CR June 2013

Cranford Review

Cranford Community College has been named among the top 100 schools nationally when it comes to improving students’ grades. In February 2013 the school received a letter from Schools Minister David Laws congratulating it on the ‘exceptional’ achievement. The school was commended on the progress made by pupils from joining the school aged 11 to sitting their GCSEs five years later. The new measure of success - not included in the annual league tables, published recently - is based on students’ GCSE grades for English, maths and their top three other subjects. Cranford Community College was the most improved school in the borough when it came to GCSEs, with the percentage of pupils gaining five or more top grades with English and maths rising from 55 per cent in 2011 to 71 per cent last year.

In a letter to Headteacher Kevin Prunty, Mr Laws wrote: “Your school is exceptionally effective in educating its pupils.

“I would like to congratulate your staff, governors and pupils for their hard work and success and thank you for your leadership in continuing the drive towards high standards of educational achievement.”

ACCENTURE - Year 11 ‘Skills to Succeed’ Trip

On Thursday 25th April 2013, 24 year 11 students went to Central London to visit Accenture, a global consultancy company that employs over 250,000 people in 120 countries. Accenture works with all kinds of world renowned companies, such as Lloyds Bank, Sky and British Airways on projects for which the companies do not have the expertise or the capacity to complete on their own. The day consisted of a series of activities aimed at helping us to understand what working for a global company would be like and how to get through the application and interview processes to get there.

When we arrived we were each given really cool personalised security badges. We were lead to the fifth floor to a conference room where we were briefed on what Accenture did and were extremely surprised to find out that Accenture is the 49th most well-known company globally.

After a brief tour we returned to the conference room, and were put into groups and given a 5 minute task of building the tallest giraffe, simply with only tape, scissors and newspaper. Tasks like this are used in some group interviews and are not simply about the final result, but about how each group member incorporates key skills such as cooperation, listening, participation, respect, commitment and

problem-solving. When the time was up we placed our (pretty awesome) giraffes on the table but unfortunately 3 giraffes weren’t able to stand unsupported. After much deliberation, Group 4 were announced as the winners as they had the tallest standing giraffe, despite my group’s giraffe, Georgina, being more anatomically correct.

After a short break we started a new activity, again in randomly selected groups. This time we were going to experience what it was like working at Accenture. We were given information about a company called World Foods PLC, a supermarket, like Tesco and Asda that was facing problems when it came to technology, competitors, customer satisfaction and its Head Quarters. From the information we were given, we had to come up with solutions to three problems the company was facing and do a presentation. After each presentation feedback was given by the staff and other students, Group 1 was declared the winners for having the best presentation.

Our final hour was spent going through the do’s and don’ts of CV writing and interviews. To our surprise, we were then told to write up a draft of our CV and have an individual interview with one of our mentors from Accenture. This process was vital in understanding what to do when applying for jobs, but we also what it’s like being interviewed.

Back in the conference room, we gave Accenture a present and a card we’d all signed to thank them for having us and we also thanked Ms Patel, Mr Bickers and Ms Lowe, who organised the day. Overall, it was an informative, helpful and fun day.

Harprit Birk (year 11)

Duke of Edinburgh Hounslow Presentation Evening

Attending the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Presentation evening on the 12th February 2013 was truly spectacular. We were able to see how many people in our borough actually take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. It was an honour to attend with my close friends to this fantastic experience. This award involves many students who I had got to know over the last few years and it was lovely to be with them as well as the other students from other schools receiving the awards, for which they had worked so hard to achieve. To finally receive the award, after a year of intense preparation, hard work and dedication meant a lot to the students at Cranford. I am thrilled that we had the opportunity to receive our very own badge and certificate to consolidate our efforts and achievements. I and the rest of the Cranford DofE team would like to thank Mr. Dean for organising this award as this was Cranford’s first year being a part of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. Without him, we would not have this marvellous achievement to cherish for the rest of our lives.

Kishan Shah (year 11)

As the designated high achiever teachers for the Humanities Faculty, we wanted to push our students and give them a challenge. The idea for the trip came when we found the International Schools essay competition. With the title, “Who is responsible for our Fragile world?”, we felt that going to the London Aquarium where students would take part in a tour and university style lecture would best prepare them to write a 500 word essay to enter along with the rest of the world. The International Schools essay competition brings young people together from around the world. It asks them to answer a poignant question that affects them all regardless of religion race or gender. We wanted the students to consider the question from an environmental but also a moral stand point as we felt this would give their essays a different dimension against the other essays that would be submitted. Consequently Environmentalist David Attenbourgh and Environmental Theologian Michael Northcott both take central stage in some of the students’ essays. Most importantly we wanted them to recognise that this was a world-wide issue identified not only by them but key academics.

The competition saw 831 entrants from across the world with the finalists invited to a Schools Debate and Prize Giving ceremony at the Living Rainforest in Berkshire or the Seychelles. Despite the fierce rivalry four students from Cranford Community College were recognised for their outstanding pieces of work. Carmen Gaur (8V) and Suraiya Baig (8U) were awarded Honorable Mentions with Hamza Mohamed (8W) and Suhur Mohamed (9Z) receiving invitations as finalists to the prize giving debate on the 27th June 2013. Congratulations to them.

“I like to see all the different sea life, there were even crocodiles and sea horses there, and I’ve only ever seen these on the TV. We had a live lecture while we were there where an aquarium expert took us around and told us about each animal species and how we directly affect their existence. It worried me to realise that a lot of species are in danger of becoming extinct because of our actions. For example in 50 years the polar bear might not be around because we put far too much Co2 into the atmosphere which is encouraging sea ice to melt which means that the Polar bears’ habitats are being harmed. Thus from this visit I realised that I play a direct role in how our world works and that we are the only one who can stop bad things happening”.

Shuaib Hassan (year 8)

“I love fish! So when I got invited on to the high achievers trip I was really excited. Miss Hibbins and Mr Myers said that they chose me because I show lots of enthusiasm in lessons. I feel that the trip helped me to realise how much I affect the environment and why it’s important to realise that it’s up to us to protect our fragile world”.

Hassan Bahri (year 8)

“I enjoyed the Aquarium because I got to see different animals that adapt to live in the sea. The reason for our visit was so that we could enter an international schools competition, entitled “Who is responsible for our fragile world?”. I felt that going to the aquarium really made me think what affect I have and fingers crossed my essay wins”.

Mason Babel (year 8)

Katie Hibbins and Matthew Myers ( High Achiever teachers for Key stage 3 Humanities Faculty)

On March 15th 2013, all year 8 students were involved in a local competition to come up with a slogan for “FoodBox”, a new charity set up in Hounslow to help prevent and relieve poverty in the area by providing essential foods in times of crisis. Students spent the day discussing the importance of charity and discussing the unforeseen circumstances which could lead to someone needing the help of FoodBox. Using the morning’s discussion as inspiration, they went on to brainstorm logos and slogans for the charity, leading to some fantastic ideas such as “Wonderful, beautiful people”; “You give, we give” and “Don’t be grumpy, help the hungry”. The students presented their ideas to Hounslow Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations (HFTRA), who awarded certificates to all finalists and chose the winner, Anas Osmaan, who came up with “Give a little, help a lot”. The finalists then went on to attend the charity launch event, speaking to members of the public and supporters of the charity. Everyone involved mentioned how impressed they were with the maturity of the students and the innovativeness of their ideas.

Hassan Ali (8T) said: “I really enjoyed the experience of helping to bring the foodbox idea together and designing a slogan. Going to the website launch and listening to what people had to say about helping those in need”

Christophe Gutierrez (Head of year 8)

Six of our NCFE year 11 students completed their final cooking exam on Wednesday 27th February 2013. The students had worked all year in developing their menus and recipes for this final day.

Amal Thabit won over the judges with a menu that included noodle soup with vegetables and homemade pizza with peppers and chilli sauce and apple crumble and custard.

“It’s a dream come true and I loved the day - I was in my zone,” said the 16-year-old.

Judges Ms Gohel and Ms Jaura said Amal was “destined for great things”. Fellow student Manraj Aulakh’s menu consisted of Tandoori chicken and potato cakes with fresh coriander and an Indian sweet rice dish sprinkled with nuts.

Jade Cook’s spinach and chickpea masala dish was outstanding as was her richly flavoured double chocolate cake.

Conor Nicholls was in his element throwing pizza dough and creating ginger nut biscuit balls. The young budding chef said about his experience; “I enjoyed making my own pizza from scratch and seeing it cook in the oven, I really liked the cooking part of this course and our teacher was really nice”.

Faye Fabry made a wonderful silk smooth strawberry cheesecake with mint leaves. Errol Allen’s Caribbean cook-up consisted of Reggae Reggae meatball sub and with a citrus and pomegranate salad with chilli-honey dressing followed by banana fritters to finish off.

According to the judges all the students “not only understand finery of great food but... cook food that people want to eat”. It was an outstanding day.

Ruby Qureshi (Head of Art Design and Technology)

Food Glorious Food with Pathway 3

At the start of the process of designing the dining hall, it was really complicated as we had to think about the perfect theme that would give the dining hall a new fresh look yet satisfy the students and staff. Perhaps we couldn’t satisfy all the students and staff but we could satisfy at least the majority of the staff and students. But after all the discussions and voting we finally settled on a theme which was simple yet subtle so we went for bright wall paint with bright blue flooring with a nice dark blue which would outline the light blue.

After selecting a theme and colour we had to start planning out what furniture would be suitable for the dining hall as there are a lot of factors that could affect the furniture badly so we had to take in mind. After thinking about the heavy use the furniture faced we started selecting convenient furniture that would be strong and robust. After establishing the best furniture for the dining hall we started to consider blue prints of the actual layout of the dining hall and where the furniture was actually going to be placed. keeping in mind how our decisions on the amount of money or budget. So at the end we chose white tables with a white edging of pine wood which was effective as white is known to make things look bigger and spacious and we went for colourful chairs which were green red and blue. We chose red, blue and green because they were the main three primary colours.

While making all these decisions we were visited by some experienced interior designers who gave us their opinions on our design which we definitely took on board and made some minor changes. They were pleased with our design. Overall we all definitely had fun completing this task and were really honoured to actually design our school’s dining hall.

Ragganpreet Singh (year 11)

Aaronjit Bhullar (year 7)

Tavleen Bumrah (year 7)

Suman Kumar (year 8)

Thinurie Pathirage (year 8)

Manisha Suman (year8)

Munira Abass (year 9)

Fuad Ali (year 10)

Rogina Gurung (year 10)

Jamroz Hamdard (year 10)

Ragganpreet Singh (year 11)

Amandeep Bains (year 11)

Abinav Bhattachen (year11)

Ravanpreet Brar (year11)

Khadija Ahmed (year 11)

Georgia Nahar (year 11)

Shaida Mehrban was invited to a hold workshop during Book Week to talk about what influences her novels. She has a series of books which are mainly based around a mother and daughter relationship. These books also show the lifestyle and challenges that some Asian women face in society today.

We started of the workshop by reading sections from her first book, “Tears of Silence”. This was about a woman’s journey from a childhood in Pakistan, to a grown married adult living in England. Shaida’s main influence of this book was the past experience of her own journey. She spoke about how she moved to England after having a different up-bringing in Pakistan. The first chapter of the book was filled with her personal attachment and emotions.

Her second book, “Tears Behind the Veil”, is based on a true story about a thirteen year old girl whose father dies. She is moved from a happy life in Britain to a challenging life in India. The book reflects her struggles and how she had to overcome certain obstacles. Shaida’s main influence on this book was a friend of hers.

Her third book, “Blossom and I”, is about a twenty year old woman who recalls her childhood problems and the effect it has on her family life. It also reflected on how she was treated differently to her brother by her mother. This book was influenced by the loss of Shaida’s mother. There are many segments in the book where she uses her past emotional experiences within the story.

The workshop mainly consisted of questions and answer session. Shaida stated ‘there is a piece of me in every book, which keeps it personal for me’. This was very interesting to see how much these books had meant to her and it made me realise how important a mother and daughter relationship really is. I enjoyed hearing about how Shaida became a writer and how she gets the inspiration to write such powerful and emotional stories.

Cranford Celebrates Book Week

Cranford Community College was honoured to welcome several writers to celebrate its annual Book Week and World Book Day. Staff and students across the school joined in the various initiatives offered to mark this yearly event: Book Exchanges, Workshops, Author Talks, Competitions and a Book Shop to name but a few. Cathy Hopkins author of “Love is at Second Sight” visited year 7 students and said ‘’I was given a great welcome and was most impressed with the focused behaviour of the pupils as well as their intelligent and thoughtful questions. Top marks for a top school.’’ Students were also enthused to meet author and sports journalist Dan Freedman, Dan spoke about his character Jamie Johnson on his journey to be the biggest football star in the world. Dan said “A wonderful day in an inspirational school. Fantastic input and questions from your superb students. Wishing you all the best for many more successful Book Weeks in the future’’

We were also privileged to welcome local author Shaida Mehrban on Friday 8th March 2013 who came to commemorate

Book Exchange in the idyllic world

Behold, the first ever Book Exchange in the idyllic world of Cranford Community College. We found that Cranford’s students enthusiastically waited for the most opportune moment when they could exchange a book for a book ask questions for answers and read to be read. This week encouraged students of sixth form to gain an insight to different works of literature in just seven days.

A levels are a challenging time for us all and even the most avid readers struggle to balance our enthusiasm for literature with our school commitments. Mr. Ladva organised an ideal opportunity for us sixth formers to exchange our old books with other students so as to widen our reading lists but also explore books that we may not have read otherwise. For example, Henna Rattu was kind enough to bring in her spare Harry Potter series and so greatly contributed to the vast collection accumulated throughout the week. In doing this, she was able to pick out books from authors unknown to her from our collection and actually went onto enjoy them. It is for this opportunity and his unwavering support throughout the year, that

Week and World Book Day 2013

International Women’s Day. Shaida met with an enthusiastic group of 6th form students, she told them how she was inspired to write. The students read extracts from her three published books and had the opportunity to ask questions. Shaida is in the process of writing a new book. Shadia said ‘’It was wonderful to see such enthusiastic students who joined us for this short workshop. The students were full of questions, emotional thoughts around the characters and their lives and what was the mental driving force behind the story itself. It was great for me to have come to Cranford Community College today, not only to celebrate Book Week or indeed International Women’s Day but just to inspire women, writing an overall passion for the love of books. Where would we all be if there were no words to paper?’’

Students have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all the activities during the week and I’ve been really pleased with their enthusiasm too.

Mahavir Ladva (Acting LRC Manager)

world of Cranford Community College

we are thankful to Mr Ladva for reminding us that solace, even through A levels, can be found between the covers of a great book.

A special thank you to sixth formers that contributed to the success of Book Week, namely Daman Bedi, who waited in hail and storm for the study centre to open so that he could exchange six, yes six, books for more that were on offer. Credit also goes to Kamaljit Puwar who reluctantly parted with his Twilight series, taking comfort in the knowledge that someone else will be able to enjoy the tales of Edward and Bella as much as he did.

All in all, the main reason that Book Week was a success is because it provided us with a unique opportunity to share our enthusiasm for literature with students and staff. So, here is our message to the next generation: find the Book Ambassadors within yourselves and use Cranford’s Book Week to broaden your literary horizons as Book Week will come to Cranford again next year.

Sabahat Mahmood, Sonela Selgjekaj, Senna Hussain and Henna Rattu (year 13)

Finish My Story Competition

On Friday 8th March 2013 I entered the ‘Finish my Story’ competition. I entered because creating a story with no limits drives my imagination. We were given a piece of paper with a story starter on it.. Luckily I got a line that could help me a lot; ‘the grass was orange, this was not home. And wait what was that in the sky!...’

Horror and mystery stories are engaging because horror creates tension and mystery has twists that explode on an unimaginable scale. But I had a limited amount of words and time. My story starts off with a person seeing strange demons. He remembers that in the past a strange humanoid attacked Earth. In the present these demonic creatures are bowing down to him. He looks in the mirror and finds out he is that strange humanoid. Mr Ladva announced the winners third, second then first. He then said “And first place goes to someone with great talent at a young age…” I thought he wouldn’t announce my name but he did.

Haashim Nisar (year 7)

I really enjoyed the day

Dan Freeman came to the LRC

and talked about his book ‘Kick Off’. It was very inspiring as he showed me that you don’t need to be good at football to have a good time, you just need to try your best. He spoke about how football has been very important to him since he was young. He showed us pictures from his interviews with footballers like Rio Ferdinand. He has created new hope for future footballers and has also given very good tips on writing. I hope he comes next time because everyone including me enjoyed it a lot.

Cathy Hopkins Visit

Cathy Hopkins visited during Book Week. We showed Cathy a short story we had written and she explained to us how to make our writing better. Cathy visited on the 4th March 2013 and spoke about her life and told us how she ended up writing. lf in the future we were given a chance to meet her again we wouldn’t think twice. Although we asked her lots of questions we wish we could have spent more time talking to her.

Sabah Sheikh and Zahra Vora (year 7)

Qasim Nisar (9V)

The British Youth Council Making the youth voice heard

The British Youth Council (BYC) is an excellent service provided by the government in order to enable young people to engage and partake in events and opportunities within local boroughs. These events and opportunities consist of training courses, workshops, and skill crafting as well as leisure opportunities, go-carting, ice skating, theatre trips, and educational activity (e.g museums) trips are also popular.

Regular meetings are held (Mondays and Thursdays). Meetings consist of an agenda created by the current attendees of the council. The Youth Council is chaired by a representative in the group and is able to build essential skills for meetings for future work.

The Youth Council is an enjoyable and rewarding extracurricular opportunity which builds plenty of skills such as confidence, public speaking, and political knowledge.

The youth workers who guide and shadow meetings and ideas are kind, motivational and hardworking individual’s passionate

All in all, the Youth Council is an excellent service, not to mention experience, which provides plenty of opportunities, support or simply a great time. If you wish to find out more about the BYC/youth council, or the opportunities which are provided, please do not hesitate to contact me via email: JadGreisaty@gmail.com

Meetings are held on Mondays and Thursdays at 4:30pm at the Hounslow Youth Centre, Kingsley Road, Hounslow, Middlesex, TW3 1NX

“Don’t Stand Back, Speak Out” Year 9 Crime Conference

February 2013 a group of year 9 students participated in the Annual Crime Conference hosted by the London Borough of Hounslow. It was an all-day event and consisted of many workshops and activities. One of the workshops was to devise a slogan for a poster to stop disability discrimination. Our slogan was ‘Don’t stand back, speak out’

At the end of the day the Mayor arrived and presented the top 3 schools with prizes. Out of the 14 schools represented Cranford Community College came 3rd and each of the 8 students won a £10 gift voucher.

We were very proud of their achievement and they worked hard to represent the school throughout the day.

Catherine Goodwill (Head of year 9)

H.Y.P.E is every Friday from 4.30pm to 7.30pm in the upper gym. If you’re aged 11-17 come and fill out a membership form and join the club.

Your first session is free, after that there is a 50p fee per session which is used for maintenance costs to make sure we can keep the club running and keep providing you with great activities.

We look forward to seeing you at H.Y.P.E. If you have any further questions please ask a member of the year 12 team.

H.Y.P.E - Helping Young People Excel. It’s an exciting youth project run by year 12 students at Cranford Community College: Sara Khan, Sharyar Raja, Navroj Singh, Lishiana Malik, Bishal Tamang, Aman Edwin, Moiz Baber, Nasir Khleif and Mohammed Safi. My team and I realised Cranford needed a place for young people where they could just be themselves and hang out with their friends taking part in fun activities which will help them develop their social skills.

The youth project provides young people with different activities every other week, such as; sports, arts and crafts or even just a place to chill out with friends. The youth project will also provide services such as “level up” workshops, like learning how to DJ, various sports, performing arts, social skills and many other which could lead to additional qualifications equivalent to GCSE’s.

Sara Khan (year 12)

Cranford and Rambert Dance collaboration at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

D uring the Spring term a group of students from years 9, 10, 11 and 12 worked together with the Rambert Dance Company to create a piece which was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in central London. The dancers worked hard over 7 weeks of rehearsals to learn and create their own choreography for the piece. This was a considerable challenge, as contemporary dance was not something they had studied before, but the animator from Rambert Dance worked with them, incorporating the students’ preferred dance styles into the finished piece. On the day of the performance the students were outstanding and a credit to Cranford enthusiastically cheering on other performers. Students and teachers from other collaborating schools commented on how impressed they were with Cranford’s performance, especially as it was the first time our school had been involved with such a project. Despite some nerves, the final performance was fantastic, and already the students are planning how to make next year’s performance bigger and better than before.

Bounce Theatre

Project:

“Breaking the Cycle”

D uring the spring term 2013, 25 students from years 7-13 worked with Bounce Theatre on a creative community project during W Factor.

Students began by identifying positive contributors to a happy society - such as friendship, the environment and equal access to resources. They were then tasked to think about factors that can affect a community.

The students’ broad range of interests and ideas led to the creation of a series of mini projects themed around the idea of ‘Breaking the Cycle’.

Projects included a short series of film clips around bullying and peer pressure, a ‘Welcome to Cranford Community College’ pack for upcoming students, a series of art pieces on happiness and dealing with stress, as well as antibullying written work.

Louise Pendry (Artistic Director. Bounce Theatre)

Well done to; Imran Noorabdul, Pedro Banderra, Bethany Johnson, Hanifa Morgado, Sara Khan, Anjnee Mawkwana, Luishiana Malik, Maria Isaaq, Hoden Jama, Zara Chaudhry, Sheniha Kalyan, Simran Gill, Anju Sing, Sahithya Natarajan, Kriti Thapa, Avenit Arora, Harley Stewart, Rufeiya Abdulrehman, Jagmit Kaur, Gurpreet Wadhwa, Diana Atougia, Sara Rodrigues and Tanveet Hampal.

Rachel Sullivan (PE Department)

“The week was amazing, helping out was a great opportunity and it allowed me to develop my skills. Overall it was a great success and it was fun to run and organise and work alongside friends”.

Sameer Monir (Head Boy)

When I became Head Girl, I was determined to plan and implement a charity week where money would be raised for charity. In January 2013 I was reminded about Red Nose Day (Comic Relief) by Ms. Patel who thought this would be a great opportunity to raise money for a good cause. Once decided, I spoke to others in the quartet (Sameer Monir & Saujanya Natarajan) who then met regularly to think of activities which could take place during the week and help to create the business proposal. When it was approved they spent all their time trying to organise the charity week with how it would work, who would supervise each event etc.

During the week 11th-15th March 2013 there were a number of activities for both staff and students, some of the events which took place were; buying the Comic Relief wristbands, guess the weight of the sweet jar, match the teacher to the baby, the LRC quiz, the Big Cake Sale, the student sweepstake, the staff sweepstake and the staff cake bake off.

During the week many people came together to help make it a success, the following people we would like to give a big thank you for all their dedication and support; Ms. Chapman and Ms. Nanda for allowing the W-factor cooking students to bake some amazing and delicious cupcakes which were sold at the Big Cake Sale: Mr. Dean for supervising the staff sweepstake and Ms. Berndt who organised the staff bake off which had an amazing turn out. A special thank you to Mr. Ladva who organised and supervised the LRC quiz. He used his own time and worked with Ms. Steele to come up with the different categories and questions then after school during the charity week he ran the quiz.

The staff cake bake off was a splendid affair and a competitive one. All the judges really enjoyed tucking into various delicious creations in an effort to decide which the best cake was. Ms Rasulian won the “Queen of Tarts” award for her amazing pink cupcakes with real flowers as decoration and Sahrish Shaikh won the second award for her delicious carrot cake.

By the end of the whole week we raised a grand total of £288.77 raised which does not include the £100.00 raised for the wrist bands.

Thank you to everyone at Cranford who took part in this fundraising event

Chelsea- Ann Cook (Head Girl)

“It was lovely to create an activity for the students in the LRC to raise money for Comic Relief. Ms Steele and I put great thought into the quiz to make it exciting for the students. The students that took part were very competitive and really enjoyed answering a variety of questions. We had 5 categories, British Culture, Sports, Art, Showbiz and Politics. The top scorers all had very close marks so it was a close shave. The most important thing is students were very positive in paying to participate as they knew it was going to such a great cause”.

Mr.Ladva (LRC Manager)

In early October 2012 I was asked if I’d be interested in coaching the choir to enter a Hounslow collaborative concert to take place at the Festival Hall in March 2013.

I jumped at the opportunity as I believed it would give the students such an inspirational experience. So the practising of Karl Jenkins “Adoramus” commenced where we would be joining other Hounslow choirs to perform a mass sing out at the Festival Hall. The concert was created to showcase the talent in Hounslow and I felt the choir truly illustrated just how talented and wonderful Cranford students really are.

I was nervous for the choir, it was the first time I have ever done something like this so for months I was just hoping that I could get them up to scratch. They, however, far exceeded my expectations. The beautiful sound they made was breath-taking and they were by far the best on the night. They made me so proud and all their hard work really paid off. Well Done Cranford choir.

“As the only boy in the choir I was a bit afraid, but at our dress rehearsal I saw so many other guys and this made me feel better. It made me realise that when you mix both types of voices it really becomes a powerful thing that makes people listen. Ms Hibbins said we gave her goose bumps! It was such a special experience and I can’t wait to go again”.

“My performance at the Royal Festival Hall, memorable and exhilarating was truly unlike any other. Our long exhausting journey was worth the wait as the Festival Hall was overwhelming with its full audience that gave us a huge positive response and a standing ovation. It was the most nerve-wracking day of my life so far and I’m sure it was for my group so it was a relief when the audience responded so enthusiastically. It made us feel very proud as a choir as we performed the best we could in the time we had to rehearse so as a whole it was nice to receive something so touching in return from the audience. I would also like to say a massive thanks to Ms Hibbins who helped us as a choir to rehearse giving up her own time and having to organise everything in time for the performance and I’m happy to say that we all sang together including Ms Hibbins which gave us the confidence to perform in front of such a vast audience. To sum up my day at the Royal Festival Hall, it is an experience I will never forget. And I look forward to performing in the future with my fellow choristers”.

Cranford Community College future Boxing Champion

In 2012 Cranford Community College opened its first boxing school for young people to learn the skills required to be a boxer including, self-discipline, stamina and hard work.

Ahmad Panazada in year 11 was inspired to take on this challenge and has proved to be a very talented young boxer, competing in various championships. He has to date had 3 amateur fights and won all three. Quite an achievement. Well done Ahmad.

“My name is Ahmad and I love boxing. I got interested in boxing last year. I found passion for boxing and I promised myself and my coach and my mum that one day I will be a great champion and an Olympic gold medallist. Boxing means the world to me, without it I feel a sense of emptiness. It gives me a purpose in life as I feel like I am working towards achieving success. Boxing has made me a calmer person and helped me improve my self- discipline”.

Ahmad Panazada (year 11)

Rebecca Green (year 11 - Head Choir girl)

Abinav Bhattachan (year 11)

Katie Hibbins (Humanities Faculty/Cranford Choir Leader)