31 January 2025

Dear Parents

January seems to have flown by in a flurry of activity! It has been a busy week across the school as rehearsals reach the final stages for the forthcoming Senior School production of High School Musical. The cast have worked incredibly hard, and it promises to be a real musical extravaganza! We look forward to seeing parents and hope you enjoy the show as much as our pupils have enjoyed rehearsing it. Similarly in Year 3 and 4, preparations and excitement are building as the children prepare for their annual production later this term. ‘Splash’ promises to be a hilarious tale of Preston the Parrot, who attempts to save his friends from the greatest flood in history by deceiving them to go on a luxury cruise. I have seen rehearsals in full flow and there are some wonderful characterisations of a funny script - parents are in for a treat!

Space Exploration Day

On Thursday, our middle school students (years 5-8) were treated to an incredible day of scientific exploration. As part of our careers program, we had experts from the space industry in to run sessions with the pupils exploring different aspects of space science and the range of careers available. Students participated in three sessions including creating lego models of the Mars Rover, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, an interview with a NASA rockets scientist, explorations into the power of AI and an experiment to work out the age of the universe. Students even used AI to write music about space and about their experiences at Cranford. The sessions were run by Space Store in Oxford and their partners House of Fun, alongside other industry experts. It was a fun-filled, informative and engaging day. It was also a delight to see how curious our students were and their thoughtful questions and discussions following the sessions demonstrated remarkable depth of thought and understanding.

Sport

Our sports teams have enjoyed a particularly busy week; congratulations to the U11 boys on a spectacular second place in the Independent School Association tournament on Thursday. There have been some notable triumphs, including the U16 Boys’ Hockey against Bradfield, the U12s Boys’ Hockey against Bloxham, the U13s Netball against Crossfields and U14s Netball against Bradfield. Well done to all our competitors. Additionally, the U13 and U15 Girls’ Cricketers had some fabulous indoor tournaments over the last few weeks. They played exceptionally well, narrowly missing out on the final rounds. Finally, I am sure the whole school will join me in wising our U16 girls Hockey team the best of luck as they competed at nationals in Nottingham on Monday!

Open Week

We have been delighted to enjoy an incredibly busy Whole School Open Week as prospective families have taken the opportunity to visit the school. We are always proud of our pupils and enjoy the chance to share a little of daily life at Cranford with new families. It has been lovely to hear prospective families reflect on the warmth and happiness of the community around school.

Have a wonderful weekend!

With best wishes,

Dr James Raymond

Headmaster