3 March 2017

It was wonderful to arrive at school yesterday to a fantastic array of World Book Day costumes and characters right across the school. 

This joyful celebration of all things reading-related actually started a day early at Cranford House as Ali Jinks from Wallingford Bookshop kindly visited us on Wednesday to allow pupils to swap their £1 book voucher for a brand new book. On World Book Day itself, the enthusiasm for reading was in evidence right across school in a day that saw pupils joining in our Drop Everything And Read event, Seniors sharing stories with Juniors, and boys and girls testing their knowledge with a host of book quizzes and trails. My personal highlight proved the Year 8 PE lesson that was transformed into a full-scale Quidditch match by our creative staff!

Mrs Ellis reminded me yesterday of the Dr Seuss quote, ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.'  Our aim each day in school is to light a fire in our pupils' imaginations, encouraging them to dare to dream and reminding them that reading stories allows them to travel the world, be entertained, challenged, scared, excited and much more besides!

Not only does World Book Day give us a superb chance to promote reading for pleasure across the school, but it also allows us to raise valuable funds for the official WBD charity, Book Aid International, which delivers books to schools, universities and refugee camps in Africa. I am sure you will agree this is a most worthwhile cause - thank you to all the families who supported the day so enthusiastically and for all the donations you sent in.

Elsewhere in school, it has been a busy but inspiring week. My week started with a History trip to Hampton Court with Year 5 where we enjoyed exploring life in this most famous of Tudor palaces! As always, I was very impressed by our pupils’ ability to ask a host of perceptive questions. Meanwhile, Year 3 and 4 enjoyed a fabulous day at Chiltern Open Air Museum as they discovered more about the daily lives of our ancient predecessors. These chances to learn outside the classroom are so important in nurturing the creativity of our pupils and in really bringing the topics they study in school to life.

Tuesday saw Willow Court hosting one of our most unique traditions: the annual pancake race around the Willow Tree! As ever, competition between the Houses was ferocious with our House Captains doing a splendid job of leading their teams and both Junior and Senior Pupils coming out to enthusiastically cheer them on. This warm generosity of spirit and the strong bonds between pupils of all year groups are truly valuable and unique features of life at Cranford House. I hope you are able to spend a moment reviewing some of the week’s pictures to catch a glimpse of this.

Finally, preparations continue for the Senior Dance show, culminating in three nights of performance next week. I very much look forward to seeing many of you there.

With best wishes

Dr James Raymond