VIEW FROM THE ABBEY Saturday 25 June 2022
Co-curricular opportunities abound The pupils and staff continue to amaze me with their dedication to our amazing co-curricular programme. Picking out highlights from the last few weeks is no easy task. With Prep and Subject Clinics finishing at 6pm, the warm summer evenings are free for the pupils to try new activities, develop passions and hone skills in our constantly evolving recreational programme. The tennis courts and golf course are bursting every evening, girls’ rugby has been enormously popular and the volley ball court, requested by students, has seen some epic contests involving staff and pupils. The pupils generally come out on top! Football, cricket, swimming and the gym are also busy. This term has also seen the inaugural Piscatorial Society (P Soc) outing on the benign waters of the South Coast, which we are blessed to access so easily. The pupils returned to school buzzing after a wonderful evening of fishing, with stories of a huge haul! More trips have already been planned. Commerce Society (C Soc) is another new evening activity. Watch out for new ‘MA Merch’ at the end of term that the students are researching and developing.
Hens arrive | Page 4
Swimmers’ success | Page 5
Our trips programme has also been in full swing. Each pupil will have their own highlights, but the Art Trip to Hauser & Wirth, the Chalke Valley History Festival and a Fashion trip to Mulberry have all had rave reviews. The remaining weeks of term will see pupils canoeing and camping down the river Wye, our annual three-day long distance bike ride (Audax), walking on the Dorset coastline, a surf safari to Cornwall and adventures in the Brecon Beacons. Look out for updates in the next View from the Abbey and on our social media sites! Will Fraser | Deputy Head (Co-Curricular)
Third Form play | Page 7
VIEW FROM THE ABBEY
Buzzing for Enterprise Day The whole Third Form came together to take part in an Enterprise Day, hearing from local entrepreneurs and then working on a project to design, pitch and launch their own brand of honey. It was an interesting day, giving them a taste of the more in-depth projects they will complete as part of their GCSEs and BTECs next year. Rebecca Barton | Head of Enterprise & Economics
Lovely Jubilee! Pupils were on their half-term break for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, so we were a little late with our celebrations. Nevertheless, the Third Form Hospitality class made up for lost time with these delicious cupcakes. Leonie Monaghan | Head of Hospitality
COMMENDATION HIGHLIGHTS Laurie W | Fourth Form
Enrik S | Lower Sixth
For regularly volunteering to take photographs for the school, which he does to a fantastic standard capturing our beautiful site and sense of community.
Received a Head’s Commendation for an absolutely excellent first sermon as incoming Head of Athelstan House, focusing on the importance of fathers and role models within our lives.
Javier DS | Lower Sixth Joaquin EVDS | Middle Sixth For producing a brilliant mock TV advert. After filming Joaquin for his BTEC showcase, they re-edited the footage in their own time and on their own initiative. Click the image to watch.
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VIEW FROM THE ABBEY
Online tips for a cyber-safe summer
The summer holidays are nearly upon us. Hopefully your children will get plenty of opportunity to take part in offline activities, but they will still want to be online to game, shop or just chat with friends. So, here are our top tips for the summer holiday:
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evisit your boundaries at home. What apps, websites and games are children allowed R to use? Where will devices be overnight? When are device-free times? These might have changed since the last summer holiday as your child is now older. Have you got suitable controls on your online services?
ave some conversations to find out what your child is doing and enjoying online and H also what they might be concerned about. If you notice them looking sad or worried when online, explore this with your child to help them understand their own emotions and responses to what they are seeing and doing online and to help them to deal with issues. Take opportunities to help them learn about aspects of the online world relevant to what they are doing: this could be privacy and security profile settings, reliability of news and other information or how to block and report inappropriate content and accounts. Remember that the amount of time on-screen is much less important than the activities they are carrying out. Using technology creatively or to socialise with close friends is very different to endlessly scrolling through strangers’ social media posts. S hare some online activities and have fun with it together: whether that is gaming or making a TikTok to understand what your child’s online experience is like.
Remember it’s not all negative. Research has shown that, for most people, being online contributes to their well-being in a positive way. This must be balanced against the risks from some online activities which can include bullying, low self esteem, grooming, viewing and sharing of inappropriate content. Parents also need to be aware of the changing nature of video gaming. Games developers have completely changed the business model of gaming, so that instead of the point of purchase being the only place where customers are given an opportunity to part with their hard-earned cash, there are now other methods of cash-generation built in. While many players find this annoying, they will often make purchases so that they are not at a disadvantage. Many games now contain loot boxes or randomized rewards where you pay for an unknown reward; this is not dissimilar from gambling. These types of features in addition to many other persuasive design techniques are used to keep users on the products as long as possible and spending as much money (or viewing as many adverts) as possible. It is no wonder that all users, but especially teenagers, struggle to regulate their online usage in the face of a calculated strategy from developers to command our attention. Revisiting and reiterating our boundaries and noting any negative changes in behaviour can help our children back into more healthy patterns of use. For more information, click here to see the Online Safety Section of the school website or call the NSPCC Online Safety Helpline on 0808 800 5002. Do get in touch with me if you have any specific questions or want advice related to your child’s online safety. Sarah Badley | Head of Personal Development & Community Engagement
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VIEW FROM THE ABBEY
Exciting arrivals at the School Farm The IGCSE Agriculture class has collected our new School Farm hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust. These hens are from an organic free range commercial farm and are around 18 months old. They will now live in the beautiful surroundings of our school farm and will provide eggs for pupils to sell on-site to staff, pupils and visitors. The hens will also be a key teaching resource on the new Agriculture course (which starts fully in September), which focuses on animal welfare and sound food production. We know our new hens are going to have a lovely life with us and will enjoy lots of fuss from the pupils! Elisabeth Carr | Director of Land-Based Studies
DofE Bronze expedition Well done to the Third Form for completing their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award practice expedition. They undertook a two-day walk around the gorgeous North Dorset countryside, spending a night under canvas. It was a hot week, so the pupils took regular breaks for rehydration. Katherine Grugeon | DofE Coordinator
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SPORTING NEWS
Swimmers complete 24 hour open water challenge After a challenging 24 hours, the swimming team successfully completed their open water swimming event at Shepperton Lakes in South West London. They raised over £3,000 for the excellent Level Water charity, which helps disabled children access and enjoy swimming. The event had over 70 teams involving 400 swimmers, with 70 swimmers in the water at any one time. Milton Abbey were given special permission to enter the only team with under 18-year-olds, based on their maturity and previous efforts swimming for the charity. For all the pupils, this was their first experience of long distance open water swimming. Each pupil and staff member swam for four hours total, in one-hour stints. They covered around 2km every swim (around 8-10 km total). They also had to swim in the dark of the night using safety lights attached to their goggles. Pupils had to be self-sufficient, organising their sleep and feeding routines around their swims. We received many positive comments from the staff running the event and other swimmers about how polite and positive the pupils were, and what fantastic role models they are for others of their age. On our return, the pupils and staff were invited for a celebratory tea with the Head. Robin Hanney | Head of Swimming
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SPORTING NEWS Cycling Audax returns The Cycling Team will, once again, be participating in their annual audax challenge. Previous editions have seen the team cycle back to school from Land’s End and Mount Snowdon. This year, they have chosen to cycle the entirety of the ‘King Alfred’s Way’, a recently-mapped 350km off-road cycling route through the old kingdom of Wessex. Cycling UK, who created the course, state that cyclists should aim to complete the route in around 4 to 8 days. We plan to do it in three days over the last week of term! The team wish to use this challenge to raise money for a charity close to our hearts at Milton Abbey: WillDoes. The charity does fantastic work for causes that support young people’s well-being and mental health in Dorset. You can make a donation by clicking here. We were also delighted to welcome back Lesley Buchanan, founder of the WillDoes charity, for a briefing about their excellent work earlier this term.
Golfers excel nationally Huge congratulations are due to our golf team Freddie W, Rocco T and Neo T - who finished third out of the ten schools who qualified for the ISGA National Plate Finals at the Breadsall Priory. It is an absolutely fantastic result to be competing at that level, especially in the first year of the boys playing together. Thanks must also go to Mr Scott and other members of staff who’ve coached and encouraged them to reach this point.
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VIEW FROM THE ABBEY
Student Leadership positions for 2022/23 Following an extremely competitive selection process, which involved conversations with Housemasters and Housemistresses, presentations to the Head and our current Heads of School, and a speech made to the whole school for candidates who were short-listed for the Head of School positions, we are delighted to announce our full Student Leadership Team for the 2022/23 academic year. All the students who applied should be proud of how the conducted themselves and we know they all have a lot to contribute to Milton Abbey in a variety of different ways in their final year at the school.
Heads of School
Heads of House
Pilots
Rupert O’Kelly Marina Pritchard-Jones
Athelstan: Enrik Schoefisch Deputy: Marcus Thame
Deputy Heads of School
Hambro: Amaury Demuynck Deputy: Bassy Sturge
Adriian Oberholzer Julie Rogiest
Hughies: Connie Brooks Deputy: Nica Metz
NB: All roles listed alphabetically
Tregonwell: Oli Crabbe Deputy: Matthew Thompson
George Amery-Matthews Will Boyes Freya Francis Ollie Hudson Ralph Levy Talisa Nunes Mia Paton Kay Vervoordt Freddie Whalley Theresa Wizemann
Grimm’s Tales on stage On Thursday, Third Form Drama pupils gave a charming performance of Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The striking yet simple staging meant the humour of each story, and the quality of the acting, really shone through. With the whole school in attendance, and parents also invited to enjoy the show, there was a great atmosphere in the NBT and lots of laugh out loud moments. Liz Bemment | Director of Drama
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CREATIVE SHOWCASE
VIEW FROM THE ABBEY
This week (Monday 20 to Sunday 27 June) is the Boarding Schools’ Association National Boarding Week, the theme of which is One Boarding Community this year. As part of the week, the BSA is running a competition for students
Return from Exeat Follow us:
miltonabbeyschool |
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to submit art or photography reflecting boarding life at their school. Fourth Former Laurie W has risen to the challenge, using his photodocumentary skills to capture a weekend of ‘togetherness’ at MA.
It was a particularly appropriate weekend, as we welcomed old boys and girls back to the school for their first AGM since the pandemic. You can see how their timeless bonds of friendship endure and how they remain a valued part of our extended school community.
Boarders: Sunday 26 June from 17:00 to 21:00 (supper 18:00-19:00) Day pupils: Monday 27 June before 08:35 for tutor groups MiltonAbbey |
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