Head’s Letters

Friday 2 September 2022

Dear Parents

I hope you have all enjoyed the final week of the holidays. Today, we have welcomed back to school all of our teachers and support staff for the first of our two INSET days. It has been great to catch up with everyone and be able to get ourselves ready to welcome back all of the children on Tuesday.

The school is looking terrific with all the new classrooms set up and I know that the children will be impressed with the new learning environments.

Our form teachers are looking forward to speaking with you on zoom this evening to share key information about the year ahead and school routines which may be new for many of the children. You should also have received earlier, the zoom addresses to dial into the meetings.

On Wednesday and Thursday it was lovely to welcome 50 boys to our pre-season rugby training sessions. It was particularly great to see so many new faces attending and for some, experiencing their first taste of rugby. We had a Gloucester Rugby coach attend both days who delivered sessions and also helped upskill some of our teaching staff too with new drills and exciting game play practices.

Please may I take this opportunity to again encourage you to read the weekly mailing as there is important information included. This week specifically, there is detailed information about drop off and pick up information as well as the start of other half activities.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all the children back to school on Tuesday morning and cannot wait to get started. I hope to catch up with many of you in the car park during the week or if not, at our drinks event on Friday 9 September at 6.45pm.

In the meantime, have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 8 July 2022

Dear Parents

We have reached the end of another academic year and I always find that it is a time where children, parents and teachers all reflect on what they have accomplished, but also what they will miss next year.

I will miss our fantastic Year 8 children as they move on, but they are more than ready for the next step in their educational lives and I hope they know that they will always be welcomed back here, a place where some of them have been for the past 9 years of their lives. It was lovely to be able to celebrate all their achievements at prize giving this morning.

We were able to tour the children around the new building yesterday, and they seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of going to lessons in the new rooms come September. The building work is all complete now and we will be furnishing it all in the coming weeks. It provides us with fantastic new spaces where academic studies and creative arts will flourish further. At our parents’ drinks gathering on the first Friday of next term, we will be inviting all of you to tour the building as well to see these new facilities. It will also be lovely to have all of our car parking spaces back!

I must mention this week’s summer concert as it was a wonderful evening of music and celebration and thank you to so many of you who were able to attend to support your children on stage.

I hope you all have a lovely summer ahead, whether at home or abroad, and remain well.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 1 July 2022

Dear Parents

The second half of term continues to fly by and the children are as busy as ever as we come to the final week of term.

At the start of the week, Year 7 spent two days in Warwickshire exploring Shakespeare country, visiting Warwick Castle and showing off their adventurous nature at Go Ape. Despite an inclement weather forecast, they had a fantastic time away. It was lovely to receive two emails from venues they attended congratulating them on their behaviour and manners.

Our Year 5s have been experiencing more of a staycation on Thursday and Friday this week. They enjoyed an overnight camp on Thursday evening with a range of team building games and challenges and of course the very important marshmallows round the campfire. I was lucky enough to be invited to their pizza dinner!

On the cricket pitch there were impressive wins for the Colts B and 4th team this week with the 6th and 7th teams taking on Cothill later this afternoon and more fixtures on Saturday. Our U13s are playing in a T20 tournament in Cambridge this weekend and we wish all boys the best of luck who are representing APS on the cricket pitch tomorrow. This week alone more than 150 boys will have represented the school in cricket matches which is fantastic.

Tennis matches took place on Monday afternoon and there were some particularly good, even matches in our U11 and U13 pairs. I was also delighted to hear that we have three children this Saturday unable to take part in matches because they are at regional kayaking, squash and equestrian events. It is always lovely to hear about how our children are progressing in their sports and activities outside of school.

Twenty boys undertook their LAMDA exams on Wednesday after much preparation with Steve and from what I have heard, they all performed superbly well and I look forward to sharing their results with them when they come through to us.

On Tuesday, Michelle Dafour, artist and sculptor at Waddesdon Manor National Trust property visited school to speak to our Year 6 children about an exciting new project where our children’s artwork will become part of some animal sculptures on display at the house. It is great that the children are involved in projects like this.

I can only finish my letter this week by talking about our fantastic Pre-Prep Summer concert which took place this afternoon. The boys sang beautifully and there were amazing soloists and group performances. The boys should be incredibly proud of their musical efforts.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 24 June 2022

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many new boys to our move up morning on Tuesday. It is always an exciting day for both our current and new pupils and a chance to make new friends and look forward to the year ahead.

Pre-Prep sports day took place on Monday afternoon and as always, it was a brilliant afternoon with all the boys trying their best with their jumping, throwing and running, not forgetting the sack race too and the exciting relay to finish. The ice lollies, of course, were a real highlight and well deserved after all the boys’ exertions.

In the classroom this week, Reception have been researching sea turtles and have found out some incredible facts about them, especially leatherbacks and their immense size – the weight of a small family car by all accounts! Although there were no leatherbacks at Cotswold Wildlife park, I know they had a fantastic day out seeing all the animals today and learning even more about the world around them.

We had a lot of cricket matches this week and our U11 teams produced a fantastic set of results, winning all their games from the A to E team. Our senior teams were less successful but huge congratulations to our 5th team who won their close encounter with Cheltenham. Our U9 Bs managed an amazing tie against St Hugh’s on Tuesday – a very rare result!

Year 3 and 4 all participated in their swimming gala on Thursday and it was lovely to see the boys supporting their houses and doing their best in all the events. This is the first of many galas for these boys in the coming years.

Lots of our Year 7 pupils gave speeches to their houses on Thursday detailing why they wanted to be house captain and what they might do if they were chosen. It was great to hear so many boys talk so impressively about their houses and their desire to lead. I look forward to sharing the results of the vote next week.

The senior House Music competition took place this morning with 12 competitors reaching the finals after their auditions over the past two weeks. The standard was amazingly high and hearing them all play with such confidence and skill made me feel incredibly proud of them all.

Tomorrow is Sports Day for our Year 3 to 8 children and I know that it is an event that so many of the boys greatly enjoy. It is an amazing opportunity to compete on a real athletics track and earn points for their houses. I am really looking forward to watching the boys perform and I hope to see many of you at Tilsley Park in the morning.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 17 June 2022

Dear Parents

The summer certainly seems to have arrived this week and it has been great to see the children enjoying being outside so much in this lovely weather, even if today’s 33 degrees triggered an extreme heat warning from Oxfordshire County Council asking schools to keep children out of the sun where possible, as we have done where appropriate.

Thursday morning saw the annual Verse Speaking competition finals take place for Years 3-6. All children had learnt a poem off by heart and a small number from each year group had been put forward to the finals. The standard was incredibly high and it was a real pleasure to see the boys performing to the rest of the school. Congratulations to the winners but also to everyone who had learnt a poem for the initial stage of the competition.

It has been a successful week on the cricket pitch with our U12A and B teams defeating Abingdon School and our U8s winning at Christ Church too. I was lucky enough to umpire the Year 6 house matches this week which were played in a fantastic spirit with players congratulating each other for good shots or well bowled deliveries. It absolutely reflected the true spirit of cricket.

Pre-Prep have been working away all week and it was fantastic to see our Reception children outside experimenting with shadow lengths and working out for themselves how these change with distance away from the ground. Year 1 were treated to a surprise Teddy Bear’s Picnic as part of their PSHCE programme. They were looking at how people feel when surprises happen and discussed whether or not keeping secrets was right.

Our Year 7s have had a busy week with a careers talk and a leadership talk from Abingdon School teachers. It was lovely to see them listening so intently and also asking pertinent questions about how to get into certain careers. These sessions are hugely valuable and help further the broad educational aims that we value so highly at Abingdon Prep.

On Tuesday, a number of year groups undertook language workshops in support of our Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. It was heartening to see the children so engaged in what they were learning about in such an important part of the school curriculum.

Our Year 8s have had a fantastic time on their residential trip to Dorset this week, undertaking numerous outdoor adventure activities. It is a fitting way to help them celebrate their time at Abingdon Prep and they have a busy last three weeks of term ahead.

I hope you all have a good weekend and enjoy the warm weather.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 10 June 2022

Dear Parents

I hope you all had a good break over half term and I am sure that many of you, like me, enjoyed your local Jubilee celebrations. It has been a lovely week back at school with the sun shining and trips season well and truly underway!

This week has seen exams for our Year 7 and 8 children and they should all be congratulated on their efforts and concentration across the five days of testing.

Our Year 5s on Thursday visited one of my favourite places, Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, where they explored HMS Victory and experienced what life was like on board Nelson’s 18th Century warship. They were certainly very excited to tell me all about it the next day. If you have never been, and you get the chance to visit, then do take it. The Mary Rose is also an incredible piece of history to explore whilst you are there.

Sadly, our Year 6 Bushcraft trip was cancelled but instead they have been out yesterday and today undertaking some fun activities, and finishing off tonight with a sleep over at school in the hall. I hope that they manage to get some sleep!

8R explored Oxford on Monday, visiting university colleges and looking at the amazing architecture of the city whilst Year 3 also went to Oxford on their trip to The Ashmolean to see genuine Egyptian artefacts. It is easy to take for granted how fortunate we are to live in such a great part of the country with a fantastic city just minutes away and beautiful countryside also on our doorstep.

It was lovely to be able to have our Pre-Prep parents in for a book share this morning to see what amazing work the children have produced this term. The progress they make never ceases to amaze me and they should be very proud of their efforts this year. Reception also showed off their entrepreneurial skills with a shop selling a range of goods they have made in the past few weeks.

On the cricket pitch this week our Colts A, B, C and D teams all had convincing wins over St Andrew’s whilst our U8s and U9s lost their games, but showed huge improvement from previous matches. It is lovely to see so many boys enjoying their first real experience of cricket matches.

Please could I take this opportunity to remind parents of children in Years 3-8 that the end of the school day is 4.10pm and the children will be signed out from their respective areas at that time. 4 – 4.10pm is an important time for the boys to return to their form rooms and get themselves organised with everything they need to take home that evening. Many thanks for your support with this.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 27 May 2022

Dear Parents

It has been a fantastic first half of term and I know that the children are all looking forward to the half term break.

This week has been incredibly busy both in and out of the classroom. Our Years 3-6 have been undertaking their assessments and exams this week. It can be a nerve wracking time for the boys but it has been great to see them taking them so seriously and the practice will stand them in great stead in future years and hopefully increase their confidence when sitting tests.

On Monday, Pre-Prep was visited by author Steve Antony, an award winning writer and illustrator of 22 children’s books. Steve is perhaps most famous for the books of ‘The Queen’s Hat’ series and ‘The Mister Panda’ series. For those of you with younger children, these books may well be staples for bedtime stories. They certainly are in our household. Steve shared ‘The Queen’s Hat’ with the children and it was a perfect way to start our Jubilee celebrations. These culminated today with our Jubilee lunch and Pre-Prep’s jubilee party celebration this afternoon which was enjoyed by all.

The largest cheer of the week came in Thursday’s assembly with the announcement of the house merit cup winners for this half term. Dragon were victorious and have earned a home clothes day on the first Friday back after the break.

This afternoon our Swimming Gala for Years 5-8 took place at the Abingdon School pool. It was a fantastic event with so many closely contested races. There were some incredible individual and relay performances and it was lovely to see the boys supporting each other no matter which house they were competing for.

Our only cricket match of the week saw our senior 7th XI take on St Hugh’s. The boys competed valiantly and thoroughly enjoyed the match, despite coming away with a loss. They entertained the opposition very well and showed great sportsmanship throughout.

I hope that everyone enjoys the half-term break and takes the opportunity to recharge batteries and celebrate the Jubilee with the long Bank Holiday weekend.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 20 May 2022

Dear Parents

It was great to be able to walk around school on Thursday morning and pop into the first whole house meetings for more than 2 years. House spirit was very much in evidence as the much loved qualification rounds took place for the house paper aeroplane challenge, with the winning plane and designer from each house progressing to the final after half term. From what I saw, it could be a close contest with some very impressive distances being achieved.

Dragon House’s cake sale was a roaring success this week with £450 being raised for IPF – Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis charity. Huge thanks to all the children who so kindly brought in cakes for everyone to buy.

On Tuesday this week we celebrated Artweek with a fantastic exhibition of pupils’ CDT and artwork. It was lovely to be able to welcome so many parents into the hall to view their work and I really enjoyed reading such lovely comments in the visitors book. It never ceases to amaze me how talented our boys are when it comes to the arts.

Cricket matches against Moulsford took place on Wednesday. It was great to have 120 children out playing that afternoon. Our Colts D and F teams produced fantastic wins whilst our senior teams performed well against strong opposition without being able to knock off the final few runs. The U8s and U9s all played Oratory Prep and showed huge improvements from the previous week’s matches.

Pre-Prep have been working hard all week and it was lovely to learn about reiki bracelets with the Year 1s who very kindly had made me one for my wrist to give me good luck for the day ahead.

Today saw our first ever ‘Big Think’, where each class had to respond in a fashion that they chose to a piece of artwork and story by Jean Michel-Basquiat. It was so refreshing to see all the different ways the children were reflecting on the piece of art – drawing, writing, conversation, reflection. Sometimes, in the busy world in which we live, that time to think and reflect can be lost so it is great to be able to introduce this initiative to Abingdon Prep.

Good luck to all those performing in the concert platform this afternoon. I am very much looking forward to hearing them play.

Best wishes and I hope you all have a good weekend.

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 13 May 2022

Dear Parents

Today, Griffin house held their themed dress day in support of their house charity, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. It was great to have so many children in red at school supporting this excellent charity providing books to young children and families who may otherwise not have access to such brilliant resources.

Our Junior House Music competition was held this morning and it was a real pleasure to hear so many impressive performances across a wide range of instruments from drums, French horn, and guitar to violin, piano and voice. The boys performing did a terrific job and congratulations to Griffin House for winning such a close contest.

I am delighted to report that after class voting last week, we have a brand new Eco-Committee at School and the children have already met to put an action plan into place to drive forward the School’s eco credentials in the coming months and years. It is amazing to hear these young children talk so passionately and knowledgeably about their ideas that we will try to implement to lessen our environmental impact. I am excited to share some of their projects with you in future letters.

Our U8s and U9s played their first cricket matches of the season and the U9 As started with a super win whilst the other teams lost in good matches but certainly enjoyed themselves, and in the case of the U8s, played their first ever cricket match. Our 6th and 7th XI senior teams are also playing their first matches of the term this afternoon which will be great fun in the sunshine. This week, our first tennis matches of the term took place and our first athletics meet for our Year 7 and 8s, who performed very strongly, winning a number of events with especially strong results in the sprint races.

Congratulations to the boys who took part in the IAPS National Triathlon competition last Sunday. They all performed admirably but I must mention Xavier who is now the U12 National Champion! A fantastic effort.

Good luck to the boys playing in cricket matches tomorrow against Oratory Prep and thanks to our JPA for organising our Scalectrix evening tonight. It is always great fun and I am very much looking forward to reliving my childhood this evening!

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster

Friday 6 May 2022

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend.

It has been a busy week at school and on Thursday our assembly focused on environmental issues, looking at both positive actions that we have taken as a society and also ongoing issues that we must continue to address. Today, we have launched our eco-council and the children have been voting for members of their class to join the group. I am really looking forward to hearing about their ideas for Abingdon Prep.

Wednesday saw the first cricket matches of the season take place for many of our boys in Years 5 to 8. There were some fantastic early season performances with both bat and ball, although sadly the rain did end a number of the away matches early. Good luck to all the children playing in matches tomorrow morning against Pinewood.

Our Reception to Year 4 children were all involved in problem solving Maths activities on Thursday. They had to work out a series of hands-on Maths puzzles and it was great to see them working so well in their groups and really enjoying the hands-on challenges that were in front of them.

One of our Year 7 Young Enterprise groups were busily completing their challenge project this week. They had designed a range of different milkshake flavours to sell at break time. As you can imagine, the queue went round the block and I have to admit, they were delicious, and all the profits will be donated to our school charities. It has been great to give the children a taste of entrepreneurship and they have grasped the opportunity with both hands.

As I walked around the school this week popping into lessons, I was delighted to see the continued focus of the children but just as importantly, seeing the enjoyment that so many of them were showing in the activities and the work they were undertaking. We have a very exciting summer term ahead.

With best wishes

Craig Williams
Headmaster