Head’s Letters

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

Friday 16 November 2018

Dear Parents

I would like to start my letter this week with a ‘congratulations’ to all those hardy individuals who braved the weather last Friday and made it to Firestorm. Despite the wind and rain, the evening was thoroughly enjoyable and the display excellent. I am hugely grateful to the JPA and other volunteers who enabled this event to be such a success.

This week has been Anti-bullying week, starting with an odd sock day to celebrate being different and ending in workshops about bullying with the overarching theme of Respect. 5L gave a fantastic assembly reading poetry, and talking about what respect means to them. They also produced a video of interviews with pupils and staff here about what they thought respect looked like. It is always extremely powerful when these messages come from the pupils themselves.

The Book Fair got underway this week and it was great to see the boys so excited by the books on offer. This tied in incredibly well with our Year 7s Dragon Den project of second hand book sales and that too is going extremely well. Baby Quinn has been the beneficiary of three lovely books, all of which live strong in memories of my childhood – The Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh and Aesop’s Fables. Entrepreneurship is alive and well at Abingdon Prep!

Please do remind the boys about our silver coin trail next week to raise money for the Thames Air Ambulance service. Last year’s trail was incredible and I am sure that we will match it this year too.

Our Senior Section took on Abingdon School on the rugby pitch this week and some excellent rugby took place with wins for our U12As, U13As and U13Bs and defeats for our U12 B and C teams. It was great to have such a friendly match tea afterwards with boys and parents from both parts of the Foundation happily chatting away. These are relationships that will continue for years to come and just one of the many reasons we enjoy match teas so much! Our U8s and U9s all represented the school in matches against Chandlings on Tuesday with wins for all the U9s and losses for the U8s in some very entertaining matches. I really enjoyed seeing our U8s get ‘stuck in’ with their tag tackling and representing the school so well. Our U10s played in the Abingdon Festival at Tilsley Park on Monday evening and stepped up their level of performance greatly from previous weeks to register four wins and just one loss. The boys loved playing under floodlights!

With the weather due to turn colder next week, please encourage the boys to bring in their hats and coats for break times. The leaves are almost off all the trees and winter is setting in with the dark nights curtailing some of our outdoor Other Half activities. I look forward to seeing many of our Year 6s across at Abingdon School tomorrow for their taster morning.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 9 November 2018

Dear Parents

There are some occasions as head of a Prep school where you feel even more proud of the children than normal, and this week has seen two occasions where this has most certainly been the case.

Yesterday, 5S gave a wonderful assembly reflecting on World War One and the sacrifices of so many men and women. The names of the 27 Abingdon School pupils and staff that died were read out. They then explained how the arts had been impacted by the war, looking at paintings by artists such as Nash, Butler and Orpen, as well as the poetry of Sassoon, Binyon and Blunden. A selection of Year 8 boys then read out poems that they had written about the trench warfare that cost the lives of so many. They were incredibly moving and really reflected an understanding of the hardships and camaraderie of the troops involved. Our two minute silence today was immaculately observed and our Year 8 trumpeter played the Last Post quite beautifully. These commemorations put so many of our own worries into perspective.

Sadly, I was unable to witness first hand our senior choir’s incredible performance at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday, but I am so proud of them for simply being involved. Our boys returned absolutely buzzing from the experience and by all accounts the concert was quite simply stunning and what an incredible opportunity for our boys to support pupils with special needs and sing as a massed choir at such a venue. Huge thanks to Debbie and her team for orchestrating this wonderful event for our boys.

Continuing the musical theme, our second concert platform of the term took place last Friday and as always we had a fabulous range of musicians perform, with percussion taking a lead role this time around. Potential music scholars performed alongside those just starting out on their musical journeys and the audience was certainly appreciative of their efforts.

Our Year 8s were away on Monday and Tuesday on their Geography Field Trip to Swanage to study the Jurassic coastline, with the stunning views of Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. They came back tired after the long walks but full of geographical knowledge and having produced some stunning sketches too.

The art workshop last Saturday saw our boys etching designs from the natural world into glass before adding colour and printing onto a range of mediums. They were stunning and even baby Quinn, who came along with me to see them in action, seemed to be very impressed!

Rugby matches this week saw us take on a range of schools with a number of mixed teams out to match the strength of our opponents from Bruern Abbey and Christ Church Cathedral School. Our U10, U11, U12 and U13 teams achieved a raft of very positive victories, with our U10s performing really well, continuing their strong performances after their efforts at the MCS festival earlier in the week. Yesterday, our U8s and U9s competed in the Abingdon Prep rugby festival with lots of quick-fire fixtures and some great rugby played by all the schools which attended. For those boys not involved, there was an inter school tag tournament which was just as fiercely contested!

Next week is our Anti Bullying week and there are a number of activities planned for all of the different age groups. The theme for the week is RESPECT. It is so important that our boys appreciate the impact that their words and actions can have on others, both positively and negatively, and that showing respect towards everyone is a key part of any community.

Despite the very ordinary weather forecast for this evening, we are all looking forward to Firestorm and the lightsabers and hog roast that come before. Fingers crossed the high winds stay away tonight and I look forward to seeing many of you at the event. Huge thanks to the JPA and all other volunteers for helping to put this together for our boys.

I also wanted to mention that I will be having a Coffee and Catch up morning on Friday 23 November. This will be in the Drama Studio between 8.15-9am. It would be lovely to chat to anyone who is free and fancies an early coffee and even a pastry of some description. An additional reminder will go out in the weekly mailing, next week.

I hope you all have a lovely, restful weekend after such a busy week for the boys, and fingers crossed for good weather this evening.

Best wishes

Craig

A Year 8 poem from yesterday’s assembly, which I wanted to share with you all:

The Poppy Field

As the sun comes up
They head down
To the trenches far below
Then they sit and wait
For hours on end
Hoping they won’t have to go.

But the time does come
When they have to climb
Out of their little safe place
And avoid being killed
By the bloodthirsty shots
That pepper the unknown space.

And when they hear
The whistle blow
And run into no-man’s land
They have to face
The bombs and gas
With only a gun in hand.

And once they’ve shot
And killed a few
They run back to their side
And keep on doing this
Again and again
Until everyone has died.

And then one day
The fighting stopped
And the soldiers returned to their wives
And no-man’s land
Became a field
Where poppies were the only lives.

Friday 2 November 2018

Dear Parents

I hope that everyone had a very enjoyable half term break and it was lovely to see the boys bouncing back into school refreshed from their holidays. The weather has certainly turned colder this week and the darker nights are most definitely upon us.

On Tuesday, the Junior section had a fascinating assembly given to them by Suzanne about the origins of Halloween. The boys and I certainly learnt much about the Celts and Druids and the evolution of Halloween, Turnip Carving and Soul Cakes.

On Wednesday, our wonderful grounds team, led by Richard, travelled to Birmingham for an awards ceremony celebrating the best kept school grounds in England. Abingdon Foundation came second which is a fantastic and well-earned recognition. We really are fortunate to have such amazing sports pitches and superbly kept grounds across both school sites and I would like to thank the team for all of their hard work keeping our school looking superb and our pitches in such immaculate condition.

Yesterday our boys in Year 5-8 were given an excellent interactive talk from Alicia Drummond about a vital aspect of life – Resilience. Alicia gave the boys some great advice and our boys really enjoyed the interactive nature of her talk and the important message that she put across. Trying to eat an apple without removing your mouth from it was certainly a challenge! Do ask the boys about the acronym GRIT and what each letter stands for. Resilience is something that all our children will need to really make the most of their abilities. The bouncebackability of the minion balloon was also a winner.

Today saw Dragon House celebrate their victory in the house merit cup with a home clothes day and our Reception boys had a talk from a dentist first thing, so I am sure their teeth brushing tonight should be much improved!

Midweek matches this week saw our Middle and Senior section boys take on Oratory Prep in some very hard fought matches against strong opposition. There were some super performances which saw close matches being shaded by Oratory but our U12 As won a very high quality game 20-15. Our U9s took on St Hugh’s with all of the boys involved again and some more very close matches ensued with APS winning 1, losing 1 and drawing 1.

I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank all our fabulous volunteer parents who come into school to help with all manner of events, especially at this time of year with preparations for Firestorm, the Christmas Bazaar and Gifts for Grown-ups which all take a huge amount of time and effort to organise. Our JPA committee and form reps are all busying themselves to put everything in place for the boys for these exciting events in the upcoming weeks. I would also like to mention all of our wonderful library volunteers who help to ensure our boys continue to love their books. As with all staffing appointments, we always undertake the necessary checks and processes to ensure that our boys and indeed the volunteers themselves are always kept safe.

Richard joined us this week as our Abingdon Prep Porter so you may well see him out in the car park of a morning in a high vis jacket and working around the school. Please do say hello and welcome him into our community.

Next week is one of the busiest of the term with the Year 8 Geography residential trip to Swanage, our choir singing in the combined schools buddy choir concert at The Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday and Firestorm and our own Remembrance Service on Friday.

Tomorrow we have our second Saturday Sculpture Workshop of the term for Year 7 and 8 pupils, and I am looking forward to popping in and seeing what the boys are producing.

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 12 October 2018

Dear Parents

The warm weather made a welcome return this week with some beautifully autumnal misty mornings greeting us on the way into school.

On Monday our Reception boys visited Cogges Farm where they were fully involved in bread making, goat feeding and finding out all about the food that ends up on our dinner plates. This was a lovely follow up from the Harvest Festival last week. They absolutely loved their day out and I really enjoyed hearing all about it from the boys.

Our Year 5s visited the Black Country museum yesterday and experienced first-hand life in Victorian England and the industries that dominated the towns and cities. It is a wonderful open air museum with reconstructed buildings from a bygone era with a rather narrow tunnel to walk down to experience life as a coal miner! The boys certainly enjoyed it and their creative writing about Victorian England will be so much more vivid as a result. There was some level of horror when they discovered that Victorian sweets often contained arsenic and mercury. I think they will be sticking to Haribo!

Despite a rather wet start to Saturday, our Open Morning was a very busy affair and as always, our boys were the star attraction. The Year 7 tour guides did a brilliant job and appeared to really enjoy sharing their thoughts and experiences of life at Abingdon Prep with our guests. I had a lot of positive comments about how well the boys were working in the classrooms, especially given it was a Saturday morning!

Yesterday’s assembly saw the award of the House Merit Cup for this half of term with Dragon being victorious. Congratulations to all of the boys for earning so many merits in the first six weeks of the year. The results are as follows:

1st – Dragon 1666
2nd – Phoenix 1598
3rd – Griffin 1569
4th – Unicorn 1549

Rugby this week pitted the U10s, U11s, U12s and U13s against Beachborough and the boys acquitted themselves very well with some great results for our B and C teams with high scoring games taking place across the board. Our U8s and U9s also enjoyed some high scoring matches against Oratory Prep with a highlight being a resounding win for the U9As. Our U11s are competing in a festival on Saturday, despite it being half term and I hope they have a great day out and I wish our biathletes all the best for Abingdon Vale competition on Sunday. Our U13s football squad came so close to qualifying for the IAPS national finals last Saturday, losing a penalty shootout for the final spot. This was a great effort in such trying conditions. It has certainly been a busy week on the games field.

I wanted to take this chance to remind you all of our upcoming Fireworks event and the Christmas Bazaar which both occur in November. They are great events, so do get the dates in your diaries and sign up for your fireworks tickets.

I read that there were only 11 Fridays until Christmas this week. Now there’s a scary thought! I hope you all have a great half term break, whether you are enjoying a holiday abroad or a quiet time at home. I am looking forward to spending some time with my wife, Quinn and Dizzy on long autumnal walks in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 5 October 2018

Dear Parents

As the calendar flicked over to October this week, my wife made me turn the heating on at home despite my protestations, and we had to switch it on at school too after such a chilly start to the week. I have though, enjoyed standing at the front gate in the autumn sunshine welcoming the boys into school.

Yesterday our Years 4-6 enjoyed meeting author Nicki Thornton who gave a fantastic talk about writing and inspiration and I know the boys’ creative writing will have benefitted hugely from her passion and advice. Many of the boys bought a signed copy and I am certain they will enjoy reading her novel, ‘The Last Chance Hotel’.

Our Year 8s visited the Natural History Museum in Oxford this week for a combined Art and Science trip and judging by the photographs, they had a great time learning about scientific discoveries and drawing many of the display items they saw. Trips are such an important part of learning and create memories that last far beyond school. Our Year 7s were also out today visiting the Roman Baths in Bath. Having been there on numerous occasions myself, I know what an incredible place it is first hand and I look forward to chatting to the boys about it on their return.

A small group of Year 5 and 6 boys are also competing in the MCS quiz this afternoon and I know they will have acquitted themselves very well with their all-round knowledge of the wider world and current affairs.

Sport this week saw our senior teams take on some very strong Cheltenham College sides. Matches here finished honours even with 2 wins and 2 losses which was a super effort. Our middle section saw 8 teams playing in some incredibly close matches against Chandlings which ended in 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. It is great to see so many boys involved in matches and enjoying being part of a team. I would also like to wish our U13 boy’s football team the best of luck as they compete in the regional IAPS qualifiers this Saturday.

Our Pre-Prep celebrated the Harvest Festival today with a beautiful service. For our reception boys this was their first chance to perform to an audience and they really seemed to take it in their stride. Our Year 1s and 2s seemed like seasoned pros as they presented to their families in the audience. Their confidence and clarity of expression always impresses me, especially considering how young they still are. I would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our parents for their incredibly generous donations of food which will be taken to The Gatehouse, a homeless charity in Oxford. I know how immensely grateful they are and it is so important to support our local community.

Tomorrow sees our Open Morning take place and I am looking forward to showing our fabulous school to prospective parents. Our Year 7s will be touring them around and I know our visitors will enjoy seeing the boys in action and chatting to them about our school. We have much to be proud of and our boys are by far the best way for us to show others what it means to be part of the Abingdon Prep community.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 28 September 2018

Dear Parents

Apologies for not being able to greet many of you at the front gate this week but I have been away for the last three days at the IAPS Heads Conference in Wales which has involved a fascinating series of talks and seminars with the theme of ‘Tomorrow’s World; Global Citizens’. Apologies, therefore, for the shorter letter that I have put together today.

On Saturday last week we played Cokethorpe on the rugby pitch and managed to secure a clean sweep of wins for our four teams involved. It was lovely to watch all the boys playing for each other and embodying the team spirit that is so important to any community. On Wednesday our U13A and B teams took on Abingdon School and two high quality matches ensued, with the As putting in an impressive win and the Bs just narrowly missing out on a victory, though it was close match.

On Thursday our U8s and U9s played CCCS and produced some lovely rugby with strong performances. All of our teams performed well, with the U8s having a draw and a loss, and the U9s As and Cs claiming fantastic wins, and the Bs only just losing out. These performances came on the back of a very successful cross country meet run by Abingdon School last week where APS were again victorious in a field of six other schools including Abingdon School, Caldicott, Magdalen and Cokethorpe. Cross Country continues to go from strength to strength.

Representing the Abingdon Foundation our U10 and U12 Swimmers, along with boys from Abingdon School competed in the annual Griffin Gala against the Abingdon Vale Swimming Club. All of our swimmers enjoyed a full programme of swimming and gained a great deal experience from the event.

The junior section assembly this week discussed new beginnings and making the most of opportunities available to us. It was enlightening to hear from the teachers what their new beginnings and goals were for this academic year and the boys responded well in thinking about theirs. Many boys are taking the opportunity to perform at the concert platform tonight, and I wish them luck and look forward to hearing about it upon my return.

I hope you all have a very enjoyable weekend. 

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 21 September 2018

Dear Parents

This week has been our Safety Week at school with the boys learning about different aspects of how to keep themselves safe, both in and out of school. There have been some very interesting discussions about the internet and social media with many of the older boys, whilst some of the younger boys have been eagerly discussing playground and road safety. As with so many areas of life, common sense is so often the answer. Our Pre-Prep were treated to a visit from the fire service today which was a definite highlight for them.

Our Year 4s have undertaken their first ever residential trip this week. They have been walking along the Ridgeway with an overnight stay at a Youth Hostel. I was lucky enough to join them for the evening and hear about the excitement of the days walk and the very blustery wind. Luckily it appears to have been blowing them towards their destination for most of the day! The rain dissipated for Thursday afternoon and the sun was shining today for them. It is a great way to start the year and sets them up nicely for future school residentials.

Rugby this week saw us playing Pinewood with all boys in Years 5 and 6 representing the school. For a first match of the season the standard from both teams was incredibly high and our U11 teams were victorious whilst our U10 teams lost some matches which were very close. Much was learned from this as it should be the case with all matches. Our U13 As were unbeaten at the Pinewood festival, continuing their strong start to the season, whilst our U13 Bs and U12 As both enjoyed good wins. Our U12 Bs lost by a single try in a super game between two evenly matched sides. Our Year 3s also made their rugby debuts this week playing in mixed teams against The Manor. The boys all seemed to really enjoy their first taste of matches, and indeed their first taste of match teas!

Our School Council from last year completed their handover and gave a lovely assembly on all of the good work and projects that they have been involved with over the year. Some of these are ongoing and our new council members were announced in assembly. I know they are all excited to get started and looking forward to having a say in what is happening at school. I would also like to thank all of the boys who stood in the school council elections, whether they got voted into a position or not. It is great to have so many boys wanting to be a part of this school group.

I spent a good deal of time in CDT this week and was lucky enough to take part in Jitterbugs, jigsaws and a buzzwire game. The boys had produced some fabulous work with super use of fretsaws, and electronic components to design their creations. CDT is thriving at Abingdon Prep.

Our first Art workshop of the year took place last Saturday which was based around the theme of sculpture. It was a great success and extremely popular with the boys who were able to create some very impressive pieces. I know the upcoming workshops will be equally popular and enjoyable.

Tomorrow sees our first Saturday Rugby fixtures against Cokethorpe and I look forward to watching our boys from Year 4 to Year 8 and seeing many of you on the sidelines.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 14 September

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many of you to the Informal Parents’ Evening on Tuesday. I hope that you found the talks with the form teachers useful and informative and that you got to meet some of our new parents too. I certainly enjoyed chatting to many of you and catching up after the summer break.

Very rarely would I wish for rain at any time of year but sadly our first rugby matches of term had to be cancelled due to the hard ground, so with any luck we might have a few heavy showers next week to help soften the ground, or at least a few more of the misty mornings that signify autumn is very much on its way. However, our U13 As did compete at the Dragon tournament against some impressive opposition. Our boys performed admirably losing to Caldicott and The Beacon but beating St Hugh’s, St John’s Leatherhead and Abingdon School. Ashley was delighted with their first run out and the boys came back injury free and looking forward to their upcoming matches.

Class pairings took place for the first time this year on Thursday and it was based around the theme of construction. It was great to see our older boys helping our younger ones as they designed and built a range of different structures, from boats and planes to houses and islands. Cross year group friendships are something that are always in evidence at Abingdon Prep and help to bind our community together.

Tomorrow we have the first of our art workshops with the theme being Sculpture. I know that it will be an inspiring course and I am looking forward to seeing the finished products.

Safety week begins on Monday and the boys will have many opportunities to learn about safety in different situations, from online safety to road safety. I know there will be a lot of interesting discussions in classes so that the boys have a better understanding of how to keep themselves and others safe. An extremely important life lesson.

I hope you all have a good weekend and as autumn starts to take hold, perhaps some conker collecting and blackberry picking is in order!

Best wishes

Craig