Cranford Review
Dancing on Ice Cranford Style
Sports Aid at
Students and staff at Cranford Community College fully embraced Sport Relief Fundraising Week from 19th March to 23rd March 2012. The target was to raise £2,012 to transform the unimaginably tough lives of some people both here in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries. Students and staff raised money in the following ways: students paid to play a wide range of sports, there was a staff vs. 6th form basketball game, daily cake sales run by the 6th form, a 6th form quiz and pizza night, an Easter egg sale, interform competitions and staff sweep stakes. On Friday 23rd March 2012 more than 100 students and staff turned out to run the Cranford mile. Together we raised £1,650 during Sport Relief Week. Future fundraising during Olympic week will enable us to achieve our target of £2,012.
Cranford Community College
I contributed to the fundraising by asking people to sponsor me to run 5 miles around the Olympic Park. The National Lottery organised the run and I entered on-line for one of the 5,000 places available. When I found out that 43,000 people had applied for a place and I had successfully secured a place I was thrilled. I did some training so that I could manage the run in an acceptable time but really I already knew I would be taking my time so that I could soak up the atmosphere and take a good look around as I ran. It really was an amazing experience being able to run around the park and past the wonderful Olympic venues and to see everything taking shape ready for the London 2012 Olympic games. The high point was running around the track in the Olympic stadium and being one of the first people to cross the finish line. It is a day I will certainly remember for a very long time.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the fundraising.
Rita Berndt (Assistant Headteacher)
Well done and thank you for turning up and making the Sports Relief Mile the best we have had yet. There were over 80 people who ran and it looked fantastic. We raised over £170.
I thought it was fabulous and really enjoyed myself. I really liked the high tension scenes between some of the girls, mixed with the exceptionally welltimed comedy from the boys. The scene changes were very slick and I thought the backdrops were very innovative.
Brilliant performance, well done to all involved!
Christophe Gutierrez (Head of year 7)
I just wanted to say what a fab performance it was last night. I am really glad I made the effort to come along. The students were really professional, the acting was superb and the storyline was great.
WELL DONE ALL !
Debbie Bartley (Student Support)
I think the group did an amazing job, to think they did all of it themselves.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show, I thought it was imaginative, funny and touching and that all the students gave a fantastic performance.
Miss Lodge (year11 Tutor and ICT Teacher)
Cell Block 33
Inspirational Creativity in Production
Wow what a fabulous performance by all. The hard work that went into the performance was tremendous and it makes me proud to say I work in a school where students work so hard and give up their time to provide entertainment for us to enjoy. I cannot believe that students (not professionals) could put on such an incredible performance that it would give me goose bumps and tears in my eyes.
Well done everyone
Dawn Knock (Head of SEN)
I was truly amazed at the standard of performance by the students who took part. They were all very convincing and professional. I forgot I was in a drama studio and really became captivated by the storyline.
Bernadette Moir (Executive PA to Headteacher)
It was fab! Really put a smile back on my face. I was so impressed by the music and choreography (as well as the comic timing of the police) What a talented bunch –very well done to you all!
Rob Ind (Head of Pastoral Team)
Cell Block 33 was devised, written, directed, choreographed, produced and performed by the year 11 Creative and Media students for their unit 2 performance module. They composed and wrote the songs and then choreographed the dance numbers. This project, which began with a schools, collaborative workshop week in October 2011, took months of determination and team work to complete. Students from other year groups were invited to audition and undertook some of the main character roles. But it was the vision and talent of the group which really stood out through the various production roles they undertook, resulting in a high quality production good enough for the London Stage.
My time in the amazing play, Cell Block 33 was a breath-taking experience. I was playing the role of the Asian guard Chandra who is a loving and happy person, but everyone knows him as “Kandey”, “Changa” or “Chandrey”. I had a brilliant time playing this amusing character and would love to share the feeling of being on stage; so scared that you will mess up but overcome that feeling with joy, knowing that lots of good things will occur when you have tried your best. I had lots of support from friends, family and teachers and thank them all for that. And I would recommend if an opportunity like this is given you grab it the first chance you get.
Syed Hassan Ali (year 7)
It was such an honour to be part of the audience yesterday and such a joy as Head of Year 11.
The performance was amazing and it was evident that all the students were passionate in what they were doing. The storyline, the characters and the production as a whole ticked all the right boxes and was full of emotion. It is fantastic to know that students can produce, direct and write such a mind blowing production and they should feel proud of all their hard work. I was so moved by all of the team yesterday and was in tears as I was so overjoyed.
Kuljit Suri (Head of Year 11)
Overall this was an excellent performance and very enjoyable. This was even more the case seeing as the Creative and Media Diploma group wrote, directed and produced the performance from start to finish. Very impressive indeed.
Peter Stumpf (Deputy Headteacher)Cranford Community College Volunteering in the Community
Cranford Community College has a well established reputation for good work and support for charitable causes in the local community and beyond. Volunteering in the Community, which is part of the WFactor activities programme, goes one step further by adopting each half term a new cause to focus upon. In the Spring term 2012, students adopted two charities, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Guest speakers from each of the charities visited school to explain to students about their work and the importance of continued support to help develop research into various illnesses that affect so many people, young and old. Students, led by staff members Charlotte Meek and Mahavir Ladva, were inspired to go out and help members of our local community with their shopping to raise money for both charities. Special thanks go to Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s for allowing us to succeed in our challenge of Volunteering in the Community.
Jessica Joyce (Assistant Headteacher)Dear Mr Prunty,
I’m just dropping you a line to say how lovely it was to see a group of your students collecting for charity by helping people pack their shopping in Sainsbury’s, Hayes, yesterday.
I’m an ex Cranford Community ‘School’ pupil myself and teach in a secondary school in Ealing, so know well how nerve-wracking activities like that can be for students. The girls I spoke to were very polite and told me about how they now do activities on Wednesday afternoon - what a great idea!!
I hope they did well with their collections.
Regards, Lestacia Stephen (Co-ordinator of Global and Cultural Awareness The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls)
On Wednesdays, I go volunteering in the Community and I think it is really fun because I have never helped anyone with their shopping.
I also enjoyed working with my partner because I had never played or talked to her before. She is a very good and kind person.
The teachers that came with us were really good because they were fun and I knew them as well.
I enjoyed this W Factor because I had not done anything like this before. I was really impressed with the amount we raised. The amount we raised was £230.98
Chelsea O’Neill (Year 7)During the month of March, my W factor was Volunteering in the Community, 12 students including myself went to Tesco in Yeading and helped people pack their groceries to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. I thought this was a great way to raise money and I had a great experience, meeting new people and they showed their appreciation by donating money towards helping the charity. The customers were very impressed with our bag-packing skills, one lady said ‘she could get used to this kind of help every time she came shopping’. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to school. After those few weeks, we all gave ourselves a good pat on the back for working very hard, we managed to raise £174.55 for the Alzheimer’s Society.
By Divan Odedra (Year 7)The storytelling workshop that I attended was fun and very educational too. It took place in the LRC and a real storyteller, called Tony Dallas, came in to help. I really enjoyed every bit of it including the fun activities. One of the activities was when we were given a sentence and in five minutes we had to make up a story using the sentence. It was really fun because there were lots of funny, silly and scary stories; I decided to write a spine-chillingly scary story.
The guest storyteller, Tony Dallas, was very supportive and encouraging to us, telling us that we are all storytellers, when we decide to put the effort in, which I believe is true and that we should all try our best. It was a club really worth going to.
I would definitely recommend this skill to people who enjoy reading and writing, and most of all expressing yourselves writing stories, to read out for other people to listen to and very much enjoy!
By Carmen Mya Gaur (Year 7)
