Abingdon News No. 52

www.abingdon.org.uk 25 Abingdon Parents’ Association www.abingdon.org.uk/school-life/parents-associations/parents-aspa Celebrate Burns Night in Style! Dig out your finest tartan…else pin a bit of tartan ribbon to your dress! Momentum is building with ASPA and the parents of Lower School to celebrate 2020 Burns Night in style on 25th January. This is a great opportunity for parents (especially of first year boys) to make new friends and put more names to faces. Tickets are just £35 and include a live piper from the Oxford Caledonian Pipes & Drums, a glass of fizz in the CMR, and a sumptuous supper in the Abingdon School dining room. Book your places now via the school website and box office. You can either organise a table or if you don’t know who to sit with we can sort all that for you. A little while ago, ASPA introduced Classlist; a parent community service that many of you may have used at your son’s previous school. We now only communicate via that route and so please do sign up if you haven’t already. We believe that Classlist helps to create a welcoming and engaging community amongst our parents and encourage you to be a part of it. A few things to let you know: • Classlist will enable you to contact other parents safely and securely and to keep up to date with events organised by the Year Reps and ASPA. We have checked (with the help and support of the IT team at Abingdon School) where and how the data will be stored and are happy with the levels of security in place. • The online system allows you to enter, manage and update the personal information that you wish to share with your child’s year group. It means that you have full control over which of your contact details are shared, for example, just an email address or your full contact details. You can even choose to keep your email address hidden. • Our parent community is much more than an online address book. By using Classlist , there is scope for parents to set up or invite others to events, join discussions or find other parents who live nearby. • Classlist will replace and enhance the previous contact list system, if you are an existing parent please note that we will no longer be issuing these lists or using the Parent Portal for this purpose. If you have any queries regarding Classlist please contact [email protected] Mexico returns to Abingdon! Why fly all the way to the beaches and nightlife of Cancun or the tequila and mariachi music of Guadalajara when a transformed school dining room and accompanying Mexican-style meal are available closer to home? Last term, 84 parents of third year boys pondered this question whilst getting to know each other over sombreros and margaritas. Viva la fiesta, viva la noche, viva la amistad! Classlist update