ABBERLEY 1 ADVENTURES PART OF THE MALVERN COLLEGE FAMILY OF SCHOOLS ISSUE 4 | FEB 2021 Dear Parents, As we enjoy a well-earned Half Term break, I would like to say how The Prime Minister is due to unveil a so-called ‘Roadmap out of Lockdown’ grateful and impressed I have been with the whole Abberley community. during the week beginning 22nd February. With infection rates falling Pupils, parents and teachers have worked tirelessly to make sure that the and the vaccination programme ‘rolling out’, I very much hope that our past six weeks have been as positive as they could have possibly been. children will be able to return to us on Monday 8th March. This week provides an opportunity for children to take some time off after I hope you enjoy this latest edition of Abberley Adventures. Despite what has been a very challenging period and I hope that they are able to lockdown, we have continued to function as a close-knit community and have as much time away from screens as possible. I hope that adults are we have much to celebrate! able to enjoy a rest as well as I know that ‘home learning’ is as exhausting for you as it is for the children! Best wishes, People across the country have observed that this lockdown is different, and the Dunkirk spirit which characterised the lockdown last year is not as prevalent; nor, of course, is the lovely summer weather which helped so much. Things are harder for everyone. We are as eager to have your children back at school as I know you are. Our pupils need to be back Jonnie Besley here with their friends where they belong and we will, of course, be Headmaster welcoming them back with open arms at the earliest opportunity possible. IN THIS ISSUE Lockdown III 2 Thank you from staff 2 Academic Life 3 World Book Day 3 More Scholarship Success 3 Year 8 Exams 3 Drama, Music and Chapel 4 Art 4-5 Staff Leavers and Joiners 6 Boarding 6 Outdoor Education 7 Sport 8 Saturdays 9 Emotional Health 10 Pre-Prep 11 Instagram 12 Prayer Group 12 And finally... 12 ABBERLEY ADVENTURES 2 Lockdown III I wrote to families in December explaining that Year 7 and 8 children would have a slightly delayed start to term but that all primary aged children would return as expected on Thursday 7th January. We had received thousands of Lateral Flow Tests and set our Main Dining from staff to parents and pupils Room up as a testing centre for staff and senior children. Primary schools across the country started accepting children back on the morning of Monday 4th but that same evening it was announced that “Thank you so much to all our wonderful parents for the positive all schools would be closed until at least half term. messages that you have been sending in. The positivity and encouragement have been so much appreciated. Thank you for Arrangements were quickly made to reinstate our Distance Learning your involvement in school challenges, for your contributions to Programme. As the programme had gone so well back in the Summer, our social media pages and for supporting and encouraging your we were well-placed to repeat this success. We launched with the children at home whilst they have been forced to go through this intention of doing everything possible to maintain a full and rich challenging experience. educational experience. Our online day was long and included all areas of the academic curriculum as well as Assemblies, Games, Thank you to all the children for your resilience and for your sense Outdoor Education, Music, Drama, Design Technology, Art and of humour. Thank you for keeping on going and for the moments individual lessons such as LAMDA and instrumental music. of joy that all the teachers have had during their online teaching. Thank you so much to pupils and parents for all you have done to We asked parents for feedback after the first full week and then help us teachers to stay positive during this tough time. You have all introduced a few adjustments. The day was shortened slightly for been brilliant and we hope you are having a wonderful Half Term!” the younger children in the Prep School and we decided to run our ‘Outdoor and Active’ sessions at the same time for all so that families with numerous children at the school could get outside and exercise together. Although pupils have the option to ‘do their own thing’ at this time, we have been delighted with the numbers attending our teacher- led sessions. We worked to establish good ‘Teams etiquette’ during the first week or two and ensure that children raised a hand rather than calling out, that they had their cameras on where possible and that the teachers were able to involve all children and prevent individuals from dominating lessons. As pupils, parents and teachers got used to working online, the experience went from strength to strength and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Rules outlining the definition of a critical worker were broadened and so we found ourselves with far more children at school then we had in the last lockdown. With all of our Nursery children in school as well, we have had almost 50 pupils here with us on many days. Most of our staff have been in school teaching online whilst also helping to supervise the pupils with us and our wonderful catering team have been in cooking to their usual high standards. We have offered parents significant fee reductions to reflect the fact that online learning cannot compete with ‘the real thing’. We hope that this gesture has helped a little at this difficult time. Fee reductions will take the form of credit towards Summer term fees. We outlined our new fee structure last term and many parents will benefit from lower school fees from the start of the summer term. Our new fee structure can be seen on the website by clicking here. ABBERLEY ADVENTURES 3 Academic Life More Scholarship Success Despite the challenges of lockdown, academic life continues to flourish. Since writing my last Newsletter, in late December, more of our Year We reviewed our timetable last term and were set to launch a new 8 pupils have achieved awards to senior schools. Very well done and and improved curriculum in January. LIFE lessons (Life Skills, Identity, huge congratulations to the following pupils… Faith and Ethics) were introduced and these sessions incorporate what used to be delivered during Religious Studies lessons as well 3 as PSHE, which is a mandatory subject for all children. My thanks go Grace Tomlin Drama Scholarship to Malvern College to Mrs Kennedy for her energy and enthusiasm in making sure that this subject has been so well received. More time had been devoted Drama Exhibition to Malvern College to Design Technology and Computing and Mr Hiles has worked hard Tilda Morgan to ensure that the subject is a success despite lockdown. We have reviewed the amount of time allocated to the different subjects and Musical Theatre Exhibition to made some adjustments where necessary. The younger children, for Tilda Morgan Malvern College example, now have more time allocated to English and Maths. Lots of fun has been had during online lessons but some serious work Joe Hawthorne Art Exhibition to Malvern College has taken place and this has been confirmed by some truly excellent effort grades across all year groups. It is rumoured that one pupil Sports Scholarship to Rufus Hankin managed to achieve a 5 in every subject. Well done to you all for such Cheltenham College hard work despite the difficulties. Sports Exhibition to Edward Cook Cheltenham College Scarlet Smith Art Exhibition to Cheltenham College Year 8 Exams Despite the challenges of lockdown, we continue to prepare our Year 8 pupils for Common Entrance and Scholarship exams this summer and we are committed to ensuring that they achieve the excellent results that they have been predicted. World Book Day Mock exams will be taking place for Year 8 from Monday 1st to Friday 5th March. Parents will have received a letter with further details and an exam timetable. Papers will be sent in the post and they will need to At Abberley Hall we strive to encourage a love of reading and we be posted back at the end of the week in the stamped and addressed were delighted to welcome author Neil Jenkinson for a talk to Year 7 envelope provided. We wish all our Year 8 pupils good luck and we about how he created his book ‘The Slime Gang’. He answered many know that they will try their hardest. questions and gave some excellent advice on the process of writing and having a book published. Please note, no other year groups have formal exams this term. On Tuesday 9th March, the whole school will be celebrating World Book Day. Officially World Book day is on th4 March but we have delayed in the hope of having children back at school by 9th. We are also keen to avoid a clash with Year 8 exams. For us, the day will have an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme and we encourage everyone to take part. We hope that children will be back with us from Monday 8th but if we cannot be at school then the event will go ahead in some form virtually. Please keep this date in mind and start thinking about your costume! ABBERLEY ADVENTURES 4 Drama, Music and Chapel Our Music and Drama departments have been as busy as ever.