Page 4 - Abingdon News

News
4 September 2012
Be the Best You Can Be
Lower School’s participation in the Be the Best You Can Be scheme came to an inspiring
conclusion at the end of last term when Commonwealth and European gold medallist,
Adam Whitehead, who launched the scheme in September 2011, returned to present the
medals. Adam, who spoke last September about the qualities needed to succeed in any
area of life, and the fact that success was a choice not a chance, spoke in July about the
meaning of success and the importance of always following your dreams. Special prizes
were awarded for success across a whole range of activities and boys moving up into 3
Middle School were reminded to always aim to ‘be the best you can be’. n
Shadowing the Carnegie
The annual Shadowing the Carnegie
scheme invites teams of readers from
schools across the country to read all the
books shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal,
awarded to the writer of the outstanding
children’s book of the year. All the
Abingdon schools join together and this
year they decided on Between Shades of
Grey by Ruta Sepetys, a compelling story
about Lithuanian families being exported
to Siberia. The official Carnegie committee
chose A Monster Calls, from an original idea
by Siobhan Dowd, which was completed
after her death by Patrick Ness. n
Linguistic Olympian
The International Linguistics Olympiad is a
test of logical ability, patient work and the
willingness to think around corners when
faced with the world’s toughest puzzles in
language and linguistics. From a field of
more than 1,100 other UK competitors, Omri
Faraggi won one of the four places in the UK
team entered for the final in Ljubljana in July.
He here won an individual bronze medal, one
of only 37 medals awarded in this international
competition – a magnificent achievement. n
Matthew Landells, Mike Deeks and
Clym Buxton cycled from Athens –
home of the original Olympic Games
– to London – host of the 2012 Games
– to raise money for three charities –
Starlight, Make a Wish and Action for
ME. Leaving Athens for Petros on 5
July, they crossed to Italy and cycled
up through Rome, Siena and Pisa
into Menton with temperatures often
touching 44˚C. From Menton they
crossed the Alps to Geneva, on to
Paris via Dijon and then crossed from
Dieppe to Newhaven arriving at Big
Ben in the late afternoon of 3 August, a
journey of 1,800 miles. Read their blog
or make a donation at:
http://www.bike4charity.co.uk n
Prize Giving
Tim Parker, OA, successful
businessman and Chairman and
CEO of Samsonite, was the guest of
honour at Prize Giving last term when,
in addition to presenting the prizes, he
spoke inspiringly about the importance
of entrepreneurism in society. n
Photograph - Maria Rubenstein
From Athens
to Westminster
by Bicycle