Pupils received some useful things for their Forest School at Rush Common School.

Forest School is all about learning and having fun outdoors. Annington, the company that makes ex-army homes energy efficient, gave them bug pots, binoculars, magnifying glasses, pond nets, a hedgehog house, bird boxes, and feeders.

Thank you to Kyle at Annington for sharing pictures and info with the blog. He sent a press release where Rebecca Strugnell, Chair of the Friends of Rush Common, said, “Our Forest School at Rush Common teaches pupils how to respect nature and to grow up with a better understanding of where we fit in with the natural environment. We were in desperate need of some new resources, so the donation from Annington couldn’t have come at a better time! The pupils, parents and teachers are very grateful for the kit, which will put to great use by children of all ages in the school.”

Did you know that Forest School started in Denmark in 1953? Now it’s a popular thing in the UK too. Pupils who go to Forest Schools are great at making friends, working together, and feeling good about themselves. The Rush Common Forest School is part of it too!

As part of National Careers Week 2021, Abingdon and Witney College‘s careers team is offering out its services to the wider public as well as the College‘s students. They are  running a FREE drop-in service during lunchtime (12 – 2pm) and later in the afternoon (4 – 5pm) everyday between 1st – 5th March. See https://www.abingdon-witney.ac.uk/national-careers-week-2021 for more information. There are also webinars that can be watched at anytime.

Earlier in February they had a Virtual Open Day for anybody interested in courses at the college. Since the open day was virtual the webinars can still be viewed by visiting https://www.abingdon-witney.ac.uk/college-guide/past-events/february-virtual-open-week-2021-start. They use Microsoft Teams.

I walked round the college this morning and took pictures of the trees in blossom.

There did not appear to be a lot of cars or students about. The college is closed for face-to-face learning except to vulnerable students and the young people of key workers, where appropriate. It is open to all students for remote / online learning. The college are reviewing the latest government advice before telling students about any face-to-face reopening.

This is what it looked like in Abingdon yesterday at the bottom of Bath Street. It was hot.

And this is how it looked today in the Abbey Gardens. Slightly cooler but still lots of orange.

I thought the schools had ended yesterday for the summer holidays but then heard lots of children chattering as they went in line to St Helen’s Church for an end of term visit.

Good luck to all the school children who are going up from their year 6 primary school class to their year 7 secondary school class. Six weeks to go.

When you get to be adult there is no such thing as going up a year.

The latest edition of Hello Abingdon, Trinity Learning’s community newsletter project, has hit the streets and this blog. The June 2019 newsletter has been put together by six Year 5 pupils from Carswell Community School and has a front page picture showing Summer in Abingdon!.

The magazine includes an article on Abingdon’s Traditional Morris Men, whose Mayor Making happened on 15th June.

The children had a great time meeting Roger and Harry from the Morris, and tried the dances.

There followed a survey on the Abbey Grounds Play Area and Swimming Pool which gets a ‘brilliant’ rating. There is also a piece about the wildlife in that area, including the butterflies in the bee garden, ducks and geese. The children thanked Adrian from Abingdon Naturalists Society for helping their research.

The  children’s feedback after doing the magazine was:
+  it was fun learning new things
+  it helped me talk to people
+  we learnt new IT skills
+  it was good to use our skills on something useful.

To find out more about Trinity Learning’s work with schools visit their website: www.trinitylearning.org.uk

The magazine can be downloaded and read at https://trinityabingdon.org.uk/documents/trinitylearningnewsjune2019.pdf