19 November 2021

It has been lovely to open our doors this week to many parent visitors coming to see the school in action as part of our Open Week. We have had families looking for places across all sections of the school, from Nursery to Sixth Form, and it has been an honour to show them round to experience a normal school day in operation and for them to have a glimpse of just some of the exciting teaching and learning that goes on all the time. As ever, our best ambassadors are our pupils, and we have been in receipt of many lovely comments about how engaged, enthusiastic, polite, confident and happy all our pupils are.

We also hosted our first Reception Open Morning post pandemic this week. Every corner of our exceptional Reception classroom and outside space was eagerly explored by the children that visited. They had a wonderful time choosing activities and following their interests whilst parents had the opportunity to find out more, talking to our experienced Reception teaching team about life in Reception and beyond at Cranford.

With Christmas around the corner, there was great excitement on Monday morning as pupils arrived in school to see the front of Moulsford House adorned in festive splendour. It also provided the perfect backdrop for all the donations for the PTA Christmas Fair on Thursday. Thank you to all the families that were able to donate and also huge thanks to the PTA for all their hard work so far. I do hope that as many families as possible will be able to join us next Saturday for what promises to be a wonderful event to get us in the mood for the festive season.

As ever, it has been a busy week of sport. Our U13 girls took part in the IAPS National Hockey Finals. Hosted at Cheltenham College with twenty teams attending from far and wide across England and Scotland, the competition was incredibly fierce. Our team made excellent progress in the group stage, progressing through to the quarter finals of the Plate competition. The girls showed brilliant resilience and put in an outstanding performance against some of the top teams in the country and came away triumphant as National Plate Quarterfinalists 2021. Well done to you all!

Wrapping up Anti-Bullying week, we were today treated to a lovely assembly hosted by Mrs Heard on the importance of ‘one kind word’. Promoting the idea of a pandemic of kindness, our Senior pupils were introduced to the Year 11 Prefects and Subject Captains as pupils they can approach at any time just to talk. Very much in line with our school value of ‘generosity of spirit’, we also talked about how small acts of kindness can help those around us experience a boost. We know kindness fuels kindness and are privileged to be in a school community where this is demonstrated in abundance.

Have a lovely weekend.

With best wishes

James Raymond

Headmaster