Thameside Primary School in South Abingdon had been judged to be a Good School during an inspection by Ofsted on 6th March 2014. This is the best judgement they have received for over a decade, and means both South Abingdon schools, Thameside and Caldecott, are judged to be giving a good education to pupils.

Traditionally some parents living in the south have sent their children to schools in the north of Abingdon. I would guess this adds to the peak time traffic problems out of South Abingdon. But now both South Abingdon schools are judged to be good, it could improve the traffic situation in a more sustainable way than pedestrian traffic light tinkering.

Passing Larkmead School at the weekend I was impressed by their logo and motto.

The schools in Abingdon have the following mottos (taken from their web sites):

Caldecott Primary School – Happy Learners, Aiming High.
Carswell Community Primary School – Happy Together, learning for Life.
Dunmore Primary School – Great to be Inspired, Inspired to be Great.
Fitzharrys School – Together Everyone Achieves.
John Mason School – Excellence Through Creativity.
Larkmead School – One Community, Individual Minds, Creating Futures.
Our Lady’s Abingdon – Altogether a better education.
St Edmund’s Catholic Pimary School – In our school every day we learn, love and pray.
St Nicholas CofE Primary School – Learning Excellence.
Thameside Primary School – Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.

Taking the frequently used words, and putting them together, I get the motto “Every Day To Be Happy and Inspired Learning Together.”

After a fact finding visit to Abingdon Community Hospital, a group of Year 5 children from Thameside Primary School have produced “Thameside Tiger Hospital Care“, a fully-illustrated introduction to the staff they met during their visit, and what services the hospital provides … including podiatry, where they look after your feet, and Radiographer, the person who does X-Rays. This is a great introduction to the hospital!

Meanwhile, Thomas, Oliver, Miya, Harry, Jamal and Phoebe, from Year 6 at St Nicolas C of E Primary School, interviewed Councillor Lesley Legge, from Abingdon on Thames Town Council, and Heather Brown from The Choose Abingdon Partnership. Their magazine St Nicolas world of Abingdon explains some of the ways in which Abingdon caters for tourism. They had some interesting questions and answers. For example

“We wondered why Abingdon changed its name to Abingdon on Thames.”

“They replied that technically it has always been known as Abingdon on Thames. The Thames is a high profile marketing name which is good because if someone types Thames in to Google it will come up with Abingdon..”

Both magazines, and a good number before, are the result of workshops run by TrinityLearning, with the help of The Community Covenant. The project enables forces and local children to find out about their community and work together as a team. Thanks to the help of Welfare Officers at Dalton Barracks, every family stationed there will receive a copy of both magazines. (The magazines are quite big and take time to fully download from the links provided above.)