Head’s Letters

Friday 18 February 2022

Dear Parents

Storms seem to have been in vogue this week with Dudley and Eunice tearing through Oxfordshire. Storm Eunice today kept us indoors for break times with the 70mph gusts and I hope that none of you experienced too much damage at home. Our trampoline decided that our neighbour’s garden was a better place for it so it may be an interesting weekend trying to return it to our garden!

It was a real shame to have to postpone the house cross country event today but hopefully we will have more favourable conditions on the afternoon of Friday 11 March when we have rescheduled it.

It was lovely to welcome so many parents to the Year 5-8 coffee morning this week to meet with Abingdon School staff. I know that those who were able to attend enjoyed speaking with Housemasters about Year 9 and how Abingdon Prep pupils settle into life at senior school.

Our junior production, ‘Eddie the penguin saves the world’, took place on Thursday evening. It was an incredibly enjoyable performance with some very memorable songs and excellent acting. The boys certainly seemed to be relishing being back on stage in front of an appreciative audience for the first time in two years. Our senior section is also working hard on their production, ‘Aladdin’, and we are looking forward to that in the second part of term.

In the classroom this week, Year 5 tucked into a French feast to help them learn more about their topic of food. I think the pain au chocolat and croissants were certainly a hit with most of them.

Year 6 showed me a fantastic animation of the original race to the South Pole linking in to their topic about Antarctica. They were really engaged in the topic and were researching a wide range of issues faced by the continent.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading a range of creative stories that Year 2 have been writing over the past week. It is lovely to see them so engaged with their English and also so focused on improving their handwriting too.

I hope that you all have a very enjoyable half term break whether that be abroad or at home. It has been a busy first half of term and I know that we will all enjoy a well deserved rest.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 11 February 2022

Dear Parents

This week has been internet safety week and the boys have been learning about showing respect online and how to keep themselves safe when playing games online. Starting conversations about this important topic is vital to help the boys appreciate all the great things that the internet has to offer, but also how important it is to make good decisions when communicating with others within the game. I hope that they will take on board the key messages shared this week and continue to make sensible choices when they are online.

In the classroom, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing our Year 8s making pinhole cameras and working out how the inverted images were being produced and what they could do to alter them. Year 5 was learning about the circulatory system in science and it was great to see such detailed diagrams looking at the heart and how the blood moves around the body. It seems to be a topic that has really piqued their interest.

Year 7 has been studying ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ in their English lessons and were busily writing character analysis of the key players in the story. Conan-Doyle is such a brilliant writer and I hope that studying this book will start many of the boys on other Sherlock novels, and if they have an interest in mediaeval history, I can thoroughly recommend a childhood favourite of mine, ‘The White Company’, a historical novel about the battle of Crécy in the 100 Years War, also written by Conan-Doyle.

On Tuesday, three of our Year 6 pupils travelled to compete in The Oratory debating competition. The standard was incredibly high and our boys performed admirably and thoroughly enjoyed their day out, learning a huge amount about the art of debating.

Football matches took place this week against Cokethorpe and The Unicorn. Our U13 Cs played extremely well to produce a 5-1 win. It was great to see the boys playing so well as a team and enjoying their football so much. Our away fixtures at Cokethorpe saw both the U13 As and Bs produce excellent performances to run out clear winners whilst the U12 As lost their first game of the season with the U12 Bs scoring some fantastic goals in another 5-1 win.

I would like to wish the boys competing in the regional IAPS swimming meet this afternoon the best of luck and look forward to hearing if any of them can qualify for the national finals later in the year.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 4 February 2022

Dear Parents

I hope that those of you who were able to attend yesterday evening’s ‘staying safe online’ workshop found it useful. This is such a fast changing world that I feel it is vitally important to continually work with the children and offer support and information to parents as well. The video recording of the event has been shared in this week’s mailing for anyone who was unable to attend but would like to find out more about this topic.

Last Saturday, our dry point etching workshop took place which was very much enjoyed by those parents who were able to attend. There are some very talented artists among them! Do have a look at their work on our newsfeed.

It has been lovely to walk around lessons this week and watch the boys engaging so well with the different subjects. Year 5 were investigating both series and parallel circuits in their Science / Electronics lesson and looking at the strength of light emitted from bulbs. Year 1 were learning about Amelia Aerhart and her life as a pilot and adventurer, being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and finding out about her final voyage and disappearance. They were combining the geography from the map of the journey with learning about an amazing pioneer and role model for women in the 1930s and indeed ever since. Reception were busy cooking Tiger cakes to celebrate Chinese New Year and they were indeed delicious. This followed on from our assembly about Chinese New Year and I have been very fortunate to speak to some of our pupils about how they celebrated this year with their families. It was lovely to see so many of our Pre-Prep children bringing something red with them today for their celebration feast.

Year 3 and 4 are in full rehearsal mode for their upcoming musical, ‘Eddie the penguin saves the world’. It was lovely to see them trying out their lines, having started the process of memorising them for the performance. It is always a real highlight of our Drama calendar and I am looking forward to hearing some of the songs in the coming weeks as they prepare further.

It was another busy sporting week with football against Oratory Prep, Year 5 hockey against The Dragon and cross-country at St Hugh’s. There were some very strong football results and performances with our U12s playing especially well and our Under 11s continuing their very impressive season across all teams. The Year 5s first ever hockey matches were a great success with all boys involved and they enjoyed 2 wins and 2 draws, whilst our cross-country team came back from St Hugh’s with 2 team victories and team 2nd and 3rd place finishes. We have some very impressive runners at school currently.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 28 January 2022

Dear Parents

It has been another busy week in school with the boys working hard and enjoying their Other Half activities.

On Thursday, whilst popping into lessons with Mr Windsor, I enjoyed seeing Year 3, 4 and 5 in their Maths lessons. It was great to see how they make progress over the years. Year 5 were certainly taking on some tricky fractions whilst Year 4 were working with number patterns. Earlier in the week I had been fortunate to observe a Year 6 class learning about BIDMAS, which brought back memories of my own Maths lessons as an 11 year old.

On Tuesday evening it was great to welcome so many parents to our RSE webinar. It is a really important area of learning and something that we want to continue to share with parents as your sons move further through their school journey.

LAMDA exams took place at the start of the week and I know how hard the boys have been working to learn their pieces. It never ceases to amaze me how confidently they perform and I know that they will receive a deservedly strong set of results when they come through.

Sport has taken centre stage this week with Football, Swimming and Cross Country fixtures. On the football pitch, our U12s and U13s took on The Oratory and showed some great skill with all 4 teams being victorious. Our U10s and U11s played St Hugh’s and managed 7 wins from the 8 games, with our U11As impressing greatly with a 12-2 win. Our U8s and U9s showed great tenacity in their matches against Oratory Prep but could not quite manage a victory but gained valuable match experience and will be stronger next week from that.

On Monday, 24 boys represented the school in a swimming gala against The Dragon. It was a closely contested gala with some superb individual performances and great relay swims too.

Thursday saw boys from Years 5-8 compete in the Pinewood Cross Country meet where they performed incredibly well, taking numerous top 10 finishes and all the boys can be extremely proud of their efforts. They finished as Boys’ Team winners in both the U12 and U14 categories.

I know that food is always a topic of conversation at school and I wanted to let you know of some changes that have been put into place with our catering last week. We have a revamped servery and wider selection of jacket potato fillings and baguette fillings for those who do not choose either the hot meat or vegetarian options. The changes seem to have gone down very well with the boys so please do ask them about the new look service. On Tuesday next week, we will be celebrating Chinese New Year with a Chinese lunch menu (included in the mailing this week). I am certainly looking forward to more celebration lunches in the coming months.

Finally, I hope that the dry point etching workshop for parents tomorrow goes well. I look forward to hearing all about what has been produced.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 21 January 2022

Dear Parents

Another week has flown by at school with the children busily throwing themselves into all the varied activities that have been taking place. It has been delightful to stand outside in the cold mornings watching the sun come up at drop off and welcoming the children into school for the day. Cold, crisp and blue skies are some of my favourite weather conditions, as long as I have remembered my coat!

The highlight of this week for me was listening to a selection of children presenting on Zoom to the school their suggestions for house charities this year. There were so many incredibly personal stories about why they were asking their house to support a specific charity and I must thank all the boys who put forward charities this week. Thinking of and supporting others not as fortunate as ourselves is something that must continue to be highly valued and I know that the boys will relish the opportunity to raise money for so many worthy causes over the course of the next two terms. This year the chosen House Charities are:

Dragon – IPF – Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (Alex Y5)
Griffin – Dolly Parton imagination library (George Y5 and Eric Y8)
Phoenix – H-ABC – rare genetic disorder which affects the brain (Ollie Y8)
Unicorn – Asylum Welcome (Max Y3)

On the football pitch our U12 and U13 teams performed admirably against strong Dragon teams at the weekend coming away with two wins (with both U12 teams scoring 6 goals), a loss and a draw, whilst our U8s and U9s played their first matches of the season against St Hugh’s and Chandlings, and impressed with their efforts, winning and losing an equal share of the matches and learning a great deal about competitive football.

Our first concert platform of the term is this afternoon and I know that once again we have a very full list of boys signed up to perform which is wonderful to see. I know that those boys performing have been practising hard this week.

Finally, I am delighted to report that our inaugural Art Workshop for APS parents next Saturday has proved popular with just a few spaces remaining. We are really excited about offering this to our parents and hope that it will be a great new venture for us.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 14 January 2022

Dear Parents

I hope you have all had an enjoyable week and remained well. As I am sure you will be aware, government guidance has changed again this week regarding self isolation periods for positive Covid-19 cases. From Monday, children may now return to school if they have completed a negative lateral flow test on day 5 and day 6 after developing symptoms or producing a positive lateral flow result.

The highlight of my week was undoubtedly our assembly on Thursday which was conducted entirely in languages other than English. It was a real celebration of the diversity of our school and it was amazing to hear so many different languages spoken and to find out more about the culture and important festivals that are celebrated by different cultures. If you get a chance, please do watch it as the video is now posted on our website.

This week our Year 4s enjoyed a brilliant trip to Ufton Court to experience Tudor life first hand. They learnt about the justice system and held a mock trial, they tried out Tudor board games and tracked down a priest’s hiding hole in the architecture of the building. They also discovered long dried up fish ponds which used to play a vital role in feeding the people living at the manor house, alongside a tudor fridge to store the food which acted as the tunnel entrance and exit for the hiding hole. It really was a trip where history came to life.

8R have been busy sitting their mock scholarship exams and I know they have worked hard over the break to prepare for them. I am sure that they will have found the experience helpful as they prepare for these exams at the start of March.

Monday and Wednesday saw our first football matches of the season take place. The U10 and U11 teams played incredibly well against Chandlings on Monday with some very high scoring fixtures in favour of Abingdon Prep. On Wednesday, our U11s performed well again with the U11A team playing out a brilliant 2-2 draw with The Dragon, whilst our U12 and U13 teams played Davenies, winning 3 matches, drawing 1 and losing 1.

Congratulations to our fantastic biathletes who performed admirably last Saturday in the regional competition at Redditch, with four of them achieving top four finishes. I know they all gave their very best and they can all be extremely proud of their efforts.

Finally, good luck to those Year 7 and 8 children playing in football matches tomorrow at The Dragon and I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 7 January 2022

Dear Parents

We started term this week with an assembly about new beginnings and looking at the year ahead, with 12 new chapters and 365 new chances. I wanted all the boys to think about what they might want to improve, learn, read, or explore in the coming year and how every day was a new opportunity ahead of them, no matter what had taken place the day before. The Roman god, Janus, gave his name to the month of January but, with his two faces, facing both ways, he was also the Roman god of doorways and new beginnings. I want the boys to look at this year as an opportunity to reflect on their achievements over the past year, but also to look forward to what they might achieve in the coming year if they always put their best foot forward.

The boys have settled in remarkably quickly to the new term and it has been lovely to hear about their Christmas adventures and exciting presents. Years 1 and 2 enjoyed a fantastic trip to The Story Museum on Thursday. They enjoyed a creative experience of storytelling and I know that their time at the museum will have really helped with their own creative writing that they have also been putting into practice. The boys in Year 2 have been creating storyboards based around the traditional tale of Rapunzel and Year 1 is moving on to focus on Little Red.

Year 5 have been working on equivalent fractions with pizza being the learning method of choice, although sadly only on the board, whilst Year 6 have been experimenting with evaporation and distillation techniques in their Science lessons.

I also enjoyed reading through some of the Year 8s’ Buddhism projects this week and seeing how much they have discovered about this religion and how learning about meditation, spiritual and physical labour, and good behaviour as the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana.

Our new building development has continued apace over the holiday period and we now have brickwork up to the first floor and a watertight roof as well. I will look forward to sharing more updates with you as this fantastic new addition to our Abingdon Prep facilities really starts to take shape.

Finally, good luck to those boys competing in the regional Biathlon Championships in Birmingham on Saturday. I know that many of them have been undertaking some extra training over the holidays in preparation for the event.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 3 December 2021

Dear Parents

It has been two years since the last one, but the Pre-Prep Nativity returned this week and it was a wonderful event, both for the quality of the singing and performance but also for the fact that we were able to have a live audience of parents watching their children on stage again. I know that it will be the same for our Year 3 and 4 carol service tonight and I am really looking forward to welcoming those parents who can attend into the Hall for the service. The boys have certainly been practising hard and singing beautifully in rehearsals.

On the rugby pitch this week we played eight matches against St Hugh’s and performed well across all age groups coming away with six wins, one draw and one loss. It is amazing to think how far these teams have come since their first competitive matches back in early September.

The Panto came to school on Tuesday and our Reception to Year 4 children were treated to a very entertaining performance of Aladdin. ‘Oh no they weren’t, Oh yes they….’ or something along those lines! It was a lovely way to kick off our Christmas celebrations and get us all thinking about the holiday season. Having some snow early in the week also set the scene for the celebrations ahead.

Pre-Prep have had a very busy week with the Panto, Nativity and a great trip for them all to Roves Farm today, to learn even more about how Christmas comes together on the farm. They had a fantastic time and enjoyed travelling on the large coach.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank our cleaning team at school as they have been working incredibly hard all term to ensure that surfaces and frequent touch points are regularly wiped down during the school day, as well as cleaning in the morning before school starts and trying to keep us all as safe as possible in school. They are a vital part of school life and I wanted to thank them publicly for their continued efforts this term.

Anway, we have just one more week to go now until the Autumn term draws to a close and I am looking forward to a Christmas assembly or two, Christmas jumper day, Christmas dinner and another carol service next week to really set us all off on the road to Christmas 2021. It promises to be a lovely final week of term.

I hope you and your families all remain well and have a good weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 26 November 2021

Dear Parents

The weather has certainly turned to a wintry feel this week and coats and woolly hats have been needed at break times.

Music and Drama have taken centre stage this week. Our Year 6s enjoyed a fantastic trip to London to watch the musical, ‘The Prince of Egypt’. For many of them, this was their first ever experience of a musical at a big London theatre and I hope that they have been inspired to return, or even to get involved themselves in a production in the future at school.

A group of our Year 8 children in the advanced drama club performed to an audience of their parents and grandparents on Tuesday after school. They performed two short scenes, one from ‘Journey’s End’ and the other a comedic sketch entitled ‘Bring your kid to work day’. After such a long hiatus, it was fantastic to see APS children back on stage again performing to a live audience. I know I am greatly looking forward to next term when many of our whole year group drama productions will be taking place.

The sound of carols has been drifting through the corridors this week as the children continue to rehearse for the upcoming carol concerts. Despite not yet being in December, I feel that I can now start to mention the Christmas word as the Christmas adverts are very much in evidence on the television.

This afternoon is our third concert platform of the term, and once again we have a full list of participants with performances from children on a wide range of instruments including trumpet, drums, guitar, clarinet and cello. I am very much looking forward to attending.

The Business Challenge took place at Abingdon School this week with a mixed group of Year 5 and 6 children forming the APS team. They really enjoyed the event and presented their business plan extremely well and were awarded the Best Presentation prize. Perhaps some budding entrepreneurs are amongst them.

On Wednesday our U11 A-D teams enjoyed a clean sweep of victories against Magdalen whilst our U8s and U9s also played Magdalen on Thursday and finished with two wins and two losses in closely contested matches.

Our U13 Sevens rugby team took part in the Pinewood tournament this week and performed admirably with some excellent individual skills on show and a strong team spirit, resulting in some tight losses and some hard won victories.

I hope you all remain well and have a good weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 19 November 2021

Dear Parents

Thank you to all of you who attended our firestorm event last Friday. The weather was fair and the display was excellent. The light sabres were again a huge hit and it was some sight to see them slicing through the night air as the boys enjoyed their Star Wars style battles.

The children have been really busy again this week in school. They have been working hard both inside and outside of the classroom.

Year 4 ventured out of the classroom yesterday to explore Christ Church in Abingdon as part of their RE curriculum this term. They were finding out more about the history of the Church and the way churches in general are designed and the reasons for this. Field trips are such a great way to help children cement their learning from lessons.

Year 5 were working incredibly hard on angles this week and showing some impressive use of their protractors. They showed me some very accurate work on their acute and obtuse angles and were really enjoying developing their skills further.

It was lovely to welcome our Pre-Prep parents into school for a workshare this morning. The boys were so proud to show their parents the work they have been doing this term and their progress from the start of term was certainly in evidence.

Our swimmers were again in action on Monday at The Dragon gala. Once again the boys swam incredibly well in what was a very high level event with some fantastic races by pupils from both schools.

Rugby fixtures took place against Christ Church Cathedral School for our U13B and U12B teams on Wednesday and the boys played really well with the 13s winning by a solitary try and the 12s winning a little more easily. Our U8s and U9s played Chandlings and came away with one win, one draw and two very close losses by a single try. It was great to see all the boys proudly representing Abingdon Prep and competing so well.

I must also congratulate our U12 Cross Country team who are today competing in Cambridgeshire after qualifying for the regional finals a few weeks ago. I know they will try their very best and they can be very proud of reaching this stage.

Our building project continues apace and it won’t be too long before the walls start to go up and the roof, rafters now almost complete, will also start to take shape. The boys are getting a great view of the progress from their break time play spaces.

It is with some regret that I have taken the difficult decision to cancel our Christmas Bazaar this year. Sadly, given the nature of the event with so much mixing across year groups in the hall with the games and the close confines having so many people on site, I felt that it was not an event where I could honestly say that we could prevent transmission if we did have any asymptomatic Covid-19 cases. However, instead of the Bazaar, we have decided to run Christmas parties for the all of the year groups in the final week of term which will be great fun.

The carol concert, on the final Tuesday of term, is also an event where there would be very close contact given the numbers attending and the close proximity of people in the church. As such, we have decided to split our carol services this year to allow for more space between our guests. Our Year 3 and 4 carol concert will now take place at school on Friday 3 December at 6pm whilst our Year 5-8 carol concert will take place at St Helen’s Church in Abingdon on Tuesday 7 December at 6.30pm. More details will follow nearer the time.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead and remain well.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster