Page 6 - Abberley Adventures Oct 2022

ABBERLEY ADVENTURES
6
Outdoor Education
Ancient trees, newly planted trees, fruit trees, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, musty compost, mushrooms, fungi, blue skies, not much rain, sweetcorn, squash, carrots, leeks, fat twigs, thin twigs, stacking wood, lighting fires; the children are back and Autumn has landed at Abberley.
With outdoor clubs and activities accessible every day of the week, nature is simply a part of life here. Woodland, chickens, mountain bike tracks, stables, the treehouse and veggie patch are waypoints by which we navigate the beautiful basemap we call our school.
Years 7 and 8 have been making oak gall ink. Parasitic wasps lay eggs in our native oaks. The trees respond by producing abnormal growths around the egg, which is the gall. The gall has a high tannin content and when ground up and mixed with gum arabic, makes an ink that can be traced to at least Roman times.
The youngest children have spent their Thursday sessions enjoying sensory autumnal wanderings and cooking apple-related dishes on Netherton Foundry spun-iron plates. Years 5 and 6 have prepared firewood and shored up the log-store, whilst also pressing trailer loads of apples into sixty bottles of juice.
Mountain bikers have enjoyed dry and dusty single track on Saturdays and wild cooking has been a hit with soups, bread, flapjacks and apple crumble all featuring. Next half term will be great!
The Saturday Discover Programme
We continue to be delighted with the numbers of children who choose to be in with us for our bustling Saturday Discover programme! Next half term the programme will change slightly and this is to take into account feedback from the children and also the changing weather conditions. A highlight of next term’s programme is the return of girls’ football. This activity is to help the children prepare for their first inter-school friendly fixture and to help them to learn about and play football.
Please let Mr Bedford know as soon as possible if you would like your child to attend the clay pigeon shooting activity (simon.bedford@abberleyhall.co.uk).
Spaces for some activities are very limited, so please do discuss the options with your child before they return after the break! For more information, please see the Discover programme brochure.
School Charities
Last year we managed to raise an outstanding £6,857.73 for our school charities UNHCR and SARA as well as £1,000 for Macmillan. This is a brilliant effort and huge thanks to all pupils, parents and staff for their hard work and contributions. This money really will make an enormous difference to these charities.
This year we have already collected a great deal of produce for the Worcester Food Bank through our Harvest Festival services and food was delivered by Mr Richardson with Head Boy Charlie and Head Girl Scarlett.
We have started collecting items to go into shoe boxes as part of Operation Christmas Child. Two thirds of boxes from the UK will go to Ukraine and surrounding countries this year. Do look at Mrs Besley’s letter for more details about how to pack a box if you would like to be part of this.
Our school charities this year are going to be: The Henry Angell-James Memorial Trust, this charity was set up in memory of previous Head Boy Harry’s father and aims to install defibrillators in rural areas in the West Midlands and beyond. St Paul’s Hostel is our second charity and it aims to help the homeless in and around Worcester. Our National Charity is Cancer Research. A great many school families, including staff, have been affected by Cancer and it felt only right to support this wonderful organisation.
To kick us off with support for Cancer Research, Mr Bedford has organised the Press Up Challenge in November. This will involve a group of staff doing 100 sit ups a day throughout November, which will be quite a challenge! Please see the separate letter for more information. To find out more and to make a donation, please click on this link.