5
Oxfordshire Book Awards
The School hosted the 7th annual Oxfordshire Book Award Ceremony with more than
300 students, teachers and librarians from 24 schools filling the Amey Theatre.
Aspiring Sports Reporter
Sixth former Tim McGovern has won BBC
Radio Oxford’s, Oxfordshire Young Sport
Reporter competition. Tim, who is also one
of the School’s up and coming young actors,
is a great sports enthusiast and is interested
in a career in sport journalism. Tim’s prize
includes a day’s training with a professional
broadcaster as well as the chance to report
or commentate on the Oxfordshire Schools
Games later this year.
Abingdon
News
Inspiration from Outside
A selection of the impressive speakers we have enjoyed this term.
Dr Max Michaelis
was welcomed by
the Physics Society; he gave a fascinating
talk on the Halitron.
Professor David Miles
from the
Monetary Policy Committee at the
Bank of England spoke to sixth form
economists.
Professor John Cottingham
gave
an Edmund Society lecture on
God and
the Soul in Descartes
. Not surprisingly
‘I think and therefore I am’ was a key
component.
Pedro Arroyo
, a Spanish journalist,
entertained a group of Abingdon and St
Helen’s sixth formers with a lecture on the
Spanish Civil War.
Professor Frank Close
revealed
secrets surrounding atomic scientist
Bruno Pontecorvo and the Cold War spy
scandal.
Henry Olonga
, the youngest and the
first black cricketer to play Test cricket
for Zimbabwe, spoke with passion in
Chapel and to Lower and Middle School.
Olonga together with team-mate, Andy
Flower, wore black armbands in a match
to protest ‘the death of democracy’
in Zimbabwe under the rule of Robert
Mugabe. A warrant was issued for
Henry’s arrest for treason, punishable by
death. Henry had to go into hiding and
then exile in the UK. This multi-talented
man is also a trained opera singer.
Henry Olonga
Pedro Arroyo
Professor David Miles
Dr Max Michaelis
