Head’s Letters

Friday 15 November 2019

Dear Parents

The autumnal weather certainly seems to have left us well and truly behind this week with biting winds and numerous downpours replacing it. Good use is being made of the boys’ coats and woolly hats!

Across the country, it has been ‘Anti-Bullying Week’, and our boys have been looking at school policies, having assemblies and participating in workshops too. The message was ‘change starts with us’ and I really enjoyed hearing the boys talk so passionately about what they could do to make a difference. The pledges made by 5L in their assembly were incredibly thoughtful.

Earlier on in the week I was fortunate enough to be taught by some Reception boys how to safely hammer nails into something; in this case a pumpkin. It was great to see the boys developing their fine motor skills and explaining how I should be doing it safely in such detail. I am still not allowed to hammer any nails in around our house though as I may not have always covered myself in glory when it has come to DIY previously!

The Book Fair took place on Wednesday and I really enjoyed popping over to see the great range of books available, with so many new titles and authors in amongst some of the more recognisable classics – well more recognisable to my generation anyway, even with a redesign! It was lovely to see the excitement of the boys as they flicked through the books. A love of reading and books is certainly still alive and well at Abingdon Prep.

This week saw some fantastic rugby matches against Chandlings and Abingdon School. I was lucky enough to see all of our U8 matches where our boys competed brilliantly and ended up winning all three games by just a single try or two. Both schools should be congratulated on the standard of rugby being played at that age and the obvious sportsmanship and enjoyment on show. Our seniors took on Abingdon School and our U13As and U12As both won excellent contests whilst our U12Bs managed a second half comeback to draw their match. The camaraderie on show from both schools was lovely to see as so many of the boys already knew each other from outside of school.

Tomorrow, our U10As are playing at Twickenham before the Barbarians match against Fiji. This should be an incredible occasion for them and I know they are relishing the prospect of running out on the hallowed turf.

Our new website went live this week so if you have not yet been able to have a good look at it, then please do. As you can imagine, there is a huge amount of work that goes into this and I would like to thank all of those who were involved.

Finally, I would like to take this chance to let you know about Coffee and Catch up with me next Friday morning. This will be in the drama studio between 8.15-9.15am. I do hope many of you can join me for a pastry and a hot drink.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 8 November 2019

Dear Parents

I would like to start my letter this week with a huge thank you to the JPA for all their hard work organising such an enjoyable Firestorm event last Friday evening. Even the weather played ball this year and the boys seemed to have a great time with the lightsabres and such a terrific fireworks display, accompanied by the traditional hog roast or hot dogs. Sadly the next morning’s rugby did not quite live up to its billing but the sportsmanship on show was a great example to all.

On Tuesday our Orchestra went across to Radley to join their Orchestral day and after speaking to a number of the boys, it seems they had a great day out and really enjoyed joining together with other like minded musicians, producing a terrific concert at the end of the day.

Wednesday’s assembly was a lovely reflection on Remembrance with local resident and historian, Mr Hoath, coming in to tell us of the contribution to both world wars of local people from Frilford, Marcham and Garford. It was fascinating to learn about the families that were affected and the sacrifice of so many young men, and indeed women, from the local area. We even heard about the Bond brothers who lived in Josca’s House at the time of the First World War and went off to fight on the Western Front. We have our Remembrance service on Monday and we will all come together as a community to reflect in the two minute silence.

It was lovely to welcome two of our governors into school this week and take them into some of the lessons to see what our boys were learning about. It was great to see such a range of activities going on with English presentations to the class, persuasive speech writing, Kosher food and world timezones all featuring.

Year 2 this week in RE gave presentations on something that was really special to them and all of them should be incredibly proud of the way they presented to the rest of the class and spoke so clearly with genuine passion about their chosen object. I think we may have some budding orators amongst them.

There were a full set of fixtures for our U10s and U11s this week and the boys performed admirably with an even split of wins and losses, whilst some combined A / B teams at senior level took on Bruern Abbey and played some excellent rugby against some towering 12 and 13 year olds. Thursday saw our annual U8s and U9s rugby festival take place here at APS. All the teams enjoyed their three matches and produced some very impressive free flowing rugby.

Finally, good luck to our U11 rugby team who are off tomorrow to Buckinghamshire to compete in an IAPS rugby festival and also to the boys attending the U12 and U13 Prep Schools Regional Football trials.

Best wishes

Craig

1 November 2019

Dear Parents

I do hope that you all managed to have an enjoyable half term break. It certainly feels that autumn is well and truly upon us now with misty mornings and the occasional scraping of ice off the windscreen. The boys certainly seem to have returned to school with renewed energy.

Over half term, a number of boys took part in the Abingdon Vale Biathlon and U11 Prep schools lions football trials. I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in these events and hope they enjoyed the experience. At the biathlon we achieved a Silver and Bronze medal which was a terrific effort against such strong competition.

This week saw a full range of rugby fixtures against Oratory Prep. There were impressive wins for the U13As, U13Cs and Under U11Cs and a thrilling draw for the U12As. All our teams competed admirably in fixtures against a strong rugby playing school and acquitted themselves well.

Yesterday, I observed a number of Year 6 groups presenting to their class about their findings on metric and imperial measurement in Maths. I really enjoyed learning a few new facts as well as seeing how the different groups had researched and presented their findings. Finding out why the 17th Century Swedish ship ‘Vasa’ sank on its maiden voyage was a real highlight.

Today, our Year 7s have been out of school on their classics and history trip to see the Roman Baths, in Bath. I have been there myself on numerous occasions and I know they will have really enjoyed experiencing the thermal pools and the Roman architecture in place, alongside artefact’s from the Roman period. It will certainly bring a new dimension to what they have been learning in their Latin lessons.

Today has also been Griffin’s home clothes day to celebrate winning the house merit cup last half of term. I am sure that the other three houses are looking to move up the table, so do remind your boys to collect their golds and merits.

I know the boys are very excited about Firestorm this evening and although there may be a little rain, the forecast is certainly nothing like last year! I hope to see many of you at the fireworks enjoying the hog roast and the display. Please do feel free to come along at 2pm on Saturday, should you be able, to help pick up the firework residue from the pitches – payment in pastries! Hopefully we will be discussing an England victory in the Rugby World Cup Final.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 11 October 2019

Dear Parents

It only seems like yesterday that I was writing my first letter of the term and yet we have now reached half term. I am writing this after spending two lovely days on the Jurassic Coast with the Year 8s on their geography field trip. It has been lovely to be teaching some geography again having spent numerous days on similar trips to Swanage with previous schools. The boys have been undertaking fieldwork for their geography projects and studying coastal geomorphology, dune succession and also some urban development.

The Year 5s enjoyed the real life experience of the Black Country Living Museum yesterday, supporting their learning about the Victorians. Olde worlde sweet shops and hardware stores line the streets showing them what life was really like back then. Field trips really are such a great way for the boys to further their learning and understanding of a topic.

Reception thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Cogges Farm at the start of the week and I was lucky enough to see them baking bread later in the week in the same way they had watched at the farm. It was wonderful to see them so excited before they left and again on their return. They also loved the minibus journey too – the first of many in their school careers!

On the rugby pitch this week the U8s and U9s performed brilliantly again with some great performances from all the teams against strong Oratory Prep boys, whilst our Year 5s, 6s, 7s and 8s all managed impressive results against Beachborough and our U10Ds and U11Ds battled well against strong Dragon teams.

I wanted to finish this week with a good news story. Our resident bees outside the library have been safely removed and given a new home into which they are happily settled and still working hard to make honey. As the beekeeper removed them at the end of last week from the top of courtyard, row after row of honeycomb was cut away with pure honey dripping out. The boys were very excited to see the beekeepers in their protective suits and the honeycomb being brought down. Nature really is an incredible thing.

I hope you all have a fantastic half term and enjoy a well-deserved rest. Please do remember to buy your firestorm tickets via Classlist as it takes place on the first Friday back after half term. I am certain that the weather will be kinder this year than last!

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 4 October 2019

Dear Parents

It has been a busy week of trips, talks and outings which started on Monday when our Year 8s visited The Natural History Museum for an afternoon of science. They certainly enjoyed learning about the different exhibits and the history behind them. Science turned to art on Wednesday with a fantastic art history talk from Lizzie Rowe. The boys were inspired to hear her speak so passionately about architecture and its development through time.

In lessons this week I have been treated to seeing some fantastic translation skills in Latin from our senior section and some interesting experiments with temperature variations of hot water in containers made from a range of materials. Getting hands on in lessons and seeing first hand on trips the subject in action is a wonderful way to ensure the boys are learning.

This week saw some super rugby played across all year groups with Year 4 winning all their games against The Manor, and a very positive set of results for our U10 and U11 teams against Chandlings, and our U12 and U13 teams against a very strong Cheltenham College. Last Saturday saw our U12Bs defeat Abingdon School with a brilliant 1 try victory whilst sadly our U12As match had to be stopped due to an injury to a member of the opposition, who thankfully is absolutely fine.

This afternoon, our fabulous Pre-Prep Harvest Festival took place. The boys performed with admirable gusto and shared some of their lovely work about harvest. It was a great way to end the week and celebrate the beginning of autumn. Thank you to all of the parents who generously contributed gifts of food which will be shared with those in need in the local community.

It was also the MCS Challenge Quiz for some of our Year 5 and 6s today. The boys were selected after undertaking some general knowledge quiz questions last week. I am sure they will have performed extremely well and enjoyed the opportunity to test their wider general knowledge skills.

I am looking forward to seeing all the boys at Open Morning tomorrow. I know that our Year 7s will enjoy touring our guests around school and sharing with them their experiences of school life. It is a great opportunity to show off all the wonderful things that go on at Abingdon Prep.

Finally, I would like to wish good luck to our U13 footballers who are competing tomorrow at the IAPS Regional qualifiers.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 27 September 2019

Dear Parents

The long awaited autumn rain has arrived this week but it was certainly needed to help the playing fields soften up and indeed all of our gardens.

I am currently away at the IAPS Heads Conference and it has been a great opportunity to hear about educational issues across the sector and listen to some fascinating guest speakers.

It has been another busy week at school with our U8s and U9s taking centre stage on the rugby pitch with their matches yesterday. The boys continue to impress with their positive approach to matches and once again had some strong results.

Tomorrow sees our U12s take on Abingdon School during their Open Morning so it will be a lovely spectacle for visitors to see on their way around the senior school site.

The first House meetings of terms took place on Wednesday and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the boys working on their group exercises. The construction task with spaghetti and marshmallows was a particular highlight with tetrahedron shapes abounding as the structures rose higher and higher. Some budding engineers are certainly in the making!

I enjoyed catching up with many Year 3 and Year 4 parents at the parents’ evening on Tuesday. It was good to hear that the boys had settled in well and were making the most of the opportunities available to them through our Other Half activities.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 20 September 2019

Dear Parents

This week has been safety week at school with a number of themed assemblies around the subject of keeping yourself safe, both in and out of school. I thought it an opportune moment to share with you a website supported by the NSPCC for parents to keep as up to date as possible with social media apps and games, as this can be a minefield for parents, whether you are tech savvy or not: https://www.net-aware.org.uk/

I managed to pop up to Court Hill Centre yesterday evening to catch up with our Year 4 boys on their first ever residential trip, walking along The Ridgeway. They were very excited to be away from home and thoroughly enjoyed the evening activity of playing in the woods and the hearty dinner that was served up afterwards. I am told that they slept well too, unsurprisingly after expending their energies walking in the beautiful sunshine. They have been undertaking some science and geography over the course of the two days away, as well as enjoying each other’s company.

Perhaps my highlight of the week was reading to our Reception class for the first time. They showed amazing listening skills and seemed to really enjoy the story. They have settled in wonderfully well in their first full week of school, even if they are going home very tired after their exciting days of learning!

All of our Year 3s have now represented Abingdon Prep in their first inter-school matches, and with a great degree of success. Last Saturday they managed to win 4 and draw 1 of their festival matches, and with all the boys involved on Tuesday against The Manor, they secured 3 good wins as well. More importantly, they certainly seemed to be enjoying representing the school and all of them got fully involved. In our 11 Wednesday fixtures against Pinewood, some very competitive rugby was played with a fairly even split of wins and losses. Our U13As competed at the St Hugh’s tournament where they too had a successful day with 3 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. The coaches report that great progress has been made already, even with the lack of contact practice due to the hard ground.

Abingdon School’s early season cross country event took place on Thursday and our boys enjoyed their first run out of the season. They performed admirably to finish in 3rd place in what were very warm conditions for cross country.

It would appear that we are due a change of weather next week so I hope that you will all take the opportunity to enjoy a lovely weekend out and about in the sunshine, and please do remind your boys to bring a coat with them next week for break times.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 13 September 2019

Dear Parents

The Indian summer seems to be continuing apace and the boys are enjoying making new friends and getting back into the routines of school life.

Our Year 6s all returned safely from their very successful Bushcraft trip last weekend. They came back on Saturday morning still covered in their camouflage cream, tired but full of great stories about their trip. I am certain there were a few overworked washing machines once all their bags had been emptied!

We had our first class pairings on Wednesday which was based around the theme of construction. It was great to see the older boys partnering up with the younger ones building Lego models, Knex towers and wooden block bridges. It looked like the older boys were enjoying constructing these things even more than the younger ones!

Our first singing practice took place with Adam Treadaway on Tuesday. He certainly made a great first impression with the boys. The sight of him rapping ‘Old Abraham Brown’ whilst stood on stage grabbed the boys' attention for sure as they went on to rap themselves in different groups, even with a few harmonies included.

The first rugby fixtures of the season took place this Wednesday with our U13As at the Dragon festival whilst ten other teams travelled across to St Hugh’s for a series of training matches. Our U12As stood out with a terrific result but it was lovely to see so many boys out in the sunshine proudly representing Abingdon Prep. Our U9s had their first ever contact matches on Thursday, and really improved their understanding of tackling and contact situations. Tomorrow, some of our U8s have their first ever rugby festival at Cheltenham and I wish them the very best of luck as they start to play in competitive fixtures at school.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the informal parents evening on Tuesday. It was lovely to catch up with many of you and hear how the term has started for your boys. Hopefully the form teacher information sessions were helpful and the routines of school life, in a new year group are working well.

After our parents evening we met for the JPA AGM. It was great to see so many of our new class reps there as work begins to prepare for the upcoming events – Firestorm being the first of these on the 1st November. Please do keep an eye out for further information about ticketing in the next few weeks.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend in the sunshine and I look forward to seeing many of you at the school gate next week.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 6 September 2019

Dear Parents

It has been a fantastic start to term with all of our boys settling into the routines of school life very well, as indeed have our new staff! One of my highlights has been seeing so many smiling faces as the boys have come into school every morning. I have heard about lots of holiday adventures and even shared some of my own holiday memories with the boys in the first assembly of term.

It was so refreshing to see how quickly all of the boys have settled back into work as I walked around the school on Wednesday morning with Mr Windsor. We witnessed Year 8 undertaking some creative writing based on an image of a coloured glass building, we enjoyed learning about The Darién Gap (the break across the South American and North American continents) with Year 6, we saw portraits drawn by Reception, who have settled in brilliantly, and then created faces with playdough, wood, buttons, pipe cleaners and anything else we could lay our hands on. We were then treated to seeing the Year 7s undertaking their art assessment, drawing a wide variety of sports equipment. They produced some amazing results.

The rugby season has got underway with training sessions for all of the boys in Years 3 to 8. We are hoping for a little more rain (unheard of I know) to soften the ground a little further before matches start next week.

Our Year 6s have been out this week on a two night residential at Cornbury Park for their Bushcraft experience. They have been exploring the outdoors, learning survival skills and building shelters, and the bravest of souls even chose to sleep out in them on the first night. I look forward to hearing all about their exploits upon their return on Saturday. Fingers crossed they missed the showers that were around this morning.

Our Other Half activities programme got underway immediately this week with golf, cricket nets, art club, drama workshops, cookery (where they made some superb pinwheels), gardening club, outdoor explorers, swimming, amazing avatars and senior choir to name but a few. We are incredibly proud of our programme which the boys love taking part in and refine their skills or even learn new ones. It is a hugely valuable part of our educational offering.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that Lil Pullen has taken on the role of SENCO this year in the learning support department. Sarah Eastaugh, our previous SENCO, will continue to play a full role in the department supporting our boys and I would like to thank her for all the excellent work she has done in her time as SENCO.

If I have not been able to catch up with you at the front gate in the mornings, I hope that I will see many of you at the informal drinks evening on Tuesday next week. During the course of the evening, you will also be taken to your son’s classroom where their form teacher will provide you with information on what to expect for the year ahead.

The Long Term Plans / Curriculum Overviews for each year group are available to view on the website if you should so wish. These are designed to give you an idea of what the boys will be covering in lessons over the course of the term.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you next week.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 30 August 2019

Dear Parents

I hope you have all had a great summer holiday and that your boys, and yourselves, are looking forward to getting back to a new academic year at Abingdon Prep. We will have 34 new pupils joining our community and I know that they will be warmly welcomed. I am looking forward to meeting with many of their parents tonight at our new parents drinks and also to catching up with all of those parents who can make the welcome drinks on Tuesday 10 September or indeed at the front gate in the mornings.

We are welcoming a number of new staff to school this term too. Zehra Kelly joins us as our junior science teacher and forest school coordinator, Aimee Whitehouse as our Year 1 teacher, Adam Treadaway as acting Director of Music and our two new Gaps, Tom Ettridge and Henry Muller. Tom finished at Bradfield College this summer and is a very talented cricketer and all round sportsman whilst Henry, who finished at Abingdon School this summer, has recently returned from performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and is a talented oarsman. Debbie Mundy is joining our nursing team. They are all looking forward to getting started and meeting our boys.

The holidays have flown by and I very much enjoyed hearing about some of the boys’ adventures at our well attended pre-season rugby training this week. Personally, I have spent much of the holidays chasing round the house trying to keep up with my energetic 15 month old. I may also have rather enjoyed the cricketing bonanza this summer has offered, and continues to do so, with two remaining Ashes Test matches to play!

I look forward to catching up with many of you over the course of the coming days.

Best wishes

Craig