Abingdon News www.abingdon.org.uk 7 Having a Wales of a time! Excitement and adventure awaited the 59 2nd Years who travelled to Wales in the second week of the Easter holidays. Under the expert instruction of the staff of Plas Pencelli Outdoor Education Centre, the pupils enjoyed canoeing, caving, climbing, kayaking and mountain walking in the stunning scenery of the Brecon Beacons with everyone reaching the peak of Pen y Fan, the highest point in southern Britain. The highlight for many was the gorge walk on the final morning which involved walking under waterfalls and sliding down river beds. All the children pushed themselves outside their comfort zones (as indeed did the 5 teachers accompanying them!) and really enjoyed their first opportunity to have a residential trip while at Abingdon. A last-minute flight cancellation leading to a 24-hour coach journey arriving in Lyon at 4am was not the start our students had been hoping for. However, once they arrived in Lyon, they quickly began to enjoy all the things on offer in this amazing city. The combination of language lessons in the mornings and accommodation with host families in the evenings gave our students the opportunity to make good progress with their French. In the afternoons, they were able to explore the rich culture of France’s number two city. This included a couple of museum visits - one dedicated to the birth of the cinema (thanks to the Lyonnaise Lumière brothers), a river cruise, crêpe making and a guided tour of the Vieux Lyon as well as a quick visit to the Fourvière basilica which offers stunning panoramic views of the city. Our students, as well as those from St Helen and St Katharine, were brilliant and engaged positively with everything they did. A number of the host families commented on how well brought up they were! Luckily, the homeward journey went according to plan with only a short delay. Enfin bref, je suis sûr que nos élèves ont fait de beaux souvenirs dans cette belle ville de Lyon. Tout est bien qui finit bien ! (All‘s well that ends well!) In June, the academic and art scholars from the 4th Year went on a trip to London, to participate in a workshop at The Wallace Collection, followed by a guided research task at The British Museum. The workshop focused on oil paintings by Gainsborough, Velasquez, Frans Hals and Rembrandt, respectively, and involved getting the scholars to sketch their own versions with Conté crayons. The scholars then enjoyed exploring The British Museum in small groups, choosing three objects to curate for an article in the next edition of the Scholars’ Newsletter. It was a great day out, and the ice-cream in Regent’s Park on the way home was well deserved. Lower Sixth pupil, Rory Kind, has been selected as one of ten winners in the University of Sheffield East Asian Studies Competition 2022. The judges were very impressed by Rory’s competition essay and commented: “Detailed and wellargued examination of Traditional Chinese Medicine in medical care in the UK. You have drawn on a good range of cases and sources from Chinese Studies and from the medical literature and make good use of images.” Many congratulations to Rory.
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