Head’s Letters

Friday 4 May 2018

Dear Parents

Another week has flown by here at Abingdon Prep. On Tuesday, Year 6 visited Oxford Central Mosque to support some of their learning in RE this term. The boys were stunned by the beauty inside the Mosque and were able to see for themselves what they had previously only seen in textbooks or photographs. Firsthand experience is an exciting way to learn.

Wednesday brought the rain again, but it did not dampen spirits at our Open Morning. It was a warm and friendly event with some more prospective families able to see for themselves what Abingdon Prep has to offer. Our Year 7 tour guides acquitted themselves admirably again, and were excellent ambassadors for Abingdon Prep, receiving compliments from many a guest.

As is so often the case, the weather was not ‘playing ball’ for the first cricket matches of the season, which sadly had to be cancelled. However, if forecasts are to be believed, drier weather is on its way over the next few weeks, so I look forward to seeing our boys play in their first matches very soon. I know they are desperate to get out onto our beautifully prepared squares. My game was also sadly rained off last week, so I, too, am looking forward to starting the season this weekend.

Yesterday evening, the Year 5 parents and I were treated to an outstanding Year 5 Soiree with music, public speaking and drama taking centre stage. It was a delightful event, with informal picnics being taken in the Hall whilst our boys performed poetry, sketches and a medley of songs from the musical, ‘Oliver’. The standard was superb, and I commend all the Year 5 boys for their excellent production.

I would like to finish my letter this week with congratulations. Last Saturday we sent four Year 7 boys to compete in the IAPS U13 Table Tennis Championships at Edge Grove. All four boys were a great credit to school playing some exciting matches but Todd managed to defeat all who came before him to become National Champion (a year young!). A fantastic achievement indeed, and one of which Todd and the School should be extremely proud.

I hope you all have a great Bank Holiday weekend and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather that is predicted.

Best wishes

Craig

Friday 27 April 2018

Dear Parent

Welcome back to the Summer Term. I hope you all managed to have an enjoyable Easter holiday, whether you stayed at home like me or you managed to go further afield for some sunshine or snow in the mountains. The boys certainly seem to have returned with renewed energy, ready to throw themselves into the activities of the busy term ahead. A couple of lovely warm days have certainly been most welcome this week, despite writing this with rain currently cascading down the windowpane.

In the final week of the holiday, nineteen of our Year 7 and 8 boys attended a pre-season cricket camp in Murcia, Spain. Four beautifully warm and sunny days provided perfect conditions for our boys to train hard and improve their cricketing skills vastly in a short space of time. The wonderful swimming pool and resort may also have helped to make their trip such a successful one. It was very pleasing to hear that our boys were excellent ambassadors for Abingdon Prep whilst they were away, and I am looking forward to watching plenty of cricket in the coming months.

At school we also ran a pre-season training session for the Year 5 and 6s, and a smaller group of Year 7 and 8s who were not in Murcia. It was lovely to see their enthusiasm for a game very close to my heart! Sadly both of my own pre-season cricket matches have been rained off so far this month but I am hoping finally to play tomorrow in Berkshire. 50 overs keeping wickets may lead to some aching muscles for me on Monday!

I have been very impressed with the extremely imaginative designs and creations that so many of the boys have produced for the CDT recycled bottle challenge over the holidays. If you haven’t yet seen some of them on display in the foyer, do take the opportunity to come and look. There have been some extraordinary designs and ideas from all year groups, including ships, garden planters, flamethrowers, planes and robots!

Term has started at a pace, with our Year 7s already off on their three day residential trip to Whitehaven this week, where they have been undertaking adventure activities and team building exercises. I am looking forward to hearing their stories on their return and seeing the photos of them in action. Residential trips are an enjoyable way to reinforce and develop team building and leadership skills, and to create memories that will stay with the boys forever. I see them as an invaluable part of education. I certainly still remember my trips as a child, as I am sure many of you will too.

Other Half has started this week and I am delighted to see so many boys seizing the opportunity to try new activities or hone their skills in others. All we now need is some consistently warm weather and sunshine for the term ahead. We can but hope!

Best wishes

Craig

Thursday 29 March 2018

Dear Parent

We have reached the last day of the Spring Term and I am greatly looking forward to delivering the Easter service to the boys later this morning. It has been an eventful term with everything from a snow day to a visit from the Easter Bunny.

On Saturday last week I was lucky enough to attend the Pre-Prep and Year 3 Easter Eggstravaganza. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as did the boys, especially with so much chocolate around. There were craft stalls, treasure maps, chick racing (the wind-up variety, of course), an Easter egg hunt and the ever popular chocolate tombola. The Easter Bunny was hopping around doing high-fives with the boys and there was a wonderful sense of fun and camaraderie. The hardest part of the morning was trying to judge the magnificent Easter bonnets and Easter gardens. The boys had produced so many superb designs and I know that everyone who saw them was impressed. Many of them were back on show for the Easter Parade in Pre- Prep and the egg painting and rolling down the mound later in the week. With the lighter evenings and the warmer (I think) weather, this is a lovely time of year.

On Tuesday a guest presenter came to run three separate Architecture Workshops for Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6. The boys had to plan, design and create bridges, Viking longboats or octagonal bird houses. The finished products were very impressive and the boys had great enjoyment experiencing something completely different. CDT is thriving at Abingdon Prep.

During the holidays, nineteen of our Year 7 and 8 boys will be flying off for five days to Spain for a warm weather pre-season cricket camp. I’m sure they will have a wonderful time and benefit enormously from the cricket training. They are very much looking forward to the Summer Term and all of the exciting events ahead, as am I. I would encourage you all to look at the calendar online and see what your son may be involved in.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the boys for their efforts this term. It has been a very busy and very successful one in so many different areas of school life. I hope that you all have something nice planned for the break, and I wish all of the Abingdon Prep community a very Happy Easter. Please do access our website (in latest news) to see a slide show of events from the term which I shared with the boys in our Easter service today.

Best wishes

Craig

Final Thunk – if I borrow every single book from a library, is it at that point any less of a library than when it was full of books?

Friday 23 March 2018

Dear Parents

It has been a very different week standing at the school entrance welcoming you all in the mornings. I have not needed to don a coat or a scarf, and have enjoyed the warm spring sunshine beating down. I hope that this will continue to be the case for the final week of term.

The week got underway with our Year 1s visiting the Steam Museum in Swindon. They all returned so excited by the trains they had seen alongside all the other huge steam-based machinery. As the photos testify on the monitor in the school entrance, they certainly had a wonderful day and learnt so much.

We found out this week that in May, twenty one of our pupils will be exhibiting their art work at the Ashmolean Museum having been successful in the Young Art Oxford Competition. George, in Year 5, has been chosen for the coveted Ruskin School of Art Award which is a noteworthy achievement. Art continues to be a source of great pride at Abingdon Prep.

After six of our boys participated in the Abingdon School Business Challenge on Tuesday, in which the brief was to design a new type of ice lolly, all of our boys in Years 5 and 6 took part yesterday in the Abingdon Prep Business Challenge. In groups they were given the challenge of designing an Easter Egg, complete with packaging. They had to draw up a plan to take it to market to compete with other brands, and then present their idea to the panel of judges who had joined us from Abingdon School and the Oxfordshire Young Enterprise Group. Dragon’s Den beware, as we may have some young entrepreneurs coming your way!

Our Bake Off Finals have been taking place this week with Anne’s technical challenge acting as the decider. Many cupcakes have been baked (and tasted again) and the boys involved have shown some genuine skills and love for baking. My thanks go to all who were involved in this initiative, and I know we have raised an impressive sum for charity, as well as enjoying some delicious cakes along the way.

In another busy week of sport, our U13 and U12 hockey squads played three matches against New College School at St Edward's School in Oxford. All the games were very close affairs but resulted in three close losses. The boys should be very proud of how much they have improved this term in what is their first experience of hockey.

On the football pitch the final matches of term saw our U12A and B and U13A and B teams take on Abingdon School. Our U12As finished the season in real style with a 6-4 win, coming back from 0-3 down, whilst the 12Bs lost an exciting match 4-5. Our U13As were competitive again but lost and there was a similar fate for our U13Bs. It was very rewarding to have so many of our senior boys representing school in fixtures, whether on the hockey pitch or the football pitch. It is lovely that the boys, no matter what year group they are in, have these opportunities to experience matches and of course, match tea, socialising with their opponents afterwards.

The British Schools Biathlon Championships on Sunday were weather affected but an impressive performance from our U12 team meant that they have finished 4th in the country, with Quinn finishing 4th individually. Congratulations to all the boys who qualified for the finals which is an excellent achievement in itself.

It is our Easter Eggstravaganza tomorrow morning for boys in Reception to Year 3. There is palpable excitement amongst them as they look forward to discovering the eggs which the Easter Bunny will hopefully have left around school. Our thanks go to the JPA for organising this and persuading the Easter Bunny to give up time from his busy schedule to come to see us at Abingdon Prep.

Next week I will let you know the results of this afternoon’s Inter-House Cross-Country. The conditions are slightly more conducive to running this time, after the Siberian blast caused us to postpone the event a couple of weeks ago. It will be wonderful to see all of the boys across the school taking part.

I hope you all have a good weekend and are looking forward to a final busy week of term in the spring sunshine – especially as the clocks will have gone forward over the weekend and we will have that extra hour of evening light.

Best wishes

Craig

Thunk for the week – is daylight saving a good or a bad thing?

Friday 16 March 2018

Dear Parents

Where to start this week? There are so many exciting pieces of news to share…

One of the many highlights of the week was the APS Bake Off. I was particularly honoured to have been asked to judge some of the entries, and every one of the many cakes and bakes I tasted was delicious. It is a creative way to raise money for our school charities and it is fair to say that we have some very talented bakers at school. I look forward to seeing the finalists in baking action next week.

Tuesday saw the senior production of ‘Smike’ take place in the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School. It was a wonderful evening with some delightful singing, acting and dancing. The audience certainly seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Debbie and Jennifer for all their hard work in producing such an impressive spectacle.

There was a raft of football matches this week. Our U9s played twice against St Hugh’s and Chandlings, and of the six matches, we won two, lost two and drew two. Our U9As win on Thursday meant they have remained unbeaten all season and they should be very proud of their efforts. Our U8s played Chandlings and had some very exciting games in which the As and Cs drew, and the Bs and Ds lost. This completed another impressive season in which all the boys have played many games of football and have improved immeasurably. Our U10As and U11As both completed their seasons with excellent wins giving them 100% records – a very admirable feat, whilst the other U10 and U11 teams also had strong final results. On Thursday, our senior boys took to Cox’s Fields to play Cokethorpe. The 13As lost a close match 2-4 whilst the Bs won their first game of the season 3-1 with a strong performance. The U12s continued their excellent season with a 4-2 victory, whilst the Bs also impressed with a 5-2 win.

Our U12 and U13 hockey teams took to the astro again on Wednesday to play against Cothill. The 13s went down in a high scoring match 2-6 whilst our U12s lost a thrilling match 4-5. Every week, as the boys gain more experience of hockey, their understanding of match play is improving visibly.

Our football matches tomorrow are a new venture for Abingdon Prep. We will be competing against Bedford Modern School as a Foundation together with the U12 and U13 teams from Abingdon School. I wish the boys luck and look forward to supporting them from the touch line.

A busy sporting weekend continues on Sunday with the British Schools Biathlon finals at Crystal Palace. We have ten boys competing, all of whom have qualified from the regional heats earlier in the year. This is always a gruelling event and huge credit goes to our boys for qualifying. I look forward to hearing how they have fared.

Year 2 travelled to Warwick Castle this week and had a wonderful time exploring the medieval castle and learning first-hand about life hundreds of years ago. The castle certainly helped bring their History topic to life and I have been hearing from the boys how much they enjoyed the trip. Year 5 are also visiting the Pitt Rivers Museum today and I look forward to hearing the highlights of their outing.

4T’s assembly on Thursday was extremely well presented and the class shared an important message with the rest of the school about appreciating all the wonderful things that we have in our lives and considering how people in other parts of the world are not so fortunate. It is so powerful when the boys share these messages with their peers. I also had the privilege of seeing Reception’s class assembly today. The boys were so proud to tell their parents about their beanstalks, and their playlet of the Gingerbread Man was well received by the audience of parents and Pre-Prep boys. They have certainly been busy in the classroom this term.

This week we also received the results of the final group of Abingdon scholarship assessments. We are exceptionally proud of all our boys who sat scholarships in their chosen sphere this year. They all devoted enormous effort to the process and can be justifiably proud of themselves. I am delighted to report that this year our boys have gained five academic scholarships – four to Abingdon and one to Magdalen College School. We have also been awarded one Art, one Music and one Drama scholarship, all to Abingdon School. I would like to take this opportunity to thank openly all the staff who have helped to prepare the boys so well for their scholarships.

I sincerely hope the snow does not return this weekend as it is high time that Spring makes an appearance!

With best wishes

Craig

Thunk for the week – can you be accused of cheating if you do not know the rules?

Friday 9 March 2018

Dear Parents

I would like to start by thanking everyone for their patience and understanding with regard to the snow day last week. I appreciate the difficulties faced when a school is closed for the day. However, the boys seemed delighted with the decision and I hope they all enjoyed the opportunity to use their sledges.

Rehearsals for our production of ‘Smike’ have been ratcheted up this week, with the technical rehearsal on Saturday and the main performance on Tuesday evening at the Amey Theatre. There are still some tickets available, so I would encourage all parents with children in Years 3 and above, to come along for what promises to be a very entertaining evening. Having listened to a number of the songs already, we are certainly in for a treat.

On my learning walk this week I was treated to a Year 3 Science lesson on the topic of teeth. I am reliably informed that during their next lesson they will be experimenting with disclosure tablets, so there may need to be some focused teeth brushing going on before that. Year 7 were putting together some drama sketches and I was particularly impressed with the saxophone accompaniment creating the scene of danger in the tomb! Cross curricular links were certainly coming to the fore in this lesson.

4AP produced an informative and very well delivered school assembly yesterday, in which we all learned about the life and diet of some Bolivian people, and it gave our boys food for thought with regard to their own food choices. 4AP’s mixture of singing, acting and public speaking entertained us all.

Our Year 8 academic scholarship group sat their exams this week and it was very interesting to welcome them back into school and hear how they felt the week had gone. They can be very proud of their efforts leading up to this very stretching set of exams, as can all of our boys who have been involved in scholarship assessments this term. As a school, we are certainly proud of them all.

Hockey fixtures took centre stage for Years 6 to 8 this week. There were impressive victories for our U13s against St Hugh’s and U11As against the Dragon. Every other match was a closely fought contest, with the Dragon just coming out on top. I hope the boys have enjoyed their first foray into Hockey and will look forward to more fixtures next year.

On the football pitch, our U8s and U9s enjoyed fixtures against Moulsford. Our U9As continued their unbeaten run, whilst our U8As lost their first game of the season in a very high quality match. The U9Bs won one and lost one, and the U9Cs won two very good games. Our U8B, C, and D teams were all involved in multiple matches as Moulsford had brought eight teams to take on our four. The boys certainly seem to be enjoying their game and improving each and every time they take the field.

Our long anticipated Scalextrics Evening, so kindly organised by the JPA, is taking place this evening and I have been hearing that there has been many a practice session taking place at home, and that is just the parents! Trophies are all in place and I know that the boys are excited about the event. Track conditions are forecast to be favourable with some fast times expected.

I am delighted to have been asked to judge some of the entries for the APS Bake off next week, so I hope that the boys will take the opportunity at the weekend to get creative in the tent, sorry, I mean kitchen, and put their baking skills to the test, all in aid of our school charities of course.

As this letter attests, term continues to be busy and purposeful, and the boys are grabbing opportunities that come their way. Long may that continue.

Best wishes

Craig

Thunk for the week – can a cake ever be considered a work of art and not simply something to eat?

Friday 2 March 2018

Dear Parents

I write this letter with the school eerily quiet as the snow has returned with a vengeance and we have unfortunately closed the school today. An unusual end to a busy week and hopefully, with the official start of meteorological spring yesterday, this was the final blast of winter and the daffodils can start opening up again in the next few weeks.

I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you of some staff changes for September and also next term. Mrs Natasha Watson will be joining us as Head of English in September. Natasha is currently teaching English at The Beacon and we look forward to her joining us here and becoming fully involved in a wide range of activities, including Drama, for which she clearly has a passion. However, for the Summer Term, Mrs Karina Philip will be our acting Head of English. Karina has a wealth of English teaching experience and is also a published author of children’s books and English textbooks, and has a real interest in music too. Rebecca Schwarz has been appointed as Head of Science for September. She currently teaches Science at Headington Senior School, and has a wide range of interests including hockey and other sports. We very much look forward to welcoming them all into the Abingdon Prep community.

A number of our Year 8 boys have been sitting in the past few weeks, and this coming week, their scholarship exams and assessments. Their desire to work hard and give their very best has been clear for all to see and I would like to congratulate all of them on their efforts. They can be very proud of themselves.

Sadly, all of our football matches and inter-house cross-country this week had to be cancelled due to the frozen pitches and snow cover, but we have rescheduled the date for 23 March to run the cross-country and parents will, of course, be more than welcome to attend.

Last Monday, our Year 6s performed a cantata, St Frideswide, with words and music written by our own, very talented Debbie Rose at Christ Church Cathedral. The first part of the afternoon took the form of a talk by Ruth Buckley, a St Frideswide expert, so the audience arrived well informed to hear the boys sing. Our boys sang beautifully with pure tone and clear diction, and the story of the saint’s life gradually unfolded through the nine songs, dramatic action and linking narration. It was a wonderful experience for the boys to perform in such an impressive venue.

We now have four weeks of term remaining, so I hope the boys enjoyed their snow day and will return refreshed after their three day weekend. I look forward to hearing all about their sledging and snowballing exploits.

With best wishes

Craig

Thunk – can we really know that every snowflake is different if we do not analyse all of them?

Friday 23 February 2018

Dear Parents

I hope you all had a very enjoyable half term and that any illness that may have been lurking before the break quickly disappeared. The second half of term has started well and with our usual diverse array of activities.

Earlier this week three pupils from the Middle Section attended the annual 'Let's Debate' competition at Oratory School. After attending a morning of debating workshops, pupils were then tasked with opposing the motion “This House believes that teachers should be replaced with computers”, which was proposed by a team from Farleigh School in Hampshire. The boys acquitted themselves eloquently and I am assured that teachers are here to stay, at least for the time being!

This week’s football matches saw our younger boys playing Christ Church Cathedral School. Our U8As claimed another very impressive 9-0 victory whilst our B, C and D teams all lost closely fought matches. The U9A, B and C teams all celebrated solid victories, as did our U10B and D teams. The U11C and D teams lost to strong CCCS teams. Our U12s played Oratory School, with our As losing an exciting game 3-4, the Bs winning 1-0 and the Cs losing 1-4. This Saturday five of our teams travel to Cokethorpe and I hope that I will see many of you on the touch line offering your support. According to the weather forecast, warm clothes will be in order.

Yesterday, the second class pairings of the term took place. This time the theme was book-sharing which linked to World Book Day which is happening on Thursday next week. We are all greatly looking forward to seeing some interesting costumes that day. I particularly enjoyed hearing some of our Year 1s sharing their stories with our Year 6s and in return, having a Mr Men book read to them. It brought back fond memories for me of Mr Bump and Mr Tickle! Year 2 have also impressed me this week with some of their excellent Lego creations which are already starting to be displayed.

Whilst walking around the school yesterday, Mike Windsor and I popped in to hear our Year 5s sharing their recent stories based on the detective novels of Sherlock Holmes. The boys had managed to build tension in some especially well written pieces, some of which had character names which suited the storylines perfectly. Reviewing and improving their work had certainly been effective, and judging by how eagerly they were explaining their stories to their partners, they enjoyed the task immensely.

Next week continues to be busy with our Year 6s performing at Christ Church on Monday, and a whole school Open Day on Tuesday.

I wish you all a good weekend and look forward to seeing some of you at matches tomorrow.

Best wishes

Craig

Thunk for the week – if I deliberately drop a bucket of paint onto a canvas, is it Art? What if I drop it accidentally? Is it Art then?

Friday 9 February 2018 

Dear Parents

Yesterday was an important day for the Junior Section. They performed ‘Daniel and The Lions’ Den’ to a packed house in the school hall. There was standing room only to see some impressive acting, singing and dancing from our very talented Year 3 and 4s. The boys should be very proud of their efforts and the way in which they have all worked together to produce such a memorable performance. I have heard from numerous parents that there had been a lot of song rehearsals in cars on the way home from school in the lead up to the play. The tunes were certainly catchy and I could not get the encore out of my head on Thursday evening. I even caught myself humming away today at lunch. 

We started this week with Safer Internet workshops and a talk to parents in the evening. Whilst the information received was hard hitting, it is certainly something that we should all be aware of. The internet is a wonderful tool when used in the right way and safely, and the earlier our boys learn about how to stay safe when using it, the better. We always encourage the boys to make the right choices, and I am sure that with the information they received on Monday, they are more likely to make better choices when it comes to social media and the internet. No matter what our personal views on social media are, it is here to stay and is a huge part of a child’s life now. 

On Tuesday, Year 5 visited Abingdon School for a Science day. They returned so excited by the range of experiments with which they had been involved. How could one not be enthused by Science when it is so ‘hands on’? What an inspiring way to learn and sincere thanks to the Abingdon School staff who organised the day.

Most of the Middle and Senior Section boys were out on Wednesday playing football against Oratory Prep School and Abingdon. All the games were competitive affairs and our U10 A and U11A teams remained undefeated with impressive 5-0 and 6-1 wins respectively. Our U12s kicked off the season with a good win against Oratory Prep and a draw against Abingdon School whilst our U13s teams just lost out in two very close matches.

The IAPS swimming qualifiers last Friday saw some strong performances both from individuals and in the relays, and now we must wait to find out whether the times our boys achieved are fast enough to qualify for the National Finals. We have our fingers crossed having won three events in a remarkably competitive field. 

I wish you all a very enjoyable half-term break. I am certain that the boys are more than ready for some down time, as are the staff!

Best wishes

Craig

Thunk for the week – If you could take a pill that meant you could never fail, would you? 

Friday 2 February 2018 

Dear Parents

Last Friday our Pre-Prep Grandparents’ afternoon took place. This was extraordinarily well attended and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to so many proud grandparents and watching our younger boys playing ‘Old School’ games with them. There was not a Playstation in sight but instead, lots of lovely interactions taking place. As these boys move higher up the school, it will be lovely to welcome their grandparents back to watch them in productions, concerts and fixtures.

Football matches this week saw our U8As, U9As, U10As and 11As victorious once more against both The Oratory and St Hugh’s respectively, whilst the remainder of the games saw an even split of wins, losses and draws. There is certainly visible improvement across all teams, and with the popularity of football at break times too, that is no surprise!

Our first Hockey matches of the term took place on Wednesday against Cothill for our U12 and U13 D teams. After just two hours of practice, our U13s struggled to match a well drilled Cothill team and found themselves conceding regularly in the first half. However, with a few team adjustments, and a huge improvement in dynamism around the pitch, we drew the second half 2-2. Our U12s threw themselves into their game right from the start and a close match with a huge effort from both teams saw us finish 1-4 down. With more Hockey to come, there is much to be optimistic about on the MUSA.

The cross-country season is well and truly upon us. Last Friday saw us competing at the St Andrew’s event where boys from Years 3-8 performed very well, with our U12 and U13 teams winning their respective sections. A week later at Pinewood, our U11s and U13s ran impressively again, with Abingdon Prep having 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed runners in the U13 category.

I am currently waiting to hear the results of the IAPS swimming qualifiers which took place this afternoon at The Dragon School. I am sure our boys will have acquitted themselves admirably. 

Thursday’s assembly saw 8J take to the stage. They conveyed an important message to the other boys about having a passion for something and being prepared to dedicate time to it in order to improve. There were demonstrations of cycling around the hall, a handsome Jack Russell on stage and we were treated to tales of karting, robotics and golf, to name but a few. The boys showed genuine enthusiasm for and commitment to their hobbies, and they explained it extremely well. Some in the audience may even have been inspired to take up a new pastime!

Play rehearsals are in full swing in both the junior and senior sections and I am very much looking forward to the Year 3 and 4 performance of ‘Daniel and the Lions' Den’ on Thursday next week. I have heard some beautiful singing coming out of the Hall on my walks around school and the boys seem very excited about the upcoming performance.

It was a pleasure to see all of those parents who were able to join me this morning for coffee and pastries. It was a welcome opportunity to catch up and chat about school and the boys. The staff were very grateful for the leftover pains au chocolat that appeared at morning break time!

And finally, this week’s Thunk – if you break down in the middle of the road, is your car parked?

Best wishes

Craig