APS 26

AbingdonPrep News is the newsletter of Abingdon Preparatory School, Josca’s House, Kingston Road, Oxford OX13 5NX Tel: 01865 391570 www.abingdon.org.uk/prep Editor: Annabel Gaskell Abingdon School is a company limited by guarantee Registered in England and Wales Company No. 3625063. Registered Office: Abingdon School, Park Road, Abingdon, OX14 1DE Registered Charity No. 1071298 Opportunities to raise money for charity have been restricted to our ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ so far this year. We are continuing to support Be Free YC – a local Oxfordshire charity which offers support and advice dedicated to improving the lives and well-being of young carers across our region. AbingdonPrep Charities, Partnerships and JPA JPA News The new term bought new challenges for the JPA. With the boys back in school full time, we wanted to bring the school community together again but in a virtual world. With the AGM and appointment of a new Chair and Treasurer, we set about thinking outside of the box. It all kicked off with a fantastic ‘online’ School Quiz, thanks to Yuvani and Rob. It was all going swimmingly until Rob suddenly disappeared due to a technical glitch, but he quickly picked up where he left off and an amazing night was had by 50+ families. Charities Partnerships Resource Boxes for Partnership schools Christmas resource boxes with virtual lessons and worksheets, particularly for STEM activities in DT and Science, have been shared with our partner schools, Cumnor CPS and Standlake, for pupils to enjoy in the run up to Christmas. Virtual Beer Tasting We also held other virtual events like wine tasting, beer tasting and Christmas wreath making. So many local businesses have diversified their products allowing us to offer Covid-19 safe events that also fundraise for the general coffers of the JPA. Instead of the Christmas Bazaar we finished the year with an online brochure that local businesses stepped up and paid to advertise in. We had a phenomenal response to all the activities we ran. To communicate more effectively with parents we really want to push using Classlist. If you haven’t used it before, reach out to your Class Rep for details. We will post events, notices, announcements there and there is even a marketplace where we can have a virtual swap shop! Also we launched the JPA Journal newsletter, which will be published at the start of each term with key dates, events and notices from the JPA. To finish it all off, we now have a JPA led School Shop with merchandise, clothing and lifestyle products for your boys and family, with every item raising money for the JPA, find it on www.jpaschoolshop.uk . Many items can be personalised too, so hopefully we will lose less! At our AGM we decided we would continue to support Be Free Young Carers due to the amazing nature of their work. The last academic year wasn’t great for fundraising nationally, and we appreciate so many charities are struggling. We ended the termwith a fantastic show of giving and kindness, with our Festive Box collection. Over 100 boxes were delivered to the Didcot Foodbank full of extra treats for families struggling this Christmas. Handing them over was a humbling experience with so many kind notes on the boxes and gifts - a HUGE thank you from the Foodbank Team and me to everyone who took part! We have lots planned for next term, another quiz, online bingo, a gin event and more! Thank you for all your support, and remember every parent is a part of the Josca’s Parents Association. Sally Povolotsky - Chair JPA