News

Year 5 & 6 have travelled to

. They have had lots

of interactive activities to explore across four

different floors. They also watched ‘Astronaut’ in

the Planetarium which explored the training and

effects that space has on an astronaut.

On a very wet Thursday night, a group of

Cedarholme boarders travelled to Old Trafford to

watch Manchester United beat FK Partisan 3-0 in the

group stage of the Europa League. The boys, some of

whom had never been to a football match before,

loved the opportunity to visit such a famous ground.

And despite the weather, and various disallowed

goals, a great time was had by all. Many thanks to

Mr Doherty for driving.

Weekly Newsletter ~ keeping you ‘in touch’ Tuesday 12 November 2019

Imagine a Saturday spent at Stockport

, which has 25 meters of

vertical awesomeness climbing! That's what the Abbotsholme awesome climbers did on Saturday! Awesomely, they dodged all the floods and closed

roads to have an awesome day!

Sebastian joined us on Round Square exchange from

St Stithian’s College, South Africa in September to

October.

My time at Abbotsholme

In the early evening of the 3 September 2019, I arrived

at Abbotsholme School, after a few special days with

my English family. We used the opportunity of being in

England to visit some wonderful touristy places

including Buckingham Palace and the London Museum

and Institute of Natural History. We also attended a

performance of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at

the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, which was an

unforgettable performance.

I was placed in Cederholme boarding house which is

one of four boarding houses and where I would spend

the next six weeks.

I enjoyed the camaraderie in the boarding house and

the interesting debates I had with the on-duty teacher.

Over the weekends, I got to experience proper

boarding culture with shopping trips to Derby, visiting

Alton Towers, walking the JA Bloor walk and going go-

karting. Alton Towers was the highlight of my trip. I’ve

never seen anything on that scale and the gardens

were beautiful.

There were the inevitable lazy days… we talked about

our homes and families, many of them far away,

watched TV, walked down to the village of Rocester

to stock up on food and caught up on work. One of

the things I was surprised about when coming to

Abbotsholme is the huge variety of nationalities with

students coming from Hong Kong, China, Malta, Kenya

and Belarus to name a few.

From the first day, I started meeting the students of

Abbotsholme who were all very welcoming and some

of them would become very good friends. It took me

a few days to get my bearings at Abbotsholme and the

students were very helpful when I didn't know where

to go. I was struck by the beauty of this lovely old

school and really loved its setting in quintessential

English countryside.

I was taught by excellent teachers in History,

Psychology and Agriculture. I enjoyed learning about

Russia in the last century in History as well as Freud

and Milgram in Psychology. In Agriculture, we learnt

about the theory of animal husbandry. We also had

practical lessons and demonstrations on the school

farm where we mucked out the pig-stys and chased

cows in a field in order to weigh them. We trained

sheep to walk in a halter so they can be shown at

agricultural shows. This was great fun because my

sheep behaved unusually well!

I also had the privilege of attending the Sixth Form

Induction formal dinner which allowed me to socialise

with both staff and students. The theme of the evening

was Murder Mystery. At the beginning of the evening,

we were informed a teacher had been murdered. As

the evening progressed, we were given more clues and

at the end of the evening, the killer was revealed. It

was very entertaining.

I was surprised by the wide range of sporting activities

one could participate in. One of my highlights was

learning how to fence and the amount of skill you need

to pull off a parry and a riposte. I also took part in the

weekly yoga sessions which showed me exactly how

inflexible I am! I really loved taking horse riding lessons

in the equestrian school. I’ve always wanted to take

horse-riding lessons and was delighted to be told I had

“good form”.

I had an absolutely amazing time at Abbotsholme

School and I would like to thank all staff members and

students for giving me the experience of a lifetime as

well as Round Square for facilitating my exchange.

Sebastian, St Stithians Boys College, Johannesburg, South

Africa

A took place on

Monday in the Chapel.

Did you know 40% of young people were bullied in the last 6 months?

Did you know name calling is the most common form of bullying with 26% of young people being exposed to it?

Nobody should suffer in silence.

This week on the 12th November the school participated in an ‘Odd Sock’ day joining schools across the the UK to share the message that bullying is not acceptable.

How can you help prevent bullying? Every person has the responsibility to not let bullying go unnoticed. Speak to a trusted adult if you notice this happening.

Being bullied but don’t know who to turn to?

Call Childline 0800 1111 or visit www.childline.org

Advice for parents. Visit www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk

Prep school participated in the whole school Anti-bullying initiative. This involved wearing odd socks to represent our commitment to Anti-bullying. Prep school also had an assembly looking at making changes, being positive towards others and accepting individuality.

Even our Abbotsholme sheep wore odd socks!

Independent Schools Hockey Cup ~ U15s

For this round the Abbotsholme girls made their way to

Rugby School. Our whole school site may be quite big, but

if you put buildings on every inch of it then you are probably

somewhere near the size of the Rugby site. The girls realised

that this match was going to be a little different to normal

games, despite us already playing some large and very good

schools.

The changing room we were assigned to was easy to find

with a sign with our name on it and Coach McClurg

confirmed that the girls were correct in telling us there was

a white board in there to draw up plays and formations. In

a ‘we can do this anywhere’ mindset, we had talked about

some adjustments for the match on the bus journey. Once

out on the pitch for warm-up the electronic score board

drew the girls focus along with a comment that the surface

wasn’t as good as ours.

The match began as we had predicted and the starting

formation soaked up all of the early pressure from Rugby,

with only a couple of shots getting on the Keeper, with

Emily doing a great job and having confidence in the girls in

front of her. We started to play out positively and moved

the ball up the field strongly, through the centres and right

side. We began to pressure the opposition goalie with a mix

of power and skill but she was a talented player and

managed to keep us out.

The game opened up and was soon intense, quick, and end

to end. Abbotsholme gained a short-corner and Mikah

solidly struck the back board for the lead. Once back in our

half to restart the Rugby umpire informed us that the goal

would not stand as the ball had not left the D on the

injection, so we were back to 0-0, but the girls now knew

we were going to score again. The half-time whistle blew

soon after and the score line remained 0-0.

The girls were immediately onto what they needed to do to

play better, and were encouraging of each other’s efforts in

the match so far. From the coaches, the message was clear

- keep doing what we have trained to do and what we were

executing on the pitch. The formation shift between defence

and attack was working but we needed to begin to press

higher. We believed the opposition would be the ones

stressing as they clearly needed to alter their current game

plan to try and break us down.

The second half began as the first did, and after early

pressure against us, the girls played out strongly and after

ten minutes we had taken the lead, again from Mikah’s stick.

Rugby pressed hard and equalised to take us into the last

ten minutes of the match. Now our girls’ fitness began to

shine through with Izzy, Jas, Mikah, Beth, and Mollie,

switching between defence and defensive press, into quick

passing and running play.

We realised the Rugby girls were tiring and we urged our

players to start taking the ball on more selfishly and gaps

began opening up between our attacks and the opposition’s

ability to get back and defend. Our defence of Beth, Izzy,

Kathryn, allowed the girls to risk going all out in attack, and

significant contributions from Ellie, Collette, and Louby,

kept up the pace and intensity.

The Rugby goalie remained as tenacious as ever, but the

Abbotsholme players knew the next score would happen,

which it did from Mollie, 1:23 from the end. Further solid

defence from us kept the opposition out and we countered

again as the clock ticked away.

The umpire’s whistle blew and we had won 2-1.

This was by far the girls’ most impressive performance and

one which they only rated as 7 out of 10, indicating that they

are determined to become better as individuals and as a

team. Every player could easily have been player of the

match, but the Coach’s Player and Opposition’s Choice

were awarded to our captain Mikah, and the our Player’s

Player went to Mollie.

We now await the draw for our next match as we enter the

last 16 of the national tournament.

Bring it on!

Notices

Our this term involves

service. We have decided to support local food banks.

On Monday 25 November we will enjoy a subway style

lunch. The difference in cost between this and

providing our normal lunch will be used to buy extra

food for our donation. We want students to

experience this so that they understand that some

people do not have the choices we do.

On Tuesday 26 November we will be holding a mufti

day with a difference. Instead of asking for a cash

contribution, this is when we would like students to

‘pay’ by bringing in food items.

To ensure a good spread of food items, it would be

helpful if year groups could focus on the following:

Year 7 - tinned fruit, vegetables, pulses or soups;

Year 8 - drinks such as tea, coffee, squash and hot

chocolate;

Year 9 - long-life milk, long-life fruit juice, sugar,

cereals;

Year 10 - tinned meat or fish or pasta or curry sauces;

Year 11 - stock cupboard ingredients like salt, pepper,

herbs and spices, cooking oil and stock cubes or non-

food items like toiletries, household cleaning items,

feminine hygiene products or baby supplies ;

Year 12 - snacks, biscuits, chocolate, sweets and

Christmas treats;

Year 13 dried ready meals, pasta, rice, lentils, beans or

pulses.

Please bring foods in that you would be happy eating

yourselves with a shelf life which extends in to the

New Year.

We will explain the charity and the service we hope

to provide in Chapel on Wednesday 20th November.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sixth Form IDEALS group.

We still have some Christmas Turkeys for Sale and you can pre-order by popping in to reception

and writing your name by the turkey that you would like. They will be available for collection at

the Christmas Bazaar.

The sizes range from 9-13kgs and are £8/kg. Your turkey may be bigger but you will be

charged for the advertised weight (unless it is smaller).

Turkeys will be delivered fresh and ready for

collection on Friday 6 December at the APA Christmas Fair.

In preparation for the Xmas Fayre, the APA would welcome donations of packets of individually wrapped

NUT FREE sweets and chocolates, Tombola and/or Raffle prizes.

Any such items to please be clearly marked

FAO ‘APA XMAS FAYRE’ & left in reception anytime now and up to

29 November. Many thanks

The APA have lots of nearly new uniform available

for sale. Please contact Michelle Taylor,

07731 952762 or michelletaylorsadxb@gmail.com