Abingdonian 2020

68 The Abingdonian exercises. To go beyond these ‘circuits’ all boys chose one ‘focus sport’ from athletics, cricket, hockey, football, rackets, rowing, rugby and swimming. Each week for their chosen focus sport boys received a sport specific task sheet to work through in their two core sport lessons. We expected them to choose the tasks appropriate to their ability and environment, completing as many as they could, as well as to touch base with their respective head of sport during their core sport lesson on Zoom if required. Many boys had great 1-2-1s with Mr Davies, Head of Athletic Development, to fine tune their ‘at home’ training programmes This did not mean that the boys only followed one sports programme as they were actively encouraged to look at participating in any activity from the focus sports To help with this all boys were sent a weekly challenge sheet that not only had a suggested “work out of the week” but also a range of technical and tactical activities from each of the focus sports as well as mental and educational topics for the boys to explore. Boys were also encouraged to be active outside of their timetabled lesson times through three main challenges: Firstly the weekly Zoom Circuit City on a Wednesday afternoon where a live circuit was hosted by all members of the PE Department. Secondly we launched the ‘Run The World’ challenge asking all boys, parents, staff and OAs to keep track of all their on foot exercise through the Strava app and link this to the Abingdon School Cross-Country Club so that their efforts could feed into our overall distance The challenge of covering the 40,075km required to circumnavigate the globe was achieved just before the start of the new academic year with 280 runners taking part. An average distance of 2,357km was clocked up each week. Thirdly there was a weekly sports video competition where boys were encouraged to email Mr Bignell with a short video of their sporting efforts throughout the week. Each week a winner from each group was chosen and a prize sent in the post. Staying active, fit and having some fun away from screens was at the heart of this new PE and Sport curriculum, and the Abingdon sporting philosophy of developing a diverse range of sporting interactions remains at the heart of everything we do Pete Bignell Music Under Lockdown By the time we reached the date for our Spring Concert – Thursday 19 March - we already knew that the nationwide lockdown had been scheduled for the following day So it was particularly gratifying that we were still able to use that afternoon for a rehearsal and filming of the two concertos that had been scheduled for the concert Parents and pupils were subsequently able to hear extracts of both the Elgar Cello Concerto (soloist, Joe Bradley) and the Chopin Second Piano Concerto (soloist, David Bicarregui) From then on, the music staff shifted gear in order to maintain the momentum of the majority of ensemble work and instrumental teaching - but now remote and online, using the Zoom app. Careful preparation enabled the visiting music teachers and their pupils to optimise the use of this platform with the enhanced audio features available Several teachers were able to share performances of their pupils, both solo and ensemble, with the wider community. Simon Currie’s “remote band project” performance gave us some particularly cheering news during the Easter holidays, showing as it did the jazz musicians recording their parts remotely using mobile phones and editing them together for an ensemble performance From then on there was a steady flow of solo performances, both audio (such as Oliver Glover, oboe) and video (Mark Hanlon, harp) that we were able to share with the wider Abingdon community Some concerts, such as the Lower School Gala Concert, were able to be realised through the presentation of remote performances gathered together and placed on the school’s teaching and learning platform, Firefly. Academic teaching required the learning of new skills of teaching and learning, resource-sharing and group research work through new platforms such as Google Classroom and the Zoom breakout rooms feature - and all these brought new skills and unexpected and often inspiring results Clearly, we regretted the loss of those end of year musical rites of passage – the final concerts and concertos, the Leavers’ Service, the planned musical riverboat cruise But it was heart-warming to see the cheerful resourcefulness of our teachers and musicians and their stamina in continuing to direct and to attend “remote rehearsals” And, whilst musical performance generally requires the use of reasonably close togetherness in ensembles, we were optimistic that we could find a way of resuming our activities, even with social distancing, when we returned to a new but different normal What gave us tremendous cause for optimism was the resilience and positivity of our pupils and teachers and their determination to strive for the experience and the joy of making music. Michael Stinton