The News 28 February 2025
School News
Update from the Headmaster
Dear Parents, We have returned from our long half-term break with a busy period ahead. We look forward to welcoming Y11 parents tomorrow to hear further feedback from teachers on the trial examination results as we start the run-in to the GCSE examinations. Y11 pupils will meet their future classmates planning to join the school next year on Saturday 15th March when they have an opportunity to try Sixth Form taster lessons and see what life in the Sixth Form at Ampleforth is all about. Y13 students have started their second set of trial examinations and both Y11 and Y13 students are in the midst of finishing courses and starting their revision programmes. There is still time for them to have a positive impact on their final results by following the good advice of their teachers and engaging with revision actively. Next week, we also welcome our Y12 parents to the valley for the Higher Education Conference and their parent weekend. This is a big event in our school calendar where we welcome delegates from a wide variety of universities, gap year organisations and apprenticeships. We wish our 1st XV rugby players the best of luck for their National Schools Vase semi-final fixture tomorrow lunchtime against King Edward's, Birmingham. For any parents intending to watch the fixture kicks off at 12.15 pm at Aylesbury Rugby Club and it is being livestreamed too.
Update from the Headmaster
Also this weekend we have an U15 Rugby VIIs tournament away at Barnard Castle, along with our Squash team and 1st and 2nd XI Football teams. In boys Hockey, our 2nd XI play at home against Barnard Castle with our junior sides playing away and in Netball we have 10 fixtures against St Peter's York, with our senior sides playing at home. During half-term, it was lovely to reconnect with many OAs who came to support us in three prospective parent events in Paris, Versailles and Brussels. This followed a similar event in London just the week before. It was clear from the packed rooms that the power of an Ampleforth education resonates widely. The interactions of our OAs with prospective families, and their testimony about their time in the valley, highlighted how compelling our offer of a Compass for Life is in a world which is overly focused on the transactional. I will head to Scotland in the middle of Saturday afternoon to speak about this at Belhaven Hill prep school. It was lovely to support the Schola Cantorum on their tour of Paris during half-term. Their performances were joyful and it was wonderful to see our pupils learning so much and thoroughly enjoying themselves too. I have heard the same from both pupils and staff from our Classics trip to Greece; including the joyful anecdote of our students taking part in a sprint at Olympia on the site of the Ancient Olympic Game - with Ampleforth pleasingly coming out on top! Best wishes, Jon
Congratulations to Tom, who received a Silver Award (top 15% nationally) in this year's Linguistics Olympiad. This year the participants had to solve linguistic data problems in Proto-Basque, Cherokee, Egyptian hieroglyphs, SENĆOŦEN, Abidji, Lele, Yucuma and Zapotec among other languages. He should be very proud of this great achievement and so are we!
Classics - Greece Trip
Click here to watch The Schola's trip on Instagram
Schola Paris Trip
Sleepout for the Homeless
To raise awareness and funds for homeless people, 20 Year 12 students and 3 teachers slept outside at the end of last half-term, enduring sleep deprivation and cold, and learning first-hand the harsh realities faced by people without homes.
CCF Dinner
The News 28 Feb
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The News 28 February 2025
School News
Update from the Headmaster
Dear Parents, We have returned from our long half-term break with a busy period ahead. We look forward to welcoming Y11 parents tomorrow to hear further feedback from teachers on the trial examination results as we start the run-in to the GCSE examinations. Y11 pupils will meet their future classmates planning to join the school next year on Saturday 15th March when they have an opportunity to try Sixth Form taster lessons and see what life in the Sixth Form at Ampleforth is all about. Y13 students have started their second set of trial examinations and both Y11 and Y13 students are in the midst of finishing courses and starting their revision programmes. There is still time for them to have a positive impact on their final results by following the good advice of their teachers and engaging with revision actively. Next week, we also welcome our Y12 parents to the valley for the Higher Education Conference and their parent weekend. This is a big event in our school calendar where we welcome delegates from a wide variety of universities, gap year organisations and apprenticeships. We wish our 1st XV rugby players the best of luck for their National Schools Vase semi-final fixture tomorrow lunchtime against King Edward's, Birmingham. For any parents intending to watch the fixture kicks off at 12.15 pm at Aylesbury Rugby Club and it is being livestreamed too.
Update from the Headmaster
Also this weekend we have an U15 Rugby VIIs tournament away at Barnard Castle, along with our Squash team and 1st and 2nd XI Football teams. In boys Hockey, our 2nd XI play at home against Barnard Castle with our junior sides playing away and in Netball we have 10 fixtures against St Peter's York, with our senior sides playing at home. During half-term, it was lovely to reconnect with many OAs who came to support us in three prospective parent events in Paris, Versailles and Brussels. This followed a similar event in London just the week before. It was clear from the packed rooms that the power of an Ampleforth education resonates widely. The interactions of our OAs with prospective families, and their testimony about their time in the valley, highlighted how compelling our offer of a Compass for Life is in a world which is overly focused on the transactional. I will head to Scotland in the middle of Saturday afternoon to speak about this at Belhaven Hill prep school. It was lovely to support the Schola Cantorum on their tour of Paris during half-term. Their performances were joyful and it was wonderful to see our pupils learning so much and thoroughly enjoying themselves too. I have heard the same from both pupils and staff from our Classics trip to Greece; including the joyful anecdote of our students taking part in a sprint at Olympia on the site of the Ancient Olympic Game - with Ampleforth pleasingly coming out on top! Best wishes, Jon
Congratulations to Tom, who received a Silver Award (top 15% nationally) in this year's Linguistics Olympiad. This year the participants had to solve linguistic data problems in Proto-Basque, Cherokee, Egyptian hieroglyphs, SENĆOŦEN, Abidji, Lele, Yucuma and Zapotec among other languages. He should be very proud of this great achievement and so are we!
Classics - Greece Trip
Click here to watch The Schola's trip on Instagram
Schola Paris Trip
Sleepout for the Homeless
To raise awareness and funds for homeless people, 20 Year 12 students and 3 teachers slept outside at the end of last half-term, enduring sleep deprivation and cold, and learning first-hand the harsh realities faced by people without homes.
CCF Dinner