Chronicle:12 October 2018

Cranmore Chronicle 12 October 2018 Editor: Mrs S Trumble

Our newly elected School Council Representatives for 2018/2019

In This Issue...

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The Headmaster New School Council Virtual Reality Nursery News Sports Focus Music Department

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Art from Nature U8 Girls’ hockey Swimming Medals Lower Preps at Nower Wood Ski Report David Wood visit

The Cranmore Chronicle

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The pupils are making very good use of the new playground equipment provided by the CPA! Thank you!

Dear Parents We wish our School Council Representatives a most enjoyable day as they head off to visit Parliament.

We had two wonderful celebrations for Harvest this week: the Junior Assembly on Wednesday and Mass yesterday. As ever, I am grateful to those who have been so generous with their donation of foodstuffs.

This edition has plenty of news about recent sporting activities. It is certainly another milestone for Cranmore to have a photo of our girls’ Hockey team and our girls’ Ski team.

There are few sporting honours which can match being selected to represent one’s country. Therefore, I know you will join me in wishing Mr Everitt every success when he plays for the Irish Legends in the prestigious World Rugby Classic in Bermuda which begins at the end of half-term. His first match is against France and I know he is training hard as the count-down to kick-off approaches.

Yours sincerely Michael Connolly

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School Council Representatives 2018-2019

2DM

C Sobey

C Steer

2JH

L Meneghin

P Weidner

2S

K Mack

J Turnbull

3H

L Wilkinson

TSmith

3J

B Buckle

C Guest

3M

L Loest

B McKay

4C

W Basnett

J Soellaart

4F

C Brown

Z Hyner

4P

S Armitage

D Farooq

5AM

A Roberts

A Bowles

5M

T McNamara

T Dowson

6D

O Hinds W Toone

M Towers

6H

J Arun

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Virtual Reality comes to Cranmore!

At the start of the school year, two rather large, bright orange boxes were delivered to school. “Great!” exclaimed Mr Hinds as they were brought up to the Senior ICT room. The 5th form class who were in there at the time, learning how to code a Python Etch-a-sketch, all wanted to have a look in the mysterious orange boxes. When the boxes were opened and 19 sets of VR headsets were revealed, the cries of “Awesome!” and “Wow!” were heard round the room. The next question however was “Why do we need these, aren’t they just for games?”

We live in a technological society and so it makes sense to implement both Virtual and Augmented Reality, as well as coding and robotics, as some of the forms of technology in order to educate tomorrow’s workforce. Whilst books, paper and pencils are still of the utmost importance, interactive technologies help impart knowledge and understanding in a way that videos and 2D pictures cannot.

This technology is to be used throughout the school, from the Lower Preps to the 6th Form, whether it be looking at castles, ocean reefs or the Vikings, all the way to standing inside a dormant volcanic chamber and vent, the tomb of Rameses or the structure of different molecules. Not only does it work with the Sciences and Social Sciences, other subjects like English and RE can use the many resources. Using VR, a child might be in a deep, dark wood, creating memories to help them write a creative and imaginative story or experiencing an RE lesson from within the Vatican.

The possibilities are only limited by the imagination, coupled with the fact that we will be able to create our own resources from Cranmore events and trips.

None of this would be possible without the CPA. The group have paid for the goggles from the proceeds of last year’s events like the fireworks show and Picnic in the Paddock. Without their help, we would not have such a wonderful resource in school for our children to use.

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Pupils—and parents from the CPA which donated the equipment— trying out the exciting new Virtual Reality goggles.

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News from the Nursery We are celebrating ‘Harvest’ this week in Nursery. The children have been learning the ‘Harvest Samba’ and are excited to be singing it alongside their older siblings in the Auditorium on Wednesday. Thank you for all the lovely contributions of chocolates, biscuits, lovely toiletries and other gifts for the residents at Lime Grove. I know they will be greatly appreciated.

We have enjoyed the Autumn sunshine this past week with fun in the Adventure playground and out in the garden. The children have been sweeping leaves and planting bulbs and winter flowering pots with Mrs Woods.

We have some exciting activities planned for the October Holiday Fun sessions, including a tractor and trailer ride around the Pumpkin Farm, visits to Forest School and Autumn Sports. We are also planning a special Nursery and PreNursery Open Morning on Tuesday November 13th 9.30-11am . Do invite your friends to come along if they are interested in seeing what we can offer their child.

Our free Toddler Group this Friday 2-3.15pm is open to all. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

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Last weekend was action packed with a variety of competitive sport, including skiing, hockey and football. After travelling and practising in Norwich on the Friday, on the following day our skiing team finished an impressive second in the English Schools Nationals. On Saturday morning, history was made at Cranmore when we fielded our first ever all-girl team in the U8s hockey tournament at St.Georges. Whilst the U10s football teams were managing fixtures against Lanesborough on the Henderson Fields, two U9 football teams were representing Cranmore at the Downsend tournament. The A team made it through to the semi final, whilst the 2nd team won the B tournament, only conceding one goal throughout the day. Into this week, we started with our cross country team featuring at the English Schools Cup in Surbiton on Monday, and every day we’ve had football matches across many age groups. This weekend has eight different football teams playing whilst our rowing team is competing in Monkton Head, Bath.

For fixtures, team sheets and more information please use the sports portal via the Cranmore school website, or use the very useful Cranmore sports web app.

Paul Hodgson Director of Sport

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The Under 8 Girls’ Hockey team and the Cross Country team

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Music News

An Invitation to Sing at Charterhouse

The Music Department at Charterhouse will be performing two much-loved choral works in their Chapel on Sunday 24th March at 8 pm, with a professional orchestra: the timeless Fauré Requiem and John Rutter’s attractive arrangements of spirituals, ‘Feel The Spirit’. Cranmore parents have been invited to take part in this performance, so if you read music, have sung in a choir before and would be willing to attend one or two rehearsals prior to the concert, please do approach me and I can forward you the details of this exciting event.

Mr Harris

Order of Events for Action Day

Form 2

8.30am – 10.20am in 2DM, 2H, 2S order (To register at 8.30am in the AUDITORIUM)

Form 3

10.20am – 11.55am in 3H, 3J, 3M order

Form 4

11.55am – 1.30pm in 4C, 4F, 4P order

Form 5

2.10pm – 2.50pm in 5AM, 5M order

Form 6

2.50pm – 3.30pm in 6D, 6H order

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Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy MS had a wonderful afternoon over at the Forest School recreating natural art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy.

They collected lots of natural materials and even used tools to cut sticks to the required size. The results were outstanding !

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A Taste of Games to Come!

Cranmore U8 girls played their first ever competitive hockey last weekend, at a tournament hosted by St George’s Junior School. They had been training hard since the start of term and played really well, starting the day with a 3-0 win.

Throughout the morning there was some great hockey. The girls’ positional play and commitment were outstanding. Some impressive attacking and defending skills were shown. Miss Moore and I are very proud of them. We would like to thank all the parents for their support on the day, the only cold and wet day we have had for a few weeks! In fact, it rained so heavily, that even though we had completed our three games, the last matches of the tournament were abandoned due to the torrential rain. Welcome to hockey, girls!

Mrs Attree

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In the Swim Our swimming team achieved success at the Surrey Schools’ Swimming Association Secondary Schools Relay Gala and South East Division National Relay Time Trials. They won Silver in the freestyle and Bronze in the medley!

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If you go down to the woods today…………..

On Thursday 4th October, Lower Preps enjoyed a wonderful trip to Nower Wood on a ‘Badger’s Day Out’. We learnt all about badgers and their habitats and went searching for mini beasts in the Forest. We experienced what it would be like to be a nocturnal animals and made our very own badger hats.

We also had great fun pond-dipping and identifying which creatures we found.

Back at the cabin, we were able to look at all the pond life in fantastic detail under the video microscope. We had a brilliant day.

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Super Ski September sees the start of the dry slope ski racing and it was straight down to Southampton for the ESSKIA (English Schools Ski Association) Qualifiers.

Southampton is notorious for being fast and steep and has often caught skiers out; this year was no exception with over 40 of the 120 racers DSQ on the course, including Cranmore’s very talented U14A squad. All was not lost as the U11 A & B squads set the two fastest times of the day and therefore qualified for the finals.

Next it was off to Aldershot for the Surrey Ski Championship, a slightly different event with both Primary and Secondary Schools entered. This was a chance for Cranmore to enter a U9 Girls team and even though 3 of the skiers are in the Upper Preps they secured a great second place finish.

In the boys there was a Bronze medal for Jimmy Downing in the U9, followed by Gold and Bronze in the U11 section, a great result. The U14 fought hard but having to ski against boys a year older is always hard. However, they did secure a silver medal. Congratulations to Grant Messinger who recorded the fastest time of the day by over a second in the Primary Schools.

To round the skiing off, it was a return to Norwich for the ESSKIA finals, a simple course on a beautiful slope but not very steep. This will always suit heavier skiers especially with bad weather and a strong wind blowing up the course. At the end of the first round Cranmore’s U11A squad were half a second behind and even though they all improved on the second run, they were unable to claw back the difference losing by 800th of a second. However, a Silver Medal at the National is an amazing result and a great way to finish off this half term’s skiing.

U11 A and B at Norwich

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The U9 Girls’ Team at Surrey

ESKIA Silver Winners

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Author David Wood held the children spellbound when he visited last Friday