Year 5 Ramble

from Cranmore Prep Chronicle 23 June 2023

Saint Thomas More

On Wednesday this week, our Year 5 pupils took part in a ramble with their counterparts at St Teresa’s. They started their ramble at Bocketts Farm, walked down towards Polesden Lacey and across Ranmore Common, before stopping for lunch at a scenic viewpoint. After an enjoyable al fresco lunch, they parted ways and made their way back to their respective schools. The Cranmore pupils covered a distance of 10 miles and impressed their teachers with their stamina and fitness! The stunning scenery and fair weather meant that it was a very enjoyable day out.

Effingham Reading Challenge Celebration at St Teresa’s

On Thursday this week, those pupils who read all five books of the Effingham Reading Challenge travelled to the Senior Library at St Teresa’s for a celebration of their achievement alongside the girls who completed the challenge at St Teresa’s.

Gold Level (5 books)

Arthur W (Year 4)

Ayan M (Year 5)

Seb G (Year 5)

Jasper H (Year 5)

Oscar H (Year 5)

Charlie C (Year 5)

Tommy P (Year 5)

Noah M (Year 5)

Henry T (Year 5)

Nino L (Year 5)

Hugo B (Year 5)

Colin C (Year 6)

Edward W (Year 6)

Daniel di P (Year 6)

Silver Level (4 books)

Albie R (Year 6)

Bronze Level (3 books)

Daniel C (Year 5)

The winning books were announced, which were:

Cranmore Harklights by Tim Tilly

St Teresa’s The Book of Stolen Dreams by David Farr

The pupils discussed the books in small groups and then enjoyed chocolate chip cookies, pains au chocolat, juice and hot chocolate together. Thank you so much to Mrs Clarke for hosting us so well at St Teresa’s. The celebration tied in well with Values Week, reading being a very effective way to improve our intellect!

First Holy Communion Masses

It was lovely to see Cranmore boys joining with St Teresa’s girls for their First Holy Communion Mass this week. Thank you to Father Stephen for leading the service and to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. (Photo on front cover)

Mr Heaver

All the Year 3 pupils attended their own special Mass service on Thursday in our chapel. The service is held each year to celebrate with those children who have recently taken their First Holy Communion in their parishes. Some of their parents were also able to attend. Thank you to Father Stephen for conducting the service and congratulations to Thomas, John and Basty. The whole year group were treated to a special First Holy Communion cake after the service; Thomas, John and Basty also received a special First Holy Communion badge as a memento.

Mrs Sinclair

News

I understand that the children from Cranmore and St Teresa’s are having a fabulous time performing in front of thousands of people at Grange Park Opera’s production of Tosca, currently taking place at West Horsley Place. I will get the opportunity to watch them this coming Saturday and am thoroughly looking forward to seeing them and, more importantly, hearing them! My thanks to the parents of all the children involved and to the staff at Grange Park Opera for giving this amazing opportunity to our pupils.

Mr Harris, Director of Music

Values Week in the Lower Prep

The Lower Prep had a wonderful time celebrating ‘Intellect’ as part of our Values Week. We thought of intellect in simple terms as the ability to use the mind creatively. With this in mind, we started and ended our Values Week with some masterclasses for the children to enjoy.

Pupils took part in sessions of Spanish with Mrs Bowen, bracelet making with Mrs Prothero and even some cooking with Miss Freeman. Mrs Green set a STEM challenge to build the tallest structure, Mrs Sinclair delved into the world of coding, and Mrs Stefano allowed the children to really explore creatively with some abstract art. Other activities included drama with Mrs James, music composing with Mrs Carpenter and the children were able to work on their strength, speed and agility with a masterclass in sport with Miss Hurl.

I know the children really enjoyed this opportunity to try something different and broaden their capacity for understanding, thinking and reasoning.

Values Week: Lower Prep Author Visit

Reception to Year 3 were very excited to receive a visit from Mrs Choudhry, on Tuesday, during Values Week. She explained to the children how she thought of her idea for a story, deciding on the characters and thinking about what the illustrations might look like. We were fascinated to see her storyboards and how her ideas developed from the early stages, until she was happy and ready to send it to a Publishing House. We loved hearing the final story.

A big thank you to Mrs Choudhry for sharing her wonderful book. I am sure you have inspired many of our children to write their own stories!

Year 3 Trip to see ‘Wicked’

Yesterday Year 3 were very fortunate to visit the Apollo Victoria Theatre to see a performance of ‘Wicked’. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the show, particularly the parts with the Wizard of Oz and the dragon. Year 3 will be doing some follow-up lessons for PSHE and English on the theme of accepting differences and recognising your own worth.

Year 3 Cookery Masterclass

As part of our cookery masterclass, we enjoyed mixing sugar and butter, then cracking and beating in an egg before finally adding flour. We spooned the mixture into cupcakes and left them to bake. We washed up our equipment and came back to collect some very big cupcakes to enjoy at home!

Nursery News

The topic throughout Nursery this week is ‘Under the Sea.’ The children used celery sticks dipped in paint to create a scale effect on their fish. We set up different sensory activities in the tuff trays, relating to the ocean, enabling the children to explore different sea creatures with water, paint and sand. In the Nursery garden, the children enjoyed using pipettes in the coloured water and adding petals to create their very own potions. In French the Nursery children learnt how to order different flavoured ice cream, then they participated in a craft activity, making their own cones for our role play beach shop. At Forest School they planted lavender and wild flower seeds, and ensured that the bird feeders were filled.

Ms Luke, Head of Nursery

Congratulations to Morton House in the Upper Prep and Seniors for gaining the highest number of merits this week!

Sport Update

Country - Swimming ESSA

After qualifying at the Regionals at the Guildford Spectrum a few months back, our U11s Swimming Relay team competed at the ESSA Nationals last weekend in Sheffield. The team got through their heats in both the Medley and Freestyle Relays. In the Finals, Cranmore came 6th in the Medley and an amazing 3rd in the Freestyle. Well done for this incredible achievement to Year 6 pupils Henry C, Eoghan F, Max G and Year 5 pupil, Charlie S.

Our U10 tennis players have been on fine form recently and had a comprehensive win over City of London Freemens on Monday.

Our U9s had a comprehensive year group win over Donhead this week with all four teams playing some great cricket. The U9A side participated well at the Downsend tournament. On Saturday, the U10s A & Bs had some competitive matches against Downsend.