Category: Prep News

On Monday 12 March, George, a former pupil of Woodbridge School, came to The Abbey to give a talk to Year 6 about the CCF. CCF stands for Combined Cadet Force. It has different sections: the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force.

The CCF teaches you lots of exciting skills; about being responsible, leadership and self-confidence by doing adventurous activities and teaches you how to speak in public.  He talked about the importance of being part of a team, to look out for each other and to help one another.

You can join CCF in Year 9.  Every month you get to do something amazing like fly a plane from a RAF Base, which would be extremely fun.  Year 13 is the highest rank and you become a leader and have a lot of responsibility, such as attending meetings with teachers to plan activities for CCF.

He talked about The Duke of Edinburgh Awards.  For the Bronze Award there are local activities and camps, the Silver Award camping in the Lake District and for the Gold Award he went to Morocco to climb the Atlas Mountains. Which sounds amazing!

We are delighted to announce that, just as we celebrate the successes of our pupils, we also like to congratulate our staff on their achievements.

Mrs Christina Clubb (Deputy Head at The Abbey) was commemorated at an awards ceremony this week.  She is the proud recipient of the The Suffolk Schools Tennis Association, Tennis Teacher of The Year Award.

This award is in recognition of Mrs Clubb’s many years of service and her commitment to ensuring that tennis features as a summer sport in the fixture calendar.

Well done Mrs Clubb, we are very proud of you and you fully deserve your recognition.

Such a delightful performance of The Pied Piper at The Abbey.

Bravo to cast and crew for such a wonderful rendition.

Becoming a parent is an exciting time. Our first thoughts as parents are that we want our children to be healthy, fulfilled and happy; ready to enjoy their journey, embracing challenges along the way.

At what point does this change? Parents in the past have informed me that they have decided that Kate (not her real name) is destined for Oxford and will have a career in Medicine.  Kate was 3 at the time and struggling with the concept of sharing her tractor.

All parents want the best for their children (and if they don’t, we should be questioning; “why not?”). Sending a child to school should enable the team behind the child; the parents, grandparents, friends, extended family and school staff, to work together to ensure that each individual is supported in the best way possible.

Schools should be about educating the whole child. They should have breadth and balance in the curriculum, value the Arts, enable the gifted, support those with additional needs, encourage independence, promote collaboration, celebrate success, develop individuality, advance academics and advocate teamwork.

The educational environment should be all things to all pupils.  Schools should be unashamedly all-encompassing and concerned with developing every aspect.

School life should go beyond the basics of academic rigour and, if that is the single most important focus of a school, I would argue the point is being missed. We should be educating the mind, the body and the spirit. Supporting children to know themselves, recognising their strengths and weaknesses in order that they may continue to grow and develop in all areas.  At the end of their time in school our children should emerge as happy, confident and well-rounded young adults; equipped with the examination results to open doors and the skills to ensure the paths that lead from them can be followed.

A good education should be a happy one, filled with positive memories (box-cart racing, productions, recitals, achievement, matches, friendship; not just tutoring and exam prep) and the chance to feel fulfilled, challenged and engaged.  If this is achieved then the adults of the future will have been educated beyond the basics and have the transferable skills to cope with the ever-changing workplace.

If you are a parent and you are reading this, do pause for a moment and ask yourself – What do I want for my child?

On Monday 5 March we competed at one of the ten IAPS regional galas.

We took six swimmers to the gala at Bishop’s Stortford College who all swam in individual events.  All of our swimmers performed very well in a highly competitive event and posted very pleasing times.  We are now waiting with our fingers crossed that some of the times are in the Top 20 across all of the other galas. This would mean that the swimmer will have qualified for the National Finals, which is being hosted at the London Aquatics Centre in June.

Our team was comprised of E Carter, C Hattan, G Phillips, G Pommier, M Pommier and L Zie.

On Wednesday 7 March the U11 C team had a tough but terrific match against Orwell Park.

In our first quarter J Richardson scored a great goal and G Pommier managed to slip in two more great goals. Orwell Park came back and scored two cracking goals. In the next quarter Orwell Park scored another goal. Luckily, G Pommier scored two more magnificent goals. Taking the score up to 7 – 3 to us. It was a nail-biting match but we managed to get our win!

As part of our World Book Week activities the children were immersed in exciting workshops run by a professional storyteller. Through the use of drama and improvisation the children recreated the tale of the Wild Man of Orford.

They looked at the story from various different points of view and explored the feelings and emotions of the Wild Man and his reactions to being treated as an ‘outsider’. Hopefully the children will be able to use some of these creative ideas and concepts when completing the Stig Of The Dump inspired Big Write this week.

World Book Day was celebrated this week at The Abbey and at Queen’s House. The day began, at each location, with a celebration assembly and the children all enjoyed spotting their favourite characters.

There was a fantastic array of costumes and the children spent the rest of day exploring their favourite books and characters.

Thank you to all parents for, once again, providing such wonderful costumes!