This year’s World Book Day was one of the best yet, with pupils from every year, including teachers, dressing up as awesome characters from their favourite books. These characters ranged from Willy Wonka, to Alice in Wonderland and even the Hungry Caterpillar! This year, we had the wonderful poet, Joseph Coelho, come in to talk to the enthralled pupils about how to write a poem, including one-word poems like: ‘The Sad Life of a Fly. SPLAT.’ There were also alphabet poems, using every letter of the alphabet to begin each line. He then spoke about some of his recent books ‘Overheard in a Tower Block’ and ‘A Year of Nature Poems.’ For Upper School, there was an amazing immersive theatre experience. ‘The Day I Fell Into a Book’ was based as an experiment to test whether children’s minds could create things, like sounds or even physical objects, as they read! Wearing headphones, pupils could hear the books brought to life; pupils watched as the actor cleverly ‘fell’ into the actual book to relive many popular fairy tales and myths, such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Little Mermaid.’ He eventually emerged, somewhat bedraggled, after his exciting adventures in a book. The Lower School held their annual Costume Parade, and this clearly showed the huge range of books that the children were reading, from ‘Paddington’ to ‘The Ice Garden.’ It also showcased the awesome creativity and hard work put into this special day, by parents and pupils alike. Finally, we all created a ‘Book Blog’, a special form of book review, using iPads and exciting new programs, to create insightful videos which will be viewed by pupils looking for a good book to read.
I worked here from the beginning of 2015 and left at the end of 2016 to work at a school in Guildford. Then, I moved to work for a company which sells wine. There is a new Headmaster and the fabulous new Townsend building. There is also a new Reception area. My main responsibility is looking after the Headmaster’s diary to make sure that he is at the right place at the right time. I love to be working in a busy school and it is always nice to always have something happening around me. Yes, I like working in a happy environment. He always wants to make sure that people are working to the best of their ability. like to spend time with my family, and I especially like walking with them. All of them!
Mr Chisholm has been our Assistant Chaplain this year. He runs the chaplaincy with Mr Lewis and Mrs Smith and they share our Chapel services. He takes about two or three hours to prepare each service. The process starts with studying the Bible and trying to understand what God is saying. Then he needs to think through how he can communicate that most effectively through a story and then he needs to write it down. Mr Lewis and Mr Chisholm plan the services in a ‘few long meetings’ where they help each other to come up with creative ways of capturing the attention of their intended audience. He says that, ‘I am not the most creative person so I appreciate Mr Lewis’ ideas and input at this stage. There are currently two Chapel services each week which he believes is ‘plenty’ although he would like the services to be a little longer. He would also love to have the whole school chapel on a Tuesday so that it gave him a little more planning time after the weekend! Mr Chisholm likes the fact that the pupils here are engaged and active in the services. His key goal is to give everyone the opportunity to love Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he has done for us. ‘It is the heartbeat of my role’ he adds.
This year, we have taken a slightly different approach with our Gap students. We have four young people who have just finished 6th Form at Cranleigh School, instead of having Gap students from overseas. The four Gaps help us out with sport, but they also help with the classroom activities, such as listening to readers, helping with photocopying and laminating. They also help out at the end of the day supervising students in the Hub and being involved with the boarding community. Mr Gough wanted to become a Gap because he used to attend the Prep School as a pupil and loved it here, so he could not think of a better place to work during his Gap year. His favourite memory of his Prep School life was the football season in Form 6, with Mr Halstead, as he had fun and did well in the Cup as well. He said that it was very strange being a teacher rather than a student, and he found it especially difficult to call his old teachers by their first names. He likes helping with the sport, which is perfect for him, and he also really enjoys helping with the Food Tech lessons. When he leaves, he plans to travel to Thailand and South America, before going to Nottingham University to study Geography.
Mr Seager-Green wanted to become a Gap because of ‘nostalgia’ and the great memories he holds from the Prep School. He has noticed that new buildings have sprung up over the school, but that the same happy culture remains. His favourite memory of the Prep School was playing in the copse, hanging out on Top Pitch and the 1st team hockey tournaments. He helps with the games sessions and he loves seeing the children improve their skills over the season.
Miss O’Neill is currently training to become a teacher and she thought that being a gap would be great experience for her teacher training. Some changes that she has noted are that there are some new teachers, the food is much better and there are now iPad’s in some of the lessons. Her favourite memories of the Prep School centre around her sporting achievements in her last year, including becoming the IAPS and national hockey champions, and coming second in the national 300m finals at Birmingham. She says that it is amazing to be a teacher rather than a student because there is a lot more responsibility. When she leaves, she plans to have passed her degree and then she will start looking for a teaching job. Miss Lock became a gap because she thought it would be a great opportunity to get some work experience. Although she did not attend Cranleigh Prep School as a student, she really loved her time at Cranleigh School so thought it would be an excellent opportunity to get more involved and give back to the school. During the day, she mainly coaches sport but she also helps with Food Tech lessons and helps teachers with their administrative tasks. She has also been involved with some of our school Drama, which will be a good experience in preparation for university. When she leaves Cranleigh Prep School, she is going to Birmingham University to study Drama.
This year’s House competitions have been some of the best yet, with nearly everybody in the school auditioning for at least one instrument. It was very hard to decide the finalists, and from them, hard to decide a winner. Mrs Williams said the standard was ‘very high indeed.’ The competition was incredible and in the end, only the very best, the crème de la crème won, and received the prize. The Von Sprekleson Award for the most promising performer went to Cecilia B in Form 3. All who entered the competition received points for their House. Some performers were invited to participate in the instrumental and voice finals. Overall winners received extra points, and a small prize. In the end, Clubs were named the winners and Jamie T claimed the Competition trophy in assembly.
In House singing, every House performed ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong, alongside their own choice piece: Clubs chose ‘Rule the World’ by Take That; Diamonds sang ‘A Million Dreams’ from The Greatest Showman; ‘On Top of the World’ by Imagine Dragons was sung by Hearts, and Spades selected ‘Ain't no Mountain High Enough’ by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel. A huge thank you to the music staff for their support and to House Masters and Mistresses for adding their enthusiasm to the process.
Our School Council is the voice for the student body in our school. It is made up of pupils who represent each Tutor Group in the school. We meet in Priority Time on a Tuesday in the Reference Library and discuss a variety of issues. Each Tutor Group Rep is asked to collect suggestions and ideas from their Tutor Group We discuss lots of different aspects of school life. Recently, we considered the types of rewards that we would like for Privilege time. We would like a bigger ‘reward’ for pupils who have had no minutes for the whole year. We have also looked at improving the packed lunches that we have for school trips. Nicola O, our Secretary, feels ‘that the school and pupils really benefit from having a School Council as it means that pupils have a say.’ She believes that it is vital that each Tutor Group has a Rep so that they can represent all the pupils in the school. She explains that Mrs Lewis advises the Council and she always listens to pupils’ thoughts and opinions. Because the topic of food has dominated many of the Council meetings, Mrs Lewis has decided that a new separate ‘Food Council’ will be established to focus on catering matters. All members of School Council feel it is a real privilege to be responsible for representing fellow pupils’ views and ideas. They encourage all of the student body to get involved with School Council and make a difference to our school life.
This year we have achieved 25 scholarships and awards to date. I have been finding out what is involved in sitting for a 13+ award in Sport, Art, Drama or Music by interviewing pupils who have been involved ‘in the process’ this year. The candidates for Sports awards visited Cranleigh School on 21st January and warmed up then had a session with coaches of their chosen sport. Pupils had a ‘strength and conditioning’ session and an interview, and this was followed by a session in their secondary sport. I felt quite nervous at first and it felt like ‘the stakes were high and competition was strong.’ sat for an Art scholarship and he prepared a portfolio of Art inspired by an object or other artist, in his Da Vinci Art sessions after school. He said, ‘the assessment day was tough; we were set a still life drawing and then we had an interview where we were asked to explain what Art meant to us.’ sat a Drama Scholarship and said that it was ‘an exciting, enjoyable and memorable day. We had to do some fun improvisation activities and confidence building skills and were encouraged to be free and express ourselves. We then had to write down why we love drama and how we would describe ourselves. This was followed by a final performance of our solo pieces.’ sat for a Music Scholarship at the end of January. The candidates had to do a warm up then play a piece in front of three assessors. He felt that ‘there was a calm and encouraging atmosphere and all the Music teachers at Cranleigh School were very kind and supportive.’
Priority Time is what we call the extracurricular activities which are on offer during the school day. At Cranleigh Prep School, there are lots! The clubs are at lunch time for the Lower School and after the normal curriculum day for Middle and Upper School. The Upper School activities start at 4.35pm and finish at 5.10pm. There are so many activities on offer this term, including Computing, Choir, Card Making, Book Club, Textiles, Family History, Explore, Mindfulness, Chess, Vex and Airfix. One of the newer activities is Stone Masonry, which is an Art based club. Using a chisel, pupils carve their own designs into stone. Mr Batchelor runs the activity, with about 10 pupils. Pupils in the Stone Masonry Club said that they enjoy this unusual activity. ‘It is a lot of fun with your friends and we are learning a skill what you would not normally have the chance to do.’ There are always new activities each term and the pupils love to see what will be on offer next term and beyond.
Form 3 pupils have been learning about the biblical story of Joseph, in their Humanities lessons this term. “We followed in Lloyd-Webber’s footsteps, by writing and performing our own versions. 3B chose ‘Joseph in the Ocean’ and replaced seven years of failed crops with plastic pollution in our oceans. 3R’s ‘I’m a sister, get me out of here!’ focused on the relationship between the lead, played as a girl, and all her sisters. In ‘Canaan’s Got Talent’ we saw Joseph being treated differently from his brothers. This play was written and performed by 3M. “Everyone enjoyed the process as we could all take part. As the performance to other pupils and parents approached, we made costumes and began to get a little nervous. The plays went really well and we even got a few laughs from parents. Everyone enjoyed learning about Joseph in this exciting and alternative way: it was so much fun!’
Form 1 visited Kew Gardens on the hottest ever February day. When the pupils got off the coach, they found their guide called Loveday who told them about rainforests around the globe. After that, they went into the Palm House where they saw a banana tree with a Ruby flower and titchy bananas which were unripe. They also found papaya, cacao beans, ginger, sugar cane, vanilla, stag horn fern and epiphytes. It was really hot and humid, especially on a warm day. Next, they went to the workshop where they had lots of games to play. There was a spice game, shopping game and artefacts. Then, they had a delicious lunch. Soon after that, they went to see the orchids. They went round and round the conservatory and, as they did, they saw pitcher plants, poison dart frogs, turtles, angel fish, cacti, bromeliads and pineapples. Most of all, I enjoyed the workshop because it was really fun!
When Form 2 went to Fishbourne Roman Palace, everyone especially loved seeing the heated floor system (a hypocaust) and staring endlessly at the winding patterns of the mosaics. It felt so special being able to see Roman floors that are almost 2000 years old. The artefacts preserved in the museum were so old, they blew us away! The workshops were great and we all really enjoyed dressing up and making our own mosaics with the original tiles. Fishbourne Palace itself would have been the home of the Roman Governor in that area. Only really important, rich people would have lived there, surrounded by slaves waiting on them. We couldn’t believe that this impressive palace was discovered accidently by a farmer digging a trench in the 1960s. It is just outside Chichester, but in Roman times the city would have been called Noviomagus Reginorum.
Who says girls can’t play football? Not Cranleigh Prep School! This term, Head of Football, Mr Stone started an privilege time Football Club for the Middle School girls in Form 3 and 4. The girls love taking part because Mr Stone ‘makes it fun!’ Mr Stone managed to organise our first ever girls football match on 19th March against Parsons Green Prep School. We had been training hard every Thursday afternoon and were all very excited to be playing in this historic fixture. Within the first minute Cranleigh had scored a goal, and with further support from both parents and teachers, we were 4-1 ahead at half time. Our passing and tackling were outstanding and our teamwork showed as we passed the ball accurately from one end of the pitch to the other and slotted the ball into the back of the net. The final score was 8-2 to our ‘A’ team. The ‘B’ team lost their match 8-1, yet everyone came off the pitch smiling. It was a very enjoyable afternoon. I hope that this will encourage more girls to start to play football and that it will become a more popular girls sport in schools.
Lent term is always a busy term for sports tournaments at Cranleigh Prep School and this year has been no exception. We have sent teams to Hockey, Fives and Netball tournaments within the county, and beyond at national competitions. Our Fives teams have had success in both boys and girls competitions. The U13 girls team achieved success at the U13 competition at Eton in February. Each pair achieved success and particular mention must to go to Effie S and Charlotte B who were national runners up. The U12 boys also excelled in their performance at the U12 competition with first pair James M and Henry P winning the title. They then progressed to the elite competition where they were runners up. This is the first time that any Cranleigh pair has ever achieved at this level! In Hockey, we have had representation in tournaments in both boys and girls competitions from U10 to U13.Of particular note are the U11 boys team who qualified for the South final as a result of being Surrey champions. They also progressed to the U11 IAPS National final held at Rugby. The U11 girls also qualified for the South finals as a result of placing second in the county. The Netball competitions this term saw the U13 girls qualify for the IAPS national finals at Epsom after winning their qualifier which was held at Cranleigh School. Well done to each and every participant who took part in these terrific tournaments.