WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015 What a wonderful term at Abbey Cambridge, and I am delighted to share with you some fantastic updates on how our community is developing. We held an incredible Christmas Ball at Jesus College complete with a dinner and disco in one of the oldest buildings in the prestigious Cambridge University. Our Winter Assembly featured student from our talented bands, choir, speakers and actors. We were even visited by Father Christmas and his reindeer, and with our special brand of Abbey magic we even had some snow! Awards were presented in the assembly and our students once again inspired and teaches hard work and commitment to learn. In the Physics Olympiad we are proud to have three of our students who made the top fifty! What an incredible achievement and we are very proud of you all. I look forward to sharing with you more outstanding achievements as the year progresses. OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS Karen Lonsdale—Vice Principal Pastoral
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WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
What a wonderful term at Abbey Cambridge, and I am delighted to
share with you some fantastic updates on how our community is
developing.
We held an incredible Christmas Ball at Jesus College complete with
a dinner and disco in one of the oldest buildings in the prestigious
Cambridge University.
Our Winter Assembly featured student from our talented bands,
choir, speakers and actors. We were even visited by Father
Christmas and his reindeer, and with our special brand of Abbey
magic we even had some snow!
Awards were presented in the assembly and our students once again
inspired and teaches hard work and commitment to learn. In the
Physics Olympiad we are proud to have three of our students who
made the top fifty! What an incredible achievement and we are very
proud of you all.
I look forward to sharing with you more outstanding achievements
as the year progresses.
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS
Karen Lonsdale—Vice Principal Pastoral
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
On Saturday 6 December Abbey Cambridge hosted a spectacular Christmas Ball at Jesus
College, Cambridge University. It was a fantastic evening! The students had a formal
three course dinner followed by a disco and fuseball. Thank you to all the students and
staff who came to this amazing event. All the tickets sold raised an incredible £5000 for
our chosen children's charity EACH.
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
CHRISTMAS ASSEMBLY On Wednesday 10 December Abbey Cambridge hosted our final assembly of the term. There were lots of
special surprises and guests during the morning. The Trombone Quartet, the staff and students choirs and
the Student bands played everyone some beautiful music. We were then shown a fantastic Twelve Days of
Christmas dance by our staff! We were visited by Father Christmas and his special real life reindeer too.
Thank you to all the student and staff contributions. It was a great end to a fantastic term at Abbey
Cambridge.
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
“All of the members of the
Abbey Rock Band were shining
with confidence during their
performance of the song ‘Don’t
Stop Believing’. I feel so very
proud of my year group”
Andrea Joyce
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
CHRISTMAS ASSEMBLY
Our students had a fun, loud and
enjoyable evening at the Christmas
Karaoke Party. Students from host families
as well as all accommodations joined in,
and in all we had more than forty students
over the evening. We discovered some
hidden karaoke talents, Iriah OKAISABOR
and Hilkiah ADEBANJO (Hilky) showing
off some impressive moves to accompany
their singing. Purbeck now has its very own
pair of rock stars in Anzhelika SHEBAROVA
and Kapampa MWAPE! We ended the
evening with a fantastic version of “We Wish
You A Merry Christmas”.
Dawn Kent
CHRISTMAS KARAOKE PARTY
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
REINDEER AND SHOPPING TRIP
On a wintery December morning students and staff visited Great
Shelford on the outskirts of Cambridge to experience the largest
Garden Centre in the area, Scotsdales.
The students went shopping for gifts to take home for their families,
had a warming drink – warm spiced apple juice -and saw two
amazing reindeer!
A successful trip with lots of Christmas
lights and a brass band playing a variety of
songs and carols.
Dawn Kent
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
One of our host families took the students on an
fascinating trip to the Victoria and Albert
Museum to see the history of wedding dresses.
WEI Xiaohan (Ester), AUNG Moe Thidar (Erica),
WANG Ruying, LI Yuxun (Wendy), LI Quiya
(Maura) had a fantastic day and experienced the
history and design of clothing through the ages.
ACCOMMODATION NEWS
Edward KWONG, one of our host families
invited our students; Charmaine NG, Zhi-Mei,
LIU Mengyao (Kay) and
FENG Qiongyi (Iris) to a
traditional Korean lunch.
Students enjoyed fantastic
food and entertainment and was proven to be a
fantastic day for everyone.
CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Ji Chel LEE and Yun, Maureen Saward, Judith
Belshaw who won 1st place for our Host of the Year award and to
Mukesh Pankhania, Louise Gillibrand and David and Arlene
Johnson who won 2nd place.
Stephanie Stafford
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
REMEMBRANCE ASSEMBLY Abbey Cambridge held its
annual Remembrance
Assembly. This was a
service dedicated to the
memory of all who have
fallen in battle, in all
countries, those who they
left behind and those harmed in
the line of fire are helped to manage life outside the
armed forces. We welcomed John Holloway from the
Royal British Legion who explained to students and staff
how supporting the poppy appeal is such a vital part of
this ongoing effort. Karen Lonsdale (Vice Principal
Pastoral) told a story of this historic event by sharing
with the Abbey Cambridge community tales of her own
grandparents who met whilst serving on the Western
Front in the First World War. This connection was made
ever more memorable when some of the students were
able to see the actual uniform worn by her grandmother
which she wore whilst serving as a nurse during the
period 1914-1918. Members of staff and the Student
Council lit candles to honour the fallen to the
accompaniment of a musical tribute performed by the
Abbey Voices.
Nigel Tattersfield
ZHOU Qiaohui (Chloe), QI Zhisheng (Scott), LIN
Xuan (Miranda), CHANG Qing (Cherries) and
Arthur DIJOUX represented, for the first time,
Abbey College Cambridge in the Bank of England
Target 2.0 competition. They had to undertake
analysis of the economy and then make a
presentation to the Bank. The students worked
well and the judges congratulated them on their
excellent knowledge of the topic.
David Farrell
ECONOMICS COMPETITION
BOOK REVIEW I have read Robin Hood during the last two weeks. It’s quite an
amazing adventure story and made me want to carry on reading
it. Robin Hood is a brave man; he robbed
the rich to help the poor. The greedy
Sheriff of Nottingham hated Robin and
wants Lady Marian to marry him. But
Lady Marian loves Robin, so Marian and
Robin marry and live together in the
forest.
SHEN Leyang (Ben)
PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB Since starting in September the Photography Club has been a
great success.
With students attending who have different abilities, ranging
from first time photographers to the more advanced. We
have been learning many different functions on the camera.
The students have developed their techniques and are now
taking greatly improved photographs.
Earlier this month
we had the honour
of a professional photographer coming to visit the club,
Jamie Tilly a master photographer. He taught us all some
new and different techniques. He also talked about
working in a professional environment. The session was
very successful and greatly enjoyed by everyone.
In November the club visited The Barbican Centre in
London. The students saw a photographic exhibition on
‘Constructing Worlds’. During lunch, we even had the pleasure of hearing a London Orchestra
playing. After looking at the exhibitions the students finished the day with a photo-shoot in the
Barbican grounds, using the Constructing World as their theme and using the techniques they had
learned.
The club is always open to new Photographers - so whatever level you are, please come along to the
G5 Study on Fridays at 4:30pm and we can learn new tricks together.
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
Daria Grigoryeva
SPORTS NEWS
Students have been continuing to be greatly involved with
sports. They have been developing not only their own
skills, but their understanding of tactics.
This term, we have played basketball and volleyball
fixtures against Hills Road Sixth Form College and The
Leys School. Everyone performed well and we had great
support from many Abbey Cambridge
students, that really helped motivate
and inspire our teams.
On 23 November 2014, Abbey Cambridge held a doubles
badminton tournament. Twelve teams entered and after
many close matches and great excitement, Phomsavanh
BOUNVILAY (Sam) and Triz KITILIMTRAKUL emerged
victorious.
Congratulations to Sam and Triz, and well done everyone
for producing some great badminton!
Pete Manners
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
If you need any advice on your UCAS
application or personal statement
please talk to me or your UCAS
advisor. We are here to help with any
questions you may have.
Lisa Dhesi
UCAS ADVICE
ABBEY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE WINTER NEWSLETTER 2015
“We have learnt German numbers, how to greet each other and how to
introduce yourself.”
“A lot of English words seem to have found their way into German! I
didn’t know that!”
“We love the short little films about Germany and the
Germans!”
“We have learnt a lot about former East and West Germany and the Berlin
Wall.”
“German sounds strong and the pronunciation is often very
different from English.”
“We are learning useful, daily expressions.”
“We particularly enjoyed the traditional German Christmas
biscuits and sweets Tanja brought along. The Spekulatius were the best!”
GERMAN CLUB What have students learnt and enjoyed most in German Club?
Froehliche Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr wuenscht die Deutsch-AG
(Merry Chrismas and a Happy New Year from the German Club)
ABBEY MUSIC CLUB It has been a fantastic term for the Abbey Music Club.
We now have nearly thirty students playing in four
different bands – that’s nearly 10% of the school! The
Upper Sixth Band have developed really well and gave
us a great performance of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is
You’ at the Christmas assembly. Abbey Rock Band
entertained the assembly with a highly professional
‘Don’t Stop Believing’. The Ukelele Band have had
great fun learning to play, and the Abbey Pop Band
have done some great rehearsing ready to perform next
term. A Classical Band will be starting soon so contact
me or Tanja Brown if you are interested!
John Morgan
GCSE Focus
What an amazing term! During
the GCSE trip to St Albans I
reflect on the day with an
immense sense of pride in our
amazing students, who always
show impeccable manners and
responsibility, whatever
environment they find themselves in.
I have been so proud at how much the GCSE and
Full Time English students have grown in
confidence in such a short amount of time. It has
been such a pleasure to see so many students
achieving such promising results in Stage Tests
and sharing their talents with our community.
Whether it has been reading, singing or playing
music in an Assembly or
regularly attending Chess or
German Club, or taking part in
the college Badminton
Tournament, you have all
worked hard to develop your
talents. It’s only through push-
ing yourself just a little bit out-
side your comfort zone that you will develop and
it’s been fantastic to see so many of our GCSE and
FTE students really appreciating this fact.
Well done, keep trying new things in life and
remember the words of Robin Sharma; “As you
move outside of your comfort zone, what was once
the unknown and frightening becomes your new
normal.” I’m already looking forward to seeing the
