7 June 2024

Dear Parents

The school calendar has been packed this week and we have enjoyed a successful and industrious start to the second half of the Summer Term. GCSEs and A levels continue at a pace, with some of our Year 13s beginning to celebrate final exams and looking forward to a long summer ahead. The rest of the school have also been dutifully engaged in assessments and should be applauded for working so diligently. We are hopeful for some slightly warmer weather, as we approach some eagerly anticipated events including Sports Day and Enrichment later this half-term!

Sporting Events

This week, Cranford pupils have represented the school in many local fixtures, as well as ISA Athletics and Cricket tournaments. It is wonderful to see our summer sports in full flow and to see pupils representing the school with such enthusiasm, talent and sense of fun! We are all looking forward to the forthcoming excitement of Sports Day and I hope to see many of you there!

Cranford Welcomes Year 5 to Senior School

It seems hard to believe that we are commencing the process of entry into Year 7 for September 2025. However, on Wednesday this started in earnest as our Year 5 pupils and Year 5 pupils from external schools joined together to scrutinise life in Senior School. We continue to be oversubscribed for Senior School Entry and are delighted that demand for a place is at an all-time high. We were also delighted to be able to showcase to our Year 5s and the visiting pupils the talents of our exceptional Senior Teaching Team. The pupils all had an amazing day, enjoying a series of carefully planned activities, learning new skills, having fun and making friends in the process. Our Year 5s were exceptionally well behaved and welcoming to the external pupils. We can’t wait to see this cohort move up through into Senior School when the time comes.

Year 10 embrace the world of Work Experience!

The whole of year 10 have been out this week on Work Experience. Students have secured placements in a vast range of sectors from Fashion to Finance; Engineering to Education; Arts to Advertising. Companies and businesses hosting our students include some incredible names, including Aston Martin, Formula 1, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Russell Reynolds, Winnersh Film Studios, Frescobol Carioca, Spray Art Gallery and many, many more. All students have been visited by a Cranford member of staff and it has been an absolute delight to see how they have represented themselves and Cranford, approaching their role with maturity, enthusiasm and initiative. Work Experience is a vital part of our careers program, and we are extremely fortunate to have access to so many incredible, meaningful and informative opportunities and thank all these companies for supporting our pupils with this.

Forecasting Futures in Year 12

On Wednesday Year 12 students enjoyed their Highter Education and Futures Day. This is the commencement of an exploration into their journey beyond Cranford, whether that includes university, an apprenticeship, work or taking time out to travel. The students had a brilliant talk from a visitor from Oxford Brookes University, who enlightened them on how to create an interesting personal statement. They also had careers interviews throughout the day to focus their minds on what sort of course, apprenticeship or work options they should be considering. On Thursday evening, we were happy to welcome lots of parents into school to give them information that will enable them to support their son or daughter on these crucial next steps. We are very excited to be on this journey with our Year 12 and can’t wait to see what they do next!

Willow Court

Finally, it has been lovely this week to see our pupils making the most our newly redesigned garden space in Willow Court. Over the half term break we were excited to plant the third Willow Tree to sit at heart of the school in Willow Court since 1931. Our old tree had a long and successful lifespan, approaching 50 years, and we very hope and expect a similar life cycle for our new tree! We also took the opportunity to enhance this space with the addition of a new Maple and Apple tree and lots more benches and open spaces for pupils to sit, eat and play together. We hope these pictures give you some indication of what a wonderful space this creates.

I hope you are all looking forward to a restful weekend.

With best wishes
Dr James Raymond