Cranmore Chronicle 15 February 2019 Editor: Mrs S Connolly
Dear Parents As expected, the House Music Competition was a real treat last Friday. The imagination and flair which were evident in each performance ensured that the audience was thoroughly entertained. Of course, we were certainly entertained last night too with the joint concert given by our pupils and the NYJO. The standard of musicianship on show was remarkable and a real inspiration to our younger musicians. We contested the Dunckley Shield on the Henderson Fields last Saturday and I was delighted that the strength of our rugby has ensured that we have retained this trophy since 2011. Yours sincerely Michael Connolly
Nursery News
Role play: visiting the doctor’s surgery for a check up
Making mud pies at Forest School Woodland Adventures
Busy baking for our cake shop
Getting messy during exploratory play
Blowing bubbles in the garden
Juniors
Uppers enjoyed a themed ‘evacuee day’, playing games from the 1940s, preparing food using rations, finishing off with a fantastic VE street party with songs and dances from the era . Amazing costumes from everyone involved and a great day of learning!
Role the for a up
play: visiting doctor’s surgery check
Pastel work by Middle Prep
Highlights of Upper Preps visit to the Rural Life Centre, stepping back into the 1940s and learning what it would be like to live in the countryside as an evacuee in World War Two.
Seniors Mrs Spacie ran a frushi sushi workshop with the pupils in Cookery Club. It was such fun and the frushi sushi was absolutely delicious.
Form
4 are learning about L’ile de la Réunion in French lessons. Freddie and Hugo have tried cooking a French recipe at home “les beignets à la banane”, un vrai succès! 4P also enjoyed tasting Hugo’s beignets. Ils sont de vrais cordons bleus!
Wind in the Willows inspired Art and Drama workshops for F2 following a trip to the Polka Theatre. 4th Form pupils with their Wanted posters created as part of their study of Oliver Twist
Latest batch from the kiln: beautiful plates by F5 & 6
Form 5 enjoy ‘The Cranmorian’ archives
Save the Date
On Wednesday May 8th 2019 at 6pm, Worth-It will be leading a workshop for Cranmore Parents on ‘Developing resilience and wellbeing in children.' Worth-It workshops for parents provide proacve early support that encourages the development of wellbeing in children and young people through the provision of ideas, ps and self-help strategies that parents can use in the home and as a family. The workshop will give parents valuable space to re ect on family life along with praccal, evidence-based tools and strategies that can be easily integrated into home life to build resilience, wellbeing and posive mental health in their children.
What will the workshop cover? Key elements parcipants will explore include:
De ning wellbeing and resilience
The bene ts of posive relaonships for wellbeing and resilience
Developing emoonal awareness and the bene ts of posive emoons
Developing resilient thinking skills
Using a strengths-based approach to develop resilience
Helping your child develop their strengths to maximise their success
This approach to working with parents to support the mental health of children is underpinned by Posive Psychology, mental health in school’s literature and advice from the Department of Health and Department for Educaon. Ms J Schembri
Assistant Head
Save the Date We are thrilled to announce that Onjali Raúf, who has wrien ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’, will be vising Cranmore on Monday 17th June. A er speaking in Assembly, she will spend me with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Forms, talking about her book and signing copies, which will be available to pre-order nearer the me.
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019 and the Blue Peter Book Award 2019, The Boy at the Back of the Class is a hugely topical book, which deals with the refugee crisis. Ahmet is a refugee who has just started at a new school. The book is wrien from the perspecve of one of his classmates, who is determined to nd out more about this boy and nd answers to her list of quesons. The book is very accessible to children as it is wrien from the point of view of an 8-year-old child.
We will email parents of all children in the 2nd to 4th Forms a er half term with details of how to pre-order a copy of Onjali’s book for signing on the day.
Ms Schembri (Assistant Head) & Mrs Watkinson (School Librarian)
First day back after the holidays: Chatting with friends in the playground
Sports Focus As we reach the end of this half term, it brings a close to a very busy and action packed period of sport. The rugby fixtures against Donhead started last Wednesday with our eight U8 sides travelling away to showcase their talents. The tagging from the children has continually improved leading up to this last fixture whilst maintaining the effective attack through good passing and evasion skills. Donhead was the location the day after again for rugby matches, but this time with our U9s. The whole year group fixture resulted in six wins out of six for Cranmore which is no mean feat considering Donhead play rugby from the very start of September. Also on Thursday, our U8 girls hockey team participated in the Cranleigh festival. The girls played extremely well on the afternoon which meant across the two teams, Cranmore secured four wins and a draw. This talented group of girls backed up their effort and fantastic attitude on Friday, but this time demonstrating their ever improving netball skills. The two U8 teams travelled to CLFS to participate in practice style matches. Defensive marking and moving the ball up the court were just two areas of the game which vastly improved on the afternoon. On Friday, 12 of our squash players from our wider squash squad played very well against CLFS. The matches were held at Cranmore, and in line with most squash fixtures that Cranmore competes in the matches were officiated by the children themselves. This discipline and skill learned is a great addition to the sport itself and this was evident of Friday. On Sunday our rowers competed in the indoor rowing championships with two top five placings from Cranmore pupils, and on Monday Cranmore had the distinguished opportunity to host the IAPS Swimming Regional Qualifiers. The very best swimmers from our swim squad were able to be timed alongside six other schools to see if they are to progress though to next round of the competition. A windy but beautiful Saturday morning on the Henderson Fields was the setting for the annual match up between Cranmore and Donhead, both competing for 'The Dunckley Shield'. This is 24th year the event has taken place with both schools winning the prestigious shield roughly the same amount of times. Across the six matches (U9s to U11s), Cranmore played superbly well and again this is testament to the determination and hard work all the children have put into the rugby season. Cranmore managed four wins and a draw which meant the overall winners for the 2019 Dunkley Shield was Cranmore! Events: - Rugby: London Irish vs Ealing, Madejski Stadium - Saturday 27th April (pm). Children will attend free of charge, and coaches will be provided from Cranmore to the Madejski Stadium - The Cranmore Canter, Cranmore School - Sunday 30th June (am) Camps at Cranmore: - Surrey Football - 18th, 19th February Paul Hodgson Director of Sport
U8 girls’ netball
U8 girls’ hockey
Annual Dunckley Shield v Donhead Cranmore retains the shield
Indoor Rowing Championships at Abingdon
Music News
Congratulaons to all the senior sta and pupils for producing a very enjoyable and memorable House Music Compeon last Friday. The quality of singing, playing and acng was very high and our adjudicator, Serena Kay, was le with a very di cult decision indeed. A er much consideraon she awarded the House Music Cup to Bowen for their performance of ‘Bad Guys’ from Bugsy Malone. Mr Harris Director of Music
The senior pupils enjoyed a beautiful performance of ‘Poor Wayfaring Stranger’ from this young chorister during assembly. Well done, Alexander
Cranmore Staff Bake Off in aid of Rhino Ark
Dress up as your favourite book th character on Friday 8 March to celebrate
Who will you choose to be?