Page 6 - Abberley Adventures - June 2021

ABBERLEY ADVENTURES
6
Discover – Our Saturday Enrichment Programme
This term has seen the relaunch of our exciting Discover Programme! It has been fantastic to see the vast majority of children in the Prep school choosing to come in and participate in such a broad range of extra- curricular activities with a total of 32 different options to choose from. With COVID restrictions easing, it was great to be able to take children off site for activities such as Sailing and Clay Pigeon Shooting.
The weather was not always on our side this half term but both the staff and children have again demonstrated true Abberley Spirit in taking it in their stride and getting outside regardless.
There are many highlights to report, although to have children catching fish in the Inkpot, whilst others could be seen exploring the grounds on horseback or mountain bikes whilst others were honing their debating and Greek skills, all on the same morning, was brilliant to behold! Our Discover Programme has been a massive success. Thanks to you all for supporting it so wholeheartedly!
Next half term is short with an exeat in the middle and so we will only have two Saturday Discover mornings. For these sessions we will be advertising the choice of activities, in person, to all the children and getting them to sign up during the week after Half Term. We hope that the sun will shine and we strongly urge you to send your children in for these exiting Saturdays. A new and exciting programme is already being put together for the Autumn term and we hope that the easing of covid restrictions will enable the activities to be available to a wider range of ages as the need for bubbles will, we hope, reduce.
Sport
This term has finally seen the return of sporting fixtures and it has been wonderful to see our children back out competing against other schools. There has, of course, been lots of planning in the background to ensure that fixtures have adhered to Covid guidelines and it has been worth it all to see the children happily competing again. We are delighted that parents are now allowed to watch home fixtures and hope that those who have managed to come along and watch a match have enjoyed being back out on the boundary.
Unfortunately, we have been blighted by wet weather which has caused numerous matches to be cancelled. Sadly, this has been a common theme in the first part of the Summer term in recent years! Having said that, a huge thank you must go to our groundsmen for all their hard work and thanks to them we have managed to salvage several fixtures.
All pupils in the Prep school have now played in school fixtures this term. We have had victories and close matches against Winterfold, Moor Park, King’s Hawford, Bromsgrove, RGS Worcester, The Downs, Dean Close and Malvern St James. We have also managed to play a tennis fixture!
Games and PE sessions have also seen the pupils being able to practice a multitude of athletic events, tennis, cricket and even some rounders! Pupils have also been lucky enough to have swimming lessons which don’t usually take place in the Summer term. Mrs Tayar-Bidwell has been a great addition to the sports department and she is enjoying getting to know the pupils. We already have some swimming galas and exciting competitions booked in for next term which I know our enthusiastic swimmers will enjoy! We hope to see many of you out and around the cricket pitches after half term!