The Cranleigh School Newsletter Issue No 37
Cranleigh School, Cranleigh, Surrey GU6 8QQ Tel: 01483 273666
Summer 2010
Head s Up SPOTLIGHT ON... Dear Parents,
It seems only yesterday we were welcoming a new Fourth Form, and looking forward to the year ahead; yet last weekend I found that Speech Day had come around again, and I was saying goodbye to another Upper Sixth always a sad time for all of us in the Common Room, who have come to know them so well during their time at Cranleigh. But hopefully they ve left with a sense of pride in their School and in themselves, for all that they have achieved not least during this term. The Summer Exams are always a testing time but most pupils seemed to embrace them, despite the temptations of the glorious weather, and we very much hope the results will reflect this. They ve also been engaging their minds in other ways: we were privileged to have Baroness Williams of Crosby visit us before the General Election; many pupils were involved in our own mock elections; not to mention the recent Poetry and Prose Competition, which exhibited some real talent. So, too, did this term s Performing Arts line-up. Musical highlights have to be the Summer Concert particularly poignant as we listened to the final in-School performances of some of the most talented singers Cranleigh s witnessed; the Encore performance, which included the five Senior Helen Wareham Competition Winners, and the inaugural Chapel Service for the new organ. The Junior School Play provided a heartening display of thespian talent to be fostered over the coming years, while the Art and Design departments put on a creative display of their own: David Ardley has revolutionised Design at Cranleigh, while the Art exhibition suggested that both the new facilities in the Rhodes Centre and the new Pre-U syllabus have proved a big hit. When not revising, performing, painting or writing prose, many pupils have been making the most of the sunshine with an array of sports and activities largely with great success, be it in the majority sports or the elsewhere such as swimming, with the squad producing an unbeaten season. And some individuals have been busy pursuing their own goals in aid of charities close to their heart please see the following article on some of these highly commendable exploits.
...some enterprising Cranleigh pupils who have taken it upon themselves to take up various personal challenges in aid of some extremely worthy causes. Cranleigh has long been pro-active with regards to raising money for charity: each of the Houses organises at least one charity event each year, Mr Bob Wilson works closely with the local community, and the School has long-term ties with schools in Kenya and the Lebanon. These ties, as Guy Waller indicated on Speech Day, are set to become stronger in the coming months, following the Governing Body Meeting in June where a decision was taken to broaden the statement of the Cranleigh Ethos to include the wider provision of opportunities for service away from the local area. In practice, this will mean more opportunities for outdoor education, more opportunities for service to communities in inner cities in this country and more opportunities for service to communities in the developing world. The first practical implication of the last is the opportunity, during the academic year 2011/12, for a group of pupils, Common Room and parents to build classrooms for a new primary school that Cranleigh will be partnering in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. In order to raise money for this project and build links with our existing projects in the Lebanon and Kenya, Mr Stuart Block, Head of Business Studies and Economics, is planning to cycle a tandem bicycle from London to Cape Town, visiting and working in each of the three communities en route (should you be interested in joining him, do get in touch: saab@cranleigh.org). The School s long-term aim will be to establish a sustainable relationship with these communities over the decades to come, and as such a Charity Committee has been set up for next year, chaired by Mr Tim McConnell-Wood. However, in the meantime there are some individual pupils who have recently undertaken some personal charitable initiatives that we felt deserved a mention of their own
Well done to all the pupils and staff who have thrown themselves so wholeheartedly into what is inevitably a demanding term and I wish you all a wonderful, relaxing summer.
Guy Waller
It takes a great deal of courage to shave your head especially as a teenage girl. But that is precisely what Pip Mansergh has done, in order to raise money for a
local charity, the Sussex Snowdrop Trust which cares for children with terminally ill diseases and allows them to remain predominantly at home while undergoing treatment. Pip chose this particular charity because As I m sure a lot of people know, cancer has affected many people within the Cranleigh community. And the reasoning behind her chosen action? Because it made people, herself included, aware of what it feels like to lose something you take for granted: It has made me understand the vulnerability felt by people who are forced to lose hair. She has, commendably, raised in excess of £5,000 via www.justgiving.com/ pipshavesherhead a remarkable amount for a remarkably brave act. Two other UVIth pupils, Ione Haddock and Sam Wilson, have both opted to spend their forthcoming gap years helping people further afield. Ione will be working for a year with Project Trust in an orphanage in Cambodia, an hour s drive west of Phnom Penh, in which the children are HIV/AIDS positive. She will also be teaching English in a preschool unit, and will be getting involved in community work such as visiting the families of the children with HIV, distributing anti-retroviral drugs and even mucking out the pigs! Ione has been awarded one of the 2010-11 scholarships, worth £400, from the Trustees of the Bulkeley-Evans Scholarship Fund. I wasn t expecting to get such a prestigious scholarship: when I found out I was stunned! It is great to know that there is such support behind me for this exciting experience; I can only thank the generous people who have enabled me to achieve this dream. Continued over.....
Head
For full details of all School and House news, please visit the website at www.cranleigh.org/community
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