Cranmore Chronicle 14 December 2018 Editor: Mrs S Trumble
Nursery children visited Lime Grove Residential Home to sing their Christmas songs
In This Issue... • •
The Headmaster Christmas Hat Day Christmas Cards and Elves Sports Focus Cranmore Nursery
Ballet Come and See Parents’ Book Club Music News Cake Sale Rowers get wrapped up Cookery Club
The Cranmore Chronicle
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Christmas Hat Day Pupils and staff throughout the school got into the festive mood by wearing Christmas hats. Thanks to your donations, a total of ÂŁ640 was collected, to be shared between Horsley and Bookham Riding for the Disabled, and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Dear Parents This is the final edition of the term and I wish to thank Mrs Trumble who has done a great job as Editor. There is a real feast of news items including: Christmas Hats; Sport; Nursery; Ballet; Charity Cake Sale; Rowing Club Party and Cookery Club. Last night we enjoyed another fantastic Carol Service. I am very grateful to everyone involved, pupils and colleagues, for what has always been one of the highlights in our school year. Looking further ahead, I am delighted that we shall be welcoming the National Youth Jazz Orchestra to Cranmore on the 14th February. Finally, I wish you and your family a most joyful and peaceful Christmas. Yours sincerely Michael Connolly
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Thank you to everyone who donated to our chosen charity, Cherry Trees, at the Junior Department Christmas Performances. Cherry Trees provides home-from-home short breaks for local children and young people with a range of disabilities. The total money raised was ÂŁ636.49; thank you very much for your generosity.
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Cartes de Noel As part of our project “les lettres autour du monde” Form 4 have written their Christmas cards to 12 different French schools around the world. We are finding out how students learn French in other countries, specifically French speaking countries. Our cards will go to Belgique, Maroc, Mali, Québec, République Dominicaine, France (Martinique, Guadeloupe, la Réunion, Lyon), Espagne et Tunisie. Joyeux Noël!
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How to Become a Cranmore Elf Ten ideas for being an amazing help this Christmas—without being asked! Make your own bed every day of the holidays. Bring the logs in. Lay the breakfast table. Offer to post the Christmas cards to neighbours’ houses. Take your boots off outside and carry them in to where they are kept. Hang up your coat (and scarf, gloves and hat too). Take your plate and glass to the dishwasher when you leave the table. Sweep the path to the front door so no one slips on leaves or snow. Help carry the shopping into the house . Say ‘Thank you’ to everyone who makes your Christmas fun! Mrs Offord
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Last Wednesday afternoon, our rugby 1st XIII played against Sevenoaks which was a new rugby fixture for this season. Kent is a hotbed of rugby playing schools and Sevenoaks showed this in all areas of the their game. It proved to be a compelling match with the lead changing between teams on a number of occasions, but superb character and determination were shown by Cranmore, which led the team to a fantastic win. The U12s A and B teams also produced dominant displays against Sevenoaks on the Henderson Fields, showing plenty of depth in this year group. House rugby started this week which has turned out to be an excellent event. Sportsmanship, engaging all players, variety of skills and showing core rugby values are all ways that House teams can be awarded credit for their performance. It was inspiring to see the children buy in to this concept across the whole school, which in turn means that the House competitions can be an enjoyable event for everyone. On Thursday, Cranmore travelled to ACS, Cobham for a swimming gala. The Cranmore team was made up of existing and new swimming squad members, which included for the first time three girls from Form 1, and one girl from Upper Prep. The event provided valuable experience for our swimmers both old and new, especially as our opposition proved to be very tough competition. This was certainly welcomed after the huge success that the Cranmore swim squad has already had this year, and it has made the swimming squad feel determined and excited for the upcoming galas in the new year. Saturday was a day of rugby with our U10s playing Felton Fleet and Lanesborough. Cranmore travelled with three teams and across the board, against both oppositions, remained undefeated. It was a hugely pleasing morning for the U11s who participated in the Danes Hill rugby festival. The team showed robust defence, which included stopping the opposition on the gainline, often leading to turning the ball over for an attack opportunity. Support play and sharp catch pass skills enabled the Cranmore attack to function well, resulting in plenty of tries scored. Finally on Friday, two U8 Cranmore hockey teams played matches over at Downsend school with both teams playing superbly well. It’s great to see the hard work paying off for the girls, and not just with the good performances, but also the positive results.. For fixtures, team sheets, results, reports and more information please use the sports portal via the Cranmore school website http:// www.cranmoreprepsports.co.uk , or the very useful Cranmore sports web app, and https://twitter.com/cranmoresport?lang=en Mr Hodgson
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News from the Nursery We have had a fantastic week full of exciting activities. The children sang beautifully for parents and friends on Tuesday morning and then sang again to the elderly residents at Lime Grove on Thursday afternoon. The visit was much appreciated by the residents and the children were absolutely delightful! This was a first for us at Nursery and certainly we hope to be able to visit again on the minibuses. On Wednesday we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas lunch and the children made table decorations to go on each table. Santa even came to visit us with some pre -Christmas gifts. On Friday Mrs Rossi organised a Christmas party for our friends in the Toddler Group. We had a record turn-out for this happy occasion! Our end of term is on Friday December 14th at 11am and then our Holiday Fun sessions start next Monday December 17th. Term starts again on Monday January 7th and Toddler Group resumes on Friday January 11th 2019 In the words of our favourite song, “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!�
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Our Ballet classes held a Come and See session for the last week of term. Above is the Primary Class and below is the Grade 1 Class.
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The Cranmore Chronicle
LIBRARY NEWS Parents’ Book Club Have you made a New Year’s Resolution to join a book club? If so, do consider joining our Parents’ Book Club, which meets twice or three times a term. We meet in the morning over coffee, just after drop-off, which works well. The group is friendly and relaxed. We very much enjoy discussing a wide variety of books of different genres. We have just read and discussed two books; a biography of Marie Colvin, the war correspondent, by Lindsey Hilsum and a novel entitled Home Front by Kristin Hannah.
Our next meeting is on Monday 21st January at 8.30am. The book we have chosen to read over the Christmas holidays is Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave:
Set in London during the years of 1939-1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story between Chris Cleave’s grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theatre of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.
Please email sian.watkinson@cranmoreprep.co.uk if you would like to join the group or would like more information about it. Mrs Watkinson, Librarian
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The Cranmore Chronicle
Music News
Cranmore Live - NYJO I am thrilled that Cranmore will be welcoming the fabulous 23 piece big band, NYJO, (National Youth Jazz Orchestra) on Thursday 14 February 2019 at 7pm. This band has toured extensively, often play at Ronnie Scott’s and, most recently, performed at the late night BBC Prom. I’ve followed them all my life. All form 1 pupils and a number of senior instrumentalists of Grade 1 standard and above will be invited to take part in the workshops on that day led by members of NYJO. Those senior musicians who participate in the workshops will have the honour of playing a song with NYJO at the start of the evening concert. Concert tickets will go on sale after Christmas via Ticketsource at £16.35 adults and £8.40 for children U16 / concessions and will initially be released to parents of children performing in the concert. The remaining tickets will then go on General Sale. Ticket prices include a booking fee. The concert will last an hour and senior pupils performing in the concert will not require a ticket. Just to whet your lips and give you a flavour of their style, here is a link to a tune you will certainly recognise: https://youtu.be/VbW6b4zc-zg and another for you jazz fans! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IXa3KZH-3Q I fully expect this concert to be a sell-out. The Auditorium will be buzzing! Mr Harris
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Daniel gave us a wonderful performance on the Santur (an Iranian instrument) in assembly last Friday.
Congratulations to these brothers on winning the MTech Golden Discs
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Charity Cake Sale Last Friday, the School Council held a Christmas themed cake sale. School Council representatives sold an array of delicious cakes and biscuits to our senior pupils during morning break. Thanks to their efforts, ÂŁ285 was raised and this money will be shared between two charities: Horsley and Bookham Riding for the Disabled, and Guide Dogs for the Blind. Thank you to the parents of our School Council reps for their support in providing the cakes and biscuits. Mrs Spooner
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Rowers have Christmas wrapped up After a great term’s rowing everyone looks forward to our Christmas party at the boathouse. We started with 10 pin bowling at the Spectrum which was exciting although the parents did seem to have the upper hand. Once back at the clubhouse it was party games, followed by pizza and a Christmas tea. The grand finale is the mummy wrapping competition and as you can see I think the Egyptians would have been proud of us! Mr B Martin
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The Cookery Club members have been busy making and decorating their Christmas cakes. Thank you to Mr Walker and the catering team for all their help!