The Abbey School
The Abbey School is an
independent selective
school for girls, located in
Reading,
Berkshire,
England.
Founded in
1887, the school moved to its present site in
1905 under the leadership of
headmistress Miss Helen Musson. Substantial extensions have taken place over the years; however, the character of the traditional buildings has been retained. The Abbey School offers
education for academically able girls from ages 3 to 18.
Notable alumni include the novelist
Elizabeth Taylor and the headmistress
Baroness Brigstocke. Before the school was founded, the novelist
Jane Austen attended Reading Ladies boarding school within the
Abbey gatehouse, which is incorporated into the Abbey School's crest.
The school is featured in the
Abbey Girls series of novels.
The Abbey ceased from being a girl's
boarding school many decades ago. Nevertheless, there are many clubs and societies to keep the girls entertained during lunch-time and after school. The houses are Ducat, Carrington, Kensington and Paget.
Inter-house rivalry remains a part of life at The Abbey, with many sporting, theatrical and musical competitions. Recently, the
Baroness Brigstocke Public Speaking competition was established in memory of the former Abbey pupil.
The Abbey School is a notoriously academic establishment, with several pupils gaining
Oxbridge offers each year; in the academic year 2005/6, thirteen offers were recieved.
National rankings are generally high at both
GCSE and
A Level. However, in recent years The Abbey has been less highly placed due to girls generally choosing to take 3, as opposed to 4, A Levels.
Students of the school from 2004 onwards are familiar with being '
Jammie Dodgers'. Barbara Stanley, the current headmistress used Abbey Girls metaphorically against Jammie Dodgers. Contrasting a plain
digestive against the Jammie Dodger, Jammie Dodgers have Jam in the middle which sticks them together in a heart shape whereas a digestive has nothing but itself. Barbara Stanley continued to explain how the girls of the Abbey where the like jam which stuck the two halves together. Talent, courtesy and hard work which make up the girls form the jam which keeps the school together as a community. The Abbey school girls have hearts, like that of a Jammie Dodger.
This has become a joke among most of the students and many teachers. People would refer to themselves as
Jammie Dodgers and some people even did their own impressions, comparing the school to inanimate objects, e.g mineral water. The first issue of The Abbey 'Green Scene' magazine featured a Jammie Dodger on the back cover. In the
2004 school production of
My Fair Lady, the pub from which Alfred Doolittle is kicked out of was signposted as 'The Jammie Dodger'. In the
2005 House Music and Drama competition, Carrington house set their theme in a Jammie Dodger factory where 'Wolly Winka' showed guests around. However Carrington did not win that year. The 2006 leaver's concert sported a programme covered in Jammie dodgers too.
Many new girls don't understand the Jammie Dodger joke, it is hard to explain how people felt during the assembly in which Barbara Stanley first explained the concept. It has become quite an old joke now and people are not swayed into buying things because of the Jammie Dodger joke as they did when it was new. Many find it tiresome and unoriginal to use it as a joke, however it will be remembered well by those who were present at the assembly.
