Thank you to all the pupils and staff for making our Open Morning on Saturday, 2 March so successful. Once again, many of the visitors commented on our pupils’ courteous and friendly behaviour and on the happy atmosphere of the school. I felt very proud to be able to show off our school and I am grateful to the pupils for giving up their Saturday morning. Thank you to all the parents who came and supported us at this event and I do hope you enjoyed seeing the pupils in their school environment.

Well done to everyone for the fantastic support of our Mufti Day charity LEPRA Health in Action and for wearing as much green clothing as possible on the day. We managed to raise £354.68 to help, which is a wonderful achievement.

I would also like to say thank you to the children who organized and ran a cake stall on a separate occasion to raise money for the Whizz-kidz charity. This particular event raised £55.92 and I am very grateful to the parents and pupils who provided such delicious cakes to sell.

Thank you to all the pupils who performed in the lunchtime recital just before half term and to Mr Liepa for organizing the event. Apart from providing the audience with delightful music, it is a valuable opportunity for pupils to practise performing in public in informal surroundings.

It is no mean feat to organize an entire school trip to the theatre and we are all very grateful to Mrs Woolstencroft for arranging another great visit to see the Shakespeare4Kidz company in action. Making such an important part of English literature heritage accessible to our pupils is key to our children’s all round education and I hope that the pupils enjoyed the experience as well as learning about one of literature’s famous stories.

Congratulations to our Year 5 pupils for their tremendous efforts in preparing for their ESB examinations just before half term. I was very impressed by the standard of the boards that had been devised by the pupils to enhance their talks and by the superb way the pupils conducted themselves in their own exam as well as in the class participation element. Well done to all for another year of fantastic results and thank you to all the parents and siblings who spent valuable time listening to candidates as they practised their reading and honed their public speaking skills. As I have mentioned before, these exams are of great importance in the building of the children’s confidence, and the skills that they learn and develop for the exam will be carried through to their senior school education, university and beyond.

Our girls and boys have been working very hard at their sport and as a result are experiencing some great successes. Our boys did well to get so far in the IAPS regional hockey finals despite having very little competitive practice owing to many matches being cancelled as a result of the poor weather. Mr Earl and Mr Graham worked exceptionally hard to give the boys as much extra coaching as possible in preparation. The Year 4 girls have also been playing really well in their teams and have made a great start to their season. Well done and keep up the great work.

Congratulations to all our Abbey dancers who put on a superb show that was filmed to be included in the school’s 350th Anniversary Dance Show. We certainly have many talented pupils at The Abbey and I am extremely grateful to Mrs Woolstencroft and her team for all the energy they put into helping our pupils get the best out of their dancing skills.

I do encourage all our parents and pupils to attend our Senior School performances and events where possible as they do illustrate what a hugely varied and exciting curriculum the school offers. There are some wonderful concerts listed in the Senior School calendar at various venues and you would be very welcome to go along and listen.

Thank you to the pupils that gave up their lunch break to be part of the School Council and to represent their classmates. This was a very interesting meeting with mature and informative discussion. The pupils had obviously thought a great deal about the points they wanted to raise and we will act on their requests where possible.

Thank you to all the pupils who entered this year’s Young Art East Anglia competition and I hope you enjoyed creating your artwork. There is a full report below.

Good luck to our Chess players this weekend who will be competing in the EPSCA National Primary Schools’ Chess Qualifier in Colchester on Saturday. Good luck also to our U11A Football team who will be playing in the IAPS Football Regional Tournament at King’s Ely and to all the pupils who have entered various LAMDA classes in the Sudbury Festival. I am looking forward to hearing all about these events. We also wish all our music exam candidates the best of luck for next week.

Our Instrumental Concert takes place on Tuesday, 12 March at 6.45 pm in The Abbey Hall. Everyone is welcome to come along and listen even if your children are not playing. The performers have been rehearsing together all term to produce a varied and exciting programme for their audience as well as purely enjoying playing music together.

The office is looking after a red plastic sledge (unnamed) that was left here after the snow. Please contact the Abbey office if this belongs to your child.

Congratulations to the following pupils who received Commendations: James Laxton, Beth Turner (2), Olivia Buchanan (2), Catherine Blackmore, Ben Oates, Charlotte Gibbon, Joshua Wiggins, Esther Wiggins and Eden Preston.

NJG

U9 A Girls’ Hockey v Ipswich Prep

The Abbey won 6 – 2

U9 B Girls’ Hockey v Ipswich Prep

The Abbey won 8 - 2

U9 A Girls’ Hockey v Orwell Park

The Abbey drew 0 - 0

U9 B Girls’ Hockey v Orwell Park

The Abbey drew 1 – 1

U9 C Girls’ Hockey v Orwell Park

The Abbey won 4 - 2

U11 A Netball v Littlegarth

We knew this was going to be a tough match as two of our team players were off sick. We were disappointed as we had been working well together as a team. The first quarter was close with Littlegarth just getting ahead by two goals. The second quarter was our best as we only let one in. At half time the score was even. Then for some reason we lost our drive and energy as we let rather a lot of goals in! Our concentration just went. The freezing cold didn’t help matters either – frozen fingers are no good for catching balls. We all have one of those days, but we are determined not to let it happen again. The final result was a win to Littlegarth.

S Barker

U11 B Netball v Littlegarth

The Abbey lost 2 – 8

U11 C Netball v Littlegarth

The Abbey drew 7 – 7

U11 D Netball v Littlegarth

The Abbey won 16 - 8

U11 E Netball v Littlegarth

The Abbey won 7 - 2

U11 A Netball v Ipswich High School

The Abbey won 15 - 2

U11 B Netball v Ipswich High School

The Abbey won 5 - 2

U11 C Netball v Ipswich High School

The Abbey won 17 - 0

U11 D Netball v Ipswich High School

The Abbey won 13 - 9

U10 A Netball v OBH

The Abbey won 21 - 5

U11 B Boys’ Hockey v Felsted

The Abbey lost 0 - 3

U11 C Boys’ Hockey v Felsted

The Abbey lost 0 - 10

U11 D Boys’ Hockey v Felsted

The Abbey drew 0 - 0

U11 E Boys’ Hockey v Felsted

The Abbey lost 0 - 10

U11 F Boys’ Hockey v Felsted

The Abbey lost 0 - 9

U11 A Boys’ IAPS Hockey Regional Finals

The Abbey reached the quarter finals

U8 A Rugby v Orwell Park

The Abbey lost 8 – 12

U9 A Rugby v Orwell Park

The Abbey lost 15 – 35

U9 A Rugby v Ipswich School

The Abbey won 20 – 15

Congratulations to Ella Reynard, Ruby Cole, Laura Golding, Cameron Hood, Emily Weston, Bea Thomas, Julia Long and Sophie Graham who are this year's winners in the Young Art East Anglia Competition. They will have their pictures displayed at the Peter Pears Gallery in Aldeburgh. You will be able to go and see the exhibition on Friday 9 March from 1pm to 5pm, Saturday 10 March from noon to 5pm or Sunday 11 March from 10am to 4pm. Entrance to the gallery is £2 and this, along with proceeds from the sale of the art and postcards of the designs, will go to Cancer Research UK.

We had some fantastic entries this year, on the theme of 'Magical Moments'. All art will be returned to the artist, unless it is sold in the exhibition.

Very well done to all who took part and helped support a very worthwhile charity!

JL

The following pupils were awarded cups on Friday, 15 February:

Achievement: Isaac Searle

Progress: Evelyn Saunders

Endeavour: Faith Harrold

Determination: Isabelle Jervis

Music: Imogen Melrose

Year 1F: Charlie Shurety

Year 1D: Aidan Holliday

Reception S: Jasmine Deacon

Reception K: Boo Liddy

Congratulations to all of you!

JK

Congratulations to the following Queen’s House pupils whose pictures have been selected for the ‘Magical Moments’ Exhibition in Aldeburgh.

Eriko Brown Reception

Nina Chapman Reception

Barnaby Keen Reception

Juno Richardson Reception

Edward Carter Year 1

Isabel Deacon Year 1 Highly Commended

Melanie Edwards Year 1

Mihi Forbes Ballard Year 1

Tilly Wayman Year 1 Highly Commended

Sophie Fry Year 2

Isla Richardson Year 2

Erica Walkling Year 2

Out of the whole of East Anglia, only 333 exhibitors were chosen and, of those, only 30 were Highly Commended - Queen’s House has two of them: Isabel Deacon and Tilly Wayman.

VERY WELL DONE !!