Abingdon News No.51

8 September 2019 Teaching – how hard can that be? Fourth years Grant Rogan and Tom Long admitted to ‘feeling really quite nervous, when shown into a primary school classroom of 28 Year 5 and 6 boys and girls at Buckland Primary School. Grant and Tom had been taking part in the Language Leader programme as part of their Other Half activities. The boys had planned and resourced a Spanish lesson on sport. Speaking about the experience, Grant said, “Luckily, the children were very kind and welcoming and very calm and well behaved. It was an enjoyable experience!” On parade Second years tried their hand as Roman soldiers undertaking a military drill, complete with commands in Latin! The Gospel Choir entertained Abingdon residents as they enjoyed strawberries, scones and sandwiches while completing a summer themed quiz. Summer Tea Party Abingdon News Form 2C organised a charity cake sale raising £123 for Oxfordshire Lowland Search and Rescue. Harry Gee, whose father volunteers with the group, presented a cheque to David Woodgate, the Chairman of Oxfordshire Lowland Search and Rescue. Abingdon’s History School Archivist, Sarah Wearne gave the first years a fascinating insight into their local town and the School’s part in its history. The boys walked into town to visit the Abingdon Museum, St Nicolas’ Church, St Helen’s Church and the site of the old schoolroom. They saw the tomb of John Roysse, who reendowed the School in 1563, learned about the somewhat bizarre Abingdon tradition of bun throwing, and found out that a fragment of Abingdon Abbey is now part of the wall above the fireplace in the Headmaster’s house! Lowland Search and Rescue All forms of Abingdon’s artistic talent were on display at the inaugural Celebration of the Arts evening where, alongside the boys’ art, visitors were treated to poetry, film, drama and music. Celebration of the Arts Jack Swanborough OA(2012) gave boys an engaging insight into Mechatronics Engineering discussing career opportunities, ongoing research and its application to solve real world problems. Exploring Mechatronics The whole of the Second Year visited the Electronics and Computer Science department at Southampton University to build on the skills they have been learning in their engineering lessons. The students took part in a competition to program a robot to follow a maze and a Dragon’s Den style challenge showing how a BBC microbit could be used to solve everyday problems. Electronics at Southampton University