Head’s Letters

Thursday 15 May 2025

Dear Parents

The sun has continued to shine this week at school with the pupils enjoying their break times in the beautiful weather.

The children in Years 3-6 have been working exceptionally hard at the start of their assessment weeks. A mix of computerised tests and exams are taking place and it is great for our younger children to get used to the process of assessments, becoming more comfortable with them every time they undertake similar tests.

It was lovely to welcome so many of you into school on Tuesday evening for our Artsweek exhibition, showcasing the childrens’ Art, DT and even Drama. Every child in school had their work on display and it was amazing to see such incredible creativity in so many different areas of the arts.

Consent workshops took place for our Year 7&8 pupils with the Head of Wellbeing at Abingdon School delivering thoughtful and informative sessions to the children. It was great to see our pupils so engaged in the topic and prepared to ask and answer questions throughout the session.

On Wednesday, our Year 1s and Year 3s had a wonderful talk from a Thames Valley Police Community Support Officer, telling them all about the work that the police do to keep everyone safe. The children came up with some brilliant questions too and I think a few of them may add police officer to their possible list of future careers!

At the start of the week, we undertook our first ever strategy games fixture against MCS with Chess, Abalone and Quoridor taking centre stage. It involved pupils from Year 4 to Year 7 and they performed extremely well in all the games and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Cricket, tennis and athletics fixtures all took place this week, with 2 terrific wins on the cricket pitch for our 1st XI and 2nd XI against our friends at Abingdon School, alongside a first win of the season for our U11A team too. Our U8s continue to show great potential for the future with their cricketing skills coming along strongly.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend when it arrives.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 8 May 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that everyone enjoyed the long bank holiday weekend.

The children have been working hard this week and it is great to hear from many of them about the revision they have been doing in the lead up to their assessment weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed popping into a number of lessons earlier today and was impressed by what I saw them working on.

In a Year 8 PSHCE lesson, the children were discussing what the role of a Peer in the House of Lords was, as opposed to an MP in the House of Commons, and how these two groups of politicians work to ensure that the government of the day is held to account and new laws are debated and approved or otherwise. They also discussed the purpose of local MP surgeries and how Prime Minister’s Questions works. It was great to see them showing such an interest in how the country is run.

Year 4 were creating their own 13th Labour of Hercules, starting with a storyboard setting out their plot, focusing on the characteristics of Hercules, such as determination, strength and willpower, leading to a well thought through moral of the story at the end. There were some extremely interesting mythical creatures that were featured in their storylines too!

Reception have been incredibly busy this week learning all about shapes. They were able to tell me all about rectangles, triangles, circles, squares and even what a parallelogram was! In Art this week they have been creating collages based on Henri Rousseau’s ‘Tiger in a tropical storm’ and I am very much looking forward to seeing their finished pieces which they have thoroughly enjoyed making.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week the children have been throwing themselves into our ‘Think Big About Science’ activities. They were asked to think about the question: What makes people who they are? Our Year 5s were having a fascinating debate about ‘Nature vs Nurture’ and coming up with examples of when one might have a stronger role in the outcome of someone’s abilities. Overall, they felt that nurture was likely to be a stronger determinant of future success than nature.

This week we have put out 14 cricket teams to get the season off to a flying start against Cheam and Moulsford. Our Year 3 children showed some great potential with both bat and ball and our 1st XI produced the result of the day with an enthralling tie, taking a wicket off the final ball of the match to achieve the result.

Good luck to our U13 and U12 cricketers who are playing in matches this weekend, with our U13s joining their counterparts at Abingdon School for joint foundation fixtures.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 1 May 2025

Dear Parents

I cannot remember a year when we went to shirt sleeve order before the end of April but it has been brilliant to have such warm and settled weather at the start of this term. The children are certainly making the most of their break times outside and enjoying the sunshine.

Our Year 7s returned safely from France late on Monday evening and have not stopped talking about the activities they tried and how much they enjoyed their time away. Year 6 departed yesterday for their Bushcraft residential and I know that they too will be thoroughly enjoying developing their outdoor learning skills and teamwork.

The cricket season began this week with a fantastic victory for our 1st XI against Sunningdale in the IAPS National Cup competition, and the first half century of the term being scored by our captain. Our U10 teams also enjoyed their first match of the season against Chandlings, showing great promise with their bowling but with work to do to further develop their batting.

In the classroom this week, I really enjoyed seeing our Year 7s working through some tricky Ordnance Survey map work questions about Edinburgh, whilst our Year 5s were thoroughly engrossed in the 5 minute story starters, with some lovely expressive language grabbing the reader’s attention straight away.

Year 2 have been working hard to produce a piece of persuasive writing, using rhetorical questions, alongside expressive and persuasive language, based around the book ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes. It was lovely to see how engaged they were with the task and the story in general.

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for all the very kind comments and messages following on from the announcement on Monday about me moving on to Wrekin Prep in January. We truly have a wonderful community here at APS and my family and I are very grateful to have spent 8 years in such a special place.

I hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend ahead and I look forward to seeing the children back in school on Tuesday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 24 April 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed the Easter break and made good use of the lovely weather that we were treated to in the holidays. I have very much enjoyed hearing from the children about their holidays and all of the exciting things they got up to.

It has been lovely to welcome all of our pupils back into school this week after a very enjoyable day of staff inset training where we learnt more about how AI can support teachers and children at school, and I know that a number of staff will be utilising some of these techniques to support their lesson and resource preparation. I myself used it to help produce this week’s assembly which was based on the theme of time management and the importance of sleep.

As always at Abingdon Prep, we have started the term at full speed with our Year 7s travelling to France this morning for their residential trip. I know they will have a fantastic time abroad undertaking activities and trying to improve their spoken French.

Elsewhere in school, Year 2 were straight back into their Maths work with a hands on lesson weighing and measuring, making predictions and recording their results in table form. Year 1 went straight into some creative writing, impressing with their descriptions of hummingbirds.

Year 3 are off exploring Coleshill today for their ‘Secrets and Spies’ field trip, working out ciphers and journeying through hidden bunkers to help them crack codes.

Class pairings took place this morning with paired reading and it was great to see the younger children reading to their older peers with such enthusiasm and being encouraged and supported by them so well. Books are such a wonderful way to help develop a child’s imagination and such a key part of school life in general.

Cricket, tennis and athletics take centre stage this term on the sports field and it was great to see so many of our pupils enthusiastically bowling, fielding and batting at our pre-season training and first games sessions of term. As a cricket fanatic myself, I am very much looking forward to the matches ahead and watching the children developing their skills in the weeks ahead.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead and good luck to our senior tennis teams who are competing in their first tournament of the term on Saturday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 27 March 2025

Dear Parents

We are coming to the end of another hugely enjoyable term and the children have excelled in so many different areas of the curriculum, whilst at the same time having a great deal of fun!

It has been lovely to see the children enjoying their Easter egg hunts this week. Thank you to all of you who so kindly donated Easter eggs for the children to hunt for. I doubt too many of the eggs made it home though!

The whole school was out on Wednesday afternoon participating in the House Cross Country competition. It is a real highlight of our sporting calendar, seeing everyone giving their all and cheering on those who are coming in at the back of the field just as loudly as those who are winning. We have a proud tradition of great cross country runners at APS and this year did not disappoint with some terrific runs from children across all year groups. Huge thanks to all of you who were able to attend and cheer on our runners in the beautiful sunshine.

Our Under 8 and 9 footballers completed their season on Tuesday with some round robin matches against Hatherop Castle. Their performances over the season have got stronger and stronger and they can be proud of their final week victories and the improvement to their footballing skills over the course of the term.

Good luck to our senior section pupils tonight who are performing in their concert. It is a genuine musical highlight of our calendar with choral singing alongside ensembles and solo performances. There will even be a sneak preview of the opening number from ‘The Lion King’, our Year 7&8 musical for the summer term.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter holiday and the children enjoy a well deserved rest. Many of the children have excitedly told me about their upcoming holiday destinations and I hope that if you are travelling at home, or abroad, you stay safe and have a Happy Easter.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 20 March 2025

Dear Parents

We are very much looking forward to welcoming lots of local families to school on Saturday morning for our Easter Eggstravaganza. Hopefully the weather will be kind and the children can enjoy searching for eggs, following the trail and taking part in a range of activities. The Easter Bunny, we are hoping, might even find time to make an appearance too.

Year 8 were treated to a fantastic talk from a local eco builder on Wednesday morning who gave them a great insight into how homes can be built sustainably as we aim, as a country, to move towards net zero by 2050. The children were enormously engaged and asked some impressive questions. We have some very astute and environmentally aware pupils at APS.

I was delighted to be asked to judge the Science competition submissions this week and I could not have been more impressed with the wide range of topics covered on the theme of ‘Change’. There were models, 3D printed figurines, posters and billboards, and the standard was amazing, right from Reception to Year 7. We certainly have some very keen scientists in the making.

Our final football and hockey matches of the season took place this week, with some impressive performances to round off the term. Highlights were the one goal wins from the U13C and U11C football teams, alongside the 1st VII hockey team beating both Pinewood and Cothill in their triangular. Our U8s and U9s also performed extremely well in their final games at their respective St Hugh’s tournaments. It has been great to witness the improvement in performances of all teams over the course of this term.

Finally, I hope that all our middle section parents will enjoy the spring concert tonight. The children have been rehearsing their performances and are sounding great.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to our Silver Coin Trail event on Friday, where we will be raising money for our school charity, Down’s Syndrome Oxford.

I hope you all have a good weekend ahead and I look forward to seeing some of you at the Easter Egg Trail on Saturday.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 13 March 2025

Dear Parents

The drop in temperature this week came as rather a shock after the beautiful sunshine of last week, but it has not stopped our children from throwing themselves into another busy week of school.

It is Science Week this week and on Monday our Year 7 and 8 pupils were involved in forensic science workshops at school. They had to process a series of crime scene details, from fingerprints to blood smears and then take their findings to present in a court prosecution. They had a great time doing this and learnt a huge amount about both CSI and the law. Reception started off Science Week by creating their own animal adaptations suited to different environments, whilst Year 1 were outside in the woods on the trail of caterpillars. Today, Year 2 are working with our Year 8s in a joint experiment to see what materials can, or cannot, be flushed into the sewers, and how each of the different materials breaks up.

Tuesday saw our U8s and U9s perform strongly in their football tournament at Oratory Prep and it was lovely to see such happy children when they returned, eager to tell me about their exciting matches and how well they had played. Three U11 teams and one senior team played in some equally exciting matches on Wednesday, coming away with 2 wins and 2 losses, with some impressive football on display from all the teams.

On Wednesday, our Year 3, 4 and 5 pupils took part in a workshop on road safety. It was wonderful to see how much they already knew about this but there were some really important points raised which will hopefully stay with them for life, to help keep themselves and others safe when using the road as pedestrian, cyclist or one day, driver!

Today, our Year 6s are at Hill End Outdoor Education centre for their Maps and Trails day. They will be undertaking a series of tasks, using their Ordnance Survey map skills developed in class, to navigate their way around the trails, strengthening not only their geographical skills but also their ability to work as a team.

We also had a brilliant assembly this morning looking at the theme of scientific and technological change and seeing pictures of the very earliest toasters, dishwashers and microwaves, which were unrecognisable from what we know them as today.

A real highlight this week was listening to the joint foundation choir performing in Abingdon School’s Chapel. It was a lovely service of thanksgiving with our APS pupils singing alongside the AS pupils. It was also great to welcome so many parents to the service too.

I have linked a podcast from Mr Windsor about co-education in case you would like to listen to it.

Good luck to our U8 footballers for their tournament on Saturday morning and I hope you all have a good weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 6 March 2025

Dear Parents

It was lovely to welcome so many parents and pupils to the Young Art Abingdon exhibition held in the Pavilion at Abingdon School yesterday evening. There were over 70 pieces of the children’s work on display, on the theme of Community. The quality of the children’s art, from Reception to Year 8, never ceases to amaze me.

I was delighted to witness the hugely mature and impressive contributions from the children involved in our respectful language workshops this week, led brilliantly by the Foundation’s Mental Health & Wellbeing Coordinator, Natalie Hunt. They discussed a number of issues and absorbed key messages about the importance of always using respectful language.

We welcomed five of our Abingdon Foundation Governors into school on Wednesday for the second of our Governor visit days. They thoroughly enjoyed observing the children in lessons and were even asked to take part in some of the activities as well. I know they really enjoyed seeing our children and teachers in action.

There were some fantastic football fixtures this week against Moulsford, with all of our Year 5 to 8 pupils again representing the school. Highlights were our 2nd XI victory, scoring 6 goals in the process, alongside a pulsating 4-4 draw for our 4th XI and a 3-3 draw for our Colts A team. It was great to see the children from both schools playing the matches in such a great spirit.

I must also mention the fantastic effort from our cross-country runners last weekend, with our senior team coming 14th in the whole country on Saturday at the English Schools National finals and then, just a day later, competing in the Prep Schools National Championships at Malvern, where they secured a quite brilliant 2nd place, with Monkton in 1st and Millfield in 3rd. They should be incredibly proud of their efforts, as should our U11 team who competed admirably at Malvern as well. Good luck also to our swimmers who are competing in the regional IAPS qualifiers this afternoon. A busy week of sport!

A brilliant set of Earth Sciences workshops took place this week for our Year 3 to 5 pupils. They were enormously enjoyable, with the children studying different rock types and learning a huge amount on how the Earth works and the unbelievable forces required to create such an amazing planet.

Our Year 5 pupils are on an educational visit tomorrow at the Oxford Museums, participating in workshops about the Mayan Civilisation, and then moving on to look at evolution and the work of Charles Darwin. Trips and workshops play a huge part in supporting the children’s learning and further enhancing their understanding of the material they are studying by truly bringing it to life.

A group of Year 7 and 8 pupils took part in a geography quiz at Magdalen College School on Tuesday after school. The questions were particularly tricky but the children acquitted themselves extremely well, even winning one of the rounds, showing off some impressive geographical knowledge.

Our Year 8 academic scholarship group completed their week of exams and we are very proud of all of their efforts in the lead up to these extremely taxing exams.

Finally, a huge thank you to all of you who helped put together your children’s World Book Day costumes. They looked terrific and it was great to spend so much time discussing books with them and why they had chosen those particular characters. Reading is so integral to a child’s learning and development and it is refreshing to see how much our children love spending time with a good book. Our Year 7 and 8 pupils had an inspiring talk from author Nathanael Lessore across at The Amey Theatre, alongside their Abingdon School counterparts. His books include ‘Steady For This’, a heartwarming and very funny book about a wannabe rapper MC Growls.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 27 February 2025

Dear Parents

I hope that you all enjoyed a good half term break. I have very much enjoyed chatting to the children about their adventures last week.

On Monday our parental webinar on Relationships and Sex Education took place. It was good to be able to share with you details of the work we do with the children of different age groups. I hope that those who were able to attend found it useful.

Our parental webinars continue tonight with our presentation on the vital topic of internet safety. We have had a good number of responses to the questionnaire that was sent out which is greatly appreciated as it helps us to tailor the content for the session.

Today, Natalie Hunt, Mental Health & Wellbeing Coordinator at Abingdon School, led workshops on respectful language for children across a wide range of year groups. It was great to see the children so engaged with the topic and showing real understanding of the importance of using respectful language in their daily lives.

Year 2 pupils this week have been learning about all the Kings and Queens of England. They have been working on linking pictures of them to eras and dates and deciding which fashion styles would have been part of which era. This morning they joined forty two other Year 2s from local primary schools for a hockey training session at Tilsley Park which was hugely enjoyed by all.

We are looking forward to our World Book Day events next week. Our younger children will be dressing up in their usual brilliant array of character costumes and attending a special assembly. Meanwhile an exciting author visit to Abingdon School has been lined up for Years 7 and 8. (Please see the separate mailing from Stefan for further details of this.)

On the sports fields this week, the weather has been rather inclement and great credit must go to the children in the Wednesday matches playing through intense hailstorms! Our U10 and U11 football teams worked hard to secure some high scoring victories against The Manor whilst the high scoring games continued at U12 and U13 level against Cokethorpe and Beachborough. Our U8s also take on The Manor this afternoon and will once again enjoy the opportunity to further improve and develop their match skills.

Finally, I want to wish our senior cross country runners the best of luck as they compete in the English Schools’ National Cross Country Finals taking place in Leeds on Saturday. They have done brilliantly to qualify for these national finals and will also enjoy a stop off at the Loughborough University, centre for sporting excellence on their way to Yorkshire. The U11 & U13s are also running on Sunday at the National Prep School cross country championship at Malvern College and I know they will do their absolute best.

Good luck too to those Year 8s who are sitting their Abingdon Academic scholarships next week. They have worked incredibly hard in the lead up to these and we are very proud of their efforts.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head

Thursday 13 February 2025

Dear Parents

There has been much excitement this week in our middle section with our Year 3 and 4 pupils preparing for their performance of ‘Peter Pan’ this evening. The rehearsals have sounded great and I am really looking forward to watching them in action this evening.

Tomorrow, our Reception children are off to visit Sutton Courtenay’s Environmental Centre where they will be learning about the four things that animals need to survive: food, air, water and shelter. They will be creating animal footprints from clay, hunting for hidden teddies and creating collages from any natural resources they can find. It will be a great way for them to further develop their geographical, scientific and artistic skills.

Our U8s performed very well in the football matches this week against The Manor, playing some lovely passing football with both our teams scoring some impressive goals. Our senior teams took on Hatherop Castle and came away with a clean sweep of wins from what proved to be closely contested matches in most cases, whilst our U10s and U11s also played some lovely football to come away with a strong set of results too. On the hockey pitch our U12s played some super hockey at the county championships early in the week and our senior teams managed two victories over Cothill, both by a single goal.

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on some staff changes for next term. At the end of this term we will say goodbye to Elizabeth Slater. Elizabeth has been with us for 12 years and undertaken a broad range of roles at APS. She will be one of the few staff who has taught every child in school over the past few years. She has most recently been responsible for our brilliant productions. We wish her all the best with her next steps and thank her sincerely for all the work she has done at APS.

Following on from her surgery last term, Emma Penfold, our Director of Music, will be undergoing a course of chemotherapy after half term and so will be intermittently in and out of school. To ensure consistency in the Music department for the children, I am delighted to be able to welcome back Mike Stinton, who covered Emma’s absence last term. He will be taking on all of Emma’s classes and wider responsibilities. Mike is here with us this week to get back into the routines of APS and it is lovely to be able to welcome him back.

I am also delighted to let you know that Danielle Campbell is expecting her first child in the summer. Danielle will be with us for the remainder of this academic year and we will look to appoint her replacement for September in due course.

A date for your diaries. We will be holding an Easter Eggstravaganza here at school on 22 March. It is an event that will be open to the whole school community as well as the wider local community, so do ask friends, family and neighbours if they would like to come. There will be a trail, crafts and of course the famous Easter Bunny will be making an appearance. The event is ticketed and you can buy those here. All proceeds will go to our school charity, Down’s Syndrome Oxford.

Mr Windsor and I were chatting about co-education today in our weekly meeting. Here at APS there has been a good level of interest from families and we have toured a number of girls around school. It is great that we are starting to confirm places for some of them across a range of year groups.

It does not seem all that long ago that we began this term at the start of January but we have now reached half term. I hope that the children and yourselves will enjoy a good break, whether going away somewhere locally or further afield, or just spending time relaxing at home.

Best wishes

Craig Williams
Head