Notice for students unable to travel due to the volcanic ash

For those students whose travel has been affected by the volcanic ash we are loading work onto our intranet; please access this via the pupil portal. Practice papers will be uploaded once the main sitting of each paper has started. If you are experiencing any difficulty accessing the portal, or the work, then please let us know via email schoolsecretary@wycombeabbey.com and we will find a way to help you.

We very much want to stay in touch and enable you to keep up to date with work and what's going on here at School. We will welcome work returned by email to your teacher or by fax to the School Office who will pass it to your teacher (01494 473836). Please check your emails for any messages sent direct to individuals.

We hope that you will be successful in making alternative arrangements to get back to School soon and we look forward to seeing you then.

Mrs Tear

London mathematics lectures

At the end of the Spring term, several LVI mathematics students, accompanied by Dr Wallwork, attended a series of lectures in London where we were introduced to the topic of infinity by Professor Timothy Gowers from Cambridge, one of the world's most renowned Pure Mathematicians and holder of a Fields Medal. We were asked to ponder intriguing questions such as is it ever possible to add a book to a library already with an infinite number of books...

Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII

A talk by Professor Matthew Leigh

This term, the Wycombe Abbey Classics Society and Classics students from RGS and Wycombe High were fortunate enough to hear Professor Matthew Leigh from Oxford University speak about the current AS set text, Ovid's Metamorphoses VIII.

The evening proved to be both stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable. Professor Leigh introduced us to the problem of defining the genre of the Metamorphoses. He explained that it contains elements of epic, tragedy and love poetry, amongst other genres. We looked particularly at the story of Scylla, who fell in love with the enemy king and was driven by her infatuation to betraying her father and country.

Tales from the French trip to Montpellier

Monday 29 March

Bonjour!

The past two days have been a whirlwind of incredible experiences. We all learnt so much about the history and culture of Avignon,which we visited on Saturday, to see the historic 'pont D'avignon.' We sang and even choreographed a dance and performed it on the bridge. In Nimes, on Sunday, we walked around various Roman ruins, and even saw un film en 3D de les heros de Nimes!

C'etait magnifique! The teachers have been incredibly helpful, constantly volunteering their valuable knowledge. Aujourd'hui, nous allons faire la cuisine Francais. J'espere que sera tres bon!

Au revoir, Lisa

Friday 26 March

Bonjour!
Our second day was very busy, but tres interessant! The highlight was the wine tasting, which was both fascinating and left us all in excellent spirits! Our first experience on French public trasport was successful and we ended the day with a guided tour of Montpellier with a most enthusiatic guide who entertained on his wooden flute.

Nous attendons demain avec impatiennce! Au revoir! A demain!

Lisa

Mongolia expedition practice weekend

The cold and wet weather could not dampen our spirits although it did make an excellent attempt as we trekked 10 kilometres across a windswept Surrey. Having done that, we pitched our tents and embarked on the cooking of an enormous meal because we were all very hungry. Although it was a tough weekend, it was a really good opportunity to bond as a team and to enhance our survival skills. We are all very excited about our impending expedition to Mongolia.

Going Global

Can you identify the difference between the Irish flag and the Hungarian one? Could you piece together an unlabelled map of Europe? Which country is represented by the All Blacks team? Do you know from which language the word ‘verandah' originated, before it was borrowed into English? These were just some of the many challenges that were presented to our Junior House girls at the inaugural ‘Going Global' event.

The girls came in a kaleidoscope of national costumes: ranging from a Moroccan belly-dancer, Nigerian national dress, American cowgirl, Swedish national dress, to a smattering of Australian Akubra hats and some Union Jacks too. Working in teams, the girls answered questions about national flags, famous people, international sporting events, and words borrowed into the English language.

Cambridge Law Conference

Five members of the LVI attended the Sixth Form Law Conference held at the University of Cambridge, from 15 -18 March 2010.  The Conference was hinged on the question ‘What about Law at Cambridge?', and at the same time, provided many thought-provoking questions on the broad and open-ended subject that is the Law.

It gave us a unique insight as to what studying law at Cambridge entails -taking part in lectures given by some of the finest legal professors in the country gave us an incredible opportunity to practise our lateral thinking; experiencing the excitement of mock trials and debates offered us the chance to observe critical legal procedures and legal problem solving; and attending workshops held by city law firms provided us with eye-opening experiences into the different facets of the legal profession out in the real world.

Carita House National Schools Gymnastics

Last Saturday, following their success at the GISGA Championships held at Wycombe Abbey, our U16 team represented the South of England at the Carita House National Schools Gymnastics Championships at Stoke on Trent. The team started on the vault where all of our gymnasts performed really well and finished in second place. After the floor they were lying in fifth place, only half a point behind the bronze medal position. In the group sequence all six girls were determined to improve their standing and they performed a wonderfully synchronised sequence which earned them silver medals. This was enough for the team to finish in third place overall.

Trampolining team bouncing high

It wasn't just our Lacrosse players who tasted success over the past week! On Monday, Wycombe entered three teams into the South Bucks Trampolining competition held at Chesham High School. The standard of trampolining at Wycombe continues to improve with the excellent coaching of Mrs Mainwaring and this year we welcomed our new LVI trampolininst, Steph.

Although the final placings for our second and third teams have not yet been confirmed, our first team of Harriet, Steph, Olivia and Misty  performed their routines with technical precision and excellent control to steal the trophy from Sir William Borlase and we are very proud to be able to call them 'South Bucks Schools Trampolining Champions!

Spanish Debating Competition

On Wednesday 10 March, four A2 Spanish students participated in a Spanish debating competition hosted by King Alfred School in London. The controversial topics of discussion included renewable energy, the EU and the funding of third world countries.

Olivia and Laura debated strongly in the quarter finals whilst Charlie and Salome reached the semi finals, where they were narrowly defeated by one mark. It was an extremely successful evening in Spanish style in which Wycombe girls will hopefully continue to participate and enjoy in the future.