This term has been as busy as every in the boarding houses. The roller disco was a brilliant event. There were lights, music and of lots of roller-skates! After grabbing a handful of tuck, the boarders made their way towards the Wyatt Hall, where the roller disco crew had already set up everything. After putting on the safety gear and agreeing the rules, we were up on our feet (although not for long!) and off skating, doing the limbo and playing tag. Bonfire night was another memorable night, with incredible fireworks, a hog roast for dinner and loud music with dancing. We all loved watching the fireworks and then there was a (planned) visit from the fire engine! After this fun, we all were given a brownie with strawberries and another chance to enjoy the dance music. In addition, some of the boarders have spent a few evenings this term over at the Cranleigh School boarding houses. They have enjoyed seeing what boarding is like in a Senior School and they can’t wait to be old enough to join in. Forthcoming events include the annual Boarders’ Christmas Dinner and a trip to Cranleigh Arts Centre next term.
“I like that at boarding you get sweets on Wednesdays, and that we get to watch movies and pick our dinner choices on Thursdays.” “I enjoy boarding because I get to see my friends and the food is very tasty. The activities are great fun and the sweets on Wednesdays are really nice.” “I would recommend boarding because it is so fun. The staff are all really nice and we play many fun games!” “It is fun because you get to spend lots of time with your friends.” “I enjoy boarding because the matrons are really nice and if you are worried they are really comforting. My friends and I have the best nights together!” “I would definitely recommend boarding, being a full time boarder myself. The environment is so nice to be in and everyone looks after you well. They are all so friendly.”
Mr Martin Flack is a new member of the Bursarial staff here at Cranleigh Prep. He started working here in August 2017. I am the Cranleigh Prep School Coordinator. I help to coordinate events and help in the day to day running of the school. I also ensure that it is a safe environment for both pupils and staff. I really enjoys the variety of my work. I have a new task everyday and every day is different. I was a Business Manager at a cleaning company in Brighton. I wanted a new challenge so that is why I moved to Cranleigh Prep School. I am a big fan of Brighton Football Club and have only ever missed eight games in the last seven years! I can be found in the North Stand on home fixtures but I also travel all over the country to watch Brighton’s away fixtures. My favourite player is Shane Duffy.
At the beginning of this term, several members of the Common Room were promoted to new jobs. We interviewed them to find out what they now do, and how they feel about it. is finding being Deputy Head (Operations) really interesting, as she likes to help answer people’s questions. She is very busy in her new job, but still teaches Music. She is very pleased with how Mrs Williams is getting on, as the new Head of Music. In addition, she enjoys working with Mr Britt in Operations. is enjoying his new role as Assistant Head (Operations). He says it is a big job to ‘fill Mr Howard’s shoes,’ as he was so successful. He tells us that it is rather chilly in the mornings in the car park, but he enjoys welcoming the children to school each day. Mr Britt enjoys working with Mrs Beddison and finds his new role varied, enjoyable and interesting.
is the Assistant Head (Academic). She enjoys her new job, but says there is still a lot of work to be done. She misses being Head of Maths, but still teaches the subject that she loves. She thinks Mr Hall is doing very well as the new Head of Maths and she gets on very well with Mr Dale-Adcock, Deputy Head (Academic), as they have worked together for a long time.
- Deputy Head (Pastoral), Head of LfL. She enjoys running in Cranleigh and she ran the London Marathon in under 4 hours! In doing this, she was able to raise £8,500 for Great Ormond Street Hospital and she was an Olympic torch bearer due to her amazing fundraising. She enjoys eating chocolate. - Director of Studies, Head of Maths. Mr Hall likes watching and playing cricket. He has three boys and he enjoys spending time with them. He likes to go on holiday with his family and he is very busy at the moment because, between teaching and spending time with his young family, he is learning to play the ukulele. with his young family, he is learning to play the ukulele. - Head of Middle School, 4P Tutor, Maths. Mr Pearn very much likes surfing, which takes a lot of skill! He was the youngest person ever to score a goal for the England Hockey Team. He ran the New York and the London marathons and has been to two Olympic Games for Hockey in both Sydney and Athens. He enjoys dance music a lot. Head of Dance. She studied dance from a young age and has had a successful career working in the entertainment industry as a Dancer, Choreographer and Teacher.
I joined Cranleigh this year as a new pupil and I have had lots of fun. I came from Lanesborough School in Guildford. My advice to new pupils is to ‘stick with your shadows’ on the first few days, as that will help you to find your way around the school. In the first few days, it can be tricky working out where everything is, but you’ll soon work it out. Being part of the The Buzz editorial team, I decided to interview some of the other new pupils to find out how they were settling into life at Cranleigh Prep. Firstly, I interviewed Will S, a new Form 5 pupil who just joined from Reigate St.Mary’s. His advice to all the new pupils joining was "whatever you do, never forget to write down your prep in your Prep Diary, otherwise you may forget to hand it in!” I also interviewed Isabel C who has recently joined from Kew Green Prep. She suggested that pupils try to find their “way around the school, as quickly as possible, because it will help in many ways.” I also interviewed Emily L, a new Form 3 pupil from Feltonfleet School. She said that “ the sport at Cranleigh is much better and the teachers are friendlier.” So far this term, Emily enjoyed the Hampton Court trip and the children's musical, Hoodwinked. Lara Pdid a good job of showing Emily around the school and helping her to settle in so well.
In September, we were delighted to have been visited by our new Patron of Reading, M.G. Leonard, author of Beetle Boy, Beetle Queen and the, soon to be published, Battle of the Beetles. She started of the day by speaking to the whole school in Chapel. She told us that she used to work in media, music and theatre. She used to tell lots of stories to her children and finally decided to write them down herself. She said that she was never very good at English in school, and her teachers often told her this, but now she’s a best-selling author! She told us that anyone can become an author if they try really hard and read a lot. M.G. Leonard then went into classes and talked to several of the year groups. She explained to us that she basically decided to write about beetles because she had a very big “fear of creepy crawlies.” Rather than allow this fear to get the better of her, she decided to turn it into a positive and find out more about beetles. This knowledge made her fall in love with them, as she found out how clever and important these tiny insects are. We are looking forward to welcoming her back to school in the Lent Term to help us all to develop our love of reading and writing.
This year the Form 3 play was called Hoodwinked. It was a musical production, which was based on the Robin Hood story. There were two showings of the play, with one to the whole school in the afternoon and one to the parents in the evening. We had been preparing the play for ages and there were lots of lines to learn. There was an amazing atmosphere for both productions. Everyone performed well and the lighting lit up the hall, blasting out dazzling colours. The audience gave us a huge round of applause at the end and said all sorts of happy comments about how well we had done.
We have been following the progress of the new building that is being constructed in the centre of our school at the moment. It has been very interesting to see the new building taking shape week by week, but we wanted the ‘inside story’ about what was going on behind the fencing and so we have been to interview Mr Harris, our Site Manager, to find out all the detail about the new building. The Townsend Building is going to cost ÂŁ3.5 million to build and its construction is split into three stages. The first stage was making the foundations. It was during this stage that we all noticed a dog (wearing a high-viz coat!) in the building site. This little dog was called Rocky and he belonged to one of the cementers. The second stage is making the main structure of the building and this is the stage that is being completed just now. The triangular roof is being made at the moment and this will not be a third storey but forms part of the design of the building and will be open inside. The third and final stage of the building will be the interior design and painting. This stage cannot occur if it is raining or when it is cold because the plaster and paint will not set properly and there will be air bubbles in the walls. The plumbing and electricity will also be inserted in two stages. At the moment, the building is about two weeks behind schedule, but with 92 people having worked on site at the beginning of November (and up to 150-160 people by the end of the build), they expect to catch up. Mr Harris has said that being in a school with pupils and staff around, does not make it harder to work. The builders have had to throw various items back over the fence though! He also said that the builders always try to cooperate with school requests, such as keeping noise to a minimum during exam periods. All the builders are working very hard at the moment and they are on site from 8am until 4pm each day. We are all looking forward to the opening of this new building at the end of the Summer term, 2018. This new building, named after the former Chairman of the Governing Body, will be a great new facility in our school.
On Friday 15th September, forty-four sailors from Forms 4, 5 and 6 departed for the annual sailing trip to UKSA with Mrs Sanders, Mrs Sharpe, Mrs Cooke and Mr Stroud. When we arrived at the ferry terminal on the Isle of Wight, we had a warm greeting from the UKSA staff. The following day we had a very refreshing breakfast with all of our friends. Once we had finished, we went straight onto the water sailing Laser Picos, RS Visions, Hobie Cats, RS Quests as well as having fun on Optimist boats. It was a very busy day. Well done to everyone for coping with the strong winds. The following day, when we departed, everyone was very sad, but we were very pleased to have had a brilliant weekend. Ollie W in Form 6 said, “It was very enjoyable trip. I loved the food and the staff and all the Prep School teachers were great.”
During the half term, eleven students from Peponi House School in Nairobi, joined us to be part of our school exchange. Following an initial rest day, we were taken to Stratford-UponAvon so that we could explore a different part of the country. On arrival, we set off on a self-guided tour of Warwick Castle and then we spent the night in a Youth Hostel. The next morning, we participated in a Shakespeare workshop, followed by some time to go shopping on the High Street. On Sunday, we were given time to enjoy our own activities with our guests. Some families went to Air Hop and others enjoyed some shopping! During the week, the exchange students accompanied us to lessons and they enjoyed learning some different aspects of the curriculum. On Bonfire night, we were invited to watch the Boarders’ Fireworks after school. The supper was delicious and the display was amazing! On Friday, we all went to the London, where we enjoyed a trip to Madame Tussauds and the London Eye. We really enjoyed hosting the Kenyan pupils and are looking forward to visiting them in the Lent term.
Staggering sensation unseen and dull, Terrible and terrified they stomp, Light and dark, Extraordinary brilliance that nobody knows about, Walking around in powerful perfection,
Black and white, Mystery, Mystery, Mystery
Listening quietly, Echoing loudly, Mystery, Mystery, Mystery
Clues now solved, Sneaky and bold, Boom, Boom, Boom!
Dreaded and dangerous, formidable female Arrogant eyes as beady as a werewolf, Booming beauty and a bottle-green coat Mystery, Mystery, Mystery
Marching up like a soldier, The wind whistles when she opens the door, Her shadow is the black night, She is her shadow, A mystery now solved.
We visited Haslemere Museum to study the Ancient Egyptians. First, we met our tour guide. Excited to get started, our group was the first to see the Mummy. It looked very old and had a couple of holes in it. Next, we had to find out what the Mummy was called. The Museum has written its name in hieroglyphs, so our group had to translate it into English. Then we were shown all the steps of mummification. William was lucky enough to pull the brain out through the nose! Over lunch, we talked about what we had learned. We learned that you weighed the heart before you mummified it. Also, we learned that if you were a boy, you had a brown face and if you were a girl, you had a gold face. My favourite part of the trip was when we mummified our Barbie doll at the end of the day. We also made cartouches and death masks which really made us feel like we were a Pharaoh or a priest. It was a really great trip for our Form because we learned lots of new information that we did not know before.
The Cranleigh Riding Team have had a first class term, successfully competing in two national competitions. The first competition at Addington saw much success with all the pupils learning valuable lessons about working as a team and sharing the many responsibilities that riding requires. The second competition was the NSESA National Plate Final at Keysoe in Bedfordshire at the beginning of December. Medals were won in the Mini Arena Eventing class with Cranleigh teams taking Gold and Silver. Issy H and Kristina V also placed individually in this event. In the Show jumping jump off the following day, the two Cranleigh teams finished in fourth and sixth places. Well done to all the Prep School riders who play a valuable role in our school Riding Team.
The U12A Girls Hockey team were third in the National IAPS Hockey Championships. This followed on from winning the Westbourne House and Seaford Hockey tournaments this term. The U13 Girls won the Danes Hill Hockey tournament. The Girls’ Swimming team retained their trophy at the Cranleigh Amateur Swim Gala. U9A Boys won the CPS Football Festival in association with the Chelsea Foundation. U13A and U11A footballers won the overall School trophy at Hall Grove Football Festival. Several members of the school have been selected for Prep School Football squads this year. Jonah C will be playing in the ISFA U13 Surrey squad and William S has been selected for the U12 Lions ‘A’ Squad. In addition, ten other pupils have been selected (or reselected ) for their age group for the Lions’ Development squad: Eddie R, Toby D, Marcus M, James D, Freddie P, Liam R, Tom W, Louis P, Hamish R and Patrick B. These pupils will travel to the Gothia Cup in Sweden in July 2018. Well done to them all.
The U8 Netball teams have enjoyed winning success. The U8A team had won all their matches at time of going to press and the U8B team also won their group at the CPS Netball Festival. The U12B Rugby team has also enjoyed an unbeaten season so far this term. Thirteen pupils have been selected to represent county or district cricket teams for the coming season.
