4 March 2022

I hope you all had a wonderful half-term break and it has been lovely seeing all pupils back, anticipating an exciting half-term ahead! With the emergence of Spring and the relaxing of Covid-19 rules, life is quickly returning to a more normal pattern and with this, we are excited about welcoming parents back onto school site for more events. It was lovely to see parents from Early Years join us for a coffee morning earlier this week and I am looking forward to seeing more parents at the coffee mornings and other events over the course of this half term. Please note below the dates for the different year group coffee mornings that are taking place. We look forward to welcoming you.

Yesterday, we celebrated World Book Day in a spectacular fashion! The teaching staff were delighted with the imaginative range of characters that turned up to lessons including wizards, witches, cowboys, fairies, pirates, dragons, dogs, unicorns and much more besides. The whole school site was alive with a spectacular array of costumes, particularly evident during our traditional Junior World Book Day parade around the Willow Tree. Both Junior and Senior pupils enjoyed a ‘Drop Everything and Read’ moment and there was a lot of animated chatter about characters and authors and time to reflect on the pleasure reading affords. Our Junior book swap was very well received and earlier in the week, Senior pupils enjoyed a book fair hosted by Wallingford Book Shop, who brought along a selection of recommended reading for different year groups.

Over the next few weeks, each year group will have the opportunity to attend a service at Moulsford Church, celebrating Lent in the run up to Easter. This week, our Junior pupils were led in service by Father Martin and enjoyed exploring the meaning of Lent as they gathered together in worship. We are very grateful to have the use of this beautiful and historic venue and are looking forward to attending Moulsford Church again next Monday with Year 8.

Ukraine

Thank you for your support of the non-uniform day and fundraising activities initiated by 11B in response to the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine (please see letter sent yesterday). As a school we are aware of the potential for concern and worry amongst pupils and our pastoral team and form tutors have been working hard to address any concerns and offer reassurance and context for pupils as they watch the news. We are however aware that with the easy access to information via phones, laptops and other devices pupils are able to have access to a wide range of information, and potentially inappropriate content via platforms such as Tiktok. We would request parents support and vigilance in monitoring the material your son or daughter is accessing. This will naturally continue to be a strong focus for our pastoral team as we continue to support pupils in alleviating any worries and focus on normal school life.

Easter Holiday Camp

We are very pleased to announce that Full Circle Sports will be taking over the holiday prevision here at Cranford House. Full Circle Sport has been running Holiday Camp in Wallingford for the past 10 years. They run fun Holiday camps for children between the age of 4-13 years. Children have the opportunity to take part in a variety of sports, crafts, team building and forest school activities, delivered by fully qualified coaches. They have a big ethos of encouraging children to make new friends, learn new skills and have fun. More information on booking will follow next week.

Have a good weekend!

Dr James Raymond

Headmaster