Abingdonian 2020

5 www.abingdon.org.uk Summer Term Micha lmas Term As someone who attended two years of Lower School before finally making the leap to Middle School where the push towards GCSEs begins, I was not particularly intimidated by the timings and rules of the school day I had been told to abide by, as I had experienced many of them before. This did not mean, however, that the new wave of students flooding through the coach park was something I did not fear. I had been made aware of these new people coming to join me on this journey towards our final exams, but it was only with my tutor’s support and the help of the friends that I had made in Lower School that I was able to proceed through the day without question. When I first stepped into my designated houseroom in School House, I was immediately struck by the number of older boarders who were sitting there waiting for me and the other day students to arrive. This struck me, as I was expecting to find comfort in the friends I had made previously, but here in front of me sat a group of people who I had never before seen in my life. For a while, the houseroom did have a bit of a divide, where students would spend time only with the people they already knew but, with the help of our tutor, we soon got to know each other properly, and the divide quickly broke down. Soon after, the houseroom began to flourish, becoming a very comfortable environment in which everyone knew each other, and could bond further over activities such as table tennis, pool, or getting on with homework. Lessons were a very similar situation to start with, where groups of friends who already knew each other would arrive in a talkative manner, while on the other side of the door, everything could go silent through the nervousness of not knowing all of our peers. The process of getting to know each other was majorly accelerated, however, by the seating plans of our teachers, which placed us with people we didn’t already know. Our academic year then started to go very smoothly, with plenty of memories made along the way, until early January, when we started receiving news of Covid-19. By the end of the Lent Term, the country had gone into lockdown and the school site had closed, prompting fears of a sudden halt to our education. Luckily, the school had the situation under control, and we quickly resumed lessons online. Inevitably we had to make compromises with events such as our end of year exams being cancelled due to social distancing rules. This ultimately resulted in a calm end to the year, with no need to revise or panic, despite the pandemic that was occurring around us. Although we did not have the chance to experience the Summer Term together at Abingdon, this was at least partly made up for by the many memories and new friends we had already made on the way! Addison Hill, 3JCM