Category Archives: education

Abingdon and Witney College ‘outstanding’ for apprenticeships

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Half Term
Abingdon and Witney College is located at three main sites in Abingdon, Witney and Common Leys Farm near Hailey. The College also operates from 6 other permanent bases across Oxfordshire and up to 80 community-based venues each year.

The College recruits students from across Oxfordshire and has 2,000 full time and 10,000 part time adult students each year.

The College was inspected by Ofsted in 2017 and judged ‘outstanding’ for apprenticeships.

The College won the Training Provider of the Year category in 2017 at the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards (OAA) , and are looking to repeat their success at the 2018 awards on Thursday 1 March at Blenheim Palace.

They are also nominated for three awards in the FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC) Awards, to be decided on Monday 5 March at the House of Commons.

(Thanks to them for the press release and good luck with the awards.)

Abingdon in Washington

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Thanks to Tony for this report …
Abingdon in Washington
Happy memories of Abingdon were exchanged at the British Embassy in Washington DC last month. It happened at a dinner with Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch for volunteers of the American and Canadian Red Cross. The volunteers, all professional and academic health experts who freely advise the Red Cross, meet twice a year to contribute their expertise to the scientific evidence base for Red Cross programmes and products. To support the collaborative relationship, Emily Oliver of the British Red Cross team, arranged for the delegates to dine at the British Embassy.

Emily, who grew up in Abingdon and attended the School of St Helen and St Katharine, persuaded the Ambassador to host the dinner, and also discovered, to her astonishment, that the Ambassador was educated at Abingdon School.

Sir Kim Darroch was delighted when Emily presented him with an Abingdon School Old Boys tie, and immediately put it on for the dinner and to pose for photographs. Emily commented afterwards: ‘Abingdon School can be proud of the Ambassador who spoke fondly of his time there and also demonstrated strong regard for the humanitarian purposes of the Red Cross Movement.’

Beech Court

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The Roysse Room was the site of Abingdon School (then ‘Roysse’s School’) from 1563. Since moving to a much larger site, in Victorian times, near the Albert Park, the school continues to be developed. A new sports complex opened in 2008. A new Science block was added in 2015.
Beech Court
Hoardings have been showing pictures of the new Sixth Form, Library and Art Department that will be opening in 2018.
Beech Court
During development the emerging building has been encased in scaffolding – decorated by yellow and red safety walkways.
Beech Court
The scaffolding has now started to come down to reveal the new building – visible from Bath Street and the walled walkway between Bath Street and the Albert Park .

The new building will not only increase the space for the library and sixth form, it will free up space elsewhere for other departments, and students.

Local school bags help from stores

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Thanks to Rosemary for this …
Trinity Learning
Caldecott School is asking local shoppers to support their project to provide a new sensory garden for their pupils. They’re hoping to convert an old courtyard in the centre of the school into an attractive and welcoming outdoor space that can be used as a quiet seating area for children at break and lunchtimes, a calm area for mentoring, as well as an outdoor classroom, with opportunities for science, art and literacy.

The children are very much at the centre of the project. The school council organised a survey to find out the type of seating, planters and water features that the children would like and they’ll be able to contribute their own artwork in the form of a huge mosaic. Now local stores have stepped in to help.

Caldecott’s garden project was one of the good causes in Waitrose’s Community Matters project in April and will be one of Tesco’s Bags of Help causes throughout May and June. They’re hoping that Tesco’s customers in Abingdon and Wantage will give them enough votes to ensure they will be able to create the garden.