Cranford Review 2011

Welcome to the Cranford
Review of 2010/2011.
Another year of record
breaking examination
success with 100% of
Cranford students gaining
more than five GCSE passes
and with more than 91%
(more than 9 out of 10)
with more than 5 GCSEs
at the higher grades A*-C
and more than ever gaining
high grade passes in GCSE
English and mathematics.
Cranford became an academy
in April 2011 and as such
is an independent school,
a registered company, a
Editorial
charity and no longer under
the control of the local authority. The freedoms, funding and
independence gained by becoming an academy have been put
to great use already with a massive additional investment
in facilities (come to the school to see the difference with
your own eyes), additional high quality staff to make smaller
groups sizes and greater support in key areas (for example in
maths, English, ICT and science), an enhancement of training
for teachers to ensure the best teaching and support for our
pupils, a massive investment in extra-curricular opportunities
(including the W-factor every Wednesday afternoon, holiday
programmes, etc.) and improvements to our school curriculum
to better meet the needs and aspirations of all students.
We are delivering everything we promised and the extensive
use of the school facilities by the community means that
the whole community benefits from these investments and
improvements. Cranford is also delighted to have become a
founding partner in the ‘Big Local’ lottery project which will
bring £1 million for the local community to spend on its own
priorities.
In the summer of 2011, the school became one of less than
1% of organisations to achieve the Investors in People GOLD
award (the highest possible accolade), Cranford became
one of a very elite group achieving the Cultural Diversity
Quality Standard at the most challenging ‘Diamond’ level
and the school again achieved a number of other awards and
recognitions to add to its wall of achievement.
It’s always amazing to reflect upon the enormous range of
curricular and extra-curricular events, activities, trips and
enrichment opportunities that have helped to develop and
realise the potential and the differing talents that exist within
our student population. I can hardly believe that we achieved
all of this (and more) within just one academic year. Thanks
are due to the dedicated staff that make these things happen
and to pupils, parents and ‘friends of Cranford’
who participate so enthusiastically.
Word certainly seems to have got around
our community and we are delighted
that so many people now want to be
part of this exciting and happy place –
enrolment into our sixth form this year
has been very intense and we are fully
subscribed in year 7. I wish there was
space for everyone.
Cranford students understand that
‘education changes lives’ and I am
delighted that our students know they
do have a future even in this harsh
competitive and economic environment.
They retain the ambition, optimism and
hope that is built from the confidence
they gain by doing well academically,
making progress and achieving at
school. This is, perhaps, one of the
reasons our students were not caught
up in the riots of the summer.
As an academy and a significant local
employer, Cranford will also be ensuring
it provides employment opportunities
for young people to get a foothold in
the world of work.
The school has travelled a long way
towards its goal of ‘Excellence in all
areas’ receiving many outstanding
judgements because of its academic
success and its positive, caring and
inclusive ethos which nurtures and
encourages pupils to grow into healthy,
well-rounded, happy confident citizens
with the skills and values to make a
positive contribution to society and live
fulfilling lives.
Our behaviour strategy in the coming
year will be encouraging our students to
contribute to the ‘moral and charitable’
dimension, to contribute positively to
society and to the local community in
particular and ensure that the general
public see the positive and polite young
people that we know and work with
every day.
When you’ve read this digest of the last
year you will understand why I remain
so proud of the school, its students, its
staff and its community – this is what
school should be like.
Kevin Prunty (Headteacher)
Cranford Review 2010/2011
2 Excellence in all areas 1
First Story is a creative-writing society
which helps foster the artistic flair of
students in their written work, all over
the UK. Each school gets given an
author, we had the best author: Ross Raisin, or
as the First-Storians call him ‘Sir Ross’. First
Story isn’t anything like a traditional English
lesson; in fact, far from it. Workshops are held
Wednesdays after school and range from writing
6-word stories to completing your final original
piece, to be printed in your very own anthology.
The great thing is you’ll all be published
authors by the end of it because you can buy
your anthology from places like Waterstones!
If you don’t believe me, go to Google and type
‘9780857480194’ to have a look at our completed
anthology ‘This’ll look nice when it’s framed’.
But wait, there’s more to First Story than just
writing.
In the past couple of
months we’ve been
treated to Banoffee pie
made by our very own
talented cook, Shabab;
we’ve eaten some
delicious fairy cakes made
by our other fabulous
cook, Manpreet C; we had
a chance to do some laughout-loud
comedic acting;
visit the prestigious Oxford
University; and generally
just have a lot of fun. I
think I speak on behalf of the
entire First Story group when
I say thank you Sir Ross, Ms Powell, Ms
Chatralia especially when it came to writing
up our final pieces; and Miss Ara, a maths
teacher, who could easily teach an originalwriting
English class. Looking back at the First
Story year, it’s been brilliant
and gone far too quickly. The
only bad thing about all of this
is that we won’t be having a
‘Second Story’ next year.
So seize the opportunity
when you have chance, year
12 students – you won’t
regret it.
(year 12)
By Maninder Bhambra