Abbey College Cambridge Autumn 2016 Newsletter

AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2015

Our Autumn Newsletter The autumn term is a crucial one for us at Abbey; our students in the Upper

Sixth and on the International Foundation Programme have been busy

submitting their university applications and all students have been working

hard for their first set of Stage Tests.

A group of students and staff had a great time on a trip to Paris over half

term break while our Biology students undertook a field trip in the

beautiful area of Snowdonia. We look forward to the other exciting trips we

have planned for the rest of the academic year.

Students and staff also came together for the Halloween Party on the last

day before the half term break, which featured games and a special

entertainer from British television. It was an enjoyable afternoon and we

raised £220 for the charity EACH (East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices); a

great start to our fundraising for this year.

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award is well underway and students

prepared for their assessed expeditions by practising at Anglesey Abbey.

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award is just one of over 60 extra-curricular

activities for students to take part in this year.

Enjoy the remainder of the term!

Best wishes

Dr Julian Davies, Principal


I am very proud of the 26 students who have applied for Oxford and Cambridge and also the nine

Medicine and Dentistry students. They have worked very hard over the last few months at their

studies, and we are sending some applications in with students who have faultless exam scores.

It’s been with great pleasure that I have read each Personal Statement and Reference written about our

students and discovered all sorts of fascinating truths which have inspired me time and again and

remind me what an amazing community of young people we are lucky enough to work with.

Our students have completed internships at international law and finance firms, the Institute of

Economics Affairs and the Albanian Law Ministry. Our aspiring Doctors have worked in Accident &

Emergency and Intensive Care Units, have nursed HIV patients in Kenyan hospitals and

cared for seriously ill people in Hospices. We have had students working for China

Telecom in Shanghai on an engineering apprenticeship and working alongside aerospace

engineers at the Boeing Design Centre in Moscow.

Once again, Abbey Cambridge and our amazing students and teachers have lived up to

our Vision of being a community energised by the love of learning and the pursuit of out-

standing achievement for all!

I would like to congratulate students for all their hard work so far this academic year. I am incredibly

impressed at how dedicated our students are in their studies and also how committed they are to

clubs and activities after school and at weekends. Volunteering Club is one of our largest clubs with

over 40 students working hard to give their time and talents to the local Cambridge community and

raising money for EACH, our local children's charity.

Students also worked with their tutors on the Christmas Shoebox appeal, where they filled shoeboxes

full of gifts for boys and girls who would not normally receive presents at Christmastime. Abbey

Cambridge filled a tremendous 33 shoeboxes for children around the world, and a special thank-you

to Duncan Colquhoun's tutor group who generously filled five shoeboxes full of treats!

The school also marked Remembrance Day with a special assembly and reflected on the fallen men

and women over many years in many wars; and it was saddening and shocking that just days after

this day of remembrance to hear news of the Paris terrorist attacks. This is very close to our hearts

particularly as our students recently visited Paris in half term for a special trip and our thoughts and

condolences go out to all the families who lost loved ones during this tragedy, many of whom were

just young people out on a Friday night having fun with their friends.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

The Ode (from From the Fallen by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon published in 1914)


Halloween

Party Abbey Cambridge hosted the spooky Halloween Party! The day started off

with Pumpkin Carving at lunchtime, with some brilliant pumpkins carved by

students and staff! At 4:30pm the party began with lots of exciting activities

and games to play. Students and staff also welcomed Simon the Magician who

shocked everyone with his tricks and stunts. It was an amazing day and all

money raised will go to our chosen children's charity EACH (East Anglia's

Children's Hospice).

Halloween Party


During October Half Term, 16 students and 4 staff visited the iconic city of Paris. We

visited Disneyland Paris and had a great time with Mickey Mouse and friends! This

was followed by a trip to the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed some shopping time on

the Champs Elysees. After a short walk we arrived at the Eiffel Tower – it was

great to see this lit up at night and we all got some amazing photos. The next

day we went to the Louvre Museum and saw the famous Mona Lisa painted

by Leonardo da Vinci. After the Louvre, we took a walk along the River

Seine. We saw the ‘Love Lock’ bridge where people put padlocks with

the names of their boyfriend/girlfriend and then throw the key in the

river to symbolise their unbreakable love! We ended our walking

tour at the Notre Dame cathedral, before heading to the station to

return to Cambridge. Thank you to HONG Yigang, HUO

Longxuan (Michael), IANVUTHIPREECHA Thanawat

(Mighty), KIATIKAJORNJUMROEN Setthathon (Wind),

LIU Runze (Rain), OU Bunchhay,

POONNARATANAKUL Prang (Alpha), SAE-WOO

Chaiyapash, SONG Jiaoyang (Ivy),

TANJITTASUWAN Kantapat (Frong),

TANJITTASUWAN Tanapat (France),

VIJAYASEKARAN Vimalan, WANG

Shang (Simon), WANG Xinyi (Celine),

XU Xinting (Amy) and YANG Yixiao

(Anny) for making it a fun trip!

Sonia Nunn, Adam Fraser, Richard

Stott, Laser Ford



Duke of Edinburgh Anglesey

Abbey trip

During the half term break students taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Gold

Award travelled to Anglesey Abbey for their practice expedition. Once we arrived at

the Abbey students put up their tents, without any help and organised all of their

equipment. We all then went to the Chapel on the site where students evaluated the

day and what they had learnt about map reading. They also had a short first aid

course on what to do if an emergency situation occurred in the wilderness. Students

then experienced cooking on a camping stove! The food each group cooked was

absolutely fantastic, spaghetti with various meats and vegetables all in a lovely

sauce. On the Wednesday they all had breakfast, cleared everything away, pulled the

tents down, experiencing camping in different weathers. We then navigated our way

to Horningsea and nobody got lost!

Not only did students learn about map reading, they also learnt about working in a

team helping each other out. This teaches them that they do not have to be on their

own and people are around to help out, but on the other hand it promotes

independence as well. Having to do things that are totally out of your comfort zone

gives you a sense of achievement.

Trip Leaders


Our students have been learning all about

the business of football on a trip to the home

of the current Premier League champions,

Chelsea Football Club.

During the trip, 27 students from our

Business Studies A-Level course took a

private tour of the Chelsea FC stadium.

They learned what it takes to operate the

stadium successfully on a match day and

how

the club generates additional revenue from onsite hotels,

restaurants and an even an exclusive members gym.

They also learned about the key role that corporate

sponsorship plays in funding the purchase of players.

The highlight of the trip came when our students got a

chance to experience the inside of the Chelsea locker

room, even taking a peek inside Diego Costa’s locker!

They also got to try out their best Jose Mourinho

impressions in the home team dugout and press

interview room.

After the pitch side tour, they visited the Chelsea

museum, checking out an impressive array of

silverware including the Premier League winner’s

trophy, relived the team’s dramatic penalty

shoot-out win over Bayern Munich in the

Champions League final, and tested some of their

own football skills against those of the Chelsea

players.

Organiser and Business Studies teacher Gemma

Deane summed up a successful trip; ‘Visits like

these help our students to develop their

understanding of how business works outside of

the classroom. Through the tour they were able to learn how Chelsea has evolved on and off the

pitch to become one of the world’s greatest football clubs. Needless to say the day was

thoroughly enjoyed by all of us!’

Business Studies Department

Chelsea FC stadium trip


A good way to improve your listening skills in English is to watch TV programmes on catch up TV websites,

such as www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer . There are a lot of interesting documentaries which contain language similar

to IELTS and academic English.

Recently, some of the Foundation IELTS students watched a light-hearted BBC documentary which touched

on a serious topic. The programme was called “Are our kids tough enough: Chinese School”. In the

programme, an experiment was conducted where a group of Chinese teachers tried the Chinese style of

teaching on a class of UK students, and the documentary followed their progress to see whether this class

would outperform the other classes, who had been taught in the British style, in tests.

It was interesting for me to find out what the Foundation students thought about this experiment and

whether it would work or not. Here are some interesting comments that were made:

“The Chinese teachers gave their students confidence. They let some students who didn’t care about the

lessons change. In the end, from the tears, I can see in a way these Chinese teachers are closer to their

students. They won the respect from students, even love.”

“Things which surprised me is the Chinese teachers did everything they could about Chinese style

teaching. For example, they give a call to the students’ parents when they are not satisfied with a student and

gave extra lessons at a very late time in the day.”

“I was surprised that there was a girl who accepted Chinese style teaching so quickly. When a lot of students

were in a bad mood about their Chinese teachers, she stood up and criticised other students.”

It was an interesting and entertaining programme to watch. If you want to know which style of teaching

prevailed in the competition, you will have to watch it online, or speak to one of the Foundation students. No

spoilers here!

Patrick Williams

English News

Puzzle

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer


Accommodation news

It has been a delight to greet this year’s new intake and welcome back the returners to Adkins Corner and

Tripos Court. The students have worked incredibly hard this term both academically and personally. For

some, it is back to the old routine, but with fresh, new and harder challenges. For others it’s a whole new

world to get to grips with. New school, new friends, away from home, how to look after yourself and for

some, how to cook!

Half term was action packed too with students from Adkins Corner and

Tripos Court heading off on a wonderful trip to Paris and Disneyland. The

really adventurous ones who are pursuing the Duke of Edinburgh award

camped overnight in Anglesey Abbey.

Both Adkins Corner and Tripos Court are developing great communities, both

focused around each floor in Tripos and in each flat at Adkins as well as the

wider community on each site and in school.

From Richard Joseland and Yvonne Garrod

Purbeck House It has been a great start to the autumn term with new and returning students, new staff and

a new college building on the horizon.

One of our returning students Kapampa MWAPE was very kind and helpful during new

student induction week, going beyond all expectations and taking our new students into

her care. A small token of our appreciation was a box of chocolates.

The new and returning students have made new friendships, renewed ones from last year

and found groups to eat and study with, making friends from across the globe.

We had a baking evening for the Halloween Party and many students came, all

producing a wonderful array of buns and brownies, which they

then decorated to sell to hungry Halloween party goers.

From Dawn, Ryan, Jade and David the Purbeck Team

Adkins corner & Tripos court


Accommodation news

In October the boys and girls in Oak and

Holly house enjoyed a great trip out ten

pin bowling. For some of the students

it was the first time they had ever

played, which added to the

excitement. We played two games of

bowling with numerous students

finding out they had quite a talent for the game. After bowling

we grabbed a drink and spent a bit of time in the arcade area playing pool and some video games before

heading back to the boarding houses.

oak House Within Oak house the students have all had a great start to the year and all

settled in very quickly. With a beautiful garden at the back of the house,

the students have been enjoying time outdoors playing football and table

tennis. Now that the evenings are getting darker as we approach winter,

we have found a love of board games and playing cards; a valuable way to

improve English but also a great way to relax after a long day of studying!

Rachael Price

bowling trip


This term the GCSE Business Studies cohort has entered into an

incredibly exciting new chapter in their developing business

careers – working alongside Cambridge University and the

Enactus Society, they have created two businesses and are busy

preparing new ideas and opportunities to unleash on the

Cambridge market. Both teams have generated incredible business

ideas and are putting the final touches to their business plans.

They have received lectures from Cambridge University current

undergraduates and alumni, highlighting the importance of

Business Studies as a subject valued throughout the world and the

relationship between what happens in the Business Studies

classroom and the real world.

Watch the Tutor Notices and this space for more exciting news

about this amazing adventure the GCSE students have begun!

Andy Humphris

Business news

The Engineering Education Scheme is a nationally recognised scheme to support Lower sixth students

considering a career in Engineering. Over the last 30 years, the scheme has supported around 30,000 students

across the UK, competing in teams on engineering projects. This year Abbey Cambridge had fifteen applicants

for just five team member places. The students needed to show a variety of aptitudes as well as being

academically strong enough to cope with the commitment the project requires without adversely affecting their

A level studies.

ARM Cambridge have agreed to continue supporting the project, and on the 14 October two Engineers from

ARM interviewed candidates. ARM considered all of the candidates would have been suitable to be a team

member. ARM chose the final five team members based on their aptitude, commitment, and ability to work as a

team.

On 20 October the team, along with Ross and Graham from the maths department went to the University of

Hatfield for this year’s regional launch. Part of the launch was the “Helicopter Challenge”. The Abbey team did

not win, but came up with some very good ideas. However their strongest point was their teamwork, and the

Abbey team showed better team work skills than the mentor team did!

We are looking forward to a very successful year for

SHEN Leyang (Ben)

YANG Qiaonan (Tina)

ZHANG Yilin (Erin)

HE Bokang (HE)

ZHOU Huaji (Frank)

Congratulations on your achievement so far.

Ross Barker

Engineering education scheme


We have now reached the deadline for all prospective medic and dentistry students to submit

their applications to UCAS. Our A2 this year includes eight medic applicants and one for

dentistry. They applied to Universities spanning the length of the UK from Aberdeen in the

North of Scotland to Exeter in the south of England. The extent and variety of work experience

and voluntary work discussed in their personal statements was impressive; from maternity

wards in Malaysia to orthopaedic units in Zambia; from orphanages in Kenya to hospices in

Myanmar and wards in our own Addenbrookes’ Hospital. The passion shown by our students

for their vocation was evident. Next step – interviews!

Alex Whalley

Maths News Sim Liggitt and Ross Barker took six very impressive A2 students to a Mathematics lecture at the

Royal Society in London on 21 September 2015. A superb lecture was delivered by Professor

Adam McBride of Strathclyde University. His presentation was found to be interesting and

stimulating by our students, who are all intending to read mathematical subjects at university.

They were also impressed by the displayed

paintings of distinguished scientists and

mathematicians from the past several centuries.

YU Zhaoyuan (Michael)

SHI Zimu (Joe)

LIU Yingshan (Phillis)

LIU Yifan (Euphie)

Mingiyan USHANOV

Wun Dan NAW LAT

Ross Barker

Abbey College Cambridge Autumn 2016 Newsletter

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