23 March 2018

Spring arrived just in time for a busy and exciting culmination to the term.

We enjoyed Easter Services at Moulsford Church in the Junior School, a fantastic array of sporting success, including our Sport Relief Mile, ABRSM Music Examinations, trips to Sutton Courtenay and the River and Rowing Museum in Henley and much more besides! In addition, the first of this year’s GCSE Examinations have also taken place for some of our Year 11s in the Faculty of Creative Arts and Technology.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed welcoming toddlers and their parents to a busy Nursery Open Morning, with many families expressing keen interest in joining Cranford House’s community. This is a pattern we are pleased to see repeated right across the school from the waiting lists running across Junior School to entry to Senior School in September. Thanks, as always, for your continued support of our school community.

One my highlights this week came as I visited Reception to hear about their work on Easter and on the author Lynley Dodd.  The imaginative projects and good progress on display reminded me of newly published research which underlines the strong correlation between pupil progress at Key Stage 1 and their outcomes at GCSE. As a through-school, this is something we have always fully endorsed and recognise as a real strength. One of the many great joys of life at Cranford House is the opportunity to design a curriculum that takes each pupil on their own individual learning journey from EYFS right up to GCSE and beyond.

On this theme, I've also enjoyed talking to pupils in Year 9, over lunch and in assembly with Miss Bray, about life in our forthcoming Sixth Form. Together we've made some exciting progress and I look forward to sharing this with you next term.

Finally, we are delighted to welcome Mrs Mitcham back to school this week following her maternity leave. She will be resuming her teaching of all Textiles and Food Technology classes in Senior School. We are also pleased to welcome Mrs Fogarty Simmonds, who will be taking over from Mrs Day after Easter when she goes on maternity leave. Mrs Fogarty Simmonds specialised in printmaking at The Slade School of Art in London and is a regularly exhibiting artist. She has most recently worked as Head of Art at Luckley House and has a wealth of experience teaching GCSE and A-Level pupils. We hope you will join us in welcoming her in the Summer Term and we wish Mrs Day a relaxing start to her maternity leave.

With best wishes this Easter,

Dr J Raymond