15 Dec 2017

WEEKLY MAILING

This week's mailing:

Letters:

Term Calendar for Lent Term 2018, Key Dates and Term Dates

As you will be aware the School is not printing a hard-copy calendar so parents should refer to the online calendar which is kept regularly up to date. The School Calendar is accessed from the tab called 'Information' at the top of the front page of the website. This is searchable using your web browser. Any amendments to Lent Term 2018 events made after today will be indicated clearly. The Key Dates for 2017/18 are also available on the website 'Information' page. This page highlights events such as parents' evenings, social evenings and evening presentations to parents. Term dates for 2017/18 and 2018/19 are also available on the same page.

School Dress

Parents are asked to provide their growing sons with shirts sufficiently large for them to have their top buttons done up throughout the day.  Boys may wear jumpers under their jackets, but they need to be dark blue, V-necked and without a zip.  The exception, for the sixth form, is that their V-necked jumper may be monochrome and of sober colour. The full uniform list and dress code is at https://www.abingdon.org.uk/school_uniform.

End of Term Reports

These will be published to the parent portal over the weekend.  If you cannot see the report on the portal by Monday 18 December, please contact [email protected] which is also the contact if you do not currently have a log on to the portal but think that you should have one.

Residential Trips 2018

The trips list has now been updated to include trips planned for the Michaelmas Term 2018, too.

SHSK – Tech Camp

With the Christmas being a time that people often start to think about Summer holidays, Tech Camp would like to launch their camps for 2018.  Abingdon pupils can also use the St Helen’s discount code.

Abingdon School’s Annual Fund 2018 is now live!

Thanks to the generosity of parents, alumni, staff and governors, our Annual Fund is now in its 11th year and has raised over £900,000 for specific projects which benefit current boys across the School. With projects supporting anything from virtual reality design to spin bowling, we are excited to announce that the 2018 Annual Fund is now open and encourage you to visit the Annual Fund page on the school website. Here you can find all the projects and donate to any of them.

Shooting in Lent Term – Message from the Master i/c Shooting:

The time is upon us to start planning shooting sessions for the Lent term. So that we can start shooting in the very first week back, I would like boys to sign up to sessions now. All the sessions, and rifle type, are in the attached Google Form. Boys can commit to as many sessions as they like but do bear in mind that we are capping air rifle sessions at 12 boys and .22 rifle sessions at 8 boys this term.  Sessions will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, although some tweaking may take place by the Master in Charge and Shooting Coach.

There is also a £75 charge per term to cover the Shooting Coach's time, ammunition, targets and other ancillaries. Therefore, after boys have signed up using this form I will be asking parents to also sign a consent form. If a boy's name is not down for a session or parents haven't given consent, boys will not be allowed to fire.  Please sign up to sessions here – https://goo.gl/forms/L3zQsDsFPN3m6SuJ2 

Holiday Reading

The English Department and the Library would like to encourage the boys to read for pleasure over the Christmas period. The following Christmas Cards suggest books the boys could try according to their age and interests. 

Abingdon Box Office

NT Live: Young Marx – Thursday 11 January at 7pm – Rory Kinnear (The Threepenny Opera, Penny Dreadful, Othello) is Marx and Oliver Chris (Twelfth Night, Green Wing) is Engels, in this new comedy written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre, London, the production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and reunites the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors.  1850, and Europe’s most feared terrorist is hiding in Dean Street, Soho. Broke, restless and horny, the thirty-two- year-old revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, invective, satiric wit, and child-like emotional illiteracy. Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there’s still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx.  Please note that this is an Encore Screening of the Live Performance on Thursday 7 December 2017.

Dr. Michael Foale CBE, ex-NASA Astronaut, Tuesday 30 January, 7.30pm, Amey Theatre – We are extremely pleased to be welcoming back to the Amey Theatre Dr.Michael Foale CBE, ex-NASA Astronaut, who still holds the record for longest time in space by a British born person. His visit is particularly exciting for the 37 pupils of Abingdon and St.Helen's schools who spent a week with Mike at Russia's Cosmonaut training centre, Star City near Moscow, last February: Abingdon Head of School, Patrick McCubbin, says of Mike and the trip “To visit a place like Star City, and meet people like Dr Michael Foale CBE, is inspirational. Everybody there is determined to always be improving, to aim high, be proactive, to work for each other as well as themselves.” You can find out first hand about Mike's amazing story, including six space missions and life aboard both the Mir and International Space Stations, at his public lecture on Tuesday 30 January at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from the Amey Theatre and via this link bit.ly/ASPastronaut.

Joint Senior Production 'A Matter of Life and Death' – Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 & Friday 26, 7pm, Amey Theatre. Tickets are now on sale.

Next Term

Term begins on Tuesday 9 January 2018 at 8.35am with tutor time, followed by lessons from 9am.  It will be a week B timetable.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year