This week’s mailing is:
Letters:
- To parents of Second to Fifth Year pupils ONLY – Second Covid-19 Vaccination Day, Wednesday 19 January 2022
- To parents of Third and Fourth Year pupils – PSHCE Lent Term 2022
- To parents of Fifth Year pupils – Parents’ Evening
- To parents of all Hockey players – Hockey Griffens
Notices:
From the Headmaster to all parents:
Dear Parents
It’s been fantastic to welcome the students back to school this week and to hear their laughter and chat during break times and as they move from lesson to lesson. Our 5th Year students have been applying themselves with focus and diligence as they take on their mock GCSEs.
I hope to catch up with many of you over the coming weeks, either on the touchline as we start our hockey and football fixtures, or perhaps at the various drama productions which will be taking place in the Amey Theatre soon.
Best wishes, Mike Windsor
Covid-19 Notice:
- We are continuing to take additional precautions around the ongoing possible transmission of Covid-19. With this in mind please can we kindly request that all visitors take a lateral flow test (LFT) before their visit. Face masks are now required when inside buildings and we request you keep socially distanced where possible. Please do not attend if you, or any of your family members, are displaying Covid-19 symptoms.
Health Centre Notices:
Please can parents ensure that the Health Centre is kept up to date with any changes to your child’s health. This is especially important following a holiday period so that we can update our records accordingly. Pupils with medication: all pupils who carry any form of medication on them e.g. inhalers for asthma, Epipens must ensure that it is clearly labelled with their name and is still in date.
Please can you talk to your children about the food they eat, and take on to the school buses. Can you remind them that they need to be very aware that there are pupils at both SHSK and Abingdon School with allergies, particularly nut allergies, which could potentially lead to a life threatening reaction. ALL pupils need to be mindful of that. This is relevant to the Joint Bus Service, weekend fixtures, and trips. Many thanks.
REMINDER – 6th Form Parents: Gap Year Advice Evening Webinar, Thursday 20 January 2022, 6:30-8:00pm, on Zoom
Is your L6 or U6 child thinking – even remotely – about taking a Gap Year? If they are, this is an event they and you will not want to miss. You are both invited to attend a Gap Year Advice Evening Webinar on Thursday 20 January 2022, 6:30-8:00pm on Zoom. The event is being co-hosted by Abingdon School and St Helen and St Katharine and is open to all students in the OX14 Learning Partnership. We will start with a brief presentation on electing, planning, and then managing a Gap Year. This is following by a further presentation from Independent Gap Advice on travel abroad during a Gap Year. Then, a panel of school leavers who took a Gap Year will share their individual circumstances and stories of what they did. This will be followed by a Q&A session for any of the speakers or panellists. To attend, you must register in advance for the webinar using this link.
5th Year Parents: Summer Work Experience Placements
If your 5th year child has already applied for, and even secured, an online or in-person summer work experience placement, please praise them for their initiative! The ‘early bird catches the worm’ when it comes to summer work experience, especially at employers with popular schemes. If your child has not yet applied for a summer work experience placement, please encourage them to do so…and soon. The late winter/early spring period is when many schemes are advertised, and there is a special page on Firefly (the pupil intranet) with links to employers who offer online and in-person placements. Of course, your child can also approach employers of interest who don’t run formal schemes, but may be happy to host a placement from time to time. Parents are strongly advised to download from this web page a checklist of things to consider when preparing for their child’s work experience placement. Your support and encouragement is very much appreciated. Michael Triff, Head of Career Guidance.
Music:
We have some exciting events to entice you with in the coming term. Please find here our Lent Term Music Calendar and here is a description of the music events which parents and friends may wish to attend. We look forward to welcoming you soon.
Abingdon Box Office:
NT Live: Leopoldstadt – Thursday 27 January at 7:00pm – Tom Stoppard’s Olivier Award-winning new play Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance. We follow Hermann Merz’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
Chaos – 5th Year Production – Thursday 27 and Friday 28 January at 7:00pm – Abingdon and St Helen’s 5th Years perform Laura Lomas’ play Chaos, a symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes. A series of characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. Bouncing through physics, the cosmos, love and violence, they find order in the disorder of each other.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Senior School Production – Wednesday 9 – Friday 11 February at 7:00pm – Rona Munro’s brilliant adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now.
Leavers’ destinations, the pitfalls of banter and taking a look at Computer Science
Just some of the articles in the latest edition of Abingdon News. This issue’s content more closely resembles that of pre-pandemic times with a return to trips and visits – in the UK at least – and full music and sport offerings. Mark Hindley, Deputy Head Pastoral, advises of the pitfalls of ‘banter’ and we take a look at the youngest department in the school, Computer Science. This edition also reports on the subjects studied and the universities chosen by our 2021 leavers. Enjoy the read.
Reminder to book February half term holiday camps
We would like to remind parents and pupils that we have a variety of half term camps taking place at Abingdon Senior School that we hope will be of interest to you and your friends. This includes:
- Competition Level Tennis Academy (Ages 11-15 years)
- World of Games – 2D and 3D Gaming (Ages 13-17 years)
- Automatronix – Tech Camp (Ages 8-12 years)
- Bit:bot Cars – Coding Camp (Ages 13-17 years)
- The Land of Ozobots – Robotics Camp (Ages 8-12 years)
For more information and to book online, please click here. Please note, all of these courses can be booked directly through the Leisure website.
If you require further information, please email [email protected].
News from the Week:
Food Menu for the coming week – Week 2
School Calendar
Please continue to consult the School Calendar for up to date information.
Here is the link to previous weekly mailings.
