12 October 2018

The school was packed as we enjoyed a wonderful Open Day with record numbers of pupils and parents visiting.

I was incredibly proud of all of the pupils who came to school to help with this event. As ever, they proved the most wonderful advocates for the school and I lost track of the number of prospective families who commented on the articulate, friendly welcome they received. My thanks to all the Cranford House families who supported this very successful event.

Thursday marked an inspirational day of music thanks to our Year 5 Choral Day. It was great to welcome pupils from Caversham Preparatory School, Crowmarsh Gifford and South Moreton Primary Schools for a very exciting day of music, led by Lin Marsh, one of the UK’s most versatile and well-known choral conductors and composers. The day culminated in a joyous concert, performed by all 100 children in front of a very appreciative audience of family and friends.

I enjoyed meeting with Senior School Council this week and was very impressed by their mature ideas for the development of our Senior School and Sixth Form. Meanwhile, their Junior counterparts enjoyed a fantastic trip to Blackwell’s in Oxford where they were shown around Mr Blackwell’s study, shown some incredibly valuable rare books and were allowed to choose a selection of beautiful new titles for our Junior School Library.

Elsewhere, Year 5 followed their study of the history of sport with a trip to the Iffley Road running track where Sir Roger Bannister famously broke the four minute mile. As well as soaking up this bit of local history, our young athletes were also put through their paces by running their own laps of the track.

It was my pleasure to meet with Year 11 families as they attended their Parents’ Evening. Their daughters are doing a brilliant job as role models and leaders this year, as was witnessed by this week’s World Challenge assembly where they offered younger pupils an amazing insight into a trip full of cultural opportunities and personal challenges.

Finally, we were delighted to welcome the Independent School Inspectorate into Cranford House as part of the regular cycle of schoo inspection. Inspections provide us with the opportunity to showcase everything our friendly community and excellent learning environment have to offer and I very much look forward to sharing the inspection report with you when this is available for publication in around three weeks’ time.

Best wishes

Dr J Raymond