3 DECEMBER 2021 Message from the Headmaster The week began with an inspiring assembly by 6MC on the celebration of Advent. They highlighted the importance of being patient in the build up to Christmas and recognising that anything worthwhile is worth waiting for. It had been a considerable length of time since parents were able to attend a school function to provide a live audience for the children, the Wriggly Nativity proved worth the wait. It was such a memorable occasion and the wonderful performances certainly brought with them a real feeling of Christmas. Throughout the week, children have enjoyed an array of activities ranging from ballet in the Nursery, conducting evaporation experiments in Year 5 to investigating algorithms in Year 8. Just another busy and engaging week at Cranmore. We are hopeful to be able to continue with festive events planned for the remainder of this term including the highly anticipated Cranmore Pupil Christmas Raffle. It will take place on the final day of term so don’t forget to buy your tickets. Our Christmas Jumper Day takes place on Tuesday 14th December with all donations going to the charity chosen by the pupils, Shooting Star children’s hospices.
Mr Everitt
Wriggly Nativity All of EYFS and Year 1 were true stars this week in their performance of Wriggly Nativity! The children have been working so hard to learn all the songs, words and actions ready for their performance. We are extremely proud of them all.
Year 1 Forest School Adventures Year 1 have been having a fun time enjoying the Autumn leaves and colours at Forest School. The children have shown great team work making a bridge, raking leaves, drawing with chalk and they enjoyed drinking hot chocolate! We were very excited about putting up the night camera so we can spot the badger at night time.
Making Christingles in Year 2 Year 2 loved celebrating the beginning of Advent by making their own special Christingles and learning about what each part represented.
Nursery News The children danced with scarves to the Frozen music in their Ballet session this week. In Science, we continued to learn about keeping warm and the children engaged in an activity to learn about how we keep warm. On Wednesday, Mrs Rossi talked to the children about Advent and introduced to them our Nursery Advent calendar that they will be opening each morning. In Pre-Nursery the children enjoyed making baby Jesus pictures. Ms Luke, Head of Nursery
Year 5 Scientists Study Evaporation in the Laboratory Drying your washing on the line is good for the environment, but what are the best conditions for drying washing? Year 5 have been studying this topic by investigating effects of wind and heat on the evaporation of water. The November weather meant sun was in short supply, although Storm Arwen did provide plenty of wind last week. However, to create a fair test environment pupils used different hairdryer settings to simulate the effects of heat and wind.
Hopefully everyone now knows why a sunny, breezy day dries washing so well. Feel free to quiz your sons! Dr Verny White, Chemistry and Science
Senior School Lessons – A Rich Experience This term I have had the privilege of observing a wide variety of lessons and I am very proud of the maturity of approach of our Senior pupils and the enthusiasm and dedication of our teachers, in preparing high quality lessons and sharing good practice. I have observed pupils: Considering the social and physical effects of the Haiti earthquake in Geography. Contemplating the power of forgiveness for the Ennesqillen bombng in RE. Moving between three different tenses in French. Cracking codes using algebra in Maths. Question the possibility of life on other planets in Physics* and marvel at the wonder of conditions for life *With the attitude of learning something new each day, regardless of age, I am pleased to report that I have learnt that, due to Pluto’s downgrade, we actually have 8 planets in our Solar System!
I have introduced 7RC to a variety of algorithms this term, in Decision Maths, within the ‘Modern’ rotation of lessons. These include: Dijkstra’s ‘Shortest Path’ (how a Sat Nav works), The Route Inspection Problem (think gritting lorries salting the road and returning to depots), Critical Path Analysis (project management) and sorting algorithms, finishing with ‘Bin-Packing’. ‘Bin-Packing’ algorithms consider the most efficient way to put items into ‘boxes’ or containers: useful at this time of year when the challenge of packing Christmas presents, or the long-standing suitcase challenge, when packing for a holiday – Should you really put the big items in first?
Modern lessons rotate termly, so Politics and Self-Regulated Learning await 7RC, whilst the other Year 7 Forms will have the opportunity to explore some of these ideas for the first time in the spring and summer terms. Mr Pulford, Deputy Head
Understanding Contour Maps In Geography, 5WL put some old cardboard boxes to good use to create three-dimensional hills from contour maps. This was part of their topic on map skills. It made lots of mess, but was lots of fun and helped them visualise how contour maps represent land formations around us. Mr Lamport, Head of Year 5
http://go.eventgroovefundraising.com/cranmoreraffle2021
Sports Roundup It's been a busy week of rugby matches against schools including Kings House, Hoe Bridge, Danes Hill, and St John's Beaumont. As we reach the end of our third week of the rugby season, team performances and the overall standard of whole year groups have been very impressive. We had another swimming gala on Wednesday, this time against Danes Hill, and our U11 squash squad are in action today against Shrewsbury House. The Scholarship and Performance session this week included athletic development and endurance testing Mr Hodgson, Director of Sport
Carol Service - Message from Mr Harris The Carol Services are fast approaching now and all the Upper Prep and Senior pupils have been issued with a green coloured carol sheet. All pupils will be expected to sing by memory at the Carol Service and can practise by singing along to a recording of their year group carol which I have placed on their VLE Music page. Mr Harris, Director of Music
Maths drop-in sessions The Mathematics department have launched a friendly and informal weekly drop-in session that takes place on a Friday lunchtime, in J14 (Ms. Fagan's room). Pupils in Year 4 to 8 can drop in at any time over the lunch break to get support with any aspect of their mathematics. There will always be someone on hand to help. Mr Saviddes, Head of Senior Maths
https://www.activatecamps.co.uk/bookings/
Notices
here.
A message from our Chaplaincy Team
Upcoming events at Our Lady of Sorrows
Menu
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Soup
Tomato & basil
Carrot & lentil
Potato & watercress
Spiced tomato & five bean
Cream of chicken
Main
Chicken & sweetcorn pie
Pasta shells in a fresh tomato sauce with bacon lardons & salad
Roasted chicken breast with Yorkshire pudding & stuffing
Traditional beef lasagne with Italian style salad
Traditional battered cod fillet or jumbo fish fingers
Jacket potato & beans
Jacket potato & beans
Jacket potato & beans
Jacket potato & beans
Jacket potato & beans
Root vegetable Stuffed pep& lentil cottage pers filled with pie wholemeal rice topped with tomato sauce Roasted Medi- Curly fries/ terranean veg- peas/baked etables/baton beans carrots
Jacket potato & beans
Vegetarian
Vegetable sausages & onion gravy
Roasted butternut squash & pea risotto
Layered roasted vegetables & mozzarella bake
Mashed potato/green beans & carrots
Peas & sweetcorn/ Courgette Provençale
Roast potatoes/broccoli
Additional
Salad bar
Salad bar
Salad bar
Salad bar
Salad bar
Dessert
Chocolate sponge & chocolate sauce
Freshly baked carrot cake with frosting
Millionaire shortbread
Apple crumble & custard
Fruit Friday
Sides
Items in Italic - Sourced from F Conisbee’s, our local butcher