Preparing for a new voyage (and other unnecessary nautical metaphors...)

Dear Parents and Families

The good ship Cransley is preparing for a new voyage, having dry-docked for a few weeks, had a good lick of paint around its hull, some adjustment and repairs to the rigging and trim and is looking rather fine.  The crew are returning this week for navigational information and direction, each fine, fit and fair, and we are very much getting ready to set sail, with our cargo in a couple of weeks time.

Before I lose the already-tiresome nautical metaphor, allow me to share some notices from the ship’s log:

GCSE Results 2025

We look forward to sharing our GCSE results tomorrow with our departing Year 11s before they navigate their journey to college and beyond, and I will write to inform you of all of the key headlines in the afternoon.

We know already about one astonishingly hard-working and able pupil who achieved an A* in their A level Maths last week, following his early taking of his Maths GCSE last year.  Huge congratulations to them.  I gather they started studying their A level Biology over this summer… just for fun.

Decoration and refurbishment

Our dutiful estate team, led by Mrs Holt and Mrs Totterdell-Lambert, have overseen a number of elements of R&R, including the painting of the ground floor of the Belmont Hall, notably the Entrance Hall, English room and Head’s Study (images below) in a beautiful heritage chalk white, enhancing the stunning Rococo plasterwork, and some ground work to the area outside of the Pavilion incorporating a new EYFS sheltered area and decking.  We have also prepared the ground for some new column lighting around the courts in readiness for the winter.

The old textiles room has now been converted into a Junior classroom (for Year 5) and some other repairs and restoration has taken place in other classrooms.

Our extensive project to refurbish the deteriorating windows of the Hall has been part-completed with the rear ground-floor windows replaced, and three of the front curved sash windows carefully removed for profiling and replacement.  We aim to complete the work by the end of 2026.

Autumn Open Day

We have chosen to postpone our Autumn Open Day from 20th September until the 4th October so as to not clash with other local independent schools, and I ask that you note the new date as we will require some of your children to be ambassadors for our visiting guests.

Please do share this information with the friends and families that you like, and certainly we welcome Year 5 and 6  parents taking the opportunity to see the Senior school in all of its glory.

Senior and Junior School Parent Handbooks

Parents asked us a few years ago for a document that contained all of the necessary information for the start of the year in one place and we have dutifully obliged, therefore can I insist that you read them carefully.  They were sent in a recent email from the School office and available on our website.

Junior School

Senior School

They contain further information about the new school day times, homework, uniform, pick up and drop off and much more.   They are about one cup of tea’s worth of essential reading (plus two biscuits).

Uniform

These children grow quickly, and if you can, please find time to dig out their uniform and try them on for size.  If you need new items, I recommend before running desperately to Monkhouse, that you visit our online pre-loved uniform website run by brilliant parent volunteers, where all proceeds are returned straight into the school (and have paid for several new interactive whiteboards and a school trip! Any clean good quality used stock should please be bagged and sent to the office for resale.

That’s it for now.  More tomorrow.

Yours, as ever

Mr Richard Pollock

Headteacher

Summer 2025: A final thought...

Thank you for your lovely messages and gifts, emails, cards and conversations about your thoughts and experiences over recent weeks, and for your gratitude and appreciation for our School.  I send you mine in return.

You may read this little message from me and resonate with it tenderly, or you may dismiss it coldly as my own one-sided private therapy session and sneer about my imminent breakdown on WhatsApp: do with it what you wish.  However, I ask you take a brief moment to stop, cease, be still and see yourselves and those around you.

I have watched and felt, today in particular, how the emotional, physical and cognitive intensity of the last weeks of term can be overwhelming for many of our children, and I am going to assert with some assurance that us adults are the same - whether we be parents or school staff or, of course, both.

We feel deeply when relationships between us and children and families end after periods of growth and development in our care - time in which we have poured our hearts, minds and souls.

We feel deeply when long-standing, much-loved colleagues end their service to the School

…when we have organised and enjoyed and experienced the major social events and occasions which add such a special sparkle to the end of the term, yet demand so much of so few;

…when we suddenly see yet another year pass, and realise the ongoing, incessant passage of time;

…or simply, when we are exhausted, having given our all.

Maybe it is the thought of the long summer break. 

Maybe the longing for a forthcoming holiday, but the pure stress of getting it started.

Maybe we suddenly have our own children - who we love dearly - but who we fear we’ll fail to occupy / entertain / keep well / appreciate / like / have like us [delete as appropriate].

However you are feeling - and however I am feeling, once I work it out - I wish you a sound, gentle, positive and generally uneventful period of rest and recovery.

Time to feel the sun, sense some silence and hold a hand.

Thank you for the year.

Yours, as ever

Richard

Headteacher

PS Please ignore the message above if you are off to Oasis in a champagne supernova, and couldn’t care less. You gotta roll with it, right?

Warm welcomes

Recent weeks have been happily dominated by recruiting processes - with both new colleagues and new pupils being considered for admission. This is such an exciting part of my job: to source, see and select new talent and bring in new opportunities, interests and ideas. I hope you will all find time to offer them a warm welcome in the new academic year.

School Staff

Welcome to Cransley.

If you haven’t already, please read the previous Journal entry acknowledging those colleagues who are leaving us this term - some after decades of service; some after only a few but meaningful and enjoyable years.

Mrs West’s teaching allocation will be taken up by the familiar and hugely talented Mrs Louise Chester, who, up until now, has focussed on teaching Textiles with great success, given the outcomes of recent ISA Art Festivals and the astonishing fabric display and mannequins from our GCSE pupils adoring the Hall.  (I have my eye on one piece in particular, but it is uncertain whether there is enough fabric to cover my ever growing torso.)

Mrs Caroline Kenny, a very capable and eager teacher of French and Spanish at Didsbury High School, and a teacher of English to those for whom English is a new language, will take up the teaching of languages left by Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Wagstaff as they retire.  Much travelled and very experienced, Mrs Kenny will take a part-time role alongside Ms Wilde in September, as we promote the valuable uptake of languages at GCSE.

[By the way, Mrs Gilmour has offered to host Spanish adult evening classes in the new academic year, therefore anyone seeking more linguistic confidence in the local language before their 10 day, all-inclusive to Torremolinos should get in touch now.]

Dr Boomer leaves us for new climes teaching all sciences at Weaverham in September, with her lessons of Biology and Geography being led by other colleagues next year.  A huge advocate of International Science week and campaigner for the uptake of Natural Science as a new GCSE, Dr Boomer will no doubt be thrilled that the DFE has confirmed plans to move ahead with the plan, and we will keep a close eye on the opportunity to introduce it here at Cransley.

Mrs Tanya Baylis will be joining our Junior School, fresh from maternity leave and a relocation, having taught for several years in Richmond upon Thames across the Primary age range.  Mrs Baylis brings a strong pedagogical expertise and range of additional extracurricular interests to the School for the benefit of all the Junior pupils.

Mr Hinton who has long-served Cransley in a variety of roles, has finally got his hands on the Utility belt of Estate management and is proving wonderfully capable and vigilant, supporting the safety of pupils and staff alike, and facilitating so many activities taking place in this vibrant setting.  Mr Hinton will be working alongside Mr Gresty, under the supervision and guidance of Operations Manager, Mrs Holt.

We have, this week, selected Mrs Nicola Underhill as the new School Secretary, replacing Mrs Matthews over the summer.  Mrs Underhill has had many years of secretarial experience notably at a local independent prep school, and joins Cransley with a great deal of knowledge of families, a deep fondness for children of all ages, of ISI inspections and compliance requirements and of the general complex operation and management of school.  I have no doubt that you will all quickly get to know her voice and her writing style, and her seemingly unwavering and unflappable patience, as your inevitable first point of contact at the School.

We also welcome a dynamic and capable learning support assistant, Miss Kate Charlesworth, to support pupils across the school, having previously enjoyed time as a full time Mum and then Support Assistant and Key worker at a local nursery (kids, not plants).  

Pupils

We are scheduled to start the next academic year with the same pupil roll as we have currently - around 255, with a continued push to fill places through the Autumn term, targeting 260 by Christmas; even 270 by the need of the year.  The warmth and welcome of our pupils and families is marvellous to see in action, and I thank all those who have reached out to uncertain families to assure them of the choice ahead.

Satisfyingly this year, we will begin with a full Reception EYFS class, for the first time in the School’s history, meeting another of our four-year-plan targets.

So that the date is saved in your diaries, and so we can use your delightful children to be tour guides and ambassadors, please note that the Autumn Open Day will take place on the 20th September 2025, 10pm to 1pm. 

Remember: tell only those friends and families that you like.

Have a lovely weekend.

Richard Pollock

Headteacher