CR June 2014

Cranford Review

Cranford Community College has gone from strength to strength, and even more so this year. It continues to build from achieving the full set of top grades in its Ofsted inspection in October 2012 and the school being described as being ‘beyond outstanding’.

In addition to the Ofsted inspection, Cranford Community College ensures that its teaching remains of the highest quality by being involved in several school improvement organisations such as PixL, Hounslow EiP and Challenge Partners (CP).

As part of ‘Challenge Partners’, the school is inspected once a year by a qualified team including a Lead Ofsted Inspector. The inspection took place this in March 2014, and the outcomes confirmed the school’s existing Ofsted grading of ‘beyond outstanding’.

The headlines are:

The QUALITY OF TEACHING is confirmed as OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT is confirmed as OUTSTANDING SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES were judged to be OUTSTANDING

The inspectors concluded OVERALL that Cranford Community College is FIRMLY into the OUTSTANDING grade in Ofsted terms. Every member of the team found the school to be a truly remarkable place.

The school had asked for 2 specific ‘areas of excellence’ to be reviewed. These were ‘Curriculum & Behaviour’ and ‘Community and Partnerships’. Both areas were confirmed as an outstanding area of excellence ‘and inspectors commented in the oral part of the feedback that this had been achieved ‘ and some’ .

An incredible achievement, even in Cranford terms, was the very, very high percentage of outstanding teaching that the inspectors encountered. There was a massive 96% OUTSTANDING teaching over time (of which over 79% was judged as strongly outstanding)

This is an absolutely remarkable accomplishment and one that many schools would surely envy. This should make all colleagues, Governors, students and parents really proud!

The team saw exemplary behaviour in terms of pupil engagement, positive pupil-staff, pupil-pupil and staff-staff relationships and they also noted that they had seen absolutely zero low-level disruption. Behaviour FOR LEARNING was judged as exceptional and the school’s commitment to ‘Restorative Justice’ came in for high praise.

Inspectors commented that ‘Teachers have excellent subject knowledge and an impressive knowledge of exam specifications which is used to help pupils towards gaining the highest grades, and learning has a strong ethos of fun and enjoyment. Expectations and challenge are high and there is thorough marking although pupil engagement with this feedback needs to be developed further. The school is consistent in its ethos, systems, expectations, values and processes. Reading, writing and communication are also strengths and there is effective use of various graphic organisers by pupils and across subjects’.

They added that ‘This school is outward looking, awe-inspiring and exciting’.

The team were impressed by the level of resource to enable so many things to happen and to meet the needs of such a wide range of pupils. The school’s capacity was also judged as a strength.

Kevin Prunty (Executive Headteacher and Director, National Leader of Education)

On Tuesday 11th February

2014 Cranford Community College Silver and Bronze Award students attended their Duke of Edinburgh Award’s celebration which was held at Lampton School. It was an opportunity for the students to receive their badges and certificates for all their hard work.

I felt very proud seeing so many of our students being recognised for their success and I would like to thank all the staff who helped out with the D of E Award Scheme at Cranford for the past two years, without whose hard work and determination these students would not have achieved this award.

Thank you to; Priscilla Ledlie, Katie Hibbins, Kevin Biggs, Pam Mehay, Michelle Cousins, Aaron Sohi, Rachel Sullivan and Richard Parris as well as Paul, Harmeet and Brijinder from the local cadet unit and those colleagues who have offered assistance this year.

Simon Dean (Assistant Head of SchoolD of E Leader)

The Crime Prevention workshop is a joint initiative between Cranford Community College, the Safer Schools Partnership Police Officer, the Local Neighbourhood Police Team and the Hounslow Community Safety Team. The elderly are often targeted by criminals who will engage them in conversation and deceive them into believing that they are looking after their interests. The criminals have ulterior motives and will aim to con or to steal from the vulnerable elderly victims.

Crime Prevention

Young people are often vilified in today’s society and are seen as lacking respect morals, always in engaging in anti-social behaviour. We want to change this perception by involving young people in this project and by doing so, show that both young people do care about the vulnerable in their community.

The aim of the workshop was to raise awareness of local vulnerable members of the community, mainly elderly residents in spotting those who wish to con them and how to prevent themselves becoming the victims of crime. It aimed to demonstrate collaboration and partnership working of various organisations and agencies and bridge the age-divide to show young people in a positive manner working to safeguard elderly members of the community.

Students from Cranford Community College working with the Safer Schools Partnership Police Officer performed a series of short rôle plays and workshops to different groups. The plays highlighted scenarios including; “Preventing burglary”, “How to beat the bogus caller” and “Courier fraud”.

I would like to thank Cranford Community College for allowing Jade Roopraye and Savas Barima (year 11) and Imran Noorabdul and Olusegun Babatunde (year 12), to take part in a crime prevention initiative.. The students who performed were a credit to themselves and to Cranford Community College. I was proud to be part of this collaboration seeing the students perform to a live audience of 80 people at the Paul Robeson Theatre, Hounslow in such a professional manner. The students had limited rehearsal time, but improvised and showcased their acting and improvisation talents.

PC Danny Macintosh (Safer Schools Officer)

We

arrived at Jamie’s Farm on a Monday afternoon and immediately were made to feel so welcome.

Over a cup of tea and some homemade flapjacks we all sat around the table and were told what we could expect over the next five days. We had a walk around the farm including a lesson on what happens when we touch an electric fence. Every afternoon we would go on a walk which lasted about 2 hours. It is very hilly around Jamie’s Farm and the walks could be really difficult but students, Cranford and Jamie’s Farm staff all helped each other along with encouragement and sometimes a helping hand.

Every day was jam-packed full of different activities from cleaning the pigs and cows out, gardening and collecting vegetables for the meals to preparing and cooking delicious home cooked meals, chopping wood, making rugs out of sheep fleece, feeding the animals, grooming horses and leading them in the training ring to even delivering baby lamb it was absolutely amazing. All of the meals were eaten at a huge table as a large family and at the end of every meal we all took turns in saying how we felt and also shouting out the name of someone who we had noticed had done something really good that day. Very quickly the farm felt like home and it was as though we were just one very large caring family. It really was non-stop from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. when everyone was just about ready for bed (and we were all very grateful for the hot water bottles that we had).

The Jamie’s Farm Experience

The students were an absolute credit to Cranford and it has been fantastic to see how much they all got from the experience. You can’t help but smile at the many happy memories that we all have of our time there.

Vanessa Tutt (SEN Department)

“I think I did really well because I learnt a lot and overcame some challenges.

I delivered a lamb which is a highlight for me; I can’t believe I did that!

Also eating all kinds of different food that I don’t normally try was good. The teachers helped me a lot, especially on the long walks where we all kind of helped each other along. The farm really helped me be independent which is what I need to do”.

Rohan Sharma (year 10)

“I loved working with the horses. I liked Cracker the best. It was fun, we cleaned the stable and groomed the horses. When we went in the ring with the horse I was kind of scared at first but Rachel helped me and by the end I could talk to the horse and get him to walk, trot and canter just by my voice.

The food was so delicious – freshly made and healthy. The staff at the farm were so nice and really helped me a lot. I liked going to Annie’s farm (next door) and the piglets there were so cute, but they smelt so bad. Annie was really good and I liked her a lot.

The teachers were really good too. Ms Saini was nice and Ms Tutt was great. She tried everything (even though she is older) and she got better and better at climbing fences and getting over gates”.

Ria Jarvest (year 8)

“I had a truly life changing experience at Jamie’s farm; it was an opportunity to get to know some of our wonderful pupils in a way that is just not always possible in school: one that I am thankful for”.

Aaron Sohi (English Department)

“Jamie’s Farm was an amazing experience for students and staff. We were lucky enough to be there at lambing time, and I will never forget holding a new born baby lamb; something I never thought I would do, and to actually be able to stroke Valerie the bull.

The staff at Jamie’s farm are the most caring group of people. The change they made to the students and also my outlook on life will stay in our memories forever”.

Julie Prunty (Support Staff)

“My experience of Jamie’s Farm was fabulous. I highly recommend it. I learnt a lot about farm animals, the students and myself. Visiting the farm was challenging as I was out of my comfort zone and pushed my boundaries to experience new things.”

Nisha Saini (Support Staff)

National Science and Engineering Week ran from 14th - 21st March 2014. The aim of the week was to celebrate science, engineering and technology and its importance in our lives. This year the Science Department at Cranford put on a number of special events to celebrate the occasion. Members of the department conducted experiments on the blue spot each morning before school. As the pupils gathered round to watch, the screaming jelly baby and the soda snake proved to be real crowd pleasers. There were plenty of opportunities for topical debates in form times as there was a science thought for each day of the week; topics ranged from the future of life on earth to inventions that changed the world and designer babies. Special science themed assemblies were given and one member of the department could be seen dressed as a mad scientist for a day. The science fun continued after school when pupils debated who the greatest scientist of all time is and year 7 and 8 pupils set about building chain reaction contraptions in B103. The week was rounded off in style with a final celebration and a party hosted by the department. Next year’s event will run from 13th - 22nd March 2015 and the department will be hoping to make this bigger and more exciting than ever and hope that even more pupils will get involved in the fun.

Craig Appleby (Science Department)

National Orchestra For All

During the spring term 2014, Cranford’s NOFA ensemble group has gone from strength to strength.

Having had our debut concert in December 2013, this spring our focus has been on two main opportunities: a rehearsal day in London with students from across the capital, and our Spring Concert, here at Cranford.

The National Orchestra for All (NOFA) is an organisation that aims to provide any enthusiastic student, regardless of ability, with opportunities to participate in ensemble music making. This year they have launched the Conductors for Change (CFC) project which supports schools in expanding these opportunities and performing music together, and last term they brought all participating schools together in a rehearsal day at Highbury Grove School.

On Saturday, 15th March 2014, Mr Wambua and I met with twelve of our dedicated members to travel into London to attend this event. The day started with a physical warm-up in which we learnt a range of different body percussion sounds we could make. After this we broke away into smaller groups to work on the music we had been practising at school. Over the course of the day students got a chance to work with a range of professional musicians and other music students from around London, including having a go at conducting.

After returning to school, the focus moved to our concert on Wednesday 19th March 2014. We once again welcomed students and staff from Feltham Community College to join us in a really exciting concert. We rehearsed all afternoon, with the students showing impressive focus and mature attitudes. The concert started at 6 p.m. and featured solo performances from both schools. The finale was the large ensemble pieces we had been rehearsing at the conducting day, featuring all the students involved from both schools. Arranged especially for this project by NOFA’s resident composer, we played our version of Benjamin Britten’s “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”, followed by a piece called “Shackles”.

The school’s NOFA ensemble is currently rehearsing in WFactor, preparing for another concert. Building on the success of the last, it will be held in the Memorial Garden at Cranford Community College on Wednesday 2nd July 2014. If you would like to attend please contact Leah Mirsky, lmi-cc@cranford.hounslow.sch.uk

Leah Mirsky (Music Department)

On Saturday 15th March 2014, we went to take part in playing music with students from another school. It was a worthwhile trip and we all had a lot of fun learning new pieces of music. We were split into groups to work with other students and it helped build our confidence as some of us took turns to stand up and conduct. We got to learn the music with a larger group of about 40 students which is bigger than we usually do.

I am glad that we went on the trip and we got to play our music all together which made me feel as if I was in a real orchestra. I think we benefitted a lot from this trip, new skills, such as learning how to play our music with dynamics and at different tempos.

On Thursday 3rd April 2014, year 10 GCSE musicians gathered to show off their performance skills to an audience of parents, students and staff. Students have been working hard on preparing solo performances for Unit 1 of their GCSE course and there was an impressive range of talent on show, from Carnatic music played on Indian Classical instruments, to performances which had been sequenced on the computers as well as a range of singers, guitarists, drummers and keyboard players. The performances were of a very high standard and the audience was thrilled. Well done to everyone involved.

The students are continuing to develop their skills and there will be another performance from this talented group of students taking place on Monday 7th July 2014.

Carmen Mya Gaur (year 9)

Music Department

GCSE Music Showcase

Book Week

World Book Day is a UNESCO initiative to celebrate reading and books. At Cranford we did not hold back on the celebrations which we made into a week of events and activities. We purchased several new titles beforehand for students to enjoy. We had two fantastic authors and a spoken word artist come and visit us too.

Chris Bradford is the author of the Young Samurai and BODYGUARD series. He has written 15 fiction books to date, been published in more than 20 languages and nominated for over 23 book awards, including the shortlist for the Red House Children’s Book Award 2009 and winner of the Northern Ireland Book Awards 2011.

Meg Rosoff is an award winning author of titles like “Picture Me Gone”, “Just In Case”, “There Is No Dog” and “How I Live Now”, which also has been made into a motion picture. Meg has won the Carnegie and Guardian Children fiction prize as well as being shortlisted for US National Book award, LA Times shortlist.

Molly Case, who’s studying at the Royal College of Nursing, performed her “Nursing The Nation” spoken word poetry to a packed room of students. Molly’s words echoed across the LRC when she shared her work with us. She inspired students to write their own creative pieces.

Our school was also represented by year 9 students in a cross borough event called the Hounslow Teen Read. Several students met Matt Dickinson who spoke about his upcoming book “The Everest Files”, Matt has also created a documentary for National Geographic. Students attended to hear the announcement of the Hounslow Teen Read winner they read a selection of 6 books from a list that was collated by the Hounslow School Librarians.

There was a great atmosphere within the LRC; we held a Book Shop everyday as well as a range of activities during both breaks. Students could take part in ‘Write an opening to an adventure book’, the 12 Word Story competition, and the Chris Bradford quiz and treasure hunt themed around past present author events. Our 6th Form students could take part in a write a 20 word story competition. We thoroughly enjoyed holding this book week and thank all students who so enthusiastically took part in all that we had to offer. We can’t wait for next year. Happy reading.

On Wednesday, 5th March 2014, Chris Bradford courtesy of our Book Week. As we filed wearing dark sunglasses. For a while, I thought and whiteboard ready for Chris’s awesome presentation. when Mr Ladva announced the beginning of the A gunshot!

Chris Bradford sprang into action and grabbed Mr dragged Mr Ladva out of the room and kicked open entered the room again and introduced himself. and pointed to the series logo, on the whiteboard. explained some information about the series. camera and one boy pointed to the fake coke can the spying device. Chris showed us some footage there was nothing embarrassing. Then he told us the first book in Bodyguard. He asked for some as high as I could and was lucky enough to be to one side and told me that I was to be the “mystery screaming loudly when he pointed his water pistol the audience out of the calming reading. We all our clothes. I don’t think anyone minded.

Chris Bradford then showed us videos of bodyguard had taken bodyguard lessons and had become a bodyguard formations and asked some volunteers bodyguard codes such as the Cooper colour code and how some Chinese bodyguards train by smashing focus to his other series, “Young Samurai”.

He gave us some facts about the new book and television and then told us to make a bit of space. Then he bag and started to demonstrate its strength. He told through the middle. Awesome. After that, he showed Push and “Pain Assisted Learning” which looked

In the end, he signed our books and I bought a signed by Chris Bradford, smiling as I gabbled got in a photo with him. Biscuits and nibbles were off a phenomenal afternoon.

Kiran Gawali, Mahavir Ladva, Clare Ghazi-Harsini (The LRC and Study Centres Team)

Chris Bradford

Review

Bradford visited Cranford Community College, filed in slowly, he stood at the front of the room thought he was just a technician, getting the room presentation. But I soon realised his true identity the presentation. And it started off with a bang.

Mr Ladva, narrowly missing the fake bullet, he open the door. What a show! After that, Chris He spoke about his new series, “Bodyguard”, whiteboard. After that he showed us some slides and At one point he asked us to find the hidden can Chris had on his desk, correctly guessing footage of us coming into the library but thankfully that he was going to do a reading of “Rescue”, some volunteers beforehand and I put my hand up chosen alongside another girl. He pulled me “mystery screamer”, returning to my seat and pistol at me. I did my job magnificently, shocking were shot with the water gun though, soaking

bodyguard training and even disclosed to us that he a licensed bodyguard. He showed us a clip on volunteers to protect him. Cool. After explaining some code (different colours for each stage of alertness) smashing bottles on their heads, he shifted our

television series that would be coming out soon he took his katana (samurai sword) out of his told two students to hold paper and cut cleanly showed us some martial arts such as the One inch looked very painful to experience.

copy of the “Way of the Dragon” which was on about how much I liked his work. I even were available afterwards, a tasty treat to top

Molly Case Review

I walk into the study centre as I usually do and I see a projector set up and a young woman. With a confused look on my face, Mr Ladva explains that the young woman’s name is Molly Case. She is a spoken word artist, which for those of you who don’t know, is someone who writes their own poetry and performs it by reading it aloud with lots of emotion and with dramatical effect, similar to rappers. Coincidentally it was a rapper who inspired her, the lyrical genius of Eminem. The workshop was looking at how to write and what things to include to engage and connect with the audience, it was a very interesting and informative talk. We also got to see some of her work, which really captured our imagination and inspired us to do some writing for ourselves. You can check out her work on her YouTube channel “Molly Case”.

Hardeep Rai (year 13)

Meg Rosoff Review

“I don’t get nearly enough credit in life for the things I manage not to say.”

Meg Rosoff, author of widely acclaimed novel, “How I Live Now”, which is now also a motion picture, paid a visit to our school for Book Week 2014. This event attracted the attention not only of students but also teachers. From her amazingly catchy accent to her enthusiasm about how she began to write at the age of 42, she had all the pupils and teachers at Cranford hanging on her every word.

Her enthusiastic attitude and ability to turn every negative thing into something positive were inspiring. We loved the ideas that changed her life, such as buying a hat, which led her to her husband, now of many years, as it gave us an insight into how life can be truly surprising. Rosoff’s storylines proved to be inspiring to the young writers here at Cranford and left us believing that anything can be worth writing about.

Rosoff’s devastating story of her sister’s death engaged the audience and made us think of the importance to grab every opportunity with both hands and to never let go. Meg’s career may have grown to a point she least expected, but this has only been beneficial for us readers as we are able to surround ourselves in the fictional but beautiful and magical world she creates.

Life, truly, doesn’t have to be a straight line...

Harshita Bedhi & Harinder Ahluwalia (year 13)

Physical Education at Cranford

Living for Sport: Hockey Player

Meeting Helen Richardson was an amazing experience; we learnt, most importantly, a lot about perseverance and cooperation. She was very open about her own experiences and what she gained through them and she shared this with us, making it imperative never to give up in any aspect of your life regardless whether related to sport. We completed a series of team building activities in which it was necessary for every member of the team to work together in order to successfully complete it. From this, we learnt that communication is key as well as leadership and determination as some groups failed on the first try because of their lack of ability to listen to all members of their group, however they persevered and finished albeit last. This demonstrated the importance of perseverance in completing any task and we learnt this important lesson from Helen Richardson-Walsh.

Fizza Amjad (year 11)

Living for Sport: Boxer Hannah Barry

We were told that we were going to get spoken to by a female boxer, I didn’t know much about her and I presumed it would be a motivational speech comparing life to boxing metaphorically; however it was something completely different. She walked in and immediately her presence was known despite her small stature, she had an aura about her and it caught everyone’s attention. She spoke about her life to us; it was a life that most of us could only imagine, filled with domestic violence, drugs, gangs and her being excluded from school on numerous occasions but from looking at her and seeing the professional manner in which she carried herself I would never have believed it. After all that she has been through, all the doors shut in her face and despite all the abuse both physical and mental that she experienced, she became one of Britain’s greatest female boxers and beat the famous Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams on two occasions. This success did not happen overnight; it took thousands of hours of hard training and was due to her making the right decisions from a young age. She could have lived a life of crime and done nothing with herself but she turned her back to that life and channelled her energy into something positive. So I ask you, what will you channel your energy into; schoolwork and sports or the PS3? And will you realise that in order to be successful you have to put in the work today to build the foundations of your future, SATs lead to GCSEs lead to A levels leading to university which eventually leads you to the career that you aspired to all those years ago. So I urge you to make a positive change today to better your future.

Sky Sports Living for Sport Games

Iattended in Osterley an event with my other team leaders and teachers. On that day, I helped Sky Sport members and volunteers to work with children from primary schools participate in and enjoy the sports that were on offer. I first had a warm up session with my team leaders and volunteers and got to introduce myself to the volunteers. The volunteers were enthusiastic and fun to be around with. Then we got into small groups and helped a small group of children warm up and get prepared for the sports and called our group: Team GB. We got the little children to participate and helped push themselves to the limit so that we could win and get as many points as possible. Although we didn’t win, the volunteers, the children and I enjoyed the day which was the most important objective of this event. I should like to thank the kind volunteers, children and the Sky Sport members for making such an amazing event. If I could, I would do this event again with the children.

Tania Pereira (year 11)

Step into Dance group

Our BTec Dance group has been taking part in after-school sessions for different dance activities. We previously took part in Capoeira sessions, where a teacher came in and taught us different types of brand new moves. Recently a coach called Wade has been coming to these sessions to lead sessions on Urban and Street dance. It has been a really good experience and has helped me widen my range of choreography and improve my performance.

These sessions are enjoyable and energetic as he teaches the class. I find these sessions useful as they help me with teamwork by dancing in a group. These sessions are helping with different ways of movement to dance and giving me more experience on transitions and how to work together with dynamic synchronisation in our dance. Capoeira has given me a big insight into dancing.

Pedro Bandarra (year 12)

Bethany Johnson (year 12)

Cranford Celebrates Sports Relief 2014

Sports Relief 2014 at Cranford needed to be bigger and better than ever. We wanted to raise £500 by students being active in helping those less fortunate than themselves. The Physical Education Department thought long and hard on what we could run that would be quick, fun and engaging. Our ideas culminated in three mini competitions held on the mornings of Thursday 20th and Friday 21st March 2014 with the live band finishing with The Red Mile on the Friday after school.

PowerPoint presentations were sent to Heads of Year and tutors to capture the students’ enthusiasm and we were not disappointed by the numbers of staff and students who took part.

The crowd gathered to put the pressure on for the quickest 3 shots scored and the most “keepie ups” completed in 30 seconds. Students were engrossed and wanted to compete at every opportunity to beat the best score by other students and teachers.

To complete the programme in style was of course The Red Mile with the finishing straight along the concourse; a nice crowd gathered to watch the competitors and were in for a treat. The students and staff went all out for the wear the red element. The mile looked fantastic with people running, skipping, and strolling round, (some 3 legged competitors as well) to help raise money and awareness of the plight of others.

The quickest “3 shots” prize went to Fatima Thabitt (year 8); the most “keepie ups” prize went to Jay Sihota (year 8); the “best dressed” prize went to Diana Atougia (year 11) and the winner of the mile went to Michael Gathinji (year 11). 8T raised the most money for Sports Relief, an amazing effort from a form group pulling together.

We would like to thank our two 6th formers who dressed up and helped out the two mornings in their Sports Relief gear and looked amazing. (In total Cranford Community College raised over £660, the most we have ever raised, hopefully the next sports relief will be bigger, better and redder. Bring on the challenge.

Anita Fiddes (second in PE Department)

A new year brings new opportunities

WFactor 2014 has begun with some exciting new opportunities for students and staff along with some old favourites. “Know Your City” enjoyed visits to the National Grid, Osterley House and the Urban Farm whilst the new Archaeology group discovered there is more to learn about this local area and our school grounds hold many interesting objects buried in the earth.

Puppet Making has become extremely popular and the creative talents of our students have been realised through the imaginary puppet characters they have invented. In addition model making has inspired students to try their hand to build replicas of Hampton Court Palace.

Our exotic animals’ collection has grown with the introduction of some new reptiles and for the first time we have some eggs laid by the lizards. It will be interesting to see if they hatch.

WFactor Archaeology

This spring the Archaeology group has been discovering lots of things about the past, exploring our local area and using metal detectors to search for artefacts in the school grounds. Disappointingly we have found nothing more exciting than an old button, a piece of floor tile and a rusty old Coke can, but we will find something – we just need to keep looking.

The students have learnt all about what life was like in the Stone Age and have tried to make flint tools. We wove together some branches to make a simple fence and discovered how difficult it must have been to transport the enormous stones that made Stonehenge, all the way from Wales. In our reconstruction we dragged bricks across the playground and tried to work out how they managed to stand them up.

We visited Syon House and met a real archaeologist who had been on the Time Team episode about the “Lost Abbey of Syon”. He told us all about the Roman roadside settlement that was discovered when building a new hotel and showed us some real Roman pottery and a skeleton of an extra-ordinarily tall man which is kept in the crypt.

On our trip to Cranford Park we looked at the site of the old manor house that stood there for almost 700 years – only the stable block and the ha-ha wall remain. In St. Dunstan’s church cemetery we found some really old graves and wondered what life would have been like for the inhabitants of the tiny village of Cranford (mentioned in the Domesday Book). We discovered that where the school is today used to be one of the best dairy farms in the area – famous for its creamy milk.

Our last trip was to St Leonard’s church in Heston where we started our research into World War One. We found lots of graves from 1914-19 and are looking forward to discovering some stories about the war effort in our area to contribute to Activities week in the summer.

Cath Goold and Tracey Chapman (WFactor Archeology)

Jessica Joyce (WFactor organiser)

Our Epic World Challenge Journey

Overthe last year, we have been working towards our World Challenge expedition. As a group of 14 students (eleven students from year 10 and three from year 9), we have had to fundraise £1429 each. We’ve worked towards our target by organising various different events such as: cake sales, hot chocolate stands, mufti days, an Easter egg hunt and much more. Some of the things we have organised outside of school are: bag packing, sponsored events, tutoring and our tuck shop.

To date, as a group, we have raised through activities at school £6527.14 of which we are very proud. But we still have a long way to go and more money to raise before we embark on our journey to Morocco.

On our expedition we will be helping a local community thrive by increasing their opportunities of having a sustainable education. We wish to thank everyone who has contributed to our phenomenal journey over the last year. And an even bigger thank you to our amazing team leader, Ms Hibbins for putting in countless hours, her limitless optimism and her boundless love – we couldn’t have done it without her.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to build on my skills as an independent learner. But most of all, the trip to Morocco excites me because I want the opportunity to help others. Helping to build a school is a once in a life time opportunity and we’ve been working really hard to reach our aim. I’ve been tutoring at the weekends to build up funds for the trip and helping at the school tuck shop we have set up”.

Rufayda Sahal (year 9)

“Naveed remembers my full name and is adamant that on expedition I should not be known as Sarhi but Sahithya Natarajan. I think quirks like this show how together we are as a group now, compared to the beginning of the year when we were afraid to speak. As a group we’ve made new friendships and it’s allowed us to become extremely proactive, independently, wanting to learn and gain something for ourselves. I feel proud of myself that I’ve been able to raise so much money. I really cannot wait to go to Morocco and enjoy the trekking and the camping; it’s such an amazing opportunity and I really can’t wait”.

Sahithya Natarajan (year 10)

“Working together as a team has been the major learning curve for me. Remembering that this trip isn’t just about me but the people I have come to know like family this year. Coming up with sponsorship ideas and learning how to put up a tent is a little insight into what we do. I can’t wait for the summer, I really can’t.”

Muhammad Subhan (year 10)

“Going into World Challenge, I knew it would be difficult, first to raise the money and then the expedition itself. Despite this, it was a challenge I chose to take on board and long to complete. Fundraising over the course of a year and coming up with ideas for my own individual fundraising was anything but easy, but it is a task that we have worked on together. Helping each other has been a big part of the journey and something Ms Hibbins said what we must do is, “support each other”.

Muhammad Sarwar (year 10)

Najma Hersi & Nameerah Ahmed (year 10)