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Abingdon
News
Moldovan visitors
This year’s Moldova Project trip was a
reversal of the usual visit with a group of
16 students, 4 teachers, and the director
of the charity, Agape, coming to Abingdon
for a week-long trip. The visitors spent time
touring the school and enjoyed a range of
activities including cricket, a biology lesson
on digestion and a drama workshop, which
culminated in performances of Romeo
and Juliet. The visitors also enjoyed trips to
London and Oxford.
Tackling Vector Mechanics
Dr Catherine Heyer of the Department of Physics at Oxford University led a very informative
and challenging problem-solving workshop for sixth formers. The boys welcomed Dr
Heyer’s advice for Oxbridge applicants and enjoyed the tough vector mechanics problems,
designed by the Isaac Physics project team at Cambridge University.
Second year students
enthusiastically embraced the
art of stage conflicts when Kev
McCurdy, fight director for the
National Theatre, the RSC and
the Globe held a workshop;
he found the boys were very
attentive learners when it came
to controlled fight manoeuvres.
Sixth formers Patrick McCubbin and
Matthew Gill spent a week with astronauts
and space scientists at the International
Space School Education Trust’s ‘Mission
Discovery’, at King’s College, London. The
sixth formers joined students from across
the UK and the rest of the world and were
tasked with designing and presenting ideas
for bio-medical experiments capable of
being launched onto the International Space
Station. The boys met inspirational people
such as Michael Foale CBE and Sarah
Murray, current Assistant Chief of EVA,
Robotics and Crew Systems at NASA. Both
Patrick and Matthew are now looking forward
to participating in the joint Abingdon and
St.Helen’s trip to the Cosmonaut Training
Centre at Star City in Russia next February.
Patrick McCubbin with former
NASA astronaut Michael Foale
Be the best you can be!
The Lower School was inspired by the presentation from paralympian and motorcycling
world champion Talan Skeels-Piggins who launched this year’s ‘Be the Best you can be’
programme.
The Second Year
– up for a fight
Mission
Discovery