Venture beyond…

Dear Parents and Families

[Before I start, I’m at the end of a Ryanair air-con-induced head cold, so I blame any vagaries or rambling in this journal on overdoses of Lemsip and Covonia.]

New Revised Timetable

The new timetable for September, with its benefits of increased teaching hours and enrichment opportunities, has brought about some welcome discussion and a generally favourable acceptance.  Those questions that have been asked - in regard to timings, after school activities, consultation processes etc. - have, I hope, been answered in these two important documents below, separated for convenience into Junior and Senior, which I ask you to read carefully.

Any Questions? Revised timetable for 2025 (Juniors)

Any Questions? Revised timetable for 2025 (Seniors)

I am aware of the changes requiring personal and familial retiming and adjustment and appreciate all efforts being made to enable this new efficient and cost effective adjustment.

I ask that you indicate your initial preferences for the Friday afternoon, using the form below, for each of your children seperately, so we can initiate planning as early as possible.

The Friday Afternoon (Current Reception-5)

The Friday Afternoon (Current Y6-10) 

Ski Trip to La Molina, Spain

For many, taking a normal family ski trip is characterised with so many highs and lows (metaphorical and literal), with a great deal of stress and concern throughout.  Enough for some to question whether it is a holiday at all. 

So all those who have suggested that Mrs Storey, Mrs Atkinson, Mr Morris, Mr Low and myself were on a big holiday must themselves lead a trip escorting 40 children, including 25 Y7s, across Europe, high up in Andorra, and watch each child throw themselves with varying levels of control down steep snowy pistes, and experience our pupils’ emotional, mental and physical fatigue over six intense days (with an additional day in a busy Barcelona) before they should be so flippant!

My colleagues were magnificent, and pupils were, in the main, marvellous in their fortitude and resilience and behaviour.  They all came back in one piece (another school I was speaking with had endured four broken arms and a double collar bone fracture amongst their pupils and one teacher!), albeit with whatever bugs and viruses were running through the plane fuselage.  

Mrs Storey dedicates so much of her own time to meticulously arranging these trips for the enrichment and benefit of so many pupils.  She shines very brightly indeed.

Cransley Speedworks Motorsport

Cransley Speedworks F1iS car

Much to our utter surprise and bewilderment, as our entry wasn't the fastest by any means, the small but mighty Y10 Cransley Speedworks team not only won the prestigious award for the Best Engineered Car, but came second in the ambitious Development class at the F1 in Schools Regional Finals last week, out of 14 highly competitive large schools across the North West, and are now automatically entered into the National Finals on the 26-27th March.

Work has now begun on a full rebrand, new business enterprise plan, new digital media (instagram.com/cransleyspeedworks/), full re-engineering of the car itself and a series of testing sessions on our new F1 in Schools track, which arrived on the day of the Regional final.

Cransley Vitesse F1iS car. Photos courtesy of M Davies (Y9)

Congratulations too to the sister Y9 entry-level team Cransley Vitesse, who are learning very quickly about how difficult this competition is, and are now fully supporting the Speedworks team, and watching their inheritance grow, as the older team learn and develop so rapidly.

My thanks to the wonderful Mrs Cosgrove who conceived and enabled our participation in the event and the superbly talented Mr Hassell for his extraordinary grasp of complex technical requirements, CAD and CFD software, manufacturing processes and somehow managing to teach this to the pupils so they are able to actually see their creations in extraordinary 3D graphic models… and then literally in the palm of their hands. (Each car is only 10 inches long.  What did you expect?) 

Thank you also to Rix Motors, PDS Eco and Legend Print Services who have contributed to the Motorsport project’s success, together with a partnership with the original local Speedworks BTCC Motorsports team. 

Watch this space for the results later this month.

Spring Hoedown

I invite all Junior School pupils and parents to bring all the family to our inaugural traditional Spring Hoedown on the very last Friday of the term, 4th April.  I see governors, headteachers, parents, grandparents, pupils, brothers, sisters, friends all do-si-do-ing our way through some bluegrass country tunes, with some great American food being rustled up by Chef Ed.  

Book tickets now at ParentPay.

World Book Day

Mr Morris seems a little blue.

You know you have caught some horrible virus when you exit your Study to the sight of a looming 6 foot 4 bearded giant blue crayola pencil carrying a laptop.  

Then you vaguely recall from the murky depths of your clouded memory that it is World book Day, and the hairy crayon is actually Mr Morris.

Indeed the sight of so many fabulous book character costumes was either an utter delight or a nightmarish headtrip, sufficient to make you check the ingredients in your herbal tea. 

Congratulations to all children for keeping up their characters for the entire day, and to all you parents who worked the costumes so wonderfully.  Senior School too next year?  Mark the date and prepare, Senior School parents.  I imagine it is very hard to get a costume from ASDA for a fifteen year old at 9.45pm on a Wednesday evening.

That’s it from me.  More to share next week, but some recovery time is needed.  A final thank you to Mrs Storey who asked with a straight face “Ah, you are not well, poor man.  Is it all over your body… or is it just all in your head?” much to the hilarity of the office team.  Thanks, Laura.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mr Pollock

Headteacher

Cransley is evolving

A ‘brief brief’ from me to you all as the school family takes a half term break - mainly because we leave for Spain with forty pupils on Sunday, and although I have everyone's medication, plus the ski travel first aid kit/suitcase cataloged and stored, and I have, as yet, done none of my packing.

The half-term has been shaped by the challenges of weather and windows, admissions and AI, tax systems and timetables, all conveniently alliterative and sometimes inconveniently impactful, and all a small part of being an independent school headteacher nowadays. 

I do wish to take an opportunity to say thank you to my colleagues who are just superb at what they do and the manner in which they do it.  My goal is for our teachers and pupils to continue their learning journeys unburdened and unaffected by all of these changes. Each gives their all in their field of responsibility and it fills me with deep pride.  Our new teachers (how wonderful are they?) feedback openly that the experience working here is far removed from the difficulties and divisions of their previous places of employment.  Truly, this can only benefit our pupils, when staff feel so comfortable and happy themselves that they can be creative and innovative in their teaching.

Isn’t it sad that the common workplace, and schools in particular, seem characterised by negativity, exhaustion, bitterness and er… management?  I am happy to buck the trend, or at least attempt to. Trusting my colleagues to be the very best they can be is the easiest part of my role, and I am very fond and in admiration of them all.

Likewise our pupils who work their way through the days smiling, full of life, enjoying each other’s company, riding life's pot-holes, full of respect for each other, learning all that they possibly can on that day.  

I am deeply proud of them not only for what they are becoming, but also for what they are not.  We, as parents, are best minded to remember that.

Our new pupils for September, in Reception and Year 7, are already well known to us, having been assessed carefully over this last month.  They are a delight - kind, caring and full of good potential to complement our existing students.  The future of the pupil roll is in good hands. 

Incidentally we have a Junior School Open Afternoon on the 26th February.  Please invite any interested friends and families.   

Cransley is evolving: it is not enough to remain as a traditional immobile school that should stay immersed in the ‘blob’ of the educational sector, but one that thinks about what our younger generation and their families need as they enter the next phases in their lives, and then acts on it, within our means, with the flexibility, operational adaptation and pure ambition to make it work. 

Dear parents: I have asked a lot of you this term, with the school closure, revised contracts and terms and conditions, a new code of conduct and now timetable changes ahead.  I hope you all will be patient and positive over the coming weeks, secure in the knowledge that this is all to benefit and enhance the experience of our pupils here and to guide the school safely through interesting times.  It is what you would expect of me.

I wish you a happy half-term.

Richard Pollock

Headteacher

The right sense of ‘privilege’

A slightly unusual Saturday morning message from me, but I have a spare monent after welcoming our prospective Year 7 pupils, from a variety of different settings outside of Cransley, into School to carry out their selection assessments.

It is a pleasure to host such a group of potential new pupils, all a little nervous, in a kaleidoscope of uniforms, but all keen and prepared.  We will have some very difficult decisions ahead this week.

Four Three letter words

I asked our Senior School pupils during assembly ‘what three letter word is annoying but needed, dull and broadly miserable to many, but inescapable and required’.  

“Ice” was a suggestion eagerly and innocently suggested by a keen Year 7. “Mud” astutely said another*.  Thankfully no one suggested “You” which was a blessing, although I'm sure not far from people’s lips.

The following assembly on ‘Tax’ (the correct answer called by a Y9 pupil - it’s in the family!) was scripted for pupils to know exactly what the circumstances were around the introduction of VAT on school fees.  At Cransley, we have never taken for granted the extraordinary cost of private education, and I regularly begin every term’s staff training with an outline of our school fees, so that colleagues - not that they need reminding - are fully conscious of the commitment and investment that parents are making to their child’s education. I must thank parents for their efforts in inevitably restructuring their lifestyles and finances to meet this imposed cost. I know what it will have taken for so many families.

Equally, it is important that our (Senior) pupils know this also.  We take pride in our pupils having a sense of ‘privilege’ - not that they are superior or wealthier than others, but rather that they are grateful, fortunate and aware of the opportunities made available to them, and show that gratitude to parents in a meaningful variety of ways.  For pupils across all independent schools, the rapid imposed increase in fees means that the acceptability for falling below potential, or coasting, or failing to take full advantage of those opportunities is now near nil.  Families will struggle to justify the cost of supporting children who show apathy, disengagement and poor behaviour, and Schools must work with parents to ensure pupils are of a clear mindset.  

Pupils are also now aware, as I trust parents are, that the introduction of VAT brings no additional revenue at all into our independent schools.  We are simply the conduit for HMRC’s added tax on the value of our services.

What we as a school - like any business - can do, is continue to review our efficiency in terms of how we deliver our curriculum and maintain our learning environment; avoid increasing costs or any compromise to our educational services, and ensure our pupil roll is stable and sustained - hence why I am pleased to have so many apply for our Y7 places.  Our financial culture in this regard remains unchanged.

* I struggle to find anywhere rural or semi rural that isn't dominated by mud currently.  The Rivers Weaver and Mersey, and even the brimming Ship Canal, are struggling to take water out of the Cheshire plain and certainly on the School Estate our pools and ponds are completely full.  This dry week has prevented further problems, but until the Spring begins and warmer temperatures ensue, we are going to continue to need our wellies.

Artificial Intelligence 

Our Staff INSET on Monday 6th January (so long ago, it feels!) took us on the next steps in our Artificial Intelligence implementation plan, and how this extraordinary technical power will influence and enhance, and in some ways compromise, our operational and pedagogical practice.

I am very keen for Cransley to be at the cutting edge of AI use in education 

I will write to parents with a more detailed Head’s journal entry on our approach to AI, but for now, our focus has been on developing Gemini as our sole integrated tool within our Google Workspace for Education, with particular focus on the following:

• The creation of a robust but aspirant Use of AI Policy;

• The suitable safeguarding and acceptable user agreements by staff and pupils over the age of 13;

• The necessary data protection protocols so that no sensitive individual information is shared with Gemini, as well as an investment in locking down the Gemini tool to our own workspace, so that when school users access the Gemini app as a core service, their prompts ‘chats’ and uploaded files won't be reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise be used to improve generative AI models.

• The technical enabling of the AI tool within our strict school-based filtering and monitoring systems;

• Careful examination of the Google privacy terms and conditions to ensure privacy, intellectual property, transparency, overseen by a school Digital Management and Review Team which I will chair personally.

• Clear parameters as to when pupils and staff can suitably and effectively utilise AI in their learning, with transparency and critical review.

I would be very interested to know a little more about the parental perception of AI and would encourage readers to take part in this short AI Acceptability questionnaire.  Please.  It would be very useful to curate our AI development. 

Christingle

Having been unable to attend the Senior School Carol Service on our last day of term, I was pleased to see our Junior School in their Christingle service yesterday - a reflection event after the busy Christmas period, and an opportunity to acknowledge those children around the world who are vulnerable and in need.  Although a secular school, the time to reflect and show gratitude is much needed by adults and children alike, and St Mary’s Church is no finer local setting for this to take place.

Our visiting prospective pupils are now finished and we will see this relieved and happy lot to their waiting parents, and I wish you all a lovely weekend.