Academic

WELCOME TO CRANLEIGH!

Each of you brings your own special talent and personality to the community and that is something to be celebrated. This website is here to help you develop that talent and will provide some valuable resources and support for you this year, and for future years at Cranleigh. Take a few minutes to get used to using it and finding your way about in it.

As Director of Studies, I want first of all to make a few points about academics within the school and about what will be expected of you.

ACADEMIC WORK. The main reason for your being here is academic work: in the end after 3 years, and then again after 5 years, you will be judged by the world beyond the school on the basis of what you have achieved in your academic subjects here. With that in mind, I am sure you will want to make a positive start because the time goes quickly. Most particularly, and this is different from prep school where other will have taken responsibility for your work, here you need to take responsibility for your own work and progress, and you need to learn to be honest with yourself throughout as to whether you are doing your best or not. In the end doing your best is all that your teachers will ask of you and what I’m sure you would want to ask of yourself.

LESSONS AND HOW YOU SHOULD APPROACH THEM.  The main point is that you should not feel any anxiety at all about any of the lessons you will have here. Again just do your best: approach your lessons with commitment and seek to engage yourself directly in what is going on. In my experience the difference between those who get good results and those who get the less good results in their GCSEs and A Levels is really whether a particular pupil was ready to engage and participate in lessons rather than just to sit back and spectate.  Remember to ask questions: by doing this you can help your teachers to do their job and help you.

PREP ROUTINE. As you will already know or have guessed, Prep is a vital component within your academic routine and it is important that from the start you see it as just as important as any lessons. Again do your best with what you are asked to do. Don’t be surprised if you sometimes find things difficult or even if you find things you can’t do. Don’t let this upset you: seek help but again make sure that you are honest with yourself about how hard you have tried initially on your own. One thing you must not do however at any time is to copy work off another pupil or off the Internet. This is against the rules of the GCSE and A Level exam boards and it can lead to very serious consequences.

SUPPORT. Above I asked you to take responsibility for your work and that’s a good idea. I know that seems very intimidating but what you must remember is that there are two support networks which are here to help you. One is the subject teacher; the other is your tutor and housemaster or housemistress – for Lower School pupils, especially important is your tutor. Many of you will be studying new subjects or different subjects from the ones you did at CE. You come from many different prep schools and so some of you will have studied some areas of a subject, others of you will have learnt different things. You will all find some surprises and all of you at some point over the next three years will find some kind of problem with lessons, or a subject, or with prep. Don’t worry: everyone finds problems at different times. In those circumstances you must communicate with the support structures. In particular, if you take simply one piece of advice from what I’m saying and only one, it should be that your relationship with your tutor will be vital to you. Make an effort to develop that relationship: communicate and keep your tutor in touch - he or she will be monitoring your progress very carefully.

REPORTS. There is, as you would expect, a system of reporting where you teachers write comments on your progress in academic subjects. I’m sure you were all used to something of this kind at your last school. There are five of these reports during the year: the dates are in the calendar and the calendar is the most important document of the lot (it’s a good idea to write your preps down in there each day as they are set). You get to see these reports and to talk about them with your tutor. They are nothing to worry about: they are simply a common-sense way of monitoring your progress and it is worth you taking what is written there seriously because your teachers may be offering important advice.

AND FINALLY… you’re here to have fun and to learn. The two are not a contradiction: the greatest fun can be found in learning and succeeding in academic work here and I wish you all every success during your careers as Cranleighans.