Head’s Letters

Thursday 29 September 2022

Dear Parents

I was very lucky to witness a quite amazing presentation to senior section children this week from a very talented young man, Micah Hayns, who is an ex-Abingdon pupil who now has his own art gallery in Oxford. He is 24 years old and spoke so passionately about his journey from the age of 12 to become an artist. It was an inspirational talk and it was breathtaking to see some of the art work he has produced, in both portraiture with a modern twist and also the natural world. If you get the chance to visit his new gallery in Cowley (a brand new venture after moving out from his central Oxford location), then I would absolutely seize that chance and see some of his work for yourself.

Our official grand opening of the new building last Friday was a great success. It was lovely to welcome governors, class reps, support staff and other key foundation staff alongside the children to help us celebrate the occasion and the children are really settling into their new surroundings.

This week has been a busy one for trips. Year 1 visited Hill End for some outdoor adventure, teamwork and forest school activities. They learned how to start fires with flints and cooked smores over the fire too. They came back full of stories of their trip away. Our Year 8s went to the Natural History Museum in Oxford for a combined art and science trip. The hissing cockroaches were a real hit! Tomorrow sees our Year 5s and 7s attending a talk at Abingdon School from the weather forecaster and presenter, Liam Dutton from Channel 4 nightly news. It ties in very well with their topics of study and is a great way to make the topic and their learning even more memorable.

Rugby this week sees our Year 3s play their first ever match today and the Year 4s also kick off their season with a match against Christ Church. Our Year 7s and 8s took on Abingdon School and performed admirably coming away with honours even – 2 wins and 2 losses.

This weekend sees our first art workshop of the year take place, where some of our senior section children will be designing and screen printing a skateboard deck. I know there is great excitement from those attending and I cannot wait to see the finished products, although my skateboarding skills, or complete lack of them, will not be on show!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Thursday 22 September 2022

Dear Parents

It was fascinating to hear from many of the children this week about how they spent Monday watching the Queen’s funeral. The pomp and ceremony of the occasion really seems to have piqued the children’s interest and generated a lot of conversation amongst them at break times.

In the classroom this week, I have enjoyed watching the children in a range of lessons. In Science, Year 7 were studying forces, producing graphs from the data collected whilst our Year 6 pupils were outside in the new auditorium area giving their prepared introductory speeches of welcome to the author, Beverley Naidoo, whose work they have been studying. English, drama and public speaking all rolled into one!

I wanted to thank our Year 7s for acting as guides at our Open Morning on Wednesday this week. They were great ambassadors for the school and enjoyed the chance to tell our visitors about life at Abingdon Prep. We are very much looking forward to our next open morning in November.

Our cross country season got underway this week with three teams of U12 / U13s competing in the Abingdon School relays. Our pupils performed admirably with our A team winning the competition, whilst our C team came 5th and B team 6th. It was a great start to the season and the children enjoyed getting back into competitive races.

Rugby matches saw all the pupils in Year 5 and 6 competing against Beachborough and honours were pretty much even across the 7 matches. Highlights came from the U10 Cs who produced a fantastic performance to come away with a hard fought win, and our U11 As performed very well too in their convincing win. All those involved in the matches represented the school beautifully.

I am looking forward to welcoming our governors and class reps into school tomorrow afternoon for the official opening of our new facilities.The children will also be involved and help us to celebrate these wonderful additions to Abingdon Prep.

Next week sees a number of year groups undertaking their first trips of the year to a variety of venues. Educational visits are such a great way to support learning with real life experiences and I know the children will thoroughly enjoy their outings.

I hope you all enjoy a good weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Thursday 15 September 2022

Dear Parents

It was great to see so many of you at our start of term welcome drinks last Friday. I hope that those of you who were able to attend enjoyed seeing all of our new facilities and I know that the children have been greatly enjoying being taught in these new rooms. It has also been lovely to see children in the new library choosing books and making the most of the new work space there too.

Our first rugby matches of the term took place yesterday against Pinewood, but having not been able to undertake any contact practice due to hard ground so far, we stuck to touch fixtures. There were numerous exciting matches with close finishes but our U11Cs, U12Cs and U13B/Cs were our stand out performers with fantastic wins. It was lovely to be able to involve every pupil in Year 5, 6 and 7 in these matches.

Year 4 are away on their first ever residential trip today, walking along the Ridgeway and staying overnight at a youth hostel. They will be focusing on geography and science as they walk the 13 mile section over two days, as well as having fun, working as a team and creating great memories.

It was lovely to see our Year 1 and Year 2s working with the ‘You Can’ books and putting together things that they are hoping to achieve by the end of the year. It will be great to open the letters they are writing to themselves now at the end of the summer term to see if they have achieved them all. Our new Reception children seem very well settled into their new school routines. The apple and blackberry crumble they were making today looked delicious. I am rather hoping that I might even get to share my son’s baking when he brings it home!

Next week sees our individual and class photos take place as well as our first Open Morning of the year on Wednesday. Our Year 7s will act as guides for prospective parents and I know that they are looking forward to this and will do a fantastic job.

We take the opportunity this bank holiday weekend to mourn, remember and celebrate the incredible life of service of Queen Elizabeth. I look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 9 September 2022

Dear Parents

This morning, I spoke to the children about the very sad death of Queen Elizabeth, a quite remarkable monarch and beacon of light to both Great Britain and so many other countries and people around the world. She devoted herself to a life of service and we will remember her for all that she has done and accomplished. We will, of course, keep you updated with any changes to school routines that may occur in the coming days in line with the period of mourning.

It has been lovely to welcome back the children into school this week, with so many new and old faces returning. I have loved popping into lessons to see all the pupils getting back into their learning and it has been terrific to see their focus and attention on the task in hand. It has been a really productive week both in and out of the classroom.

I am looking forward to welcoming many of you into school for our gathering tonight. I am very excited to be able to give everyone the opportunity to look around our new facilities which the children have been enjoying all week.

I am delighted to share with you that I have appointed Eliott Birbeck as our new Director of Sport to start in January. Eliott is currently a PE teacher and Head of cross country at Abingdon School. Eliott has a fantastic sporting background across a wide range of sports and is incredibly excited to be joining APS. He will be coming over regularly in the next few months to meet the children and I am sure he will meet many of you on the touchline as well.

Rugby matches begin for children in Years 5-8 next week, although I do not think that we will be in a position to play contact rugby just yet and we will keep you updated as to any decision regarding Wednesday’s matches.

Finally, as of next week, our weekly mailing will be sent through to you on Thursday afternoon rather than Friday.

I look forward to seeing many of you tonight.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 2 September 2022

Dear Parents

I hope you have all enjoyed the final week of the holidays. Today, we have welcomed back to school all of our teachers and support staff for the first of our two INSET days. It has been great to catch up with everyone and be able to get ourselves ready to welcome back all of the children on Tuesday.

The school is looking terrific with all the new classrooms set up and I know that the children will be impressed with the new learning environments.

Our form teachers are looking forward to speaking with you on zoom this evening to share key information about the year ahead and school routines which may be new for many of the children. You should also have received earlier, the zoom addresses to dial into the meetings.

On Wednesday and Thursday it was lovely to welcome 50 boys to our pre-season rugby training sessions. It was particularly great to see so many new faces attending and for some, experiencing their first taste of rugby. We had a Gloucester Rugby coach attend both days who delivered sessions and also helped upskill some of our teaching staff too with new drills and exciting game play practices.

Please may I take this opportunity to again encourage you to read the weekly mailing as there is important information included. This week specifically, there is detailed information about drop off and pick up information as well as the start of other half activities.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all the children back to school on Tuesday morning and cannot wait to get started. I hope to catch up with many of you in the car park during the week or if not, at our drinks event on Friday 9 September at 6.45pm.

In the meantime, have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 8 July 2022

Dear Parents

We have reached the end of another academic year and I always find that it is a time where children, parents and teachers all reflect on what they have accomplished, but also what they will miss next year.

I will miss our fantastic Year 8 children as they move on, but they are more than ready for the next step in their educational lives and I hope they know that they will always be welcomed back here, a place where some of them have been for the past 9 years of their lives. It was lovely to be able to celebrate all their achievements at prize giving this morning.

We were able to tour the children around the new building yesterday, and they seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of going to lessons in the new rooms come September. The building work is all complete now and we will be furnishing it all in the coming weeks. It provides us with fantastic new spaces where academic studies and creative arts will flourish further. At our parents’ drinks gathering on the first Friday of next term, we will be inviting all of you to tour the building as well to see these new facilities. It will also be lovely to have all of our car parking spaces back!

I must mention this week’s summer concert as it was a wonderful evening of music and celebration and thank you to so many of you who were able to attend to support your children on stage.

I hope you all have a lovely summer ahead, whether at home or abroad, and remain well.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 1 July 2022

Dear Parents

The second half of term continues to fly by and the children are as busy as ever as we come to the final week of term.

At the start of the week, Year 7 spent two days in Warwickshire exploring Shakespeare country, visiting Warwick Castle and showing off their adventurous nature at Go Ape. Despite an inclement weather forecast, they had a fantastic time away. It was lovely to receive two emails from venues they attended congratulating them on their behaviour and manners.

Our Year 5s have been experiencing more of a staycation on Thursday and Friday this week. They enjoyed an overnight camp on Thursday evening with a range of team building games and challenges and of course the very important marshmallows round the campfire. I was lucky enough to be invited to their pizza dinner!

On the cricket pitch there were impressive wins for the Colts B and 4th team this week with the 6th and 7th teams taking on Cothill later this afternoon and more fixtures on Saturday. Our U13s are playing in a T20 tournament in Cambridge this weekend and we wish all boys the best of luck who are representing APS on the cricket pitch tomorrow. This week alone more than 150 boys will have represented the school in cricket matches which is fantastic.

Tennis matches took place on Monday afternoon and there were some particularly good, even matches in our U11 and U13 pairs. I was also delighted to hear that we have three children this Saturday unable to take part in matches because they are at regional kayaking, squash and equestrian events. It is always lovely to hear about how our children are progressing in their sports and activities outside of school.

Twenty boys undertook their LAMDA exams on Wednesday after much preparation with Steve and from what I have heard, they all performed superbly well and I look forward to sharing their results with them when they come through to us.

On Tuesday, Michelle Dafour, artist and sculptor at Waddesdon Manor National Trust property visited school to speak to our Year 6 children about an exciting new project where our children’s artwork will become part of some animal sculptures on display at the house. It is great that the children are involved in projects like this.

I can only finish my letter this week by talking about our fantastic Pre-Prep Summer concert which took place this afternoon. The boys sang beautifully and there were amazing soloists and group performances. The boys should be incredibly proud of their musical efforts.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 24 June 2022

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many new boys to our move up morning on Tuesday. It is always an exciting day for both our current and new pupils and a chance to make new friends and look forward to the year ahead.

Pre-Prep sports day took place on Monday afternoon and as always, it was a brilliant afternoon with all the boys trying their best with their jumping, throwing and running, not forgetting the sack race too and the exciting relay to finish. The ice lollies, of course, were a real highlight and well deserved after all the boys’ exertions.

In the classroom this week, Reception have been researching sea turtles and have found out some incredible facts about them, especially leatherbacks and their immense size – the weight of a small family car by all accounts! Although there were no leatherbacks at Cotswold Wildlife park, I know they had a fantastic day out seeing all the animals today and learning even more about the world around them.

We had a lot of cricket matches this week and our U11 teams produced a fantastic set of results, winning all their games from the A to E team. Our senior teams were less successful but huge congratulations to our 5th team who won their close encounter with Cheltenham. Our U9 Bs managed an amazing tie against St Hugh’s on Tuesday – a very rare result!

Year 3 and 4 all participated in their swimming gala on Thursday and it was lovely to see the boys supporting their houses and doing their best in all the events. This is the first of many galas for these boys in the coming years.

Lots of our Year 7 pupils gave speeches to their houses on Thursday detailing why they wanted to be house captain and what they might do if they were chosen. It was great to hear so many boys talk so impressively about their houses and their desire to lead. I look forward to sharing the results of the vote next week.

The senior House Music competition took place this morning with 12 competitors reaching the finals after their auditions over the past two weeks. The standard was amazingly high and hearing them all play with such confidence and skill made me feel incredibly proud of them all.

Tomorrow is Sports Day for our Year 3 to 8 children and I know that it is an event that so many of the boys greatly enjoy. It is an amazing opportunity to compete on a real athletics track and earn points for their houses. I am really looking forward to watching the boys perform and I hope to see many of you at Tilsley Park in the morning.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 17 June 2022

Dear Parents

The summer certainly seems to have arrived this week and it has been great to see the children enjoying being outside so much in this lovely weather, even if today’s 33 degrees triggered an extreme heat warning from Oxfordshire County Council asking schools to keep children out of the sun where possible, as we have done where appropriate.

Thursday morning saw the annual Verse Speaking competition finals take place for Years 3-6. All children had learnt a poem off by heart and a small number from each year group had been put forward to the finals. The standard was incredibly high and it was a real pleasure to see the boys performing to the rest of the school. Congratulations to the winners but also to everyone who had learnt a poem for the initial stage of the competition.

It has been a successful week on the cricket pitch with our U12A and B teams defeating Abingdon School and our U8s winning at Christ Church too. I was lucky enough to umpire the Year 6 house matches this week which were played in a fantastic spirit with players congratulating each other for good shots or well bowled deliveries. It absolutely reflected the true spirit of cricket.

Pre-Prep have been working away all week and it was fantastic to see our Reception children outside experimenting with shadow lengths and working out for themselves how these change with distance away from the ground. Year 1 were treated to a surprise Teddy Bear’s Picnic as part of their PSHCE programme. They were looking at how people feel when surprises happen and discussed whether or not keeping secrets was right.

Our Year 7s have had a busy week with a careers talk and a leadership talk from Abingdon School teachers. It was lovely to see them listening so intently and also asking pertinent questions about how to get into certain careers. These sessions are hugely valuable and help further the broad educational aims that we value so highly at Abingdon Prep.

On Tuesday, a number of year groups undertook language workshops in support of our Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. It was heartening to see the children so engaged in what they were learning about in such an important part of the school curriculum.

Our Year 8s have had a fantastic time on their residential trip to Dorset this week, undertaking numerous outdoor adventure activities. It is a fitting way to help them celebrate their time at Abingdon Prep and they have a busy last three weeks of term ahead.

I hope you all have a good weekend and enjoy the warm weather.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 10 June 2022

Dear Parents

I hope you all had a good break over half term and I am sure that many of you, like me, enjoyed your local Jubilee celebrations. It has been a lovely week back at school with the sun shining and trips season well and truly underway!

This week has seen exams for our Year 7 and 8 children and they should all be congratulated on their efforts and concentration across the five days of testing.

Our Year 5s on Thursday visited one of my favourite places, Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, where they explored HMS Victory and experienced what life was like on board Nelson’s 18th Century warship. They were certainly very excited to tell me all about it the next day. If you have never been, and you get the chance to visit, then do take it. The Mary Rose is also an incredible piece of history to explore whilst you are there.

Sadly, our Year 6 Bushcraft trip was cancelled but instead they have been out yesterday and today undertaking some fun activities, and finishing off tonight with a sleep over at school in the hall. I hope that they manage to get some sleep!

8R explored Oxford on Monday, visiting university colleges and looking at the amazing architecture of the city whilst Year 3 also went to Oxford on their trip to The Ashmolean to see genuine Egyptian artefacts. It is easy to take for granted how fortunate we are to live in such a great part of the country with a fantastic city just minutes away and beautiful countryside also on our doorstep.

It was lovely to be able to have our Pre-Prep parents in for a book share this morning to see what amazing work the children have produced this term. The progress they make never ceases to amaze me and they should be very proud of their efforts this year. Reception also showed off their entrepreneurial skills with a shop selling a range of goods they have made in the past few weeks.

On the cricket pitch this week our Colts A, B, C and D teams all had convincing wins over St Andrew’s whilst our U8s and U9s lost their games, but showed huge improvement from previous matches. It is lovely to see so many boys enjoying their first real experience of cricket matches.

Please could I take this opportunity to remind parents of children in Years 3-8 that the end of the school day is 4.10pm and the children will be signed out from their respective areas at that time. 4 – 4.10pm is an important time for the boys to return to their form rooms and get themselves organised with everything they need to take home that evening. Many thanks for your support with this.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster