Abingdonian 2017

102 The Abingdonian “Be the best that you can be” has been the mantra adopted by Lower School for several years now and it was clear from the confident and enthusiastic start that the 66 new first years made this year that they were definitely in tune with that idea. To quote one of them at the end of his first week: “I have got on really well and I do not want to go home. School has made my brain work and has given me lots of friends.” The second year meanwhile took their new role as mentors to the younger boys seriously and also responded well to the more demanding material now on offer to them in the classroom. To encourage all the boys in their endeavours we were very pleased to welcome Talan Skeels-Piggins as the guest speaker at our Be the Best Launch – the story of how he overcame a motor accident that left him paralysed from the waist down to compete as a skier in the Winter Olympics and win a World Championship in motorcycle racing was very strong testament to the importance of determination and resilience in the face of adversity. A great number of the boys have been heavily involved in the artistic life of the school this year, with over 40 taking part in December’s production of Treasure Island – Mr McDonnell, directing his very first Abingdon production, could be considered very brave to give out swords and other assorted weapons to the boys so early in his teaching career, but the result was spectacular, with the boys clearly inspired by the stunning set design and the choric staging which gave them all the chance to share the limelight. A donation by SUS to the Annual Fund allowed all the boys to try their hand at filmmaking in the summer when we were visited by the One Day Film School. After a session on fight choreography that saw them legitimately punching each other on Upper Field, they were given the challenge of producing a 10-shot silent film to a strict deadline – the results were creative and imaginative (and predictably violent!) with the Oscar going to heist movie Cash Grab . Musical standards have also been high this year with stirring choral performances by the first years at the Christmas Concert ( Torches and Jingle Bells conducted by one of their own, Oliver Smith) and the second years at the New Year Concert ( I Wanna Be Like You and The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book ) and the two main ensembles of Junior Strings and Lower School Band also being in fine form. The introduction of termly Lower School Lunchtime Concerts to supplement the Summer Gala Concert has provided the boys with more opportunities to perform solos on their instruments to their peers and, here, there are two first years who deserve special mention: Oliver Glover, who has been the lead oboe in First Orchestra this year, including on their tour to Bielefeld, and Ollie Northwood, whose moving performance of Mendelssohn’s Romance No. 3 led to him winning the Junior Solo Competition in June. Sport too always features heavily in the lives of Lower School boys, and this year was no exception, with a great number of them getting involved in the various teams on offer or trying out a sport they had never had the chance to do before – pilates was a new and popular addition to the menu this year under the expert guidance of Mrs McRae. Although our fixture list has got more and more competitive in recent years, we still achieved a fair share of success in all the major sports at both U12 and U13 level, with the U12 rugby 7s team looking particularly impressive. Several boys also received significant sporting plaudits outside the school, with Theo Mara, Seb Muller and Benjamin MacLennan performing to a very high level in football, Lower School