AN46

4 January 2018 Third year Max Kidd-May completed a charity stand up paddleboard from Surrey to Fulham covering 36.5km over a period of 9 hours. Abingdon News Taking on the House Cameron Butcher and Scott Elkington took on their Lordships as part of the English Bridge Union’s annual bridge event at the House of Lords. The boys enjoyed a guided tour, followed by duplicate bridge and afternoon tea on the terrace. Cameron partnered Lord Harrison of Chester and Scott, Lord Skelmersdale. Tutor time turned into poetry reading for National Poetry Day alongside poetry related activities and a school-wide competition for boys and staff. The open mic session in the afternoon showcased a wonderful selection of boys’ and staff’s own work as well as their favourite poems. Aahaan Sharma (pictured), a Year 7 pupil, read a poem he wrote called “Freedom Inside Me”. Aahaan was inspired by his grandmother who is a writer and a poet. The Headmaster recited a German poem called Wanderers Nachtlied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and a poem by Clive James called Leçons de Ténèbres. National Poetry Day Marathon Paddle Oxford Varsity Squad Training Oxford University​‘s Varsity squad came into school for their final team training session before the Varsity Match. The University’s Head Coach, James Wade, was appointed the School’s Forwards Coach this summer. The University used the new fitness suite, the hospitality suite for team analysis, and the Waste Court pitch for their final preparation. Abingdon’s 1st XV had a real treat, taking part in a non-contact training session running in phases of attack and defence. The day culminated in the University players giving the Abingdon boys some one to one training sessions. Exploring ATLAS with Minecraft Abingdon School students joined a group of UK teenagers to create an interactive museum of one of the world’s most famous science experiments – the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider – in the virtual land of Minecraft.