Abingdon News No. 60

www.abingdon.org.uk 21 So lovely to reconnect Cheese and wine evenings What a fantastic series of evenings! We had a wonderful turn out, with over 200 parents coming over the course of all three evenings. There was a real buzz in the room as the wine flowed and cheese was eaten. We chose to focus particularly on the year groups that had joined the School community during Covid-19 and, as a result, had not had the usual social opportunities that have been available in the past. We hope the events help to build a stronger sense of community and connection with the School. Thank you to all those who attended; the ASPA committee for their help in organising the events; and to Hendred Vineyard who kindly supplied a welcome glass of fizz. Due to how well received these Cheese and Wine evenings were, we will be running similar events in future years and can’t wait for the next ones! Abingdon News Connecting parents, supporting school life Dear Friends, In March, we ran our first Cheese and Wine evenings for our Lower School, 3rd and 4th Year parents and I am delighted that, for the first time in over two years, ASPA is able to once again help parents connect through a series of hugely successful events. The highlight in this calendar is most likely to be the whole school parent association fundraising event we are planning for the summer term. This promises to be a fun and exciting event, so please do keep an eye out for further information. When I became Chair of ASPA, we agreed we should be focusing our efforts on parental engagement - both with the school and with each other - and fundraising. It is my hope that, as we build on these events, we can really make headway in both these areas. Richard Stone, Chair of ASPA Our volunteers Our year reps continue to arrange informal events for parents. It’s a lovely way to meet and get to know each other. To find out what other events are happening please find your year rep on Classlists. Year 1: Fiona Urquhart, Adele Zhu, Gayle Bell Year 2: Bev Gold Year 3: Caroline Ely, Marie Fleming Year 4: Vacant Year 5: Jay Hunt, Kathy Howat Vacancies If you would like to join the ASPA committee we are particularly looking for reps in Years 2, 4, and 5. Please do get in touch via [email protected] On Tuesday 15 February, the 3rd Year Crescent House pupils went bowling, giving the boarders and day pupils a chance to socialise together outside School. Some of the students had never bowled before but they all had great fun. Not to miss out, some of the parents also had a go and they were surprisingly quite competitive! Parents helped transport the children all back to one of the students’ houses near School where they feasted on pizza and cake and played table tennis. They were returned back to Crescent House in time for lights out at 9.45pm. How can you help? If you’d like to help out in any way, even as a one-off, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at [email protected] Project Funding You may remember that we awarded several projects with grants in November 2020, most of this money has now been spent, and you can find full details and pictures of these awards on our website. There are a couple of projects still in development and we look forward to updates, and pictures, from Mr Bignell and Capt. Edwards. Informal events