1 October 2021

At the beginning of this week, I had the pleasure of talking to our Year 13 students individually about their university applications. Talking to any of our pupils is one of the best things about working in such a wonderful school environment, sharing in the excitement of a specific achievement or a mutual passion for a subject and generally watching pupils through such an incredible learning journey. Our Year 13 students spoke about their goals and enthusiasm for their proposed field of university study, showcasing a wonderful range of talents, experiences and extra-curricular pursuits. It felt incredibly exciting and a real privilege to have just a small glimpse of their futures and really resonated with the school motto - 'Per Salicem Ad Alta' ( “Through the Willow to the Heights”) defining exactly what a Cranford education is about.

Yesterday we had our annual Harvest Festival, celebrating with two special assemblies for Junior and Senior School. Our Junior pupils focused on the importance of gratitude, being grateful for the food we have and talking about the people that produce the food we eat. Impressively led by our Heads of Junior School, Lucy and Mylo, the letters from the word ‘HARVEST’ were used to spell out other words relating to gratitude and harvest. We were treated to an uplifting performance of ‘Big Red Combine Harvester’ by Key Stage 1 and Reception and Key Stage 2 pupils sang the ‘Harvest Samba’. We were especially delighted to be able to welcome our youngest Nursery pupils to their first Junior School Assembly!

In our Senior Assembly, we were incredibly fortunate to be joined by Jean and Neville Burt, who are retiring from over ten years of running Wallingford Food Bank. Our new Head of School team did readings and prayers and we had some lovely music performed by the Chamber Choir. We were also treated to some powerful and moving Harvest drumming by Mrs Ooko’s husband, which tied in with Mrs Ooko’s talk about the challenges of living off the land in Kenya and just how important harvest is.

Both the Junior and Senior assembly were important moments for us all to reflect on our fortune and consider those less fortunate. Thank you to all our families who so generously donated goods to Wallingford Food Bank. Their need this year is greater than ever and we are pleased to be able to support them once again.

On Wednesday night, we were pleased to welcome so many parents to our Welcome to Senior School Evening. We are very much looking forward to opening the doors to pupils and parents in Years 7 to 11 for our Sixth Form next Tuesday for our A level Options Evening. We hope to see many of you there.

Have a lovely weekend.

James Raymond

Headmaster