11 Sep 2015

WEEKLY MAILING

This week's mailing is:

Letter from the Head (PDF)

Letters:

Notices:

Open Day: Saturday 3 October

Open Day runs from 9.30 until 12.30. All boys, EXCEPT first years who are not involved in an activity such as an orchestra or band, are expected to attend and should arrive at School no later than 8.55 am to register before beginning their Open Day activities. Request for absence on this day should, as usual, be made to the housemaster, as for a single weekday absence. For boys who use the joint bus service, all the morning routes will be operating the weekday schedule running 30 minutes later than usual. For the return journey, the weekday 5.20pm service will depart on all usual routes from the coach park at 1.00pm.

Exam Remarks

Parents are asked to remind their sons that the deadline for exam remarks is fast approaching. Requests should be made before Friday 18 September, and any requests received after will not be processed. Mrs Cottam will be available in her office between 9am – 3pm. To contact Mrs Cottam please email or call 01235 849035.

4th Year French exchange to Aix en Provence 2016

There are 4 places available! Please click on the following link to find our more information about the trip: https://abingdon.fireflycloud.net/french/trips. If you are interested please get in touch with [email protected]

Pastoral Advice for Parents

I am aware that we have a large number of new parents, and that the summer holiday might have meant that your son has not only grown out of all his uniform, but has also hit a new stage of adolescence. To that end, please find below a link to the document “Pastoral Advice for Parents.” As ever, please do feel free to contact Mr Hindley (Deputy Head Pastoral), or your son's housemaster, if there are aspects of this document that you would like to discuss. 

Behaviour on the Buses

We have over 500 boys using the Joint Bus Service. Most behave impeccably but there can be moments of poor behaviour, ranging from nagging irritations, such as the persistent leaving of litter on the floor and use of bad language, to the safety issue of boys not wearing seat belts. Inevitably the people who tend to bear the brunt of this bad behaviour are the drivers. The boys know our expectations of them, but please reiterate to your sons that they are representatives of Abingdon School and that they must behave accordingly. Equally it is a requirement, not an option, that they wear seat belts.

In the course of that conversation could you please also remind them that if they cannot adhere to the requisite standards of behaviour, then they will receive a Friday Detention. If they continue to misbehave, we reserve the right to ban them from the buses for a period of time, probably 3 to 5 days in the first instance. The level of the sanction will obviously be dependent on the severity of the offending behaviour.

Rugby

Now we are back in the midst of the rugby term, can we take this opportunity to remind you of the protocols if your son is unlucky enough to be concussed during a rugby match. This is something that we are all very sensitive about in order to ensure best practice. Please follow the link to the RFU website so that you can familiarise yourself with the suggested protocol, but we need to highlight one very important point, especially for day boys. In case of a head injury please ensure the following steps are undertaken:

If a boy sustains a head injury during a match here or Cox's Field we have a Doctor who can see them on the same day, who will then review them in three weeks. The boy will need to come into see him prior to matches starting. During this period they will have a graduated return to play programme and this will include being reviewed by the school nurses at week 1 and 2. If they are playing away they should be seen by the medic covering the match, they may be advised to go to the Emergency department. This information needs to be shared with his rugby coach and Peter Coke (as Director of Rugby) and the Health Centre should be copied in. We can then get them reviewed with the doctor at week 3 and the nurses at week 1 and 2. The advice is clear that he should not play competitively again until he is signed as fit by a medical professional. Any queries to Peter Coke please.

Joint Choral Society for Parents

We hope that lots of new and current parents will wish to sing alongside pupils and staff in Rossini’s wonderfully operatic “Petite Messe Solennelle”. Rehearsals for parents will be on Wednesdays at 7.30pm. All are welcome; there are no auditions and we provide vocal scores.

Music Society Quiz and Curry Night – Friday 20 November

Parents are warmly invited to join us for this new venture where groups of pupils and parents compete on tables to outwit each other answering questions on a wide variety of music of all genres – classical to modern pop! With a subsidised curry priced at £10 (adults) and £6 (pupils), and CFC as our quizmaster, what’s not to like? Please order tickets online via calendar and events on the Abingdon School website. Please book tickets via online booking system which be found [email protected]

A Celebration of Abingdon Rowing – Saturday 3 October 2015

Anyone involved in rowing at Abingdon School, past or present, is invited to an afternoon at Abingdon School's Boathouse from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm. Pig roast lunch followed by rowing (optional) and afternoon tea. Special guest will be Sir David Tanner CBE (OA 1966), British Rowing's Performance Director. Further details and booking available here.

Dropping off and collection of pupils by car

Parents are reminded not to drop off or collect boys from the Bursary area, or Lower Field car park, please. This is because the area is already busy with pedestrians, pupils and school traffic. We therefore ask that parents drop and collect boys in Park Crescent, operating a one-way system travelling clockwise past the private housing on the west of Albert Park, and ending up near the boarding houses. The Crescent ends at a cross roads, where halting is obligatory on these private roads. Wheel clamping operates on Park Road and Park Crescent, so you are advised not to leave a car unattended.

Weekly Mailing

We aim to send an email each Friday at 5.00pm which provides a link to that day's Weekly Mailing. All editions of Weekly Mailing may be found on the website, under the News tab. We would encourage those who missed the link to view last Friday's Weekly Mailing, which was the first mailing of the term.

Medical matters

Please can parents keep the Health Centre updated of any changes to your son's health so that we can update our records accordingly.  

Asthma: all boys with asthma must carry their inhaler with them at school. We will hold a spare inhaler in the Health Centre for boys in case of an emergency.