Head’s Letters

Friday 15 February 2019

Dear Parents

As I made my way in to school this morning in the sunshine, I was reflecting on what a super first half of term we have had. Of course, incredibly busy but I would not want it any other way. As this half term comes to an end, I could not have been prouder of the Abingdon Prep boys after the Junior Section’s quite amazing production, ‘Dragon Days’, which they performed to parents last night. The standard of singing and acting was amazing for boys who are only 7, 8 or 9 years old and their delivery of lines, alongside comic timing made for a quite brilliant evening. The boys should be very proud of themselves.

On Tuesday we sent a large group of boys from Years 3-6 to the Chandlings cross-country event where there were over 500 pupils competing. There were some very creditable individual and team performances and I know Ashley was delighted with the effort that all the boys put in.

Wednesday saw a range of U10 and U11 teams take on Christ Church with the U10s coming away with some very impressive wins. Our senior boys took on Cokethorpe after school on Thursday and played some of the highest quality football, with strong wins for our U13 A, B and U12 B teams whilst our U12 As went down 5-4 in a thrilling encounter.

Our Year 8s continue to be busy both inside and outside of the classroom with Music and Sports scholarships undertaken at Abingdon School this week. I look forward to sharing news of our hoped for successes in the coming weeks.

Please could I ask that you take a few moments at half term to complete our website survey. Your feedback is always welcomed to help continue to improve our methods of communication and giving information about the school to current and prospective parents alike. Please follow this link.

I hope that you will all have a restful and enjoyable half term. After a few very early starts with Quinn this week I am certainly looking forward to relaxing at home and enjoying this lovely February sunshine.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 8 February 2019

Dear Parents

After the snow of last Friday, it has been good to get back to our normal wet and windy February weather! It has been a very busy week for all of the year groups and I thoroughly enjoyed popping into lessons this week to see how the boys were getting on. I was particularly impressed with some of the detailed explanations of relief rainfall and the rain shadow given to me by Year 6, following on from some impressive number work in Reception.

Pre-Prep have been busily working towards achieving their individual targets and I was able to present to many of them their launch flames (target achieved) for their rocket. Year 1 took it a step further and even built a rocket this week with cockpits and control panels all fully formed. It was great to learn about the way they had acted as a team to pull it all together and the time lapse images of this were a hit with all.

In hymn practice this week, Charlie performed a beautiful rendition of Walking in the Air, by Howard Blake, whilst playing the piano too. It is great to see the musicality of so many of our boys coming through, alongside their passion for it. Musically it has been a busy few weeks with eight of our Year 8 boys sitting for music scholarships, a culmination of all their hard work practising and performing over many years. Scholarship season has well and truly begun.

On Tuesday, three of our Year 6 boys represented APS at Oratory’s ‘Let’s Debate’ competition where they produced incredibly well received speeches about a range of topics from corporal punishment to the banning of all homework! Public speaking is never easy and it is lovely to witness the confidence with which so many of our boys are blessed when it comes to standing in front of an audience.

On the sports field our Year 5 and 6s had their first hockey matches of term, with a visit to the Dragon on Monday and the In2Hockey county tournament today for the U11s. The U10s performed admirably in their first ever matches and clearly enjoyed the opportunity to play a new sport against another school.

On the football pitch the boys took on Oratory Prep in Years 5 to 8 and yet again we had some terrific performances from all year groups. The highlight was a fantastic 1-0 victory to our U13As, who had never beaten OPS before on the football pitch and both coaches were waxing lyrical about the incredible standard of football produced by both teams.

The Junior Section has been busily rehearsing all week in the lead up to ‘Dragon Days’ next Thursday. I think the audience will be in for a treat having heard some of the songs being sung in rehearsals. I look forward to seeing many of you at the show.

I hope you all have a great weekend and steer clear from the multitude of coughs and colds that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment.

Best wishes

Craig

Monday 4 February 2019

Dear Parents

Apologies for the delayed letter this week. Friday was a little different with all the beautiful snow. For those that were able to make it in, we had a lovely day with a combination of academic lessons, swimming, PE and time to play in the snow. Hopefully some pictures of the boys and their snowmen might make it onto the website in the next few days. It certainly brought back a few very happy childhood memories of snow days I had experienced at school.

Prior to the snow on Friday, the boys had been busy with a range of activities. On Thursday, Reception, along with Years 1, 2 and 3 participated in Chinese Dance workshops. It was lovely to watch the boys perform their routines with parasols and fans, being gracefully guided by the dance teacher. The boys really entered into the spirit of the dance and produced some delightful shapes and patterns with their props. They certainly seemed to enjoy the experience and learnt a little more about Chinese culture.

Drama has been taking centre stage in our junior section this week as they have been busily rehearsing for their production, ‘Dragon Days’. If these early rehearsals are anything to go by, the performance in a fortnight should be well worth a watch.

A range of matches took place this week with our U11s and U10s taking on St Hugh’s, whilst our U8s and U9s played against Oratory Prep (and Claire’s Court for the U9s). The U8s and U9s played some lovely football in the bitter cold with the highlight being a 4-3 win for the U8C team. The U11 teams won two and lost two whilst our four U10 teams all came away with victories. Our 13A and B teams enjoyed impressive wins against Oratory School on the football pitch whilst the U13 and U12 hockey teams played their first fixtures against Cothill, with the 13s losing and the 12s winning. Despite the cold conditions, it was great to have so many boys out on the pitches representing Abingdon Prep so well.

Sadly, the Saturday ‘Painting Masterclass’ Art Workshop had to be postponed due to the weather. The plans sounded very exciting with a scientific methodology in place using pipette painting as just one of the techniques being introduced.

The weather also put paid to our JPA Quiz night on Friday. At least this should give the staff team a little more time to swat up on their general knowledge before we can reschedule it.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and perhaps some of you even got to use those toboggans tucked away in the corner of the garage. Quinn was certainly transfixed by this whole new experience of snow as I pulled him around on our newly purchased sled!

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 25 January 2019

Dear Parents

Winter seems to have finally bitten this week with frozen ground and snow and ice taking hold. I must admit to some nervousness as the snowflakes fell more heavily and seemed to get larger on Tuesday afternoon with our inspection due the next day. Fortunately all the staff and pupils were able to make it into school on Wednesday!

I wanted to start my letter this week by thanking Tommy in Year 7 for his brilliant assembly about HMS Triumph’s disappearance in WW2 and his participation in the HMS Triumph Association. The boys were riveted listening to the story of his great-great-uncle’s missing submarine and the association’s role in tracking down members of the crew’s family today to celebrate and honour those brave men.

We have welcomed two ISI inspectors to APS this week and undertaken our compliance inspection. I will be able to share their findings with you all once they are formally released to us. This process is likely to take up to 6 weeks. It was a lovely opportunity to share so much of what we do in school with educational professionals.

On the football pitch this week all of our Year 5 and 6 boys played in matches against Pinewood and despite the freezing conditions, were able to play some very closely contested matches. Our U11 groups managed two wins, one draw and one loss whilst our 10s finished with one win, one draw and two losses. On Tuesday some very intrepid cross country runners took on the snow and freezing temperatures to compete in the first cross country event of the term. An impressive 2nd place team finish was achieved with APS boys coming home individually in 1st, 3rd and 5th places.

Today has seen a number of boys sit their LAMDA exams which they have all been working so hard towards. I look forward to seeing some more excellent results when they come in.

Pre-Prep have also had a very interesting day today with a visit from the Planetarium. They learnt about star gazing and the different constellations, they found out that a number of planets were currently visible to us and they also discussed the possibilities of alien life forms. What an exciting day at school this was!

The first concert platform is taking place this evening after school and I know that many or our boys sitting music scholarships later in the term will be performing, so it will undoubtedly be a wonderful occasion and a lovely way to finish off the week.

Our Annual Quiz Night organised by the JPA is scheduled for next Friday, but we are currently a little light on numbers, so please can I encourage you to sign up and join us for a very enjoyable evening, with quiz master Rob.

I hope you all have a good weekend and that the cold temperatures do not stop you from getting out and about.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 18 January 2019

Dear Parents

I hope you have all had a good week despite the cold weather and the boys are certainly very well settled back into the routines of school life.

Mike Windsor and I enjoyed popping in to see some lessons yesterday morning and it was refreshing to see the boys working hard in each and every room we entered. Year 7 were undertaking some tricky algebra whilst Year 5 were solving time word problems in their Maths lesson. Some challenging distance calculations and 6 figure grid references using OS maps were being undertaken by a Year 8 group. There was a genuine sense of purpose and enthusiasm from all the boys as they worked their way through the questions. 8R, meanwhile, have been very busy this week sitting their mock scholarship exams and I know they will be looking forward to getting back their results to see how they are progressing.

Today, I presented a number of flames to our boys in Pre-Prep for achieving the first stage of their specific target. They are building up a rocket because they are ‘aiming to fly through the stars to get to the moon’. The display should be spectacular as they all move towards achieving their aims. They also got to place some ‘moon rock’ in their house collector jars so we shall see how quickly we can fill those up too.

Yesterday, the boys took part in a series of E-safety workshops running throughout the day. In the evening, there was an excellent talk to parents with so many useful tips for keeping our children safe online. This is such an important topic to discuss and to be fully aware of the issues surrounding it, both for boys and parents and something that is regularly revisited within school. I hope that you will have received an email too from us with some useful websites for parents to use and a checklist for parents to help keep their child safe online.

Football matches this week saw all of our Year 5s and 6s take on Chandlings in the first games of the season. Eight competitive games were played with an even split of wins and losses with both teams competing in exactly the right spirit. There were five matches for our Year 7s and 8s against Davenies, resulting in four wins and one loss with the boys starting off the season in a very positive fashion, despite the rain and rather chilly conditions. Good luck to our Year 6s who are taking on The Dragon tomorrow.

I would again like to take this opportunity to remind parents that they should ensure that when crossing the car park with children that they stick to the hashed lines. Drivers should also please take great care in this area and ensure they are not crossing the hashed lines adjacent to the parking spaces. The safety of everyone using our car park is of paramount importance to us.

I hope you all have a good weekend planned and I look forward to catching some of you on the touchline tomorrow.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 11 January 2019

Dear Parents

I hope that you have all had a great Christmas holiday and enjoyed the start to 2019. It was lovely to welcome the boys back to school on Tuesday and hear about what they had been getting up to in the holidays and about some of their exciting Christmas presents. I was lucky enough to be given a crocodile keeper for the day experience as one of my presents and I was able to get up close and personal with crocodiles and alligators. Feeding them was certainly an experience!

As we should probably expect, despite the unusually seasonal end to 2018, the cold weather is very much back with us so it is good to see so many boys in hats and coats of a morning and at break times. Hopefully this will help to keep those winter colds at bay for a little longer.

School has started back with a bang with all our Other Half activities starting from the first day of term and the boys working hard in lessons. I particularly enjoyed seeing our Year 3s this week experimenting in Science with forces and measuring different forces applied by objects on the newton meter. This followed on from the class pairings where my highlight was a series of chess matches between the Year 5s and the Year 8s which were of a very high quality. Scrabble also proved popular with the Year 4 and Year 7 groupings. Old School games certainly still have a place in our boys' lives.

My first assembly on Tuesday was all about New Year's resolutions and taking the targets from the boys’ reports in the autumn term and trying to address them at the beginning of this term. Hard work and a focus on improving our effort grades was the message that the boys came back with.

Our boys in Griffin were able to celebrate their Merit point’s victory from the last half of term with a home clothes day today which has been greatly enjoyed. Having signed off a number of golds today, it looks like there will be a strong number of merits generated this half of term too.

We had a very successful pre-season football morning on the Friday before term started with 37 Year 5 and 6 boys attending and 28 Year 7 and 8 boys. It was great to see them so enthused about the upcoming season and working hard on their skills. We are looking forward to matches starting next week.

Please could I ask that with the dark evenings still very much in force that all parents who are picking up at about 4.15pm are aware of all the minibuses moving around the site and take great care when crossing over the car park to collect and leave with their children.

If I have not seen you at the front gate yet this term then I will take this opportunity to wish you all a belated Happy New Year.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 14 December 2018

Dear Parents

We have reached the end of the Michaelmas term and what a great term it has been. On Wednesday I shared a montage of photos from the term with the boys (it is now live on the website) and it was a lovely reminder of all the amazing things the boys have been involved with since September.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Abingdon Prep carol service this week. It never ceases to amaze me how musical our boys are. It was wonderful to hear all of them sing so well and the musicians were equally impressive throughout. The reindeer playing the trumpet was just one of the highlights for me!

The Debating and Public Speaking competition took place for our Year 6, 7 and 8s this week and we had topics such as the death of Stan Lee, President Macron’s current troubles, and a debate on both the current Brexit deal and also whether the human race is doomed or not. All the boys who took part were incredibly impressive and spoke with clarity and confidence.

Christmas lunch took place yesterday and huge thanks go to our catering team for producing such a lovely spread – turkey with all the trimmings followed by Christmas pudding or jelly and cream. The boys certainly seemed to enjoy the occasion and the boys I sat with were looking at it as a warm up for the real event on the 25th. Pigs in blankets probably came out as the most looked forward to part of any Christmas lunch!

Also yesterday, we had our inaugural Gifts for Grown Ups. The boys really seemed to enjoy the freedom of choosing gifts for the adults in their lives on their own. Fingers crossed most of you will enjoy their selections! Thank you so much to our amazing parent body who gave up their day to man the tables and organise the event.

Out of school a couple of the boys have been performing to large audiences on stage and on the ice. Yumi has been treading the boards in ‘The Pied Piper’ and Lucas has been skating in the Oxford Ice Rink Christmas Show. It is great to hear of our boys sharing their talents with the wider general public.

Griffin was victorious in the house points competition this half of term and will, I am sure, enjoy their home clothes day on their return in January.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and enjoy the festive season, whether you are staying at home with family or jetting off to exciting foreign soils. I am looking forward to spending time with Hannah, Quinn and Dizzy, and celebrating our first Christmas with Quinn.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 7 December 2018

Dear Parents

Where else can I start my letter for this week than with the quite brilliant Nativity that was performed on Wednesday afternoon by our Pre-Prep. As I said on the day, it was quite possibly the most professional show of this ilk that I have seen. The boys knew every one of their lines, knew where they should be moving around the stage and their singing was super too. It was a real triumph, or perhaps I should say, #epic, as a nod to the performance!

Yesterday saw a debut assembly for Natasha as her class, 6N, gave their assembly about Christmas literature, with an outline of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and a poetry recital of ‘Twas the night before Christmas’. Throw in an interview with Santa, or Nick as he likes to be called, and we had all the ingredients for a great assembly. However, to round it off, there was full audience participation of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, with parts listed out for all sections of the school. As the words to the song scrolled along the projector, I was slightly horrified to see my name appear for a solo on the ‘10 Lords a-Leaping’ line. I duly sung out my line with as much gusto as I could manage but quite frankly when it was the senior and chamber choir next up, they put me to shame.

This morning I popped into a fascinating talk to Year 5 on ‘Satellites and Space’ from one of our current parents. I certainly learnt a huge amount and the boys had numerous questions of their own. It made me realise just how much we take technology for granted and how much satellites in space influence our lives. I think we may have a number of boys now who might love to explore a career in this field.

Today our Pre-Prep all went on a trip to Roves Farm. The levels of excitement were palpable as they lined up to get on the coach, coats and hats at the ready as the rain began to fall. They came back just as excited after having a brilliant time dressing up and having been in Santa’s grotto.

Last Saturday saw us take on Cothill in the U10, 11, 12 and 13 As. A successful afternoon followed with 3 wins and a draw, rounding off a super season of rugby for all the boys.

This Saturday sees our third and final Art Workshop of the term. Once again it has proved to be extremely popular. This time they will be focusing on sculpture with papier-mâché modelling and if the past two events are anything to go by, the results of their efforts will again be amazing.

Carol service rehearsals are in full swing, and I am looking forward to welcoming many of you to St Helen’s Church on Tuesday evening. Please be aware of the parking in Abingdon as there is no parking outside the church.

Our Gifts for Grown Ups preparation goes on apace and the boys are certainly excited to be chatting about their choices of presents for the grown-ups in their lives. Thanks to all the JPA and other parents who are working tirelessly to make this such a lovely event.

Next week sees us enter the final week of term with our House debating, Christmas lunch, end of term assemblies, carol service and of course, end of term reports! I hope the boys will all enjoy a restful weekend in preparation for what promises to be a wonderful final week of term.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 30 November 2018

Dear Parents

I thought I should start my letter this week with reference to the brilliant Bazaar last Saturday. The newly created games in the hall were a great success and I particularly enjoyed the floating balls on the penguins that needed to be knocked down. The generosity of our wider parent body never ceases to amaze me with so many kind donations towards the raffle and other stalls.

This week each of the four Houses were asked to choose their House Charity. Members of the House presented charities that were close to their hearts and then the boys voted for the one that they felt they would like to support for this year. They then discussed how they could raise money for it over the coming terms. Some interesting ideas were generated, so watch this space!

The first swimming gala of term took place on Monday after school at The Dragon for the U9s, 10s, 11s, 12s and U13s. The boys really enjoyed testing themselves against other strong swimmers from the local circuit and produced an excellent set of results.

Rugby matches against Magdalen College took place this week with all boys in the U8s, 9s, 10s and 11s again representing school. Despite the conditions being taxing, our 10s and 11s won 6 of their 8 fixtures and our U8s and 9s won 3 of their 6 fixtures, with 2 very exciting draws in monsoon conditions! All of the boys have improved so much over the course of the term. House matches took place for the senior section whilst the U13C team journeyed to Cheltenham College for their first rugby tournament. They came away with medals having scored a try in every match that they played. Tomorrow sees our final rugby matches of the term against Cothill. Good luck to all the boys who are playing.

On Wednesday our Year 3 and 4 classes journeyed to to The Oxford Playhouse for their annual pantomime trip. This year they watched ‘Dick Whittington’ and came back very excited about the fantastic performance. With December only a day away, we can now start to use the Christmas word. My wife has already booked me in to search for our Christmas tree early tomorrow morning!

Coats and hats are a must now and with the forecast set to stay cold and wet over the next few weeks, it will be important for the boys to have them in school and hopefully prevent the Christmas colds that always seem to surface at this time of year.

Now the dark nights (and mornings) are well and truly set in, please could I ask that if you are escorting a child across the playground parking area that you stick to the yellow hashed lines as these are there as walkways to keep everyone safe.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 23 November 2018

Dear Parents

It was lovely to chat with so many parents this morning at coffee and catch up. The pastries certainly helped in taking the edge off the cold weather outside. I am not sure we are giving Costa a run for their money just yet but the company was excellent!

On Wednesday it was great to see our boys take such pride in contributing to our charity silver coin trail for Thames Valley Air Ambulance. We were very lucky to have two of their brilliant staff come to the event and see the boys placing their coins to form a helicopter and they were delighted to be able to chat to the boys. There were so many coins that we also had to fill the letters of Thames Valley Air Ambulance and a late addition of ‘APS’ to ensure all the coins had a place to sit. I know their staff were touched by the generosity of our boys and I know that their work is incredibly valuable to the wider Oxfordshire community.

Rugby tournaments took centre stage this week with our U13s taking part in our own APS 7s tournament and the Pinewood 7s tournament, whilst our U12s tested themselves against very strong opposition at the St Edward's tournament. Our U11s worked just as hard at the Cokethorpe tournament too. A lot of rugby, a lot of camaraderie and an even mix of wins, losses and draws. Tomorrow morning sees our U11As and U13As take on Taunton Prep School who are here on tour. I look forward to welcoming Taunton as I taught there for 10 years before moving back up to the Home Counties.

I think you can tell when the Christmas season truly has started at Abingdon Prep as the Bazaar comes round and the Christmas tree goes up in the hall. The boy’s excitement has been tangible today in anticipation of the Lego bundles in the raffle, the games, Headmaster for the day, and possibly even a few sweets from the tombolas. In a foolish moment of weakness I think I agreed yesterday to even put my head in the stocks for a short while but I am sure nobody will want to throw too many sponges at me! I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at the event. Many thanks to our amazing JPA, Katie and the CDT department, John, and all our other kind helpers and staff who have once again made this event possible. I would like to make special mention of Paul Wentworth too who has made so many of the marvellous games that the boys will be running in the hall after most of our previous ones were damaged in a flood. His efforts and expertise are hugely appreciated.

Next week sees the ABRSM exams on Monday so good luck to those sitting them and getting in some extra practice this weekend, after the Bazaar of course!

Best wishes

Craig