PERFECt PREFECtS - Cranleigh Preparatory School

CRANLEIGH PREPARATORY SCHOOL
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B UZZ
By the pupils. For the Community.
SUMMER TERM 2015
Perfect Prefects
By Henry M, 6Ho
After lots of meetings and consultations, Cranleigh Prep are proud to announce their full array
of new prefects for the academic year 2014-15!
Whilst we have always had prefects, this year (for
the first time) we have trialled a new system for
awarding this status. The system involved all of
the Form 6 pupils completing two selfassessment forms during the year. Points were
awarded to each pupil for their contribution to
the school in sport, music, charities and the whole
Cranleigh community.
Over the course of the year points were totalled
and Bronze, Silver and Gold Leadership awards
were given to pupils according to their contribution to the school this year. All of the pupils
reached one of these leadership awards and those
with a Gold were deservedly awarded their prefect status.
Our prefect team, 2014-15
Farewell
to Form
SIX
Our ‘Class of 2014-15’ are leaving at the end of this term to
attend their chosen Senior
Schools.
We wish them every success as
in their new schools and thank
them all for their hard work,
enthusiasm and friendship during their time with us.
We will miss you, and invite
you to keep in touch and let us
know how you are faring….
T HE B UZZ
P AGE 2
An Interview WITH Mr Dale-Adcock
Director of Studies at Cranleigh Prep
By Zoe B, 6Ha and Millie W, 5B
We interviewed Mr Dale-Adcock, Director of Studies and
Geography teacher, and we asked him ten questions about
his personal life, embarrassing moments and his jobs at
school.
1) If you did not teach Geography, what would you
teach?
I would like to teach Art. Mrs McNiven would disagree and
my graphs are not the best, but...
2) If you were on a desert island, what three things
would you bring?
a) A massive bar of Toblerone chocolate
Mr Dale-Adcock at home with his family
b) Sebastian Faulk novels
7) What is your favourite part about Cranleigh
School?
c) A boat!
I like to watch prizes being awarded on Speech Day.
3) What is the naughtiest thing a pupil has ever done? 8) If you had a superpower, what would it be and
A boy once stole a photo of me and adapted it so I had a gun in why?
my hand (Mr Howard will show you a copy with pleasure, if
I would like to need no sleep and to never get tired so I could
asked!)
have double the life awake.
4) How long have you been teaching for?
9) If you did not live in England, which country
would you live in ?
I have been teaching at Cranleigh Prep for 15 years.
5) What do you do in the holidays ?
I like to catch up on sleep and also do some cycling.
6) If you could go back to any year what would it be
and why?
1978. I was about four years old and I lived in Kuwait, so everyday was like a massive holiday.
Anywhere with Mountains; either in France (in the French
Alps) or perhaps in New Zealand.
10) What is your favourite food and your most hated food?
My favourite food is Welsh lamb with all juices. My most
hated food is sweet corn because the texture is weird, and it
gets stuck in your teeth.
Cranleigh Prep’s History Star
Because of Nick’s
impressive score in
the first exam, he was
This year Nicholas P joined hundreds of pupils from around
given the second pathe country in entering the Townsend Warner History Comper. In this paper, he
petition. This is a national competition for Prep Schools to test
placed amongst the
the knowledge of their most talented historians. Nicholas had
top fifty pupils and so
to tackle two exam papers as part of the competition. The first
he received a prize of
paper, was based on some of the most obscure and littlea voucher.
known events in history. The second, was a very long essay
Overall, Nick got an
that took two hours to complete! The only way to get to the
second (challenging) paper, was to be in the top 200 perform- astonishing score,
ers for the first paper. Nick ended up with a result of 60% in which was said to be
the first exam and placed 79th, out of 800 young historians! one of the top scores out of the remaining 200 people. Nick
was congratulated with a whoop of applause in Chapel and
he was also presented with his voucher by Mr Wilson.
By Alessandra J, 5B
SUMMER 2015
P AGE 3
FORM FOUR VISIT oratory school science experience day
By Naalini B, 4T and Willem S, 4T
Who would ever have thought that a cabbage could
turn our milk purple? This happens because red cabbage is an indicator and it changes colour depending
on whether a substance is acid or alkali. These were
just some of the amazing activities and experiments
that we did on our wonderful Science trip to the
Oratory School Science Experience Day. Ten lucky
Form 4 pupils joined Mr Till for this very exciting
day in the labs.
As well as these Chemistry experiments, we also
made a model to show how the lungs work in the
Biology session. During the Physics activity, we had
to build a box girder bridge from newspaper. These
activities really helped us to work together as a team.
Farewell to our leaving teachers
By Hebe B, 6S, Zoe B, 6Ha and Amelie L-P, 6Ha
Mrs Thistlethwaite is a very beloved French teacher
at this school and has worked here for around 15
years. She has enjoyed the success of all the pupils
that she has taught. She says that she has been very
lucky with her career and has particularly enjoyed
her time here at Cranleigh Prep. She will miss the
‘buzz’ of the classroom and all her Common Room
friends. Her plans for the future are to see more of
her family and hopefully move back to Cambridge
when her husband retires.
Miss Blackmore is a great Form 3 tutor and a brilliant
sports coach who has worked her for just under three
years. Her plans are to move to Cambridge with her
fiancé and start a new job as the Head of Girl’s
Games at The Perse School. Her most memorable
moments of CPS are the Sports Days, when Hearts
won, and Christmas time. She is very sad to leave,
but excited to be going back home.
Mr Hitchen, Mrs Thistlethwaite, Miss Blackmore and Mr Forster
Sadly, this year we are losing four very dear members of our staff; Mr
Forster, Mrs Thistlethwaite, Miss Blackmore and Mr Hitchen.
Mr Forster, ( affectionately known as Fozzy), is an Sports teacher and
has worked at Cranleigh for four years, as well going to school here as a
pupil. Mr Forster says that he will miss all the children, the friendly
atmosphere, sport and the food. He is looking forward to a new challenge and is hoping to become a Geography teacher as well as being
heavily involved in sport.
Mr Hitchen has been teaching Drama here for 15
years. Before Drama, he used to teach Singing here
on Thursday mornings prior to driving to London for
performances of Blood Brothers!
His favourite moments have been working with small
groups of talented pupils and rehearsing as if they
were professional actors. He says that you can forget
the stress of the previous week’s rehearsals when a
production goes well!
Mr Hitchen plans to keep busy by teaching Singing,
examining for Trinity Music and maybe even returning to the stage. He says that he will miss roast potatoes on Tuesdays and all the hot puddings.
T HE B UZZ
P AGE 4
What’s in store for you next year?
We asked pupils in each of the year groups to write about their year at Cranleigh Prep - the highs, the lows and any other
advice that they could offer. Read on to see what you may experience next year!
Form 2
Form 1
Amelia C and Ludo D, 1PM
During my time in Form 1, I have had lots of fun. My favourite thing has definitely been Privilege time, where we have
had discos, a pyjama party and played on Top Pitch. You will
also enjoy the Christmas Lunch at the Senior School, where
you will love the crackers!
Miss Wild, our French teacher, is splendid and she makes
French really fun. You will also get to go on school trips like
Kew Gardens and to a farm, where you will get a packed
lunch. You don’t
need to worry if
you don’t know
anyone, as you
will make loads of
friends. We have
enjoyed Form 1
and we know that
you will too!
Millie J, Lucy M and Stirling S, 2R
When I came into Form 2, I was really nervous about having Saturday school. Now I know that Saturdays are really
fun. We have Theme Days, where we get to dress up, fly
rockets and make an indestructible air raid shelters.
The best bit about Form 2 is if you impress a teacher with
your amazing handwriting, you will get a ‘Pen Licence.’
Just to warn you: you can have it taken away too!
The highlight of our year was making friends.
We will miss
the teachers as
they are really
kind and helpful. My advice
to new pupils
is to behave
and have some
fun!
Making rockets on a Theme Day
Form 3
Poppy S and Jade M, 3EB
Form 4
Rye E, Katherine E and Emily J-P, 4C
In Form 4, you will need to be more independent, organised and you will also find that the teachers are stricter than
in Form 3. Be warned that you need a sense of humour,
particularly if you are in Mr Carne’s class!
All of the Form teachers are great fun and they will always
have time for a joke. One of my favourite days was the
Form 4 Science trip to the InTech Centre in Winchester.
Viking warriors!
The highlight of the year for us was the Camp Night. You
had to behave otherwise, you had to hug a tree! We were
put into teams and we could win points for our team in the
different activities; we lost points if we shouted out.
Form 3 has been exciting and fun; you always want to learn
more! You have much more responsibility and you have to
move classrooms a lot more because you have more teachers.
However, be warned, you get more prep! We also do CDT
and Food Tech on Saturdays. This is where we make things
out of wood in the CDT workshop and we cook different
dishes in the kitchen.
In Form 3, you also get to have lunch first so you can have first
pick of the delicious desserts. Many of us enjoy boarding. It is
great fun when you can stay at school overnight with your
friends.
Camp night on Top Pitch
P AGE 5
SUMMER 2015
Form 5
Form 6
By Imogen F, 5D
By Freya J, 6Ho
Moving to Form 5 is great! You get to go on a school trip to
York in the Summer Term and you also get new teachers. You
are given doughnuts as a Friday treat, if you have no minutes. I
have also enjoyed joining more clubs and participating in performances of the end of year plays.
Cornwall, 2015
But its not all trips and doughnuts! Be aware that the work gets
harder; you get more prep and responsibility and the teachers
start to expect more of you in your work and behaviour.
Overall, it is busy but fun if you make the most of all the opportunities available.
When moving into Form 6 you have many things to
look forward to. Obviously, your workload increases
and you have to focus on your Scholarship or CE preparation. But it is not all work in Form 6…
Form 5 visit to York Minster
Some of the many activities to enjoy are Cornwall, Activities week and a trip to Amsterdam, if you are in
6Ho. It is great being top of the school, being able to be
in first teams, be a sport captain and having the privilege of being able to be a prefect, or even Head Boy or
Head Girl!
And if you are moving on to Cranleigh School?..
We invited Millie C, our Head Girl in 2013-14, to tell us how she had found her first year at Cranleigh School.
Moving from the Prep School to Cranleigh Senior School
was, initially quite a shock, but soon I became used to the
ways of Cranleigh and how I was no longer at the top of the
school.
I can't believe that I have almost finished my first year here; it
truly has flown by. It seems like only the other day we had
our Team Building Weekend, which was a great chance to
see old friends and make new ones.
Some of the highlights of the year have included House
events. The house Performance is the first house event you
will take part in. The Sixth Form in your house choreograph
a dance for the Forth Form to perform in front of all the
school. It is so much fun and my advice is to ‘get stuck in’
and try your best to win.
There is always something to get involved in for the house,
whether it is house swimming, house fives, house athletics,
house hockey, house netball, house cross-country, house
climbing, house rounders, house tennis or even house chess.
There is something for everyone! When I first joined, it soon
became apparent that your house is a big part of Senior
School life. If you are a boarder, you practically live there;
you do prep there, and registration. Soon you will become
part of the house "family", no matter which house you are
allocated, everyone thinks their house in the best after
only a few days.
The activities
I was amazed at the wide range of sports and activities that
were available to me. Whether you do archery, climbing,
abseiling, canoeing, CCF, D of E, baking, squash, trampolining. There are endless opportunities and my advice
would be to do as much of it as you can, but also be prepared to be exhausted...but it is a ‘good’ exhausted!
T HE B UZZ
P AGE 6
Carnegie Book Group
By Charlotte R, 5D
Our Carnegie Book Shadowing Club meets once a week in the
Library to discuss books nominated for the prestigious CILIP
Carnegie Book Medal. We talk about the good and bad qualities
of each book. The Carnegie Book Shadowing Club has packs
that inform pupils about the Carnegie Book Medal and tells
readers about nominated books and their authors.
The Carnegie Medal is a competition to decide which
children’s book is nominated as an outstanding book for
children and young people. All the books are completely
different genres. School pupils in clubs like ours can
‘shadow’ the books and write online reviews. There are
eight books to choose from this
year: Apple and Rain, Middle of Nowhere, Tinder ,Cuckoo Song ,The Fastest Boy in the World, More than this
and Buffalo Soldier and When Mr Dog
Bites. Pupils all have their different
opinions, but these are a couple of
our favourites:
Tinder is about a man who is injured in battle and as he
tries to defy death he finds himself
on a journey to realm of dark magic and mystery. He meets a girl and
learns the powers of the tinder
box, plus the secret of the wolves.
Apple and Rain is about a girl whose
Mum left her when she was two
and came back after eleven years
with a long lost sister.
SKI Trip to Arosa, 2015
By Ambrose W, 5F
On the 21 of March, 2015 at the very social hour of 4 o’clock
in the morning, thirty three brave explorers boarded the coach
for a trip to Heathrow Terminal 5 for the 2015 Ski Trip to
Arosa, Switzerland. Having boarded the plane and having taken
two separate trains to get up into the mountains, we arrived. At
the station in Arosa, we were warmly greeted by the hotel
owner. After a short walk to the hotel, we unpacked our bags.
On different days, we had different activities such as fancy dress
contest judged by Zaid M and Nick E (congratulations to Louis
M dressed as a gorilla and Will G dressed as a banana, who
won). We also had a bingo night and a quiz night. On top of
this, Mr Manning and Mrs Sharpe would take people tobogganing as an ‘optional extra’ every other night. On the first trip,
only four people chose to go tobogganing as, not surprisingly,
most people were very tired. On the second outing, however,
many more people joined in and thoroughly enjoyed this activity.
In the morning, we would be greeted by the friendly staff at the
ski rental shop. From 9:30 to 12:15, we would ski and then
have lunch. At 1pm, we would carry on skiing until 3:30 in the
afternoon. After this, accompanied children could carry on
skiing with their parents if they wanted to and unaccompanied
children could spend time relaxing at the hotel.
On the pistes, there were many various activities, such as the
speed check challenge, in which you get an accurate representast
tion of your speed and a run called ‘wood ranch’ which
features many jumps.
On the final night, it was Prize Night, where certain individuals received prizes. Digby W won a prize for only
being able to turn right for three days; Jack C and Henry
M won the joint prize for worst injury.
All the children and parents enjoyed the holiday; special
thanks to Mr Howard, Mrs Jolly, Mr Manning and Mrs
Sharpe without whom, this trip would not be possible.
T HE B UZZ
P AGE 7
Magical, medieval york
By Georgie M, 5D
At the crack of dawn on Thursday 14th May, Form 5 headed to Yorkshire on a six hour coach journey. Firstly, we
headed north of York and we stopped at Rievaulx Abbey.
Rievaulx Abbey is 883 years old! It is now a beautiful ruin as
it was one of many Abbeys to close during Henry VIII’s
reign.
After lunch we had a quick visit to Clifford’s Tower. We
walked right to the top of it and saw the beautiful view of
York.
Later, we visited York Museum where the pupils looked at
the exhibits about World War I. We also went around a
life-size reproduction of a Victorian street.
After that, we visited Helmsley Castle which was partly a
Tudor manor and a defensive castle. This helped us to see all
the features of castles that we had been studying in History.
We stayed at the Youth Hostel in York which provided
comfy bunk beds and tasty food. On the first night, we had
hamburgers and chips and orange cheesecake, yum! We had
some revision time after supper to prepare for our History
assessment the next morning.
In the evening, we had a ‘ghost tour,’ walking around the
narrow alleys of the city and listening to spooky stories
that happened in certain places.
The next morning we had to leave York. We were very
sad and disappointed to leave as we loved this cultural city.
Thank you to all the teachers for looking after us and making the trip so special.
Afterwards we had free time, where we were allowed to socialize in or out of our dorms. Then
went to bed but well we didn't really go to sleep for
quite a while!
Next morning, we had the 45 minute History assessment and afterwards, we walked along the
banks of the River Ouse to York Minister. York
Minster is an amazing historic cathedral in which
Prince William of Hatfield is buried. It was a site of
pilgrimage in medieval times and medieval visitors
used to think it looked like heaven, as it was so
grand.
A Super Summer
Concert
By Ella J, 6Ho
Form 5 at Rievaulx Abbey
The concert got off to a marvellous start led by the Concert
Band showing the very best concert talent in the school. This
was followed by the Recorder Ensemble and Training Percussion
Group; both of these performances proved that we have much
growing talent.
The Chapel Choir, Percussion Group and String Orchestra continued on after which were all great performances and we obviously have some talented musicians at the top of our school. The
audience really enjoyed joining in with the choir’s warm up
song, Mrs O’Leary.
The training choir, guitar group and training band were absolutely magnificent and were great to listen to.
Last, but not least, was the Form 3 Harmony group and the
Chamber Choir. The Form 3 Harmony Group were superb and
the joint effort of that group and the chamber choir brought
tears to people eyes! To conclude the concert the Chamber
Choir sang acapella and a lovely version of Lean On Me.
As we do every year, Cranleigh Prep School’s summer was
kicked off with the prestigious Summer Concert. The concert showed an array of musical talent but proved that
Cranleigh has loads of it!
We all thank Mrs Beddison and all the music staff for not only
teaching all of our wonderful musicians, but never failing to produce amazing pieces of music for us to listen to. You make these
concerts so enjoyable to come to.
T HE B UZZ
P AGE 8
We are sailing, WE are sailing...
By Will G, 5F and Blake K, 5P
The 21st of May was a hot summers day and a team of keen
sailors consisting of Jasmine D, Lila M, Blake K and Will G set
out on an unforgettable trip to the IAPS Regatta at the Olympic Sailing Centre in Weymouth.
On arrival, the team felt a surge of determination to do our
very best. We could not have asked for better weather -the
sun shone brightly and there was a perfectly consistent wind.
Overall, it was a very successful day with Will and Blake coming 10th out of 46 boats. Lila and Jasmine also hugely improved their sailing skills. It was an amazing experience and
for some of us, it was our first competitive race.
Lila, Jasmine, Blake and Will at the IAPS Regatta
Top Tennis this term
By Toby E, 6W and Honor R, 6W
Cranleigh School has been running a Prep Schools’ Tennis
Tournament for 45 years. The tournament is so old that even
Mr Batchelor played in it as a boy!
On Friday 19th June, our Tennis Squad ventured over the
road to take part in this celebrated event. The three girls’
pairs arrived full of confidence after an unbeaten season and
the boys fielded the same squad that defeated Windlesham
earlier in the season. The boys had a rocky start with a couple of early losses piling on the pressure. However, all the
pairs came good with Jacob H and Sam T getting as far as the
semi-finals and the other two pairs finishing 7th and 9th out of
15. The girls had some equally tough matches - one of the
opposition schools even had a junior Wimbledon Champion
for her age group! All three pairs rose to the challenge with
Honor and Lulu achieving third place and the other two pairs
coming 4th and 8th out of 10.
Thank you to Miss Gibson for accompanying us and supporting us. We have also been lucky to have extra sailing lessons
on a Wednesday afternoon that Miss Gibson has organised at
Southwater Watersports Centre for Upper School pupils.
Sports highlights
Matilda C came 2nd in the YCCF European Climbing
Competition in Austria.
Abbot Sports Scholarships to Cranleigh School were
awarded to Rosie H, Lulu F, Will F, Will T and
George E.
Sports Exhibitions to Cranleigh were awarded to Rosie W and Joshua M.
Olivia R was awarded a Sports Scholarship to Priorsfield and Peter S received a Sports Scholarship to St
John’s, Leatherhead.
At the IAPS National Swimming meet at Crawley,
Max W won the 50m breaststroke in a new national
record time. Max has also been selected for the Regional Development Programme as part of England
Talent. At the IAPs finals Jess B came 3rd in the 25m
Butterfly and Lulu F placed 4th in the 50m. BreastPeter S, Finn T and Sadhbh S all qualified for the IAPS
National Athletics in Birmingham.
Oliver C and Will F have been selected for the Harlequins Academy, and Toby E and Peter S have represented Surrey in the U14 Rugby team.
At the Inter-School IAPS Triathlon at Dulwich Prep,
Kent, Mark W placed second, and Heather A was 6th
in the U12 competition.
William G, Mark W and William W attended the
IAPS Golf Championships in Shropshire in June.
‘The Buzz’ is printed on recycled paper