27 November 2020

Despite the arrival of the winter weather, it has been a hugely enjoyable few days across the school! A huge thank you to all the parents who joined us for our virtual parents' evening in Junior School earlier this week. Our Junior teachers greatly enjoyed talking to parents and celebrating the many successes and achievements of your children. We have been very grateful for all the kind feedback about the evening and the teaching team appreciated the chance to discuss your child’s progress and simply to touch base.

In the face of the increasing anticipation for Christmas and all the associated events, normal business in school has very much been the order of the week! I have enjoyed visiting classes across the school and sharing in an array of inspiring lessons. Against a backdrop of preparation for Christmas performances, our Senior pupils are still very much engaged in their music lessons, under the brilliant guidance of Mrs Powell. Year 7 have been learning about folk music, comparing arrangements of Scarborough Fair, whilst Year 8 have been identifying African instruments and looking at polyrhythmic textures and Year 9 have been learning about minimalism in music and performing their own arrangements of clapping music by Steve Reich. We very much look forward to showcasing the musical talents of all our pupils in the Christmas performances that will be sent home at the end of term.

Forest School is firmly embedded in the curriculum at Cranford House and always presents wonderful learning opportunities for our pupils. This week, our Year 2 pupils learnt about fire safety, including how to respect fire, the dangers of fire and how to be safe and responsible around open flames. Although I have no doubt that this was a very memorable and enjoyable lesson, I strongly suspect that the most memorable part for our Year 2 pupils, was the fact they got to roast and eat marshmallows around the fire – and I can’t say I blame them!

Food, more specifically pizza, was the feature of one of our Year 6’s Maths lessons this week as they explored fractions. Unknowingly, I was also a feature of the Maths lesson, as pupils were tasked with working out how many pizza slices I had eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I will confess that I am partial to the odd slice of pizza, but I’m not sure I could quite manage to eat the sixteen and a quarter pizzas the Year 6 worked out I had eaten!

Finally, it was an absolute delight to see the results of our 'Dress up as a TV Character' day today. Imaginative outfits were in abundance and saw the school community transformed, as characters from many different television shows and programmes attended class today! Well done to everyone who got involved and thank you for all the support for our chosen charity, Beauty Banks. We should also thank the Year 11 Head of School Team, Charlotte, Milly and Natalya, for coming up with such a fun and original concept. Well done!

Best Wishes,

Dr Raymond, Headmaster