THE CRANFORD REVIEW June 2009
The Mark Haddon Workshop
On Wednesday 4th February 2009 Mark Haddon visited Cranford Community College to talk about his work as an author and his acclaimed novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time’. Many students know his work, are studying the book for A level and were very interested to see
Oxford University and the Philip Pullman experience
On Thursday 2nd April 2009, the second cohort writers for the First Story project and their English teachers took part in the prestigious Oxford Literary festival hosted by Oxford University. The students had a guided tour of this famous institution and enjoyed the historic Oxford surroundings.
Shadnam Ahmed and Rhadika Kalia, both year 12 students, had been invited to read their stories at the literary festival. William Fiennes, Cranford’s Author in Residence accompanied them to the green room, where they met renowned author of His Dark Materials Trilogy, Philip Pullman. They talked with him for a long time and shared their stories with the waiting public who applauded and congratulated them on their excellent readings. It was quite an experience for all involved.
Cranford Community College, High Street, Cranford, Hounslow. TW5
On Thursday
12th March 2009
Cranford Community College held its first Multi Faith Event entitled ‘Celebrating Diversity – Faith through the Senses’. Parents, students, staff and members of the Governing Body along with guests from SACRE, the Hounslow Friends of Faith group and the Interfaith Network celebrated the rich diversity of the school and its community.
Students devised and hosted the programme inspired by the values and ethos embraced through the nationally acclaimed Interfaith Act of Commitment. Presentations and performances focussed upon different aspects of the Act of Commitment including citizenship, the environment, justice, truth, peace and honesty.
Year 11 IGCSE students read their own poetry in their home language as a personal reflection on their hopes for the world and its future. Words spoken in Kiswahili, Polish, Creole, Urdu, Panjabi, French and German echoed the themes of friendship, love and respect.
dance piece was devised and performed by year 7 entitled “The Spirit of Friendship” and the Unity Gospel choir performed songs in praise of living and working together as a community.
During the course of the evening everyone worked together to create a poster inspired by the evening’s presentations, and the four wall hangings created by Art G&T students representing the message of The Act of Commitment and its shared values. The Posters will be printed and displayed around the school.
Alfred Agius (Hounslow Friends of Faith) gave the welcome address and Lesley Prior (Hounslow’s RE advisor) gave the closing address. Both praised the school and students for hosting a wonderful multi faith evening of celebration.
Faith community representatives: In a world scarred by the evils of war, racism, injustice and poverty, we offer this joint Act of Commitment as we look to our shared future.
We commit ourselves, as people of many faiths, to work together for the common good, uniting to build a better society, grounded in values and ideals we share: community, personal integrity, a sense of right and wrong, learning, wisdom and love of truth, care and compassion, justice and peace, respect for one another, for the earth and its creatures.
We commit ourselves, in a spirit of friendship and co-operation, to work together alongside all who share our values and ideals, to help bring about a better world now and for generations
On Thursday 22nd January 2009 Cranford Community College invited staff, members of the Governing Body, parents and students to work together in a variety of maths challenges.
The first half of the evening held in the maths department treated visitors to different classroom challenges including a venn diagram, scatter diagrams and a calculation picture.
This was followed by mixed quiz teams in the Concert Hall tackling timed questions, all competing to win the title of best maths team before prizes were awarded to outstanding mathematicians in each key stage. The Guest speakers, Dr David Acheson PhD from Oxford University entertained everyone with his electric guitar to demonstrate the mathematical theory of vibrating strings and Dr. Colin Wright PhD wowed the audience with numerous juggling demonstrations to show the “Site Swap” notation; how maths and science work together.
Tuesday 24th February 2009 saw the Concert Hall at Cranford Community College transformed into a promenade of experiences reflecting the theme of Crime and Punishment and learning excellence in humanities. Travel and tourism students, dressed in uniform, welcomed potential travellers with customer service to equal anything at Heathrow airport. Staff, members of the Governing Body, students and parents were transported in first class fashion to a geographic crime map reading exercise, a judicial trial debating the issue of capital punishment, Jack the Ripper’s unsolved mystery and interrogation stories under the KGB spoken in Russian.
Three outstanding presentations on the YPI Southall Black Sisters competition by year 9 students, the history of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Sapna Shah year 13 and a humorous but detailed year 11 Canary Wharf presentation for geography were a highlights of the evening, which concluded with the presenting of excellence awards in humanities.
Cranford Community College hosted the National Community Languages Conference on Saturday 8th February 2009 when Narinder Kaur, Head of Community Languages launched the new Panjabi scheme of work for GCSE.
Narinder had been approached by the ‘Specialist Schools Trust’ to join the “Our Language” project, in which she worked with supplementary school teachers to create a comprehensive scheme of work, based on six topics for the teaching and learning of Panjabi
The event was attended by over 40 Panjabi teachers from different supplementary schools, across the UK. Dr. Nagra, accredited author for Panjabi textbooks, a chief examiner of Panjabi with the AQA Examinations Board was guest speaker alongside Mr Kevin Prunty Headteacher, who talked about the importance of community languages at the school.
An evening of competitions, international foods and primary school performances were just some of the elements which made for a wonderful celebration of excellence in languages on Thursday April 2nd 2009. The event was attended by a large number of parents, students, staff and members of the Governing Body. It clearly demonstrated why Cranford is proud to be a Language College.
The Languages department hosted the first part of the evening. Visitors entered through passport control where they travelled to different countries of the world experiencing their language and culture through role plays, performances and demonstrations. At each visit their passport was stamped and on completion an exit visa was awarded. Countries included Germany, China, France, Spain, India and Pakistan, with activities for all the family.
The journey then moved to the Concert hall where guests sat at tables labelled as countries and took part in a languages quiz whilst enjoying foods from around the world. Questions were related to the first part of the evening allowing the audience to show how much they had learnt on their world tour.
Sixteen pupils from Berkley Primary school performed a number of songs in French led by Ms Edwards. Xhenison Selgjekaj, Akil Hiyati and Vivek Mandalia, year 8, presented their award winning Quentin Blake presentation. Over 50 talented linguists were recognised for achieving an early GCSE qualification in languages. Everyone agreed the evening was “très magnifique”
Cranford Community College celebrates Maths Excellence
Evening of Excellence in Humanities
Languages Excellence Evening C’est Très Magnifique Community Languages Conference
Cranford Community College
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On Wednesday 18th March 2009, the Fulcrum Team held a fashion show as an event in order to raise money for the Fulcrum Charity. The event was a huge success and helped raise £400, to go towards their trip to Tanzania, Africa.