Harvest: From Seed to Soup

Around this time, every Primary School in the land turns to its beleaguered external Music Teacher (or, if nothing else, that poor naive young teacher who won the Christmas Party Karaoke rendition and has now been named Music Coordinator) to prepare for the Harvest festival.  

They find the plastic box, unopened over the previous 11 months, and filled with year-old crepe paper autumn leaves, mouldy conkers, and a rather interesting fungus smell, and dig out the battered photocopy of the lyrics to ‘We plough the fields and scatter’ and ‘Cauliflowers fluffy’ ready to remind children, many of whom have only been alive for five cycles of the seasons, that fruit and veg can only be picked during certain months, and they should be bloomin’ thankful for it.

(Although who they are thanking is rather questionable.  For most, it’s probably the lady in Lidl, or the team in Tescos).

There may be the chance that you are reading this and not a parent at Cransley.  Maybe, you may have sat through a church service, assembly or similar, heard the usual songs, poetry recitals (many of which you sang as a child yourself), and watched Reception dressed up as yawning tomatoes, wondering whether it’s worth taking two hours of your working day to watch your darling child see how far they can stick some straw up their nose.

We do things slightly differently at Cransley. (I do love those words).

So, the Junior School staff meeting mid-September probably went like this: 

“Hmm. That’s what everyone else does. What can we do better?” (Practically the Junior School’s mission statement.)

“Is the tractor still around?  Last I saw it was coughing away in the front field.”

“I’ll have a chat.  Greame can fit it in those doors.  Always fun to watch.”

“Let’s put twinkly lights on it this time. And use it to display our donation to WODAC?”

“Great idea.  Food?”

“Soup and rolls.  Soup entirely made from vegetables they have grown themselves from seed on the farm.  Seed to Soup. Bread rolls from Bidvest.”

“Excellent.  Shame about the rolls.  Next year maybe.  Year 6 can serve our parents.  Let’s get them all mixed up so they can chat with new parents from other year groups in the Gym.  Big long tables, like in Hogwarts.”

“Well, let’s get the parents to do some hard labour beforehand.  Build their appetite.  Dungarees not yoga pants;  Put those Barbour coats and Hunter wellies to some proper use.  No Burbury and Gucci here!”  

“Too right.  Let’s get them ploughing the field alleys and scattering those good seeds.”

“Sounds like a song to me…”

“A bit of hard labour won’t harm them.  Crack on even if it's raining?”

“Of course! Better and better.  Next?  Some vital existential meaning? What do our kids and their parents need to know?”

“We have to get some serious messages across… who wants to go first?” 

“Climate change for us.” 

“Use of pesticides and herbicides, here” 

“Mycology for Year 2!”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. They loved it last year, investigates their biochemical properties, and how humans use them, while also examining their role in medicine, industry, and ecology. I bet every Year 3 could tell their oysters from their giant puffballs.” 

“I’ll do the water cycle, if you are going to do how we use our labs to test the soil for the best growth.”

“Condensation and stuff?”

“Much better. Year 1 have been identifying cloud types with special viewers and have learned to predict what the weather will do over the coming hours. We could teach the parents.”

“Magic.  Science, speaking and listening, maths, personal development, confidence and enterprise, wider understanding of the world, ecology, geography, sense of community.  Awesome.  Reception?”

“Can we dress up and sing a song?”

“Always.  It wouldn’t be a Harvest Festival without it.”

Autumn Open Day: No scripts. We trust them.

Journal Entry:

Is the Autumn Open Day well-marketing, well-planned and well-executed?

Were guests made to feel welcome and know how to come back?

Were our pupils kind, effective and transparent?

In our last marketing survey, most parents looked at 2-3 schools before choosing Cransley, and it is expected that anyone within our catchment area would have popped to The Grange, amongst others, on recent weekends, and rightly so.

The weather hasn’t helped any of us hoping to hold a sunny Autumnal event, but it's the warmth inside that counts, and I’d like to think that was very evident on Saturday, and I want to thank every one of the lovely guests and families who braved the elements and joined us this weekend. 

A good open day will inevitably showcase the learning environment and resources available, even on a wet and windy day, but ultimately it isn’t what persuades a family to return for another visit.  

It isn’t the headteacher or his team welcoming guests as they arrive, or the Chair of Governors sharing a cookie or two.

It isn’t the superb staff sharing their expertise and glowing promotion for their subject or form.

It isn’t Chef Ed's wonderful demonstration of his kitchen, or even the incredible Lego model of the school and Estate (thank you so much, Sam K (Y10)).

It is always the pupils.  Their openness, thoughtfulness and pride.

Parents so often say that they want their child to become the pupil that is showing them around the school.

Where else would a pupil guiding a nervous child around the school go into each room to describe to their little guest what was inside and how busy the room was, before they entered?

Where else would a child take over the tour of another pupil because their friend isn’t feeling well?

Where else would a pupil happily take a late-comer around their school, even when they are sacrificing a netball fixture. Each of these were seen on Saturday.

Our children are not given a marketing script or words and phrases they must say.  We trust them enough to be clear and transparent about life at Cransley, and indeed we trust you as guests to recognise when a child is trying to remember what they have been told to say by a marketing executive.

We hope that many of our families will return to us for our parent guided tours and pupil enrichment days in November, and if nothing else share experiences with friends and families.  If you were a new visitor to the school, do let us know if you enjoyed the event or how we can make ours even better.

For those who missed the chance to visit, please give us a call.  We can try our best to accommodate a visit in the coming weeks.

A huge thank you to our families for arranging their weekend obligations, fixtures, shopping trips, gym visits and more to offer use to us of their children. 

The success of our Open days are crucial to the effective development of any independent school. We currently have just over 250 pupils, 90 in the Juniors, 162 in the Seniors, and are on track to slowly grow over the course of the year, with a bumper field of candidates applying for places in Year 6 and 7 for September 2026.

The SMT: Shared warmth, accountability and purpose

Journal entry:

Is my management team stable, aware of policy and new research and guidance, and moving with a clear direction? Is succession planning necessary and if so, in place?

We’ve all heard of the concept of impostor syndrome.  If you feel it, please don't worry in the slightest. It is sensible to always be suspicious of those who crave, dream of - or worse, expect - positions of leadership.  

The reasons behind such ambition are often questionable - more money; the need to satisfy the expectations of others; a sense of entitlement or superiority or need to act out authority.  None of these are qualities required to lead a team effectively and sustainably through the execution of a shared warmth, accountability and purpose (three things that do not always go hand-in-hand).

Indeed, it is my philosophy that the most effective headteachers are those who create a team of leaders - each far better at their role than the head themselves. Although this quickly leads to unnerving feelings that one is surplus to requirements, there is a true sense of satisfaction and accomplishment to such an approach, as well as a security and assuredness within that leadership team, were any one of them, particularly the Head to not be available.

Every one of the current Senior Academic Management team and Business Management team at Cransley - except maybe two - were persuaded and promoted because, whilst they were already had the potential to lead others in their field, they hadn’t recognised it in themselves. They required only the opportunity to build experience and dedicated training or coaching to become leaders.

Mrs Clare Lancaster had been an experienced Geography teacher for many years at Cransley, but was persuaded by my predecessor Simon Leyshon to take the role as ‘Head of Faculty’ - a rather functional title tenuously grouping half of the subjects teachers.  Deputy headship came in temporary form, by abhorring the vacuum left by the long-term absence of my previous Deputy (someone I employed from outside of the school - I was after all, and new and inexperienced Head).  It didn't take long to develop trust and awareness of Mrs Lancaster’s potential as a permanent Deputy headteacher and Senior Academic leader.  She will be missed as she steps away from the role at the end of this year, after seven brilliant years - although, thank goodness, she’ll only be upstairs teaching Geography.

Mr Rob Morris was the only member of my management team who was employed from outside of Cransley, specifically to take the Deputy Headteacher role and lead the Junior School into a new era.  His previous 15 successful years of teaching across a variety of difficult primary schools locally, clearly gave him both the clarity of exceptional practice and the understanding of pedagogical development needed to continue to make the Juniors into one of the very best settings for any young person. Mr Morris is now completing his Master in Educational Leadership after 18 months of demanding study and analysis, with a deserving distinction. I am sure he has been sought by other schools, with several high level vacancies recently arising amongst large independent settings, and I trust that his heart and soul is definitely Cransley’s for a little while yet.

Mrs Clare Holt had the role of administrator and PA to the headteacher, but her commitment to the school, knowledge of families and awareness of the Estate gave her more potential than had been realised.  Bespoke training alongside a specialist Health and Safety consultant, and extensive training to complete her catchy ‘NEBOSH General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety’ (learning alongside her peers in British Nuclear Energy, no less), provided her with the skills and confidence to not only run but rapidly develop the Estate, and managing the complexities of a company workforce as Operations Manager. (P.S. It’s a special birthday for her today.  Can’t say which one.)

Mrs Suzanne Parrott’s corporate experience as an accountant with PWC and local awareness made her a superb appointment almost 11 years ago as the Director of Finance of a school which, for some years prior to that, had perhaps lacked that direction.  The task was considerable, and made even more urgent by the troubles Cransley experienced in 2016.  Her superb bookkeeping, analysis and budgeting was utterly essential in the School’s regrowth, providing a deepening reliability and security in its management accounts, financial prudence in its investments and accountability on the performance of Cransley School Ltd.  It is not surprising, now that both of her children have left Cransley having had wonderful achievements here, both earning the position as Head Pupil, that she has been tempted back into the corporate sector this November. 

Mrs Jill Pargeter’s presence was clear for all to see, and hear, as a teacher of PE (the ability of a sports coach to be able to halt a pupil at 200 yards amongst a crowd being near-mandatory). However her absolute awareness and functional care for the wellbeing of all children in the school only became truly apparent as she dedicated herself to understanding the law and statutory guidance around child protection as the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead.  This role requires the facility to have the most difficult of conversations with pupils, parents and staff, as well as local authority designated officers, social care and even the police. Combine this with ensuring the highest standards in pupil behaviour, and we have one of the most difficult jobs in any school.  Mrs Pargeter has executed this role without fail and she deserves her calm and peaceful retirement at Easter.

The COVID-era accelerated the next stage in Mrs Jill Cosgrove’s career from a capable and effective business studies and computer science teacher to Assistant Headteacher.  As the need to develop an online facility became apparent, she saw the opportunity and led the considerable development of CSO through the Google Workspace for Education, with all of its new policies, new systems, new pedagogy and new resources.  What is now second nature to us all and utterly integrated to the future of education, then required careful coaching of a staffing body who, at the time, were split in half - those who could but didn't know how and those who didn't want to in the first place.  A strong personality in the classroom and staffroom has developed the necessary sensitivity and awareness to be a successful manager.  Now, she takes the complex but rewarding lead in the mentorship of new students and early career teachers, alongside her management of systems and academic administration.

Once upon a time in Trafford, there was a group of young teachers fresh into their careers - many of whom were both capable and carefully coached in new ways of classroom management, an awareness of the many varying needs of pupils and the use of technology to better their opportunities and realise potential.  One of these was Mrs Sarah Hanson who took the time, not only become an excellent primary teacher, but an expert in dyslexia, its diagnosis and the pedagogical approach required to bring equity to pupils’ experience in the classroom.  Mrs Hanson joined Cransley as a remote dyslexia assessor and support teacher, ten years ago, before being persuaded to come back to the classroom. A little encouragement was required for her to see her own potential as the School SENCo, and take on the hugely difficult task of managing a number of Educational Health Care Plans from six different local authority SEN teams and systems, GCSE access arrangements and the day to day excellent practice and differentiation in the classroom.

It struck me recently that most of the Junior School parent group did not know the make up of the SMT, and maybe this has now been rectified. Undoubtedly each of my team will be suitably modest and embarrassed to be praised in such a way, but I feel parents should know the experience and expertise driving the school forward.

I have asked each one to add a written piece on chosen area to be shared on this Journal. Watch this space.

The three members of the management team who are leaving this year, have, thankfully, given me the notice, time and the opportunity to find and recruit exceptional successors for the continued growth and development of the school and have a smooth and effective transition.

This is the legacy of any true leader. I owe them a great deal of thanks.

Richard Pollock

Headteacher