During the 2016/17 academic school year, Abingdon Preparatory School very kindly chose Thinking of Oscar as one of their charities of the year. Each year at Abingdon Preparatory School a charity is chosen to support and a number of fundraising events are held every term. Over the past few years, the school has raised in excess of £50,000 for a selection of worthwhile causes including Helen and Douglas House, Guide Dogs, The Footsteps Foundation and Riding for the Disabled. Everybody in the school community can be involved in the fundraising and the collective efforts over the past few years have been extremely impressive.
Throughout the year they hold many fund raising events, including the obligatory charity-themed home clothes day and silver coin trail. Some of the teaching staff even took part in the Oxford Half Marathon. However, the most popular event was The Great APS Bake Off. Over half the school entered cakes and after the official judging the boys were allowed to purchase and eat the entries! Some of the cakes were inspired by the Thinking of Oscar Cook Book.
Throughout the year the boys, staff and parents of Abingdon Preparatory School have raised in excess of £10,000. This has enabled us to purchase an interactive floor projector which will be installed in Oxford’s John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital.
An interactive floor projector has the ability to project any number of images onto a floor (or table top, if required) surface. Children are able to ‘swoosh’ through piles of Autumn leaves, play football, ‘dip’ their toe in the water or play educational games, all in a virtual capacity. When they make the appropriate movement on the floor the image that is being projected responds accordingly. Having seen it demonstrated ourselves it’s a very engaging experience for all age groups, and valuable as a distraction aid in the hospital environment. We intend to deliver it, together with some of the boys, into the hospital prior to Christmas.
Thank you so much to the boys and staff and we look forward to working together throughout the school year.