22 January 2021

This morning, our pupils enjoyed an incredible assembly led by our Head of School team, during which they shared some of their top tips for self-care during lock down. Although these were aimed at our pupils, I feel that we could all benefit from their words of wisdom so thought I would share the Head of School tips for surviving lockdown!

1. Stay connected, look out for each other and make the effort to stay in touch. You and the person you reach out to will reap the benefits
2. Try and have a technology detox at the weekend particularly – read or play a game instead (sensible advice from a generation brought up in a world of devices!)
3. Get involved in a challenge. Our pupils clearly have a host of challenges already set for them and whilst we welcome parental involvement, there are plenty of other personal challenges that I am sure we have all thought at some point would be good to achieve. With a little extra time on our hands, maybe now is the time to try them!
4. Carry out an act of kindness. We are so pleased with the response to our ‘My Dear Friend’ letter writing challenge and the ‘January Happiness Challenge’. Both have generated acts of kindness towards others, which have proven scientific benefits to mental health.
5. Keep active. This needs no explanation – the positive benefits of physical activity on moods are well established.
6. Get involved in a charity. Being charitable helps us all give back something and giving, in any form, helps improve well-being.

The last point in these top tips ties in very nicely with our current ‘Alice Cupcake’ fundraising campaign for NHS keyworkers in Oxfordshire Hospitals. There has been some wonderful support for this and we are delighted that it has been endorsed by Lottie Bedlow, who some of you may recognise as one of this year’s contestants on ‘Great British Bake Off’! What you may not know, is that Lottie used to be a Cranford pupil. We are thrilled that Lottie has donated ten signed copies of the ‘Bake Off’ book – please click here to see a special message from Lottie! Any pupil who supports the campaign by baking cupcakes and raising money for the Oxfordshire Hospitals Trust, will have the opportunity to win one of these signed books (selected at random at the end of this half-term!). To donate, please click here for our Just Giving page.

Finally, we have a very exciting announcement for all our pupils in recognition of their amazing efforts and focus on our remote learning provision during this period of lockdown. Our staff have been busy wracking their brains about how we can reward pupils and inject even more excitement into the fabulous teaching and learning that goes on daily at Cranford. We are delighted to announce an incredible enrichment session and day off timetable. The idea of this is to give all our pupils something to look forward to and encourage them to take a break from the rhythm of online learning.

The pupils are not yet aware of what we have planned but will be given more details next week. However, we are brimming with anticipation about the special guests we have lined up as part of this. We are overjoyed to once more be welcoming back Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut and first Western European woman in space. Helen will be talking to all the pupils on 5 February (virtually) and we know from previous experience that she is quite simply inspirational! For our senior pupils in Years 10-12, we are equally thrilled to have the team from ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ speaking to pupils about mental resilience and wellbeing.

Have a lovely weekend!

James Raymond

Headmaster