Cranford Community College, High Street, Cranford, Hounslow. TW5 9PD Tel: 020 8897 2001 www.cranford.hounslow.sch.uk

International School Award recognition forthe 5th timeCranford Community College has been awarded the prestigious International School Award for the 5th successive time putting Cranford in an elite group of schools nationally. The award, which is managed by the British Council, was given to the school in recognition of its work to bring the wider world into the classroom.

The International School Award seeks to celebrate, develop, recognise and accredit outstanding practice in the international dimensions of teaching and learning. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of Cranford to ensure that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need to live and work as global citizens.

In order to achieve the International School Award the staff and students at the school had to demonstrate a wide range of international

activities which included trips to France for year 7,

8 and 10 students; cultural weeks throughout the school

year; a senior leadership trip to China to further

consolidate our partnership with TIFERT (our partner

school in China); a trip to Auschwitz in Poland for year 12 students; a trip

for year 7 and 8 students to the German Christmas

Market; a chance for year 7 students to experience maths in German and a

truly wonderful Languages Excellence Evening.

John Rolfe, Manager of the International School

Award at the British Council, said: “Many

congratulations to all the schools across the UK who have been successful in the International School Award.

We are very grateful to all the schools for their

excellent commitment to the enriching, creative

and innovative international dimensions of teaching and

learning. The fantastic work is vital preparation for all

our young people to better understand their place in

the world, and support the development of their skills

in an increasingly global economy”.

Cranford Community College is delighted to announce the outstanding achievement of being awarded the Cultural Diversity

Quality Standard ‘Diamond Award’ having attained the Gold Award in July 2010. Cranford Community College is

one of only 10 schools in the country to successfully achieve the Diamond Award. The assessor reported “it is clear that the schools ethos and approach is making a

difference to the outcomes of its students and is an achievement worthy of this level

of recognition”. The assessor continued “it is evident that cultural diversity and

equality objectives are fully embedded into the school ethos and that the curriculum enables pupils to understand and value diversity and equality and how people

can live in a cohesive community”. The Diamond Award represents exceptional

achievement, for a school where students can achieve to their very best in an

environment that celebrates diversity and nurtures respect. Cranford remains fully

committed to promoting cultural diversity and equality for all and continues to

ensure that all its students are able to reach their

potential.

THE CRANFORD REVIEW March 2011

One HumanityIn keeping with its diverse school community, Cranford hosted another evening bringing together different faiths and highlighting the common ground between religious teachings. The focus of the event was to consider the need to help the less fortunate as well as considering why all religions state this is important, perhaps highlighted best of all by the ‘Debate with the selfish man’. Three year 7 tutor groups performed their own songs about belief and identity which were created through the “Many Voices” transition project. The evening took on a fundraising element as Victoria Lyon Dean from Save the Children explained the work her charity does including the Humanitarian Imperative upon which it is based. Staff, parents and pupils donated money to their cause and some even tried the “Plumpy Nut” paste which helps nourish children like Tigabu, who was helped back to health by Save the Children. A message about charity and generosity was the perfect start to the festive Christmas period.

A Multifaith Event

Ask the year 7 Mandarin class at Cranford Community College what these characters mean and they will be proud to tell you it is the name of their school written in Chinese. Students have been

learning Mandarin Chinese since the beginning of the autumn and have already made great progress. During September they were able to entertain a group of 10 students and 4 teachers from Cranford’s partner college TIFERT (Tianjin Institute for Foreign Economic Relations and Trade) in Tianjin in China, who spent 6 days learning about the way we live, work and learn. The TIFERT group were very impressed with the facilities and the way students learn interactively at Cranford, and particularly enjoyed visiting the outdoor classroom and the

conservation area. “They speak so well after only 2 weeks, it is amazing” said Liang Jing, leader of the TIFERT delegation.

In addition 20 headteachers from Guangzhou province in southern China came and spent a very exciting time with the group as part of a 2 week visit to the UK. They had their name and date of birth checked in Mandarin and were very impressed by the ability of Cranford students to communicate in Mandarin after such a short time. Hazel Bennett, one of the year 7 class said: “Chinese is completely different but not as hard as you think…we have lots of fun learning, especially using the tones“. Mr Prunty, Headteacher at Cranford signed a Partnership Agreement with TIFERT in March 2010 and said: “It’s really good to see the agreement becoming a reality for Cranford students”.

By Philip Dobison (Assistant Headteacher)

Simon Singh made his visit to Cranford one to remember, sharing his personal experiences in the world of science, his life as a PhD research assistant at Imperial

and the challenges of now becoming a controversial writer.

I requested and organised the session with the aid of Ms Painting to give students an insight

into what studying science at university is all about. During the talk we began to look into a concept known as the “Bible Code”. This controversial idea sparked fire in the LRC, some agreeing to this mystical scheme of Bible predictions of the

future and others claiming this phenomenon to be a coincidence. The evidence of the Bible Code existing was truly convincing. Simon used the research of Professor Brendan McKay who had found similarities between the codes found in the Bible and codes found in “Moby Dick”, a book chosen randomly to show us that the

Bible Code may just be a coincidence. Seeing how science can prove such a controversial idea

to be wrong was incredible, whispers of “Oh my days, that’s sick!” could be heard every few minutes.

To demonstrate how having a passion for your subject can help you succeed as a student entering university, or as a graduate starting a career Simon played us a short clip from Fermat’s Last Theorem, a documentary based upon one of the most revered problems in

the history of mathematics. Andrew Wiles was shown describing his experience when

finally finding out how to solve the theorem. It was clear to see how much that meant to

him. This was an inspirational story that made us all think about how much we wanted

to study our chosen subjects and how much passion do we really have for our education,

we were left spell bound.

By Reshma Lall (year 13)

PASSION FOR SCIENCE Dr. Simon Singh style

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 was an evening when students with their parents were able to perform experiments like a normal school science lesson. The evening was set up in three different science labs. The experiments were learning about separation for chemistry, food energy for biology and forces for physics.

I enjoyed the chemistry experiment which was sepa-rating salt from salt water. I have recently done this at school and was able to answer all the questions for the experiment.

My mum found the biology experiment interesting because she learnt how to test energy contained in food.

My dad took charge of the physics experiment to find an efficient sail for a ship. Because he’s an engineer, he solved all the problems and pointed out improvements. He also explained what was happening when we were carrying out the experiment. He said, “It felt like going back to school”.

I think this was a very useful evening for everyone because students were able to show their parents, their abilities and knowledge. Parents got the

feel of a science lesson and teachers were able to meet the family in an informal way. This helps getting parents involved in their children homework.

I hope Cranford Community College continues to have this type of evening in future.

By Shalen Sankreacha (year 8)

Parents going back

to school at the

Science Excellence

Evening

Cranford is definitelyin the

charitable spirit

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Y On Monday 27th September 2010, students from each year group participated in a bus safety workshop in order to raise awareness of safety on buses.

We were taught a variety of things that could be done in order to show respect and civil behaviour towards our local community and local bus drivers. We were shown a video by TfL (Transport for London) which portrayed an example about the wrong use of Oyster cards which are conditionally free, meaning that there are rules about their use. We have to show we know how to behave with our oyster card. They are a privilege and should not be taken advantage of and can be taken away as quickly as they were first handed to us.

There are many ways in which we can help ensure bus safety in our community including allowing the elderly or passengers less able to go before you in the queue and giving up your seat to mothers with children. You should always place your oyster card on the machine to avoid any differences between you and the driver and greet or thank the driver because showing consideration to others could help you later on when you have forgotten your oyster or need help on the bus.

We saw a performance by ‘Riot Act’ who invited us to suggest the decisions and dilemmas they acted out which made us see both points of view of each character they played. It helped us determine which actions are wrong and right and how we could avoid situations like these in the future.

All in all we have gained a good understanding of the rules and conditions of oyster cards and travelling on buses is a privilege that should not be taken lightly.

By Najma Hassan & Rahiqa Hersi (year 11)

Cranford Community College declared Friday 22nd October

2010 as Jeans For Genes day, where students wore a pair of jeans to show support and raise money for the charity, ‘Jeans For Genes’. This is a charity that raises money for children who have genetic diseases, such children are born with diseases that often lead to a life of pain following trips in and out of hospitals.

The Quartet suggested this charitable day for two reasons; one to raise money to help those less fortunate and secondly, to allow students to be able to set an example and to justify a Mufti day. Students and staff were all allowed to wear any jeans and shoes of their choice however they were required to wear their school polo top and sweatshirt. Cranford managed to raise a grand total of £1251.61

‘Jeans for Genes’ day charity will use this money to provide care for those children who are unable to afford it, to fund research and projects on genetics diseases, to find ways to make each person’s childhood as normal as possible.

By Amarpal Khuttan, Radhika Badianni, Shivaani Kaushik, Cyrus Mwangi (year 13)

The total money raised for Charity Autumn term 2010 £ 1,628.80

“The Rappaman was so cool

because he told us lots of

raps, poems and jokes. I was

laughing and smiling during

the event because I was excited

and very happy too. I would

love to meet him again”.

Bruna Goncalves (year 7)

“We were inspired with the poems

in Donovan’s book. he rapped for

us an he also taught us about how important poetry was. He talked about using a paper and pen to write poetry and to flow with the words. He was a very

funny guy open and friendly to

all the people around him”. Nield Dela Cruz (year 10)

Music brings us together

The Creative and Media Arts Faculty at

Cranford Community College have commissioned year 10 Creative and Media students to develop and paint a design for a mural entitled ‘Music brings us together’ as part of their unit 1 Artifact-Visual Arts project. The murals have been painted on one wall in each of the music practice rooms. The designs were inspired by the various discussions and research evidence collated from the students at Cranford and what they wish to see in the murals. The murals are now complete and there for all to enjoy and inspire

music making at Cranford.

Donovan Christopher- the famous poet and rapper visited Cranford Community College in October 2010. We were lucky enough to be in a

workshop with him during the day and we were also going to the poetry presentation after school. He is a person who has strong views against racism

and he taught us a lot about Black History Month. He is a fun person who clearly enjoys working with young people. His enthusiasm was great and he encouraged all to participate, teaching them a lot about culture and respect.

In the evening, many people from Cranford went along to watch him perform. He performed reggae and portrayed

culture throughout his poems and work. The evening had followed with competitions and book signings (a book which he wrote himself on identity and

discrimination) which students won through quizzes.

By Pravjot Kaur & Catrina Goncalves (year 10)

“Life is what you live and life is

what you make it don’t be such a sieve

and go around and fake it

You can do it, you can make it

make it if you try. If you really want it

set your standards high.”

By Donovan Christopher (Rappaman)

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Presentation Evening 2010an inspirational evening of celebration

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Copyright Cranford Community College © 2011 | Printed by: schoolhousestudios.co.uk

Thursday 18th November 2010 saw the annual celebration of student achievement at Cranford Community

College, with actor, comedian and writer, Sanjeev Bhaskar as guest speaker and to present the awards. This was his second visit to the school in as many months having returned in October 2010 to film a documentary about his life with Channel 4. Sanjeev is a former student of the school and his return after more than 25 years created for him a nostalgic journey down memory lane, some of which

he shared with the audience during the evening. His amusing and highly engaging speech based around the evening’s theme of

“Inspiration-Aspiration”, really captured the audience’s interest. His inspirational talk cited hard work,

curiosity and a passion to learn as key factors to success and encouraged the students to pick up this

mantle and make it happen for themselves.

The evening was attended by a variety of guests from across the borough including primary headteachers, officers

and officials from the local authority, Michael Marks Assistant Director and Judith Petterson, Director

of Children’s Services. It was an evening of great pride for the school. One of the many

highlights was the presentation of awards where so many students were recognised for their

achievements at GCSE, A/S and A level, some returning from universities across the UK such as Nottingham,

Warwick and Brunel. Sanjeev took time to talk to each recipient as he presented their award, clearly keen to learn more

about their achievements. Dr Ambily Banerjee Principle Regulatory Executive at

GlaxoSmithKline who sponsor the additional science awards, spoke of her delight in being

associated with the school. As a former Cranford student she too said how proud she was of her long term association with the

school both as a student and now in her professional role at GSK.

The evening was a celebration of Cranford’s talented performers too, who performed a variety of dance and drama pieces reflecting the theme and Cranford choir performed “I Believe I can Fly”; a fitting conclusion

to an inspiring evening.