Abingdon News No. 57

www.abingdon.org.uk 11 Alexander Wakefield in the Fourth Year has had one of his photographs placed runner up in a national competition to design the front cover of a catalogue for Specialist Crafts Art Supplies. The photo was inspired by artist Andy Goldsworthy. Alex received £50 and will have his work displayed in the company’s advertising campaign. Les fêtes françaises Fourth year students learning French have been studying the seasonal festivals Mardi Gras et la Chandeleur. They enjoyed researching and then creating presentations on a range of French festivals. Pupils in the First to Third Years rose to the French department’s crêpe flipping challenge for Chandeleur, celebrated on 2 February. There were some particularly impressive acrobatic flips, and a range of delicious toppings. Photography competition success International Day of Women and Girls in Science The School marked the day by featuring sixth former Euan Baldwin’s EPQ entitled ‘Why we should strive for gender equality in physics: looking beyond the moral imperative’. Euan researched his project and interviewed two female physicists, both experts in the field of gender equality in physics. Euan was able to identify important reasons why the moral imperative is not the only reason that physics would benefit from gender equality. Reports cited in his project show clear evidence of improved productivity, more diverse thinking, greater innovation and greater societal impact from more gender-equal research groups. Female scientists are also more likely to engage in outreach activities, publicising the work they do and thus engaging and motivating the next generation of scientists. Lower School Chess The annual Lower School Inter-tutor group Chess Tournament took place over Zoom using the chess.com website. After very competitive year group rounds, the final saw first year winners 1M (Alparslan Abdurrazak, James Darbishire and Daniel Harrison) take on second year winners 2H (Xien Hu, Gleb Kuprin and Dhruv Lakhani). In the closest final in living memory 2H were crowned champions, winning 10-9. Third year pupils had their history lessons brought to life with a First World War reenactor delivering a zoom talk, replete with Tommy kit and weapons. Fourth and fifth years studying Mandarin celebrated the new year with taking time away from screens to create some very accomplished Chinese artwork. Chinese New Year Art Online Other Half Not to be daunted by remote learning, the Other Half also moved online in January with 108 activities to choose from. Opportunities included diverse subjects from bellringing and Russian to sports psychology, computer game design and cookery. www.un.org