When Dame Frances Dove founded Wycombe Abbey she established a charity link with the Melanesian Mission in the South Pacific. The Mission was founded to spread the Christian message to this remote corner of the world, and very gradually the Pacific Islands of Melanesia became Christian with their own, indigenous style of life and worship.
It was decided this year to reinvigorate Wycombe's links with Melanesia to explore whether we could develop two way involvement with the work in the region.
An exhibition of new work by Wycombe Abbey's Artist in Residence, Beth Nicholas.
Included in the exhibition will be pieces by Wycombe Abbey girls who have worked with Beth during the year.
Wycombe Abbey's very own Artist in Residence, Beth Nicholas, will be exhibiting her latest collection of works entitled ‘Weathered by Time' at a private exhibition at the Lancaster Arts Centre , here at Wycombe Abbey, from 18 – 27 June 2010.
What is the link between Nobody Owens, a boy growing up in a graveyard; Rowan, a disturbed young boy; Fever Crumb, who is being raised by engineers; and Sal, a slave in revolutionary America? They are all book characters who have taken temporary residence in Junior House this term.
These characters have come from the shortlist of books nominated for the Carnegie Medal this year – an annual prize awarded by children's librarians to an outstanding fiction book for children and young people. The medal has been running for over 70 years and the shadowing programme has been established recently to engage readers across the country in new fiction.
For the first time this year, 20 Junior House girls have formed a reading group called ‘Books and Biscuits' to shadow the judging panel. Taking a well-deserved break from their prep or revision, the boarders have been enjoying this diverse range of fiction and submitting online reviews.
The damp weather could not dampen the spirits of the 150 attendees of Wycombe Abbey's Seniors' Day in May. Seniors, husbands, partners, children and former staff all helped to make the day an incredible success.
Everyone was invited to attend morning Chapel, followed by coffee in Fisher Library which gave guests the chance to catch up with old friends, some of whom hadn't seen one another for years. Visits to Houses and drinks in Fisher Library gave everyone even more time to reminisce before a buffet lunch which was somewhat different to those enjoyed by Seniors from the earlier years!
Congratulations to all our UVI students who have been offered places at US Universities this year. The careful thought and hard work that was put into the application process by all girls has been rewarded with some exciting offers of scholarships and places being gained at the most prestigious colleges in America.
Wycombe Abbey's awarding winning Young Enterprise team, Enigma, were thrilled to present a cheque of £2365.00 to local Buckinghamshire charity, Horizons.
The money donated to the charity was raised from a variety of ventures by the company, including the design, production and sales of pewter pendent necklaces and the staging of a very successful fashion show earlier in the year.
Congratulations to Isabel, LVI, who has won first prize in the Tenth International Overseas Chinese Students Writing Competition for her excellent article entitled 'My student life abroad'.
This competition was organised by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the People's Republic of China, Chinese Central TV, People's Daily Newspaper and Cambridge University. There were about 100,000 participants from 32 countries, Hong Kong and Macau. Only 600 participants won first prize around the world.
The Easter Holidays: A time to relax, catch up with old friends and maybe get around to starting some revision. Not for 23 girls in UV to UVI, who instead decided to spend a week of the holidays completing the expedition section of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Three practice groups and two assessed groups along with nine staff, headed for Ullswater in the Lake District and embarked upon four days of challenging hiking and three nights of camping, including one wild camp, with no tap water or facilities.
The expedition started on Saturday 1 May with fine weather and the sun shining. Eighty seven LV girls in groups were in fine spirits as they set off from Hambledon photographing wild flowers and making notes about the landscape for their various projects...then it started...a light drizzle at first and then a steady unrelenting downpour of rain that continued through the late afternoon, all through the evening and pretty much all night. It stopped at about 4 am for the dawn chorus and continued through most of the morning.
If you attended the School on or after 15 September 2001 you may be eligible to receive a bursary or project award through the Schools Competition Act Settlement Trust. Details of the various awards offered by The Trust, the application criteria and how to apply, are on the Trust's website at www.scast.org.uk.