2 Feb 2023

WEEKLY MAILING

Message from the Headmaster

Dear Parents

It is Eco Week at Abingdon and Abingdon Prep this week so we have been focusing on issues related to the environment and sustainability. I have been giving the Chapel address to each year group this week. Our theme in chapel this term is ‘Positive News’. I’ve therefore been sharing with pupils good news about progress that is being made with regard to preserving biodiversity – while acknowledging the scale of the challenge that faces us with regard to climate change. I think it’s important that pupils are inspired with a sense that we can make a difference so that our actions to address climate change are founded in hope and positivity.

I’ve also shared with students the good news about the actions that the School has been taking to reduce energy use, which is down nearly 10% on last year. This is a result of individual actions by students and staff but also thanks to initiatives such as the installation of solar panels on the Sports Centre roof. More panels will follow on the Science Centre and our new boarding development over the summer and all our new building developments will be heated via air source heat pumps, again hopefully reducing our carbon footprint.

As well as focusing on the environment, it’s been hard to avoid the buzz about the joint production with SHSK of Grease in the Amey Theatre this week. Every performance is sold out and there have been rave reviews of the first night. I’ll be slipping into my leather jacket and shades for Friday night’s performance…

Best wishes, Mike Windsor

 

UPPER SCHOOL

MIDDLE SCHOOL

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  • Accountants, Mechanical Engineers, Radio/TV/Film Producers, Civil Servants, Journalists, and Psychologists are needed to volunteer at Abingdon Independent Schools’ Careers Convention, Thursday 16 March 2023.  Thank you to all parents who have volunteered to represent their profession at the upcoming annual Abingdon Independent Schools’ Careers Convention on Thursday evening, 16 March 2023 at SHSK, 6-9pm (with set up and buffet supper for volunteers from 4:45-6pm). However, there are a number of professions for which we still need volunteers. If you work in one of the following professions and would like to volunteer, please complete this online Registration Form by Friday 10 February: Accountancy, Mechanical Engineering, Radio/TV/Film, Government, Journalism, and Psychology. Thank you for considering being a volunteer at this important event!  Michael Triff, Head of Career Guidance.
  • REMINDER: Talk: The Road to RECOVERY: Finding Treatments for a Pandemic, Friday 24 February 2023, 7.00 pm – Amey Theatre, Abingdon School. Martin Landray (OA 1987) is Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology at Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, and the Chief Executive of Protas, a not-for-profit company, focused on the design and delivery of highly efficient randomised trials of treatments for major public health conditions. He will give a fascinating talk on his pivotal role in the RECOVERY trial (the world’s largest trial of potential treatments for COVID-19 and the discovery that dexamethasone reduces mortality for the sickest patients) for which he received a knighthood for services to public health and science.  Online booking is available via the Abingdon School Box Office here.  All welcome.
  • Talk: An Audience with Ben Macintyre (OA 1981), Thursday 23 March 2023, 7.00 pm – Amey Theatre, Abingdon School.  Author, historian, and associate editor, columnist and writer-at-large for The Times. Join Ben Macintyre as he talks about his latest book Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle in which he gives the inside story of life in this infamous German prison for allied officers, challenging what we always thought we knew. Ben is a bestselling author whose books SAS: Rogue Heroes and A Spy Among Friends have recently been televised. Local independent bookshop, Mostly Books, will have a selection of Ben Macintyre’s books, including limited signed copies, available to purchase on the night at specially discounted prices. Online booking will be made available shortly via the Abingdon School Box Office here.  All welcome.
  • ASPA Quiz Night. Booking will be available from tomorrow at the following link: ASPA Quiz Night – Abingdon Leisure 7.30pm (prompt!) on Friday 3 March. Teams of 6-8. Cost of £10 per person to include a two course supper, there will also be a pay bar.  Richard Stone, Chair of ASPA.
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