Abingdon News No.49

www.abingdon.org.uk 25 Abingdon Parents’ Association www.abingdon.org.uk/aspa The parents’ associations of Abingdon and St Helen and St Katharine joined together to light up the night sky! On Saturday 3 November, over 250 people gathered for a sparkling event held to raise funds for the charity, Mercy Ships, and for our respective parents’ associations to help support the experiences our children have whilst at school. The ball was an explosive mix of fabulous fireworks, a delicious three course meal, charity fundraising initiatives and dancing to live music from Freddie and The Free loaders. It wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support from a large number of parent helpers as well as the ASPA Committee, many of whom played a crucial role in the Ball Committee and put a lot of time into organizing the event. In addition we’d like to thank the Abingdon Estates Team for working with the St Helen’s Estates Team to help set up, and Touchliners for lending us two of their gazebos for the fireworks display. Finally, our thanks go to St Helen’s for all their support in helping to put on the event, especially the PE Department who allowed us to take over and transform the Sports Hall into a glamorous ball room. Masked Fireworks Ball ASPA to use Classlist As many of you will know, ASPA has decided to use Classlist ; a parent community service that many of you may have used at your son’s previous school. From the Spring/Lent term we will only be communicating via that route and so please do sign up if you haven’t already! We believe that Classlist will help to create a welcoming and engaging community amongst our parents and would encourage you to be a part of it. A few things to let you know: • Classlist will enable you to contact other parents safely and securely and to keep up to date with events organised by the Year Reps and ASPA. We have checked (with the help and support of the IT team at Abingdon School) where and how the data will be stored and are happy with the levels of security in place. • The online system allows you to enter, manage and update the personal information that you wish to share with your child’s year group. It means that you have full control over which of your contact details are shared, for example, just an email address or your full contact details. You can even choose to keep your email address hidden. • Our parent community is much more than an online address book. By using Classlist , there is scope for parents to set up or invite others to events, join discussions or find other parents who live nearby. • Classlist will replace and enhance the previous contact list system, if you are an existing parent please note that we will no longer be issuing these lists or using the Parent Portal for this purpose. If you are having issues signing up for Classlist or haven’t been sent a message to invite you to join then we can help you if you would please contact us at [email protected]