OUTSTANDING
Hot on the heels of an excellent OFSTED inspection and report in March 2008, Cranford Community College welcomed inspectors to the English department in December 2008 to prove once again that the school’s excellence agenda is really having an impact. OFSTED reported:
Achievement and Standards: OUTSTANDING
Quality of Teaching and Learning: OUTSTANDING
Quality of Curriculum: OUTSTANDING
Leadership and Management: OUTSTANDING
the Reading Challenge mentoring with sixth form and younger students, outstanding independent learning opportunities through media studies and film editing projects and the nationally acclaimed First Story writers’ project led by Author in Residence William Fiennes.
‘The overall effectiveness of English was judged to be outstanding’.
The inspector collected evidence from lesson observations, pupil panels, interviews and an analysis of pupils’ work as well as a range of extra curricular and enrichment projects focussing upon creativity in English. These included the English Excellence Evening,
The inspector made specific note in his report of the superb creativity opportunities for students; “As the college song - itself a creative initiative involving students in contributing to the making of a professional DVD - says, the students are on journeys of personal growth and the English department significantly contributes to this”.
The published report can now be read on the OFSTED website at: www.ofsted.co.uk or on the school website at: www.cranford.hounslow.sch.uk
Cranford Community College, High Street, Cranford, Hounslow. TW5 9PD - Tel: 020 8897 2001 - www.cranford.hounslow.sch.uk
Science Excellence Evening Celebration
Have you ever wondered what school would be like when teachers and students work together in harmony on a project? This is exactly what happened on 4th November 2008 as Cranford celebrated its first ever Science Excellence Evening.
Guests were first guided through the science labs where many were introduced to the joys of science by the students. The atmosphere buzzed as volcanoes erupted; hair was electrofied; rats were dissected and real life forensic investigations were carried out. Students from years 7 - 13 worked to showcase the best of the science department with an exciting experiment at every turn with even the most challenging questions readily answered.
Dr Simon Singh (renowned scientist and author of several award winning books) showed the impact of science on every aspect of life and his speech captivated the audience. This was followed by prizes and certificates to over forty award winning young scientists at Cranford.
The celebration concluded as the audience was treated to a spectacular science show by Dr. Jasmine Pradissito and a performance by two sixth form studentsRoland Preece and Bhuwan Limbu who performed ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, The evening was a scientific inspiration for all.
Diwali
Cranford Community College held an evening of excellence in celebration of Diwali on Tuesday 21st October 2008. Invited guests, parents, staff, students and their families enjoyed a programme of traditional dance, song and story telling through drama. The event was hosted by the Head boy Bhavin Bhatt and Head girl Mandeep Bath and concluded with the sharing of Diwali foods and sweets.
Southall Black Sisters get festive boost
Domestic violence charity Southall Black Sisters received a massive cash boost just before Christmas after kind-hearted young citizens from Cranford Community College took part in a Secret Millionairestyle competition.
Students divided into six teams of four and were challenged to find the most deserving local charity. They made the case for their chosen trusts in a series of presentations before a panel of judges who decided which organisation was the most deserving.
The winning quartet consisted of year 9 students, Manisha Das, Ikram Abukar, Jamal Asskoumi and Rajmeet Savna. Emily Miller, Programme Associate for the Institute for Philanthropy, said judges had been impressed by the level of research the pupils had put into their chosen charity.
“They won because they were clearly very passionate about their charity and had been inspired by visiting and speaking to members.”
The winning group presented a £3,000 donation to members of Southall Black Sisters after being given the money as part of the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, set up to encourage people to contribute to their community.
Presentation Evening: “Success by Numbers” is no accident at Cranford Community College
Thursday 20th November 2008 saw the annual Presentation of Awards Evening ably hosted by the Head boy, Bhavin Bhatt, Head girl Mandeep Bath and their two Deputies; Esther Nicoll and Bhuwan Limbu. This evening of celebration was shared by a 250 strong audience of members of the Governing Body, invited guests, students and their parents who all joined together to applaud the achievements of Cranford over the past year.
‘Success by Numbers’ was the theme for the evening. This theme truly reflected the extensive individual and school successes enjoyed by Cranford and the wider community with over 50 prizes awarded. Four additional prizes for excellence in science sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline were presented by Dr. Ambily Barerjee, a former Cranford student and now Principal
William Fiennes, author of ‘The Snow Geese’ and Director of the First Story Project said how delighted he was in being invited to be guest speaker and to hand out awards to the prize winners. He spoke with great affection about his close association with the students and staff at Cranford through the First Story initiative and how inspired he was by the talent and creativity of the young writers he had the pleasure to work with.
The evening also celebrated the work of students through the performance arts. Over 80 students took part performing a dance piece by students in year seven. A new song, created by the Director of Performing Arts Mr. Declan McKeever entitled “The Better we are together” and the first taste of the year 10 Creative and Media Diploma production “Sinner 2 Saint” a completely original musical, designed, devised, produced and performed by the students.
The evening concluded with the first full showing of the school DVD “Journey” a music project in celebration of Cranford.
There is no doubt that everyone who attended the evening said how proud they were to be associated with Cranford. Councillor Paul Lynch, Lead Member, Children Services and Education reiterated this by saying a few words of congratulations, but it can best be summed up by the words of the sixth
“Success is a recurring theme here at Cranford. The Oxford dictionary defines success as the “accomplishment of an aim or purpose”. But we feel Cranford defines success much better. Ours is a school that consistently achieves high standards, and then looks to push the bar even further. A school that sets aims and achieves them as one whole community. A school where success is enjoyed simultaneously throughout.”
On Thursday 9th December 2008 Cranford Community College held its English Excellence Evening to celebrate student achievement and learning in English. Guests were invited to take a journey through literary history guided by students dressed as Dr. Who. The English department was transformed into a variety of time capsules which represented a different period in literary history from gothic writing, war poetry and modern Shakespeare to the power of the word in the 21st century. Students entertained and made presentations to an invited audience of parents, staff, students and members of the Governing Body who took part in the learning activities led by the students. The evening was attended by Cranford’s Author in Residence, Williams Fiennes who presented books to eight talented writers awarded for excellence in specific fields of literary writing.
The sixth form hosts for the evening, Esther Nicoll and Jay Bhadricha, previously recognised for their own literary talents in the First Story Project, spoke eloquently about the importance of language and creative writing as a means of expressing ideas and feelings. The evening
PROGRESSING EXCELLENCE
On Saturday 13th December 2008 the student-run music company, T.A.P. held a battle of the bands event at Cranford Community College entitled ‘Pulse!’. More than 50 students, fans, teachers and parents turned up to see the unsigned competing bands ‘Drop Out Luke’, ‘Ultraviolet’ and the winners, ‘Windhale’ each play three original songs. All six judges including the Head teacher of the school, Mr. Kevin Prunty and the Blastbeat Regional Manager for London, Michael Matthews agreed that the standard of each of the performances was phenomenally high but finally chose the heavy metal band to win the £100 cash prize and an automatic place in the BlastBeat regional finals in April 2009. A further prize of a limited edition Epiphone guitar for the best performer was awarded to Ultraviolet’s guitarist Bhuwan Limbu.
The audience then enjoyed performances from guest artists including Horizon, Nitasha, Justin Jonson and fifteen year old Cranford student, Harkiran Bhamra as well as the popular signed bands, fiN. and The Vibrants who ended the night with an energetic and crowd-pleasing set.
Director of Performing Arts, Declan McKeever said: “This event is a wonderful example of how young people can take on a responsibility and successfully see it through to the end.”
“Sinner Saint”
“Sinner2Saint”, the new musical created and produced by the year 10 Creative and Media Diploma class was staged on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd December 2008. This production is the first of its kind and part of the new Diploma course introduced in September 2008. Twenty six students began forming ideas for their very own musical in the summer holidays, including all aspects of design, as well as marketing, script writing, music composition and performance. The hard task of bringing it all together began in September. The final production was a real achievement for these ‘non-specialists’. They delivered a very impressive and convincing performance.
The plot tells of a 15 year old boy and the people/ experiences he encounters in a difficult period of his life. It includes the transition from a troubled school, to a better life in a new and progressive environment, where he finds young love. The story line addressed many topical issues and was representative of a diverse range of backgrounds and interests in both the dialogue and musical numbers. The songs of the musical composed by the year 10 students, were a fusion of modern day styles accompanying catchy but appropriate lyrics.
Audience members were very positive. The performance has enthused the students to go on to bigger and better things having gained the necessary experience and confidence through their involvement in this project.
Cranford designers the best in Hounslow!
During October 2008 the Art, Design and Technology department ran a ‘Design a Christmas Card for 2008’ competition for all students in the school. The winning entries were also submitted to a borough wide competition run by Hounslow Children’s Services.
Congratulations go to Fatima Osmani 8V who won the borough competition. Fatima’s design was used as the Local Authority’s official Christmas card for 2008.
European Day of Languages
The classrooms of Cranford were filled with unusual sounds on Friday 26th September 2008, as staff and students joined people across the continent to celebrate the 8th annual European Day of Languages. Taking the register in Russian, greeting people in French and making new friends in German were just some of the ways the Languages Department joined in with this international event. As Terry Davis, General Secretary of the Council of Europe said about the day, “Learning another language is a good way to make sure that tolerance, respect and understanding among people are not lost in translation”.
Local Community Festival applauds Cranford’s dancers
We were delighted to be invited to a local cultural event organised by the Metropolitan Police at Lampton Park on Saturday 20th September 2008. Hardeep Kaur, Sundeep Mangat, Sapna Shah and Harpreet Bains in year 13 with Veerpal Kaur Year 10 represented Cranford Community College at this prestigious event. The girls performed an entertainment filled bhangra dance which the audience enjoyed immensely.
Doodle4Google
‘Doodle4GoogleMy Community’ was a nationwide design competition which was open to the UK’s 10 million school children. There were over 70,000 entries and Cranford submitted 6 entries.
Amarpal was selected as a Regional Finalist for his doodle. Amarpal explains his doodle: “My Community means having large groups of people working together and supporting each other to make their area a better place. I have shown this by drawing people of all ages and cultures helping each other laying the foundation for their future with the pillar of society representing strength and spirit.”
