questions too and I think a few of them may add police officer to their possible list of future careers!

At the start of the week, we undertook our first ever strategy games fixture against MCS with Chess, Abalone and Quoridor taking centre stage. It involved pupils from Year 4 to Year 7 and they performed extremely well in all the games and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Cricket, tennis and athletics fixtures all took place this week, with 2 terrific wins on the cricket pitch for our 1st XI and 2nd XI against our friends at Abingdon School, alongside a first win of the season for our U11A team too. Our U8s continue to show great potential for the future with their cricketing skills coming along strongly.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend when it arrives.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 8 May 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that everyone enjoyed the long bank holiday weekend.

The children have been working hard this week and it is great to hear from many of them about the revision they have been doing in the lead up to their assessment weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed popping into a number of lessons earlier today and was impressed by what I saw them working on.

In a Year 8 PSHCE lesson, the children were discussing what the role of a Peer in the House of Lords was, as opposed to an MP in the House of Commons, and how these two groups of politicians work to ensure that the government of the day is held to account and new laws are debated and approved or otherwise. They also discussed the purpose of local MP surgeries and how Prime Minister’s Questions works. It was great to see them showing such an interest in how the country is run.

Year 4 were creating their own 13th Labour of Hercules, starting with a storyboard setting out their plot, focusing on the characteristics of Hercules, such as determination, strength and willpower, leading to a well thought through moral of the story at the end. There were some extremely interesting mythical creatures that were featured in their storylines too!

Reception have been incredibly busy this week learning all about shapes. They were able to tell me all about rectangles, triangles, circles, squares and even what a parallelogram was! In Art this week they have been creating collages based on Henri Rousseau’s ‘Tiger in a tropical storm’ and I am very much looking forward to seeing their finished pieces which they have thoroughly enjoyed making.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week the children have been throwing themselves into our ‘Think Big About Science’ activities. They were asked to think about the question: What makes people who they are? Our Year 5s were having a fascinating debate about ‘Nature vs Nurture’ and coming up with examples of when one might have a stronger role in the outcome of someone’s abilities. Overall, they felt that nurture was likely to be a stronger determinant of future success than nature.

This week we have put out 14 cricket teams to get the season off to a flying start against Cheam and Moulsford. Our Year 3 children showed some great potential with both bat and ball and our 1st XI produced the result of the day with an enthralling tie, taking a wicket off the final ball of the match to achieve the result.

Good luck to our U13 and U12 cricketers who are playing in matches this weekend, with our U13s joining their counterparts at Abingdon School for joint foundation fixtures.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 1 May 2025

Dear Parents

I cannot remember a year when we went to shirt sleeve order before the end of April but it has been brilliant to have such warm and settled weather at the start of this term. The children are certainly making the most of their break times outside and enjoying the sunshine.

Our Year 7s returned safely from France late on Monday evening and have not stopped talking about the activities they tried and how much they enjoyed their time away. Year 6 departed yesterday for their Bushcraft residential and I know that they too will be thoroughly enjoying developing their outdoor learning skills and teamwork.

The cricket season began this week with a fantastic victory for our 1st XI against Sunningdale in the IAPS National Cup competition, and the first half century of the term being scored by our captain. Our U10 teams also enjoyed their first match of the season against Chandlings, showing great promise with their bowling but with work to do to further develop their batting.

In the classroom this week, I really enjoyed seeing our Year 7s working through some tricky Ordnance Survey map work questions about Edinburgh, whilst our Year 5s were thoroughly engrossed in the 5 minute story starters, with some lovely expressive language grabbing the reader’s attention straight away.

Year 2 have been working hard to produce a piece of persuasive writing, using rhetorical questions, alongside expressive and persuasive language, based around the book ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes. It was lovely to see how engaged they were with the task and the story in general.

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for all the very kind comments and messages following on from the announcement on Monday about me moving on to Wrekin Prep in January. We truly have a wonderful community here at APS and my family and I are very grateful to have spent 8 years in such a special place.

I hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend ahead and I look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 24 April 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed the Easter break and made good use of the lovely weather that we were treated to in the holidays. I have very much enjoyed hearing from the children about their holidays and all of the exciting things they got up to.

It has been lovely to welcome all of our pupils back into school this week after a very enjoyable day of staff inset training where we learnt more about how AI can support teachers and children at school, and I know that a number of staff will be utilising some of these techniques to support their lesson and resource preparation. I myself used it to help produce this week’s assembly which was based on the theme of time management and the importance of sleep.

As always at Abingdon Prep, we have started the term at full speed with our Year 7s travelling to France this morning for their residential trip. I know they will have a fantastic time abroad undertaking activities and trying to improve their spoken French.

Elsewhere in school, Year 2 were straight back into their Maths work with a hands on lesson weighing and measuring, making predictions and recording their results in table form. Year 1 went straight into some creative writing, impressing with their descriptions of hummingbirds.

Year 3 are off exploring Coleshill today for their ‘Secrets and Spies’ field trip, working out ciphers and journeying through hidden bunkers to help them crack codes.

Class pairings took place this morning with paired reading and it was great to see the younger children reading to their older peers with such enthusiasm and being encouraged and supported by them so well. Books are such a wonderful way to help develop a child’s imagination and such a key part of school life in general.

Cricket, tennis and athletics take centre stage this term on the sports field and it was great to see so many of our pupils enthusiastically bowling, fielding and batting at our pre-season training and first games sessions of term. As a cricket fanatic myself, I am very much looking forward to the matches ahead and watching the children developing their skills in the weeks ahead.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead and good luck to our senior tennis teams who are competing in their first tournament of the term on Saturday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 27 March 2025

Dear Parents

We are coming to the end of another hugely enjoyable term and the children have excelled in so many different areas of the curriculum, whilst at the same time having a great deal of fun!

It has been lovely to see the children enjoying their Easter egg hunts this week. Thank you to all of you who so kindly donated Easter eggs for the children to hunt for. I doubt too many of the eggs made it home though!

The whole school was out on Wednesday afternoon participating in the House Cross Country competition. It is a real highlight of our sporting calendar, seeing everyone giving their all and cheering on those who are coming in at the back of the field just as loudly as those who are winning. We have a proud tradition of great cross country runners at APS and this year did not disappoint with some terrific runs from children across all year groups. Huge thanks to all of you who were able to attend and cheer on our runners in the beautiful sunshine.

Our Under 8 and 9 footballers completed their season on Tuesday with some round robin matches against Hatherop Castle. Their performances over the season have got stronger and stronger and they can be proud of their final week victories and the improvement to their footballing skills over the course of the term.

Good luck to our senior section pupils tonight who are performing in their concert. It is a genuine musical highlight of our calendar with choral singing alongside ensembles and solo performances. There will even be a sneak preview of the opening number from ‘The Lion King’, our Year 7&8 musical for the summer term.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and the children enjoy a well deserved rest. Many of the children have excitedly told me about their upcoming holiday destinations and I hope that if you are travelling at home, or abroad, you stay safe and have a Happy Easter.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 20 March 2025

Dear Parents

We are very much looking forward to welcoming lots of local families to school on Saturday morning for our Easter Eggstravaganza. Hopefully the weather will be kind and the children can enjoy searching for eggs, following the trail and taking part in a range of activities. The Easter Bunny, we are hoping, might even find time to make an appearance too.

Year 8 were treated to a fantastic talk from a local eco builder on Wednesday morning who gave them a great insight into how homes can be built sustainably as we aim, as a country, to move towards net zero by 2050. The children were enormously engaged and asked some impressive questions. We have some very astute and environmentally aware pupils at APS.

I was delighted to be asked to judge the Science competition submissions this week and I could not have been more impressed with the wide range of topics covered on the theme of ‘Change’. There were models, 3D printed figurines, posters and billboards, and the standard was amazing, right from Reception to Year 7. We certainly have some very keen scientists in the making.

Our final football and hockey matches of the season took place this week, with some impressive performances to round off the term. Highlights were the one goal wins from the U13C and U11C football teams, alongside the 1st VII hockey team beating both Pinewood and Cothill in their triangular. Our U8s and U9s also performed extremely well in their final games at their respective St Hugh’s tournaments. It has been great to witness the improvement in performances of all teams over the course of this term.

Finally, I hope that all our middle section parents will enjoy the spring concert tonight. The children have been rehearsing their performances and are sounding great.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to our Silver Coin Trail event on Friday, where we will be raising money for our school charity, Down’s Syndrome Oxford.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead and I look forward to seeing some of you at the Easter Egg Trail on Saturday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 13 March 2025

Dear Parents

The drop in temperature this week came as rather a shock after the beautiful sunshine of last week, but it has not stopped our children from throwing themselves into another busy week of school.

It is Science Week this week and on Monday our Year 7 and 8 pupils were involved in forensic science workshops at school. They had to process a series of crime scene details, from fingerprints to blood smears and then take their findings to present in a court prosecution. They had a great time doing this and learnt a huge amount about both CSI and the law. Reception started off Science Week by creating their own animal adaptations suited to different environments, whilst Year 1 were outside in the woods on the trail of caterpillars. Today, Year 2 are working with our Year 8s in a joint experiment to see what materials can, or cannot, be flushed into the sewers, and how each of the different materials breaks up.

Tuesday saw our U8s and U9s perform strongly in their football tournament at Oratory Prep and it was lovely to see such happy children when they returned, eager to tell me about their exciting matches and how well they had played. Three U11 teams and one senior team played in some equally exciting matches on Wednesday, coming away with 2 wins and 2 losses, with some impressive football on display from all the teams.

On Wednesday, our Year 3, 4 and 5 pupils took part in a workshop on road safety. It was wonderful to see how much they already knew about this but there were some really important points raised which will hopefully stay with them for life, to help keep themselves and others safe when using the road as pedestrian, cyclist or one day, driver!

Today, our Year 6s are at Hill End Outdoor Education centre for their Maps and Trails day. They will be undertaking a series of tasks, using their Ordnance Survey map skills developed in class, to navigate their way around the trails, strengthening not only their geographical skills but also their ability to work as a team.

We also had a brilliant assembly this morning looking at the theme of scientific and technological change and seeing pictures of the very earliest toasters, dishwashers and microwaves, which were unrecognisable from what we know them as today.

A real highlight this week was listening to the joint foundation choir performing in Abingdon School’s Chapel. It was a lovely service of thanksgiving with our APS pupils singing alongside the AS pupils. It was also great to welcome so many parents to the service too.

I have linked a podcast from Mr Windsor about co-education in case you would like to listen to it.

Good luck to our U8 footballers for their tournament on Saturday morning and I hope you all have a good weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 6 March 2025

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many parents and pupils to the Young Art Abingdon exhibition held in the Pavilion at Abingdon School yesterday evening. There were over 70 pieces of the children’s work on display, on the theme of Community. The quality of the children’s art, from Reception to Year 8, never ceases to amaze me.

I was delighted to witness the hugely mature and impressive contributions from the children involved in our respectful language workshops this week, led brilliantly by the Foundation’s Mental Health & Wellbeing Coordinator, Natalie Hunt. They discussed a number of issues and absorbed key messages about the importance of always using respectful language.

We welcomed five of our Abingdon Foundation Governors into school on Wednesday for the second of our Governor visit days. They thoroughly enjoyed observing the children in lessons and were even asked to take part in some of the activities as well. I know they really enjoyed seeing our children and teachers in action.

There were some fantastic football fixtures this week against Moulsford, with all of our Year 5 to 8 pupils again representing the school. Highlights were our 2nd XI victory, scoring 6 goals in the process, alongside a pulsating 4-4 draw for our 4th XI and a 3-3 draw for our Colts A team. It was great to see the children from both schools playing the matches in such a great spirit.

I must also mention the fantastic effort from our cross-country runners last weekend, with our senior team coming 14th in the whole country on Saturday at the English Schools National finals and then, just a day later, competing in the Prep Schools National Championships at Malvern, where they secured a quite brilliant 2nd place, with Monkton in 1st and Millfield in 3rd. They should be incredibly proud of their efforts, as should our U11 team who competed admirably at Malvern as well. Good luck also to our swimmers who are competing in the regional IAPS qualifiers this afternoon. A busy week of sport!

A brilliant set of Earth Sciences workshops took place this week for our Year 3 to 5 pupils. They were enormously enjoyable, with the children studying different rock types and learning a huge amount on how the Earth works and the unbelievable forces required to create such an amazing planet.

Our Year 5 pupils are on an educational visit tomorrow at the Oxford Museums, participating in workshops about the Mayan Civilisation, and then moving on to look at evolution and the work of Charles Darwin. Trips and workshops play a huge part in supporting the children’s learning and further enhancing their understanding of the material they are studying by truly bringing it to life.

A group of Year 7 and 8 pupils took part in a geography quiz at Magdalen College School on Tuesday after school. The questions were particularly tricky but the children acquitted themselves extremely well, even winning one of the rounds, showing off some impressive geographical knowledge.

Our Year 8 academic scholarship group completed their week of exams and we are very proud of all of their efforts in the lead up to these extremely taxing exams.

Finally, a huge thank you to all of you who helped put together your children’s World Book Day costumes. They looked terrific and it was great to spend so much time discussing books with them and why they had chosen those particular characters. Reading is so integral to a child’s learning and development and it is refreshing to see how much our children love spending time with a good book. Our Year 7 and 8 pupils had an inspiring talk from author Nathanael Lessore across at The Amey Theatre, alongside their Abingdon School counterparts. His books include ‘Steady For This’, a heartwarming and very funny book about a wannabe rapper MC Growls.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head