A new independent living complex is opening in Summer 2015 at Mayott House, in Abingdon. The first people will move in very soon. For anybody interested in joining them try this link
The external facade of the new Abingdon School Science complex is also near completion.
Scaffolding is coming down, and the crane will soon be off.
Mayott House looks good and freshens up one of the main routes into town. It should also provide good quality accommodation, in a central location, for local older people who can’t afford the luxury “retirement complexes” that are proliferating nationally.
It would be nice to think that the Abingdon School Science Centre will in some way benefit young people from other schools – in accordance with the Public Benefit obligations of Abingdon School’s charitable status. Does anyone know
if there are any plans for that?
All being well they are hoping to host some events for next year’s ATOM! Science Festival events there.
I haven’t heard of any outreach to the state schools yet though, nor has there been any that I am aware of from St Helen’s who completed their new Science Block last year.
If I could just respond on behalf of Abingdon School. Through the Abingdon School Science Partnership, ASP, the School has initiated a range of outreach activities with local schools. The aim of the Partnership is to encourage access to and broaden participation in science for all. This year ASP has been working with a range of organisations, including Science Oxford, local schools and the exam boards, offering various courses and science events for different audiences. These range from family science clubs on a Saturday to running a day course for secondary school science technicians.
ASP continues to provide CREST Star activities for local primary schools, and is looking forward to awarding CREST Star certificates to hundreds of year 1, 2 and 3 pupils from across Abingdon (and beyond!). ASP also works alongside the exam boards running information evenings for Heads of Departments about the new A level and GCSE exams.
In other initiatives, ASP and Science Oxford provide continuing professional development courses for primary science teachers. Recent topics have included ‘thinking scientifically’ and ‘practical programming’ which help teachers plan and deliver practical investigations and basic coding in their science lessons.
If you would like any further information about our science outreach activities please get in touch or visit our website. w
ww.abingdon.org.uk/abingdon_science_partnership
Abingdon School’s new science block is an abomination on two levels: firstly it is grotesquely out of proportion to the buildings surrounding it, especially those in Park Crescent (and the recently-added metal ‘chimneys’ are the final insult); and secondly it represents the ever-widening gap in the quality of the facilities available to state and private-school pupils. As Hester and Iain suggest, there appear to be no plans to make the science block’s resources available on any systematic basis to pupils from the three neighbouring secondary schools. What can be done?
Jane – very interesting to read about the ASP and good news that Abingdon School are looking to help balance the ever widening gap between state and private school facilities. However, as a parent of children at three local schools, I haven’t heard about this project, which is disappointing because we would be very interested in family science clubs. Can you expand on what has been and is likely to be provided to the local primary schools and three Abingdon secondary schools once the new Science block has been finished? In addition, are the local schools all aware and participating in your outreach programme? I haven’t seen any advertising via the local state schools, which may well be because they aren’t raising awareness of the programme.
Thanks
Steve
And there’s this:
A class from Fitzharrys visited the Physics Department today for a joint lesson on Computational Physics. The pupils worked in pairs with one student from each school and used the Python programming language to display vector objects and then to program a ball to bounce around inside a box. The uses of computer modelling in order to simulate and change the parameters of an experiment such as planets orbiting a star or for gases in a box was discussed. We look forward to returning to Fitzharrys in the Michaelmas term.
I do believe that the school (and the parents who sacrifice much to be able to afford the fees) have worked very hard to raise the money to build this block. Aesthetics aside, why are people so outraged that the school is trying to do the best for its pupils?
Just for the record, I raised the question because I didn’t know and thought others might be interested too. Only one of the resulting comments could be regarded as “outraged” – the rest seem polite and thoughtful and the positive information from Jane Warne and Sarah is useful. Isn’t this how a local blog should be used?
We do hope the activities such as the Family Science Club will be of interest and we will update the ASP pages on the website next term so I think the best thing to do is keep an eye on those to see what is planned. In the meantime please feel free to drop me an email if you would like to know more?jane.warne@abingdon.org.uk
Many thanks
We have been to one of the monthly Science Oxford events at Abingdon School, it was great fun and plan to go regularly. Science Oxford were also at Fun in the Parks giving out information about the club. More information about family events here http://www.scienceoxford.com/live/whats-on/what-s-on-family
…I think the outrage stems from how Abingdon School and The Veil have treated the community in which the school resides.
Taking steps forwards with regards science and wider engagement is great (albeit it seems many people andcschools are unaware of it). However, it pales somewhat to the leaps backwards that issues such as Tilsley Park make.
Whether Tilsley Park is good or bad, ultimately for those of us that are left outside the grand gates of Abingdon school is insignificant. The PERCEPTION is a bad one, and drags the school down with it (and The Veil too….if THAT could get any worse).
People are angry.
Science Oxford are running their Saturday Science Clubs at Abingdon School on the following dates this autumn:
Saturday 10th October – Culinary Chemistry
Saturday 14th November – Spooky Science
Saturday 5th December – Festive Fun
All details can be found at:
http://www.scienceoxford.com/live/saturday-science-clubs