Head’s Letters

I hope that you all had a very enjoyable half-term. This week saw the weather turning wintry and bringing the first snowfall of the year yesterday morning. Some of the boys certainly seemed to enjoy catching snowflakes in their mouths on the way in through the school gates. There was also some disappointment that the snow did not settle!

It is a difficult time with the ever changing situation regarding the coronavirus but please be assured that we are constantly looking at the fast changing situation and government advice and will keep you updated with any changes that may come into force. In the meantime please do continue to be vigilant and ensure that general hygiene (coughing / sneezing into tissues and binning them, using hand sanitizers and hand washing regularly), which is being constantly reinforced in school, is uppermost in your and your boys’ thoughts.

The first day back from half term saw our junior section go off to Hazard Alley on their trip. The boys had a great time learning and interacting with dangerous and tricky situations, and having to make decisions about what they would do in different emergency situations. They came back very animated and discussing all the different scenarios, from how to ring 999 in an emergency and what happens when you do ring that number to dealing with animal and insect bites to ensure they do not get infected. It was great opportunity for our boys to get some hands on experiences of some of the dangers that they could face either now or in the future.

This week saw all year groups take on either Bruern Abbey or Christ Church Cathedral School on the football pitch. The boys played some terrific football with a lot of goals scored. Of the eleven matches played, nine were won, one was drawn and one was lost. A super effort from all involved.

After much consideration, we sadly had to postpone the Inter-House Cross-Country that was due to take place today with the weather looking very poor. We will let you know when it is to be rescheduled as soon as possible.

I would like to start this week with a massive thank you to all of the boys who gave up so much of their time last Sunday to swim huge numbers of lengths for our school charity, Be Free Young Carers. Thank you too, to all the parents who were so assiduously counting the lengths their boys completed. I did, however, feel a little sorry for those parents who had sponsored per length as the boys just seemed to go on and on and on. Some, quite literally, swam miles, but no matter how talented a swimmer, every boy pushed themselves to go the extra mile and they should be incredibly proud of their efforts. I certainly am.

On Tuesday, our Open Morning took place and again I must thank all of the boys in Year 7 who acted as tour guides. They did a fantastic job and as always, proved to be the School’s biggest asset. I hope that they enjoyed the experience as for some, it was their first opportunity to be involved in an Open Morning in this way.

It has been a busy week on the sports pitches with fixtures for almost every team. The U8s and U9s played on Tuesday against St Hugh’s and performed brilliantly with six wins and two draws. Our 10s and 11s also played St Hugh’s and finished with an even spread of wins, draws and losses. The Oratory were the opponents for our senior teams and ended up with honours even, whilst our other senior boys played their first hockey matches of the season against Cothill, losing in two very close contests. There was more swimming on Monday in a gala against The Dragon and our boys performed admirably with some impressive times in individual events.

A wet and muddy Pinewood cross-country took place yesterday where we had a very creditable 8th, 13th and 15th place in one of the biggest events of the season.

Our Pre-Prep boys enjoyed a fantastic drama workshop this week with the theme of ‘Around the world with Phileas Fogg’. I have been told that the boys threw themselves into this with gusto and loved the chance to pretend they were travelling to the farthest corners of the globe!

Tomorrow, our Saturday Art Workshop returns, where the boys will be turning their hand to some dry point etching with insects being the theme this time around. I know that the boys will produce some stunning images and learn a brilliant new technique to further their artistic development.

I have been fortunate to see a range of CDT activities this week in school and it never ceases to amaze me how creative our boys are and how much they enjoy producing pieces for this subject. The jitterbug pens in Year 7 were a real treat as they careered their way across paper on the tables creating a myriad of patterns with the felt tip pens used as legs. I was reliably informed that the key to success is to have the weighty motor 5 mm off-centre to create an uneven weight distribution! The boys loved seeing their motorised contraptions speeding off across the desk tops.

House meetings took place yesterday morning with the boys being put into mixed year groups to undertake some team building exercises. It is hard to explain the sharks in the sea game but with ten boys and just two small mats, they had to traverse across the hall without anyone touching the floor. It led to some creative solutions to moving the mats as quickly as possible whilst keeping all the boys tightly together on the other one. The Year 8 house captains and vice-captains organised the events extremely well and certainly ensured a good deal of house spirit was generated.

Our U8s and U9s played Chandlings this week and the U8s produced a remarkable set of victories in all the teams and played some superb football. Our U9s also performed admirably against some very good opponents and will have learnt a great deal for future matches.

All the boys in Years 5 and 6 played in matches against Pinewood and there were some very good performances across the board. Perhaps the highlights being a terrific 4-4 draw for the U11As and a great 5-1 win for the U10Ds. The senior boys played Cokethorpe and the U13As secured a well fought 5-3 victory whilst honours were even in the other matches.

A number of boys sat their LAMDA (Drama) exams today and I would like to congratulate them on how well they had all learned their performance pieces. The boys seemed to relish the opportunity to share their performances with the examiner and I am sure they will have achieved an excellent set of results.

I hope that you will all have a relaxing weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

I would like to start my letter this week by congratulating 8R who have completed their final mock exam today. They have worked hard to prepare for these and I know that they will have benefited a great deal from this preparation before they sit the academic scholarship exams to Abingdon School in the second half of this term.

Despite the rather changeable and inclement weather this week, the boys have been fully involved in their Other Half activities. There were the first fixtures of term on Monday against Chandlings for our U11s and U10 A and D teams. Some closely contested games saw us win three, draw two and lose one. On Wednesday, our U13A and B teams took on Davenies, after the wet weather had rained off the away fixtures, and we shared the spoils with one win and one loss.

Abingdon School’s cross country event took place on Tuesday. A small group of our Year 7 and 8 boys took part and performed admirably in a field of over 90 runners, with the team finishing in 4th place overall, and our highest individual finishers in 10th and 14th positions. It is the start of a busy term for cross country.

I had a very enjoyable walk around the classrooms on Thursday and sat in on a fascinating Year 7 lesson about the Anglo-Saxons. The boys were having to work as a group to rank key events and discoveries about the period in order of importance to justify whether this was a ‘Golden Age’ or indeed ‘The Dark Ages’ as they have been known to us for so long. It was lovely to hear the boys debating the relative importance of the Sutton Hoo ship burial discovery compared to the writings of Venerable Bede.

Year 6 were busily engaged in creating their own monster poetry with evil characters rising from the pages of the boys’ exercise books. Whilst a little gruesome on occasion, it was great to see the descriptive vocabulary and imagery they were creating with their work.

This Saturday another art workshop is happening with the theme being ‘wire and ModRoc sculptures’. I cannot wait to see what the boys who have signed up are going to produce. I am not convinced that even at my age I am quite sure what ‘ModRoc’ art will look like. I know the boys will enjoy the day though.

I hope that you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas and a good New Year too. I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming the boys back to school on Tuesday and I have really enjoyed hearing from some of the boys about their best presents and their travels over the break. They have certainly returned refreshed and re-energised looking forward to the term ahead!

We have welcomed four new children into the Abingdon Prep community this week and it has been lovely to see their peers looking after them and showing them around, ensuring that they quickly find their way and settle into the routines of daily life at school.

On the Friday before the start of term, we ran a very successful pre-season football session for Year groups 5 to 8. We had 54 boys attend and it was heartening to see them enjoying themselves and also playing some very nice football at such an early stage of the season. Fingers crossed the weather remains kind over the season ahead.

On Wednesday, our Year 8s had a fascinating Art History talk from Liz Rowe. They learned about architecture from an artistic perspective and focused on the design of numerous buildings, such as The White House and The Taj Mahal. Judging by some of their responses to her questions, we may well have some budding architects in this group.

Yesterday, class pairings took place with board games being the theme. A number of Christmas presents made their way into school and it was great to see the boys partnering up so well together across the different age groups.

Our Other Half program got underway on the first day of term and it always delights me to see how many boys have signed up for the range of clubs on offer.

Today, Unicorn House members have enjoyed their home clothes celebration after winning the house Merit cup at the end of last term and I have been impressed with the number of golds and merits collected already this week.

I sit here in my office writing this as the term has drawn to a close and the boys have all left the site to start on their exciting Christmas adventures. It seems eerily quiet without the hum of boys going eagerly about their work. It does not seem a week ago that the hall was filled with excited boys playing the Bazaar games, stalls selling Christmas trinkets and the buzz of the raffle. It was a terrific event and I would like to personally thank all the people who were kind enough to organise and participate in both the lead up to it and on the day. These events simply cannot happen without the energy, time and organisational skills given by our fabulous JPA and so many other supportive parents and staff. I really enjoyed the event taking place in December this year as it felt even more Christmassy than usual.

Our Christmas lunch took place yesterday – turkey and all the trimmings followed by a choice of either Christmas pudding, mince pies or jelly with cream (or all three in the case of some of the Year 8s). It was so lovely to sit through a leisurely lunch and simply chat to the boys on the table with me. It is perhaps, one of the underrated highlights of Christmas that families and friends can simply take the time to talk to each other rather than having to rush off here or there for the next appointment. Perhaps there is not enough of that in our everyday lives.

Our beautiful Carol Service, a real highlight in the school calendar, took place on Tuesday in the gorgeous St Helen’s church. It was lovely to see the boys proudly standing on stage and singing their carols so well. Music continues to be such an important part of the boys lives at Abingdon Prep. Thank you so much for your incredibly generous donations for the collection too. We were able to raise an additional £720 for our school charity, Be Free Young Carers, which will be added to the rest of the money that we have raised during the term with our silver coin trail and our Christmas Bazaar.

At the start of the week, Reception visited Cogges Farm where they experienced a Victorian Christmas. Santa visited the Reception boys too this week and left gifts for them under the tree. It was lovely to see how excited they were with their various construction themed presents. They were all very keen to see him again at Christmas.