4
September 2015
Community service
A group of Community Service volunteers
visit Bridge House every week to run a
very well attended and popular quiz. This
term they also joined in with a lively VE
Day celebration party.
Live below the Line
Mrs Wenham and 12 members of her
third year tutor group took part in the Live
Below the Line schools challenge to raise
money for Unicef. The campaign invites
individuals, groups and communities to
eat and drink on just £1 a day, the UK
equivalent of the extreme poverty line.
By 1.30pm, when the meagre lunch of
egg fried rice with a few vegetables was
ready (cooked by the boys), it was the first
food they had eaten since watery porridge
for breakfast, and was eagerly devoured,
despite its lack of taste.
Abingdon
News
The Griffen
Soars
Following 12 weeks’ work, in which a group of lower sixth physicists explored a wide
spectrum of scientific disciplines from Atmospherics through Chemistry and Physics
to Engineering, the Griffen balloon took off from the front of school and climbed to the
edge of space. The boys tracked its progress, and were ready in a minibus (‘the chase
vehicle’) to collect the payload on landing. The flight took about two hours, reached a
maximum height of 29,410m and the temperature at burst was -39.6 degrees C.
The balloon’s payload carried a variety of experiments. As well as the GPS module
transmitting information on position, there were measurements of temperature, humidity
and air pressure. The boys designed experiments to study the change in the sky’s colour
and UV levels. Video footage of the flight was taken with two GoPros and can be seen
on the school website:
This project was funded by donations to the Abingdon School Annual Fund.
Abingdon Fitzharrys
Partnership
Over the last year Abingdon has been
working in partnership with Fitzharrys
School to develop innovative practice
and to share and broaden experience in
order to improve teaching and learning
at both schools. This term staff involved
in the project presented their work at a
very enjoyable evening. It is hoped that
this mutually beneficial partnership can be
developed and widened in the future.
VE Day at Bridge House, Abingdon
