14 October 2022

At the end of an incredible first half-term of the academic year, I want to start by expressing my sincere gratitude to all our Senior Pupils who came last Saturday, to act as tour guides or to support specific teachers in classroom demonstrations, for our Whole School Open Morning. I lost track of the comments we received on how wonderful our pupils were on the morning, acting as exceptional ambassadors for the school. They were welcoming, friendly, polite and really brought school to life for our visiting parents and prospective pupils, all of which helped make the morning a tremendous success. Thank you to all the pupils involved and thank you to you as parents for helping facilitate this.

Key Stage 3 NFL Trip

On Friday last week, pupils in Key Stage 3 had the incredible opportunity to meet the Green Bay Packers, a professional American National Football League team. Pupils met the players and took part in a training session, specially run for them by the players and coaches, before the Green Bay Packers debut game in London against the New York Giants. To say they were put through their paces is an understatement, but they all loved getting stuck into the sport and couldn't have asked for a more inspirational day!

Year 6 Senior Experience Day

Following our last Senior School Experience Day in September enjoyed by 6H, on Tuesday, it was the turn of 6L and 6B to have a taste of Senior School life, in addition to visiting Year 6 pupils from other schools. Taking part in lessons in Science, Art, Performing Arts and Sport, our next Year 7 cohort quickly embraced all on offer and were animated in their responses to Senior School life, particularly Chef Paul’s cookies!

Year 11 Geography Trip

Last weekend, Year 11 geographers spent a packed and enjoyable five days in a sunny North Wales engaging in a range of physical and human geography fieldwork. This included investigating changes in the Afon Conwy as they moved downstream and explored the impact of tourism on the honeypot village of Betws-y-Coed. They were also able to explore the breath-taking post-glacial scenery around Cwm Idwal. This was such a valuable experience to support their GCSE studies and a memorable trip with friends involving some very competitive rounders and table tennis!

Pyjama Day and Wallingford Food Bank

Many thanks to everyone for getting behind our ongoing fund-raising for Wallingford Food Bank. It has been brilliant to see the whole school getting into the spirit of Pyjama Day on a lovely Autumnal day to end the half term.

PTA Coffee Morning

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to join us for the PTA coffee morning, we are very lucky to have such an active PTA and excitement is already building in school for the Christmas Fair on Saturday 26th November! It promises to be a special event, I hope to see you all there!

Reception and Nursery Pupils

We are delighted with how well our youngest pupils in school have settled this term; they have made amazing progress and are such enthusiastic learners! They have loved finding out more about Cranford, but also learning about schools around the world, comparing similarities and differences as they settle into school life. This week, Reception pupils have been thinking about the importance of oral health. We hope the children enjoy using their new teeth cleaning timers to help them fill in their rotas at home!

Magic at The Movies - Save the Date

Excitement is building in school for our annual Junior Discovery Week! This year, we are taking Cranford to the Movies – with a week of Performing Arts excitement! Please do keep the morning of Saturday 5 November free in your diary if you would like to come along to join us in school. We have everything from green screens, to a drive-in cinema experience, a stunt man with a jet pack, assorted cars from the movies, Viking ships, Jurassic world dinosaurs, stage make-up workshops, t-shirt printing, Top-Gun flight simulators and much more besides!

Plea for Costumes

If any parents are wishing to have a clear out of dressing up costumes appropriate for Junior School aged children, we would be delighted to receive donations for our Magic at The Movies event, which shall be passed to charity after Junior Discovery morning. All donations will be gratefully accepted by the School Office!

I hope you all have a wonderful half-term break!

Dr James Raymond

Headmaster