Dear Reader,
I am delighted that you are now reading our annual publication of the Cranford Review for 2022/23, our first fully digital version and also the longest version of this publication to date.
There is so much to celebrate, and this publication captures some of the many opportunities offered to our students, staff, and community during this past year. Our theme for the publication this year is a ‘World of Education, a World of Possibilities’ reflecting the immense programme provided by Cranford for all of our students both within lessons and beyond.
Cranford remains a hugely popular school with demand for places significantly outstripping supply. The academic achievements and successes of our students clearly demonstrates why this is the case.
Our students have done exceptionally well in public examinations yet again. At A level, Cranford students have once more performed incredibly well across the board with all measures improving against the DFE’s benchmark of 2019 results and those achieving the top grades of A* A B increased by 10%.
This remarkable cohort, who achieved the best GCSE results the academy has seen, have now shown their strength again in the return to full examinations. The students have worked extremely hard and we are very proud of their results, in academic, vocational and technical qualifications. Equally pleasing is that our students are now heading off around the country to some of the most prestigious universities to continue their education with the great depth of skills and experience their time at Cranford has provided.
At GCSE Cranford students have achieved another set of amazing results improving on all key measures from last year.
English and Maths results continue on an astonishing upward trajectory, with 86% of achieving level 4 or above in both in English and Maths, and 64% of students achieving a grade 5 or above.
These ‘terminal examination’ results are comparable to the results under ‘Teacher Assessed Grades’ of the last few years and more importantly show that Cranford students at the academy continue to get better and better results each year regardless of the method of assessment, thanks to their hard work, the very high quality of teaching and support and the constant encouragement from their families. Hence, these results continue the trends of the last 20+ years and are increases on both the DFE benchmark of 2019 and better than last year.
We are absolutely delighted by the brilliant GCSE results our Year 11 students have achieved. Progress is always very positive at Cranford and it is particularly pleasing to see our competitive students keep breaking records and improving on attainment and to see even more students than last year achieving the top grades.
There are so many Cranford students who have done exceptionally well and you can see the details of some of these on the next few pages.
Our commitment to providing a wide range of opportunities outside of the classroom has grown even further this year through the introduction of Enrichment Days across the school, consisting of educational visits as well as on site extra-curricular activities, and the initial experience of these has been extremely positive. We look forward to expanding this offer in the coming year.
The range of international educational experiences for our students has also grown significantly this year with our students having the opportunity to visit Portugal, Poland, and South Korea and you can read more detail about these and other experiences in these pages.
Our teachers and support staff are our greatest resource and we prioritise the training, development and retention of people at Cranford during every stage of their career. This commitment is shown through our 10 dedicated staff training days each year but also through ensuring a wealth of opportunities for the staff who commit to working at Cranford. This summer saw our first large group of staff work in our partner school in Thailand teaching alongside Thai teachers and embarking upon a full programme of cultural activities. This is just one example of the many opportunities we provide.
Our motto ‘Transforming a Community’ continues to drive what we do as we believe that community improvement and transformation is a key to educational success and opportunities. You will see many examples of community provision throughout this Review.
I have served at Cranford for over 25 years now, and I continue to enjoy immensely the great place that this school is and the contribution that it has made and continues to make to the community in this area and beyond. We use this publication to showcase the world class opportunities that Cranford provides.
With my best wishes.
Kevin Prunty
Executive Headteacher &
National Leader of Education.
CEO Designate