14 September 2018

It has been a very enjoyable first week back.

I never cease to be amazed by the sheer enthusiasm, inquisitiveness and sense of fun displayed by our pupils right the way from Nursery to Year 11. Over the last few days I've enjoyed visiting pupils in lessons, hearing about their summer holidays and hopes and aims for the year ahead, welcoming parents ranging from Reception to Year 10 into school for welcome events and planning with colleagues for the coming days and weeks.

On Tuesday, I joined the Year 7 trip to the Earth Trust for a day of team building and survival skills. It was wonderful to spend the day with our newest Senior School pupils as they build new friendships and start to settle into the rhythm of school life. I was particularly impressed by their survival shelters, although I'm not entirely certain about the level of water proofing! I can't wait to see how their year unfolds and I know they are going to achieve great things!

Other highlights from the week have included my visits to Nursery where the children have been exploring the outdoor learning environment, enjoying Music and Movement and painting self-portraits. I also greatly enjoyed overseeing our Junior Football club and reading in Reception Class. It is wonderful to see our Year 3 historians enjoying a very exciting interactive Stone-Age Day today, learning about the lives and skills of our ancestors. I've also particularly enjoyed hearing our Senior School Science department’s plans for our intrepid Year 7s who will be taking on the challenge of engineering a vehicle in STEM this term, applying their understanding of forces and other science phenomena to make their vehicles move.

Our strong focus on providing an all round education has been much in evidence as a huge variety of clubs have sprung into life this week, from Cooking to Fitness, Gymnastics to Lego and Choir to Gardening, to name just a few. With over 50 clubs on offer every week, these opportunities are so important in helping our pupils to develop self-confidence and self-assurance and simply have fun at school. I look forward to sharing more on these clubs as the year unfolds.

Finally, at the Year 8-10 Welcome Evening earlier in the week we talked about the importance of strong communication between parents and staff in supporting our happy, friendly school community. We are very fortunate to have firm links between home and school and I am very grateful for the continued support of the parent body for all that we do here at Cranford House.

For more photos of the week, please visit our Flickr album.