Abingdon News No.56

www.abingdon.org.uk 9 Abingdon News Independent Education We asked parent, Matt Rogan, whose son Conor is now in the Third Year, why his family opted for Abingdon, having had no previous experience of independent education. Living on the Oxfordshire / Buckinghamshire border, we did not really consider Abingdon School or any other independent school for that matter. Our son Conor successfully made his way through the Bucks 11+, so was eligible for our local state grammar. My wife Claire and I breathed a sigh of relief when the news came through. Conor, the only child in his small class to try the 11+, was principally pleased to be going to the same school as his mates from the tennis club. A few weeks later, several of that same tennis gang were due to attend a Tennis Camp at the Indoor Centre in Abingdon. Not knowing the area, I’d been looking for somewhere to while away a few hours and discovered the Abingdon School Open Day. Claire was a Primary School Chair of Governors at our kids’ Primary School and always keen to gather new ideas. Personally, I far preferred the idea to Plan B, which was to visit a garden centre. On that basis, we signed up, ordered a prospectus and looked forward to a worry-free school visit, safe in the knowledge that Conor’s path was already set. When it arrived, the Abingdon prospectus was extremely impressive. Claire and I imagined all independent schools must produce documents of that ilk. We are both state educated and figured you could not judge a school by its prospectus cover in any case. Immediately on arrival at the Open Day we knew something was very wrong. Or very right. The Admissions team remembered our names without checking their list. Not only did our guides answer our questions, they asked us questions, too. Not only interesting but interested. They knew lots about areas of school life they were not personally involved with and felt like the kind of boys Conor would get on with. I met several teachers who had the style I always loved to be taught by – smiles on their faces, teaching out of passion not obligation. Claire and I both knew what this meant – we had to show Conor the school. When we took him along a few weeks later, he said to Claire, ‘Mum, it just feels warmer.’ The following September, Conor duly joined. At 68 boys, the Lower School class of 2018 was bigger than the entire village primary school Conor had left behind. Of course, that brought transitions. He’d never learnt Latin, played rugby, or played chess against boys who had more than one set of tactics. While all three of those made his head hurt at times, the school intuitively knew how to provide high support at his times of high challenge. It took me personally a while to get my head around our choice for independent school. Conor less so. The School focuses not only on what you achieve, but how you do it. Implausible as it seemed three years ago, I can now imagine him touring parents around Open Days one day, maybe even swaying another poor soul who was initially only there to avoid a trip to the garden centre. Showing others the same warmth many showed him. Not only interesting, but interested. The unusual consequence of avoiding a garden centre! I met several teachers who had the style I always loved to be taught by – smiles on their faces, teaching out of passion not obligation. “ ”