23 Nov 2023

WEEKLY MAILING

Message from the Head

Dear Parents

The Peer Support Leads are a group of Upper Sixth students who have trained alongside their counterparts in the OX14 Learning Partnership (made up of six secondary schools in Abingdon; three maintained, three independent) to provide support and advice to their younger counterparts. I’m grateful to them for the work that they put into an assembly to mark International Men’s Day in which they considered the nature of masculinity by highlighting different male role models within the School. It was striking that the values that inspired students and staff were those of kindness, enthusiasm and mutual respect. It’s great to see our older students setting the tone so powerfully for the younger members of the School.

I was also inspired earlier this week as I listened to members of the Upper Sixth giving presentations about their essays they’ve produced for the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). I’ve been supervising three candidates this year and they’ve been writing about the regulation of cryptocurrencies, the World Cup in Qatar as a sportswashing event and finally the impact of policies related to climate change on the Indonesian economy. They certainly rose to the challenge of presenting their ideas in an engaging and compelling way and it was instructive to hear their reflections on what they had learnt from the process of producing their EPQ.

As I write, we look forward to the annual lacrosse match against St Helen’s and St Katharine’s as part of their St Kate’s Day celebrations. I have to admit that we don’t have a great track record in this event, with the girls having come out on top in every previous year. However, we keep the faith and hope that this might be the year for an Abingdon triumph…

I hope you’ll permit me a final inspiring moment from the previous week. Mr Mason shared with me the video of our senior 4x50m medley quartet competing in the English Schools’ Swimming Association final at the weekend. They put in a magnificent performance, finishing in fifth place (our best ever position) with only schools with swimming scholarship programmes ahead of them. Many congratulations to the quartet of Chung Nam, Can, Ethan and Ralph.

I’m heading off tomorrow to Hong Kong for a week and am looking forward to meeting current parents as well as prospective students and their parents. I’ll be meeting OAs and former parents too with a view to establishing a Friends of Abingdon group in Hong Kong.

Best wishes, Mike Windsor

 

UPPER SCHOOL

  • Revision leave for the Upper Sixth begins at the end of their Leavers’ Day on Friday 10 May 2024 at 1pm. Thereafter they will not be expected in school unless they have a public exam.  Our revision leave policy on this is that pupils may take the morning off as revision leave for an afternoon exam but no additional revision leave is granted for a morning exam.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

  • Revision leave for the 5th Year begins at 5.20pm on Friday 3 May 2024.  Thereafter they will not be expected in school unless they have a public exam. Our revision leave policy on this is that pupils may take the morning off as revision leave for an afternoon exam but no additional revision leave is granted for a morning exam.  There will be the usual optional revision and supervised study sessions up to half term.

WHOLE SCHOOL