Head’s Letters

Thursday 3 October 2024

Dear Parents

Science trips have been at the forefront for Year 5 & 6 this week. Year 5 spent Tuesday afternoon at Abingdon School extracting DNA from a kiwi fruit under the guidance of some brilliant Abingdon School Sixth Form pupils. I know they asked some impressive scientific questions to the Sixth Formers too. Tomorrow, our Year 5s and 6s are visiting Rutherford Appleton Laboratories at the Culham Science Park where they will be undertaking a series of activities based around the theme of Space. These will include workshops, a planetarium and taking part in an escape room challenge. I know they are really looking forward to this exciting morning off site. Our Reception children undertake their first school trip tomorrow with a visit to Cogges Farm to follow the story of the ‘Little Red Hen’. They will be planting corn seeds, grinding up corn and even making their own bread. I know they are very excited about taking their learning outside of school, and taking their first journey in the school minibus!

Our assembly theme for both Pre-Prep and Prep this week was amazing achievements of older people. We learned about a 100 year old man who climbed Mount Fuji, a 79 year old lady who drove a Formula 1 car and a 96 year old lady who is still running marathons. I am glad to report though, that in Pre-Prep, they feel that you are not old until you are 80 these days!

Our first house charity event, the Unicorn Tuck Shop sale, will take place next Monday afternoon. Thank you to all of those parents who have so kindly donated supplies for this event already. This year, it has been decided that Down’s Syndrome Oxfordshire is the chosen school charity and we look forward to supporting them with some fundraising in the coming months. This morning, our four houses were presenting and voting for their house charities and it was lovely to see so many children speaking so passionately about a charity they wanted to get behind.

With charity in mind, I wanted to say a huge thank you to our JPA for arranging the Macmillan coffee morning and cake event last Friday. It was great to see so many parents attending and again, thanks to all those who kindly made cakes to sell there. Over £250 was raised for a very worthy cause.

Once again, on the rugby pitch, all the children in Years 3-8 have represented the school this week. There were some terrific performances from the children against strong opposition, with the U12B touch, the U11 touch and U10B touch teams all producing impressive wins in tightly fought contests. Good luck to our U8s who are competing in their first rugby festival on Saturday. Good luck too to our cross country team who are competing in the English Schools Cross Country qualifiers this afternoon.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend when it arrives and I hope to see a number of you at the Abingdon School Open Morning on Saturday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 26 September 2024

Dear Parents

I am not sure I can remember a time when the rain was torrential for quite as long as it was on Monday. I am not convinced the Oxfordshire road network held up all that well but hopefully the flooding has eased a little on your journeys to and from school now.

Across all of the year groups the children have continued to work hard and impress in the classroom. They are really engaged in their learning and it is good to see the obvious levels of progress.

It has been a very busy week on the sports field with a cross country meet, a swimming gala, two regional IAPS football qualifying tournaments, alongside 14 rugby matches. It was particularly gratifying to see almost every child in Years 3-8 representing APS on the rugby pitch this week in a series of contact or touch matches. Our U12 and U13 teams enjoyed playing their counterparts at Abingdon School on Wednesday, and some excellent rugby was played by both teams.

The joint APS and AS concert on Monday evening was a lovely event as well. I know that the children who attended, both in the audience and performing, will have gained a huge amount from seeing older pupils performing and working alongside them.

Our Design and Technology Arts Award pupils are up in London today visiting the Design Museum and undertaking a workshop. I know they will have learned a lot from the trip and I am sure they will come back full of ideas for their next project. Our Year 8s are continuing the busy week of trips by spending the day on the Jurassic Coast at Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, collecting data on beach profiles, drawing field sketches of the cove, walking along the South West coastal path and enjoying some fish and chips on the seafront!

I hope that everyone has a good weekend ahead and that the weather improves a little for us all.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 19 September 2024

Dear Parents

It has been lovely to have some settled weather this week without needing to rush inside to avoid a downpour. The weeks continue to fly by with the children throwing themselves into so many different aspects of school life.

I am writing to you today from Wales, as I am away at the IAPS Heads conference. It is a great opportunity to hear from guest speakers and discuss current issues with so many other prep school heads. I have especially enjoyed learning more about AI and AR and how they can be of benefit to both pupils and teachers moving forward.

This week’s assembly for Years 3 to 8 looked at some relaxation techniques and how to use breathing as a tool to promote calm and balance, especially when something might be worrying you. Pre-Prep assembly focused on how to keep yourself safe both in and out of school, tying in with our safety week.

I was fortunate enough to watch some Year 5 French on Wednesday and was impressed by their willingness to tell me their birthdays in French and even ask me some questions. I may need to revisit the classroom to improve my accent though! Year 2 were very much enjoying their mini-makers club and hockey club on Tuesday after school. They are always so involved in their Other Half activities and it is such a key part of school life.

Our rugby season is now well and truly underway with some terrific performances and results this week from all our senior section teams, whilst our U9s enjoyed their first ever contact match and our U8s are representing APS for the first time this afternoon. I am sure they will rise to the occasion and really enjoy themselves. Tomorrow, after school, our first concert platform will take place and it is good to see so many children keen to be involved. It is such a great way to build confidence performing to a small audience.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead of you.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 12 September 2024

Dear Parents

It was lovely to chat to so many of you last Friday evening at our welcome drinks. I hope that those of you who were able to attend enjoyed meeting the teachers and fellow parents.

This week started with a fascinating talk to our senior section from the lead nutritionist at Sodexo, our catering partners, about fuelling your body with the right nutrients. I was enormously encouraged by how much some of our older pupils already knew about this vitally important topic and how engaged they all were throughout.

In the classroom, I have very much enjoyed getting to know our Reception children a little better, and was especially impressed with their spiky hair designs, showing off their developing fine motor skills, by carefully using scissors.

Year 3 was eagerly working on their new History topic of World War 2. They had photos of children being evacuated and were spotting differences between then and now, looking at styles of clothing, luggage and transport. It was great to see them so engrossed in the subject and learning about what children their age had experienced back then.

Year 6 and Year 7 have been loving getting straight back into science experiments this week. Year 6 were working on mass and gravity, experimenting with Newton metres and generating data for their graphs, whilst the Year 7s had the bunsen burners out to heat and cool stearic acid and see the different properties at different temperatures, before again plotting the data points onto graphs. Hands-on learning is so important for children and it is fabulous to see the children enjoying their science so much.

Wednesday saw our U13 team play in their first rugby tournament of the term. They showed great heart and improved enormously over the course of the day, winning one and losing two of their matches. They will have learned a great deal and are looking forward to next week’s fixtures. Matches start in earnest next week for all age groups, who have been training hard in readiness for them.

I hope that you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 5 September 2024

Dear Parents

It has been lovely to welcome all of the children back to school this week and hear about their holiday adventures.

In lessons this week I have been hugely impressed by the focus the children have shown settling down to their work and the new routines. In English, Year 4 were starting their class reader, ‘Iron Man’, and looking at the different characters and trying to predict what the characters were likely to be like after just a brief introduction. Year 5 were focusing on synonyms, again based around their class reader, ‘Holes’. It was great to see their prior knowledge coming into play working out words such as ‘precipice’ and ‘desolate’, and then using them appropriately in their own work. In Science, Year 8 were working on classification of different organisms and looking at where kelp fitted in – not quite as straightforward as it may first appear being part of the Chromista kingdom. (I was learning this alongside them!)

Our Reception class have settled in beautifully to life at school, loving the trike track, impressing me with their ability to solve a puzzle, and cooking some delicious blackberry and apple crumble, alongside a dough disco! Year 2 were getting straight back into some tricky number work, giving four different ways that a series of numbers could be created. This, alongside their pirate maps and self designed keys has certainly kept them busy this week.

This afternoon sees our music carousel taking place. This is a great opportunity for children to see a huge range of instruments being played by our music teachers and also pupils from Abingdon School. They can also have a go themselves and hopefully be inspired to take up an instrument if they are not already playing one. Playing an instrument is such a great skill to have and I am sure that many of you, like me, wish that we had stuck with it more as a child!

This week’s assembly focused on our three aims at school – Work Hard, Get Involved and Be Kind. I have been especially pleased to see so many of the children modelling these behaviours around school and we will continue to focus on these aims throughout the year ahead.

Last Saturday morning saw more than 50 pupils attend our Year 5-8 pre-season rugby session. I know that Elliot and the coaches were delighted with such a large turnout and it was a terrific way to start to get ready for the term ahead.

I wanted to let you know that unfortunately, Emma Penfold, our Director of Music, will be absent from school from 18 September for a period of time for major surgery. I know you will all join with me in wishing her the best for her recovery. Whilst Emma is away, we have Michael Stinton, former Director of Music at Abingdon School, coming in to teach all of Emma’s classes. Michael is hugely experienced and, of course, knows Abingdon Prep extremely well from his career at Abingdon School. I know he is really excited about working with our APS children.

We are very much looking forward to seeing many of you at the parents’ drinks tomorrow evening (6.45pm). Hopefully the weather will be kind and we can gather in the Quad outside rather than the hall. All the teachers will be there as well so please do take the opportunity to catch up with them.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 29 August 2024

Dear Parents

I hope that you have all enjoyed a lovely summer break, spending lots of time with your families and friends and enjoying the, mostly, fine weather we have had. The start of a new academic year is always an exciting time and this year is particularly exciting as we welcome our first two girls to Abingdon Prep’s Reception class, alongside more than 30 other new joiners across all sections of the school. We are very much looking forward to getting to know all of our new pupils and of course, seeing our returning students and hearing about what they have been getting up to during the break.

In the final week of last term, we underwent a material change inspection (in light of our move to co-education) from the Independent Schools Inspectorate and I am delighted to say that they have approved the change. The report is on our website.

Today, we have welcomed back to school all of our teachers and support staff for the first of our three INSET days. It has been great to catch up with everyone and be able to prepare ourselves to welcome back all of the children on Tuesday. I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome Charles Newbury, our new Deputy Head Academic, and Alexander Holden, our new Year 4 class teacher, and Toby King, our new Gap Year Teaching Assistant. I know they are all very much looking forward to meeting the children and getting to know them during these first few weeks of term.

Yesterday, you will have received a letter from Mike Windsor, regarding the government’s planned changes to VAT in regards to independent school fees and the school’s response. We appreciate that this is an unsettling time for our families and please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions about this. There will be more detail to follow from Mr Windsor once our governing board has met again in September.

As I am sure you are aware, our form teachers will be speaking with you on zoom tomorrow evening to share key information about the year ahead and school routines which may be new for many of the children. You should receive the zoom links tomorrow morning which will enable you to dial in for these meetings.

The sports department are all set for lots of our Year 5-8s to join us on Cox’s Field on Saturday morning for their pre-season rugby session. If you have not signed up for this but would like your child to attend, please email [email protected] to let us know.

Please may I take this opportunity to encourage you to read the weekly mailing every Thursday as there is important information included. This week specifically, there is detailed information about drop off and pick up, 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 welcome drinks event on Friday 6 September at 6.45pm.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 4 July 2024

Dear Parents

It is hard to believe that we have reached the end of another academic year.

This week seems to have been busier than almost any other this year and Pre-Prep have been busiest of all. Reception and Year 1 had a fantastic day at Cotswold Wildlife Park on Monday. The highlight seems to have been getting rather close to the lions, albeit they were behind the glass! Year 2 had a terrific day on Wednesday at The Earth Trust, further developing their love of the outdoors, forest school and nature. Add in a cycling and scooter session and a most enjoyable summer concert with everyone singing and numerous impressive instrumental solos from Year 2 children, and you can see what a busy and enjoyable week it has been for them.

The summer barbeque was greatly enjoyed by the pupils on Wednesday lunchtime. Our caterers did a great spread of burgers and hot dogs and it was clear that our children all rather enjoy a barbeque, so I imagine lots of you will be firing up the coals in the holiday weeks ahead.

Tomorrow, we say a fond farewell to our brilliant Year 8s, a number of whom have been with us since Reception. I am very much looking forward to prizegiving to celebrate their achievements, alongside their parents, on their final day at Abingdon Prep. They will be greatly missed.They too have had an exciting week with our keenest cricketers spending the day at Lord’s Cricket Ground, being shown around the playing facilities, the museum, the changing rooms and also having an indoor net session with some of their coaches. All Year 8s have been off today walking along a section of the Ridgeway, hopefully creating further memories of time spent with their friends. I know you will want to join with me in wishing them all the very best with their future endeavours.

All it leaves me to say is that I hope you all have a lovely summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming many of you back to school in September.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 27 June 2024

Dear Parents

It has been rather warm at school this week and it finally feels that summer has arrived! Thank you to all of those who came along to the JPA picnic last Friday. It was a terrific evening and great to see so many families catching up over on Cox’s Field and enjoying each other’s company.

Tuesday evening saw our Year 7 and 8s performing ‘We Will Rock You’ on stage in the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School. It was a terrific evening of sing-along songs from Queen weaved into a very entertaining futuristic storyline. The children performed brilliantly and thoroughly enjoyed entertaining a full house and very appreciative audience.

Sixth Form French A Level students spent the morning teaching our Year 3 and 4 how to play french playground games including ‘Canard, canard, oie’ (Duck, duck, goose) and ‘Un, deux, trois, soleil’ (grandmother’s footsteps!) They stayed and had lunch with the children too, it was a wonderful morning.

The Year 6 Balloon debate took place as well on Wednesday morning and saw some impressive debating from the pupils. It was very hard to decide who should be ejected between characters such Nelson Mandela, Isaac Newton, Ralph Baer to name but a few.

There were lots of cricket games taking place on Wednesday against St Hugh’s and it was lovely to see the children performing so well. Despite the heat, there were some great team and individual performances culminating in 5 wins from 7 games. Most importantly, all the games were played in great spirit.

There were some very well thought through speeches delivered in houses this morning as the Year 7s put forward their case for becoming House Captain or Vice House Captain. It was great to see so many children keen to lead their houses in Year 8.

This afternoon we welcome 12 parents into school to talk about their careers with our Year 8 pupils. This is always a terrific event and great for the children to get an understanding for what certain careers entail and start to think about what might suit their interests. Huge thanks to those parents who have kindly given up their time to talk to our children.

Our Year 4s are camping at school tonight after a day of activities at school. I know the children are very excited about the evening and I hope that there will be some sleep achieved by both the children and the teachers!

Pre-Prep have been rehearsing for their end of term summer concert on Tuesday next week and it has been lovely to hear them practising with such enthusiasm. I am very much looking forward to seeing them perform next week.

Finally, good luck to those cricketers playing Cothill this Saturday, in their final matches of term and to our senior tennis teams who play their final matches of the season on Friday afternoon.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend as we move into the last week of the academic year. It is hard to believe it has come around so quickly.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 20 June 2024

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many new families into Abingdon Prep for move up morning on Tuesday. I was especially impressed by the way that our current pupils looked after the new children and ensured they had a very enjoyable morning at APS.

Our Year 7 and 8 pupils are working hard today putting together ‘We will rock you’ before Tuesday evening’s performance at Abingdon School. If you have not yet got tickets and want to come along, please do order them as I am sure it will be a very enjoyable show. I am really looking forward to seeing them on stage and hearing some of my favourite Queen tunes.

Year 3 are out of school today visiting the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. They are supporting their History unit of study this term, the Egyptians, by looking at the amazing artefacts brought back to the museum from Egypt and Sudan at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. I know they will enjoy exploring the museum and seeing first hand the incredible artefacts on display.

Pre-Prep Sports Day was a lovely event on Monday this week with the children happily throwing themselves into all the different events and performing very well both as individuals and as part of their respective houses. It was especially good to see them supporting and encouraging each other throughout the afternoon.

On the cricket pitch, our senior teams performed extremely well against Oratory Prep on Wednesday with some super performances and three players scoring 50s. All of the Year 5 and 6 pupils represented the school and thoroughly enjoyed being out in sunshine playing cricket. Our U8 and U9 teams were also in action this week against The Dragon, with some impressive bowling performances on show. A little more work on their batting skills will help them to perform even more strongly in the coming years.

Our senior tennis team showed a high level of skill in their match against New College this week with some strong individual performances in evidence. It is great to see the enjoyment and obvious improvement in their skills through working hard in their training sessions. I have yet to hear back from our Athletics team who are competing today in the regional finals in Stourport but I know the children involved were looking forward to competing against other strong athletes their age.

Finally, I look forward to seeing all of our Year 3 to 8 children for Sports Day on Saturday at Tilsley Park. It is invariably a highlight of the school year and the weather looks like it should stay fair for us. I hope that the weather also remains dry for tomorrow’s JPA Picnic on Cox’s Field. Huge thanks to the JPA for putting it together and I hope to chat to many of you during the course of the evening.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 13 June 2024

Dear Parents

All weeks are busy at APS but this week really has seen a huge number of activities and events taking place.

Our Year 7s took part in a careers workshop on Monday morning delivered by the Head of Careers at Abingdon School. It was a great opportunity for the children to start to consider what type of career might interest them in the future and find out what skills and qualifications those careers require.

After the parents webinar about relationships and sex education on Monday evening, the children in Years 3 to 6 have been taking part in workshops focusing on when friendships go wrong or are not working, looking at how to repair them, when to walk away, and when is it ok not to be friends. These are really important life skills and I know the children will have gained a great deal from these sessions.

On Tuesday morning some of our Years 3 to 6 competed in the Verse Speaking finals with their peers watching on in the audience. It never ceases to amaze me how confidently and clearly the children are able to deliver their poems and this year was no exception. We listened to a huge variety of poems and the standard was amazingly high.

There were some terrific cricket matches on Wednesday this week with 4 of them going down to either the last ball or the final over. What was so pleasing was to see the teamwork and sportsmanship shown by pupils from both schools.

Our Year 8s have been thoroughly enjoying their time in Poole on their leavers trip. They have been trying out some new activities like sailing and paddle boarding and making great memories in their final term at APS.

Year 5s are performing in their soiree this evening and I am very much looking forward to seeing them up on stage. They have been working hard on their performances with poetry, singing and drama being at the heart of the event.

Pre-Prep has been just as busy with Year 1 creating their own monsters as a lead in to writing monster poetry whilst Year 2 have been busy creating their own board games (their recent work on fractions has certainly helped divide up squares on their boards),and learning more about conservation and listening to David Attenborough’s thoughts from a range of his environmental programmes.

Last Saturday, 8 of our children performed fantastically well at the IAPS National Swimming Finals in London. Both our relay teams took off more than 4 seconds from their qualifying times and our individual finalists also swam significantly faster than in qualifying, with both pupils making the full final. They can all be very proud of their efforts.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head