27^th July 1999

Dear Parents, Friends and Oldboys

Firstly let me apologise for the lateness of this letter and the School Reports. There are two reasons for this, firstly I indulged myself at the end of term, remaining with the Adventure Camp party for the whole of their stay in Llanberis (more later); secondly we have a new report design which has individual pages and means a lot more work at all stages of production.

I am sure you must all have learned by now that Cruckton Hall School is now under new ownership. We were taken over by Advantage Healthcare at the beginning of April and are now part of a group called Young Advantage. It came as quite a shock to us as well! We are still 'Cruckton' and I am sure that will never change although we are only gradually coming to terms with belonging to a large conglomerate. 'Cruckton' means different things to each one of the staff and we have all had to evaluate this over the past few weeks. I do, however, assure you that the change over will not effect any of you or the pupils in any adverse manner. If the plans I have been discussing with Clive Firman, our new Managing Director this week come to fruition then we shall be providing an even better service to our pupils and Education Authorities.

The best news of the term is that Sarah Barrett has been blessed with an absolutely beautiful baby daughter, Libby Barrett born on 6^th July. She came in to visit us before the end of term and we just about managed to get a cuddle each but there was a long queue.

Mrs Gilchrist has resigned her position as Deputy Head and will not be here from September. Miss Sally Dodd and Mrs Muriel Rayner have been employed from September and will hopefully add an extra dimension to the curriculum. Miss Dodd adding Textiles to the Creative Studies syllabus (as well as Mr Carless) and Mrs Rayner teaching English and supporting the boys identified as needing extra help.

Two new boys joined us this term, Bryan Chermulas and Nicholas Pitt both from Sandwell, they settled down very quickly and have both got good reports. Starting in September Chris Wright from Leeds joins the Year 10 group and Henry Brittain from Sutton Coldfield joins Year 7. I hope their stay will be happy and productive. They replace David Watkins who has been assisting the groundsman at Edgbaston Cricket Ground (sorry no free tickets!) and Karl Carrington who has decided not to return as he has had enough education at present.

Open Day was a huge success with not only £2000 raised from the generosity of our guests and visitors but also a fine day spent together having a good time. The gym display was very well performed by Chris Crabtree, Robert Francom, Mark Knight, Ashly Latham, Steven Powell, Justin Pritchard, Chris Rowe and Jason Clabby. Mr McBride, Mr Rayner and Mr Senior worked very hard with the boys even more so after a perfect rehearsal on Friday, but thankfully they flew high into the air and all landed safely on the day. The boys were very excited throughout the week and the excitement seemed to carry on up to the end of term. This was probably at the thought of us spending all that money on the various camps etc.

GCSE's and term examinations went smoothly as they should with only two candidates sitting the examinations, although Miss Miller also sat the Maths papers. We now await the GCSE results, which will be published on 26^th August.

At the end of term the Junior Camp descended on Shell Island, Harlech. They enjoyed all the local facilities and made the most of: fishing, crabbing, kite flying, swimming, football, arcades and water pistols even though the weather was cold and windy. Adventure Camp with year 9's stayed at Clwt-y-bel, the Shropshire Mountaineering Club hut in Deiniolen above Llanberis, Snowdonia. We had wonderful food provided by Mrs Miller and an exciting week of outdoor activities concluding with conquering Snowdon (1085m). Year 10 used the school as a base for their first work experience. The boys were all based around Shrewsbury with: Jason Clabby at Morrison's Supermarket, Chris Crabtree at Toys R Us, Adam Dellicott at Booker's Cash and Carry, Robert Francom at 'Cheap' Charlies Superstore, Justin Pritchard at Virgin Megastore, Mark Knight helping at The Orchard School, Shane Turner at Pizza Hut, James Wallace was a classroom assistant at St George's Primary School and Ian Wigham worked Whitley Crest Kennels and Cattery. All but one of the 'young men' gained glowing references from their employers and several have received offers of employment. Mrs Martin and Mrs Meyer who helped the boys arrange these placements with Mrs Gilchrist will now be looking to their next venture. Will it be industry, commerce or the service sector?

Mrs Meyer will be planning with the Adventure Camp group for their first Work experience next July. The written work will be used as a piece of coursework, hopefully killing two birds with one stone. Year10 will then be looking at what they have learned from this experience, meeting with John Crozier the Shropshire Careers Advisor and planning their future.

The Shropshire NASEN branch used the school as a venue for the summer lecture. The guest speaker was John Visser from Birmingham University who spoke on 'Inclusion'. It was a beautiful evening and we opened the dining room windows and sit outside afterwards while the returning boys tidied up the left over scraps!

Training has been at a minimum with all the changeover activity but we have a whole programme planned for next year, starting with Health and Safety for all the staff. Advantage provides a wide range of training and we shall be accessing this on a rolling programme.

The HEAF tests were completed early in the term and those boys who did not react were given the follow up BCG vaccination. Mrs Brookes has contacted all the parents involved and informed them of the type of protection required for the injury site. This was because the boys were making up all sorts of stories, as young heroes do after going through such a harrowing experience!

It was really good to see so many old boys during this term and at the Open Day, too many to give individual details. Mark Hall, Jez Burville, Ashley Gough, Duncan Gray (Woolard), Mark Pearce, Alan Gotts, Sean Taundry, John Roscoe, Wayne Edge, Nick Holbrook, Richard Machin Greg Harris Paddy Quinn and David Horton all proud, and mostly fit, young men. The staff love seeing you come back or having a chat over the telephone, it brings back so many memories, thank you. I apologise if I have forgotten anyone but please write, email or visit to let us know how you are getting on.

Mrs Meyer organised a trip to Blists Hill Museum for Year 9 and along with Mr Southall spent a very hot day in Coalbrookdale. Year 10 completed the annual Canoeing trip down the river Severn with very little effort. Mr McBride organised the trip and Mr Bower and myself assisted. This is Mr Bower's second trip and the second time he has capsized, we think this is a record!

Miss Barrett took some boys to the Grinshill dog show. We were the Arena party for the West Midlands Show. The weather was poor initially and this delayed the boys from collecting 'freebies' from all the stands but the clouds cleared, the sun came out and before long our tent was sagging under the strain of the plastic bags of goodies and leaflets.

On the sporting front we played our annual cricket match against the Chris Fleming's select XI. Thanks must go to Wem Cricket club for being such kind and generous hosts, particularly to Jim and Flem for their organisation and the collection of sponsorship gifts and of course Ethel Davies (supermum) for her sandwiches and cake. The game was really important too, particularly as we had our newly signed overseas secret weapon - Taha Nasr, in our line up of: Aaron Adamson, Steve Connolly, Jason Clabby, Chris Crabtree, Matt Dunn, Rob Francom (man of the match), Darren Griffiths, Goronwy Jones, Michael Knight, Taha Nasr, Steve Powell, Justin Pritchard, Chris Rowe and James Wallace. Cruckton batted first, losing several early wickets but settled with good innings from Matt Dunn and Darren Griffiths. We finally managed 115 all out in 20 overs. Wem then went into bat playing in their usual cavalier fashion - a confident start rapidly leading to desperate panic. They sneakily used their County players to tire out our bowlers and multitudinous fielders (Flem counted 21 but Sue says he can't count!) They were 104 for 3, thanks to some careful scoring by Gregory Taylor and Sue Davies. With 8 overs left they just managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory by four runs to provide as usual a very exciting finish to a wonderful evening. Mr Marshall, Mr McBride and Mr Bower and our boys held up the trophy yet again.

The Athletic Sports day enjoyed good weather with an excellent afternoon of track events, particularly from the senior boys. The result depended upon the final event the Tug-o-war. The boys were really psyched up to give their best effort in both the senior and junior competitions and yet still fully in control; it was a pleasure to see. When the results were finally calculated we had our first ever tied competition. Hill and Darwin in equal first place with Clive a very close third. The Half-Marathon was won by Steve Powell in 1:37.38 with Carl Bowles a very close second in 1:38:37. Both very fast times and we hope to enter both boys for the Shropshire County Schools championships next year.

The boys have had a wonderful summer: Mr Marshall, Mrs Hodnett and Mr Paul Davies took a trip to Alton Towers; Mr Corbett took trips to Llanberis for outdoor pursuits and Nottingham with Mrs Hodnett for the Games Show; Miss Atkinson and Mr Paul Davies took seaside trips to Llandudno; Mrs Thomas Mr Southall took a long weekend trip to Llanberis. Add to this the evening activities, which have also enjoyed a term of good weather. Before half term, Ice Skating with Mr Thomas and Miss Paul, Horse Riding with Mr Southall and Miss Atkinson and Snooker Hall with Mrs Thomas and Miss Davies (a sight to behold). Since June Swimming in the river Vyrnwy has been popular in the evenings along with Ten-pin bowling, Laser Quest, Computers, Games workshop, Army Cadets, Telford Town park, Cooking, Boxing, Skateboarding Rock climbing and Warhammer.

Finally, on behalf of the staff and boys have a very happy and peaceful summer holiday. Next term begins on Monday 6^th September 1999.

Yours sincerely

Paul Mayhew

P. D. Mayhew

Headmaster