Cruckton Hall
School
Cruckton ·
Shrewsbury
· Shropshire · SY5
8PR · Tel
01743 860206 · Fax
01743 860941
17 July 2002
Dear Parents, Friends and Old boys
As a massive year for the school comes quietly to a
close, many weary members of staff should feel very proud of their
achievements. I am always singing the
praises of the boys but after this year others need praise. The boys have produced some wonderful work,
enjoyed so many successful lessons and activities and learned to develop their
personal skills and confidence in so many areas. The annual educational reviews have all been
so positive, with all agencies speaking highly about levels of progress of the
boys, both academically and socially.
The magic dust is settling on them all slowly and will hopefully last a
lifetime. Thanks to all concerned in
making this year so successful.
We have welcomed Karen Johnson, Chris Treherne,
Susie Brookes and Adele Parton onto the residential care staff team and said
goodbye to Chris Taylor and Stuart Roberts after only a short stay. We said a sad farewell to Mr Paul Clark and
Mrs Kendall Serban on the last day of term.
Mr Clark is hoping to join the Police while Mrs Serban will be running
the administration at
As a celebration we wish Miss Jo Lee and Miss Lucy
Williams good weather for their weddings during the summer and long and happy
lives together with Andrew and Adam respectively. I also hope we get everyone safely back from
the stag and hen parties!
Tom Bebb, Ben Margolis and Daniel Thwaites have
joined us this term. Ben is a very keen
sportsman and strong footballer, Tom is very active and is enjoying all the
activities while Daniel is keen to try everything and has already taken part in
the gym display.
The leavers departed for their own counties two
weeks ago after completing their GCSE examinations. These were reasonably completed by a group of
very nervous boys who had only a few academic aspirations and we look forward
to the results on Thursday 22nd August. Anthony Armstrong, Bryan Chermulas, Merrick
Holt, Ross Oyston, Steve Powell, Chris Tedds and Dave Thompson all enjoyed a farewell
day out at
The Year 12 boys: Ben Bradley, Darren Griffiths,
Michael Knight, Matthew S and Gregory Taylor have all completed their college
courses, hopefully with success. Gregory
will be continuing his ‘A’ level studies next year while the other boys have
moved on to College placements further afield.
Thank you all for supporting the summer fête and
parents day at the end of June. We all
felt it was one of the nicest fêtes ever and the teachers really enjoyed
speaking with the parents. Yet again
your generosity astonished us all, we raised just over £2500 during the
afternoon and all will be spent on the boys for the summer camps and work
experience weeks. The gymnastics display
with a very young team of: Martin Bates, Steve Coleman, Tom Crowe, Ian Fellows,
Richard Gough, Dan Thwaites and Micky Walker set the tone; followed by a
Trampoline display by Lee Peace and Matt Mertens. Thanks to Mr McBride and Mr Randell for their
coaching and efforts to get the displays ready and for all the staff for their
work in preparation and collecting the money!
Staff training has continued apace with Miss Jo Lee
assessing successful NVQ3’s for Miss Davies, Mr Marshall, Mrs Evans, Mrs
Kynaston, Mr Bower, Mr Davies, Miss Emily Miller, Mr Southall, Mr Wildman and
Mr Cooke. Miss Davies has started her
NVQ4 and the following have enrolled for NVQ3: Miss Bonnett, Miss J Brookes,
Miss Hetherton, Mr Kenny, Mr Hanmer, Mr Jones, Mr Middleton, Miss Jo Miller, Mr
Speake. Further training for the care
staff has been: Children Act, Child Development and First Aid. All the enrolled teachers have completed the
Post Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorders course. Mrs Meyer, Mr Senior, Mrs Doyle, Mr Campion,
Mr Newell, Mr Randell and Mr McEntee now have the opportunity to further their
study.
All of the Registered Inspector’s and Fire
Officers’ recommendations have been completed and accepted. We have also registered with the new National
Care Standards Commission (NCSC). There
are full details on their website but you will hear and read plenty about them
over the next few months. We expect our
first inspection for these standards to be late next term.
Fire safety lectures have been given to all of the
school in age appropriate sessions.
These were very successful and appeared to be valued by the boys. We shall now be continuing with a staged
programme each year.
I am continually concerned regarding the delivery
of a safe and effective sex education programme that can be shared with parents
and carers in an ongoing programme of information and training for both boys,
parents and staff. I propose to invite a
well-qualified person to speak at Cruckton, probably in the half term break,
followed by a workshop where we can draw up a (nearly said practical) sensible
and adaptable programme.
Maintenance continues and the summer painting of
windowsills and frames is going well, the grounds look stunning and getting
even better every year. All the trees
have been checked for safety and dead branches tidied. Mr Croucher now has three glasshouses and a
potting shed with new ideas all the time.
Mr Brown’s extra large chessboard is complete behind the house and is
being used every lunchtime, in the good weather. Mr Carless has also marked ‘One man’s Morris’
on the tarmac next to the chessboard. During
the summer holiday the workshops are being extended and the school kitchen is
being completely renovated and brought up to latest environmental health
requirements.
Music lessons have again been popular with 29 boys
studying on the piano. Exams were taken
this term with the following results:
Matthew S passed Grade 3; Tom Higginson gained a Merit grade1 while
Michael Walker and Liam Morris passed the Prep test. Mrs Dixon says lots of boys will be entered
next term so watch this space. The Flautists
now number 11 boys and Mrs Senior has got Goronwy Jones working towards Grade 1
while Paul Hook and Matt Bodey are making good progress towards a grading. Finally the 8 rock guitarists continue to
improve under the expert guidance of Mr Clark and Mr Butterworth.
Mr Newell took several education trips out as part
of the PSE course:
Year 10 are growing up fast, they all successfully
completed the canoe expedition down the River Severn in June. They have also been on work experience during
the last two weeks. Mrs Meyer and a
number of care staff have worked round the clock to place the boys in suitable
placements and the unprecedented success of the week is in no little way due to
her efforts. Lloyd Davies worked at
Hignett’s Butchers and Bakers, James Fairbanks worked with the Country
Development Dept; Jamie Fletcher was at Comet; Dean Brown was on school based
work, Tom Higginson helped at Jane Barker’s Riding for the Disabled Stables;
James Hocknull assisted at Burton’s/Hawkshead Menswear; Tim Holt went to Shell
Island; Paul Hughes a fishy placement at Percy Thrower’s Garden Centre, Aquatic
Dept; Goronwy Jones helped in the ‘alcohol’ section at Booker’s Cash n Carry;
Richard Lees has been repairing planes at Sleap aerodrome, his reward for his
hard work was a flight round Shropshire; Ben Margolis worked at First Sports;
Matthew Mertens worked with Shropshire County Council, Maintenance Department;
Jon Mills was school based; Ashley Smith was in the records department at
Shelton hospital and Simon Smith was very popular at Toys R Us.
Year 9’s have been away on Adventure Camp in
Deiniolen,
Mr Newell arranged our first visit to the
continent. He along with Mrs Rayner, Mr
Campion and Mrs Senior took: Martin Bates, Anthony Biggs, Steve Connolly, Rowan
Crump, Paul Hook and Anthony Munk from year 8 with Ashley Smith and Simon Smith
from year 10. They stayed in Le Tourquet
for a short but very comprehensive visit.
Hopefully this trip will now be an annual event for year 8’s and the
GCSE group.
Year 7 and 8’s spent the last week of term with Mr
McBride and Mr Campion and staff team on
We celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee with a
traditional Street Party but the weather was appalling and the street came
inside. Nevertheless everyone enjoyed
the beautiful spread put on by Miss Davies, Miss Jones and all the ladies who
provide the food and keep our school so clean and tidy. We invited the local senior citizens from
Hanwood to celebrate with us and have made several more friends. The West Midlands Show was back on after the
Foot and Mouth outbreak of last year. We
were invited to act as the Arena party and the group of boys with Mr McBride
and staff were kept busy throughout Friday and Saturday.
Swimming awards for the year are as follows: 25m
Rowan Crump, Alex Warren and Nathan Williams; 50m Tom Bebb, Andrew Lodge, Tony
Roberts and Alastair Horton; 100m Dean Brown, Chris Butcher, Haydn Clarke, Ian
Fellows, Jovi Kerr, Matthew Lester, Josef Leybourn and Aaron Waters; 200m Lloyd
Davies, James Fairbanks, Jamie Fletcher, James Hocknull, Aaron Lee, Bryan
McGuire, Anthony Munk, Jo Warner and Micky Walker; 400m Henry Brittain, Paul
Hughes, Richard Lees, Tom Odlin and Simon Smith; 600m Steve Coleman, Richard
Gough, Paul Hook, Tom Hilton and Gareth Smallman; 800m Martin Bates, Steve Connolly, Lee Peace
and Dominic Stamper. Well done to them
all! They are all difficult and not
achieved easily with the high standards set by Mr McBride and Mr Randell.
Ju Jitsu gradings were held after half term with Mr
Davies and Ms Parker gaining purple belt; Matt S and Steve Connolly gaining
blue belt; Tom Hilton green belt; Henry Brittain and Paul Hook gained green 3rd
tab; Matt Mertens and Lee Peace orange belt; Tom Crowe and Zak Powell orange 1st
tab; Tom Denton, Dominic Stamper and Alex Warren gained yellow 1st
tab. The prestigious student of the year
award was given to Matthew S.
Five boys represented the school in the riding for
the disabled competition at the West Midlands Show ground. Dean Brown, Henry Brittain, Tom Higginson,
Anthony Munk, Tom Crowe and Tom Denton all rode very well and all of them would
have won red rosettes if the horses had done as they were told! Thanks to the Misses Millers and Mrs Jane
Barker for arranging everything.
Activities have stretched both our vehicles and
imagination with the following trips all taking place this term: Camping to
Saundersfoot with Mr Wildman and Mr Pawlowski, Ellesmere lake, Army Cadet
Force, Warhammer convention in Birmingham with Mr Corbett, ice skating, horse
riding, Telford town park, speedway, swimming, golf driving range, car boot
sales, Rhyl pleasure beach, fishing, glass painting, boxing, Barmouth.
Have a lovely happy and peaceful summer.
Remember the school term begins and boys should
return on Monday 2nd September 2002.
Yours sincerely