16 September 2022 Abingdon School in Partnership Peer Support Lead training Fifteen students from Abingdon joined other Lower Sixth students from the OX14 Learning Partnership at Fitzharry’s on 21 June for the launch of the 4th cohort of the crosstown Peer Support Lead programme. One of the most successful elements of our growing partnership programme, the training saw students learn about active listening, safeguarding and everyday leadership. They then conducted role plays with peers to mirror the features of an effective peer support lead. There was a wonderful buzz of excitement as the young people got to know one another and looked forward to supporting the pastoral care of youngsters back in their own school settings. We look forward to further training later in the year which will include managing anxiety and recognising the signs of depression. Science ambassadors With the departure of the Upper Sixth leavers, it has fallen to a brand new team of senior science ambassadors to inherit the responsibility of planning and running the weekly Primary Science Club for children from local schools. For their first session, the science ambassadors planned a forensics activity to identify a mystery ink using chromatography. Following completion of this task, the visiting primary children were then able to create imaginative artistic patterns using ‘Skittles’ sweets as sources of colour and predicting how the colours might spread and mix to make the most attractive patterns. ASiP Primary tag rugby tournament Over the course of this year, Abingdon rugby coach, Steve Bates, and four 5th Year students (Tom, Finn, Arthur and Asher) have been coaching tag rugby to Year 6 children in a number of local primary schools. These sessions, intended to teach core skills and encourage good teamwork and fun, culminated in a tag rugby tournament, held on 22 June. Thirty pupils from Long Furlong, Sunningwell and Caldecott put into action all the skills they had learned and standards were impressively high. The event was a huge success with students leaving tired, happy and gripping a certificate of participation. Members of Lower School CREST Science Awards Club have been taking the Squashed Tomato Challenge this term. This simulates a real engineering project built by the charity, ‘Practical Action’, in Nepal whereby hill farming communities now use a water powered cable car system to transport produce to valley towns in a fraction of the time it would take to carry them by mule down steep, mountain paths. Far less produce is therefore damaged and wasted so that the farmers make more money to support their families and pay for community projects such as schools and medical facilities. The CREST club members tried out a variety of their own designs using pulley systems or innovative water chutes to carry the produce. Once their designs have been perfected, they will be tested with real tomatoes in a set time interval to see which ones are most successful. The teams then hope to write up reports and presentations for submission to the British Science Association for CREST Awards. Festival of languages Ninety primary school pupils were welcomed to our ‘Festival of Languages’ this term. They participated in workshops on sign language, secret languages, French, German, Spanish and Mandarin; and Abingdon Sixth Form and 3rd Year students led several sessions in which they were able to develop their own communication and leadership skills. We were all impressed by the primary children’s enthusiasm and confidence as they tried out the new words and phrases that they had learned; and the leadership skills displayed by our own students during the course of the day.
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