Crosfields pupils U11 Oscar Fuentes and Josh Howard played in the U11 Jay Gill and Nat Hindle.

Bradfield College were fortunate enough to select the one day of sunshine in between incessant rain, on which to hold this year’s Golf Tournament.  The college’s golf course was looking good, the course beautifully prepared for a wonderful afternoon of golf.

It is a challenging 9 hole golf course, requiring a good level of golf and we were not disappointed.  All of the boys enjoyed the event, playing with a high level of maturely and confidence.

There were good performances by all, with notable achievements from Oscar Fuentes who achieved third place in the individual Under 11 section and with Josh Howard extremely close behind their combined score resulted in second place in the Under 11’s team section.

Eleven school staff took part in a Charity abseil on Sunday 22^nd April. As the skies cleared and the rain held off, the team made their way to the top of The Blade – the subject of their descent.  Looming at a height of 128 metres and dominating Reading’s skyline, The Blade is the tallest building in the Town Centre.

As the team prepared to take the plunge down 13 floors, the equivalent of 32 double decker buses, they were encouraged by families, friends and children from Crosfields.

The team raised £3,000 for The British Red Cross.

Instigating the challenge was Mrs Gould, our very own School Nurse. She says “The British Red Cross carries out some tremendous work locally and the abseil was an exciting, yet terrifying opportunity for the teaching and support staff at Crosfields to show their support for its work.  The team thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is overwhelmed by the generosity of supporters. We’re looking forward to the next challenge!”

Woodley Festival is always a great focus for our choirs in the Spring Term. At this years festival, we were represented by three choirs; the Pre-Prep Choir, made up of Year 2 pupils, the Year 5 Boys’ Choir and the Chamber Choir.  Both the Pre-Prep and Year 5 Boys Choir received a highly commended rating for their efforts.

It was the Crosfields Chamber Choir that was awarded the Walker Trophy for winning the Young People’s Class, singers of Year 9 and under.

Richard Adams, Director of Music at Crosfields comments “Winning the Walker Trophy was an outstanding achievement.  The award is intended for singer’s year 9 and under, so with our choir primarily made up of Year 6 pupils, this made the achievement even greater.  The distinction rating was well justified for their performances of Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home by Bob Chilcott and Wings by Carl Strommen. They performed exceptionally well.”

Adrien Vitart, age 10 and one of Crosfields most esteemed musicians wowed his adjudicator so much that he received the Durant Cup, for the most promising instrumentalist aged under 16 and an outstanding award medal for his violin playing in the under 16 string solo and a gold in the Graded 6-7 class.

Both the Chamber Choir and Adrien have both been invited to perform at the Finale Concert at Bearwood College on Sunday 25th March.

On Friday 2^nd March, Crosfields welcomed 27 primary schools from the local community, to their 6^th annual tag rugby tournament.

A record number of teams attended, 52 in total, consisting of 32 boys teams and 20 girls teams.  The U8’s and U9’s were spread across 13 pitches within Crosfields’ 40 acres of grounds, for an exhilarating show of tag rugby. The children displayed some great tagging techniques and ball handling skills and spectators were treated to some very exciting rugby.

London Irish Rugby Football Club and “Digger”, the Club mascot, once again lent their support to the event.

Andrew Harris, President of Berkshire County Rugby Football Union, presented each team with a rugby ball donated by Crosfields School and every child received a certificate confirming that they had taken part.

Participating schools were:

Beechwood Primary School (Woodley), Birch Copse Primary School (Tilehurst), Bradfield C of E Primary School, Burghfield St Mary’s C of E Primary Schools, Churchend Primary School (Tilehurst), Colleton, Primary School (Twyford), Coombes Junior School (Arborfield), Crosfields School (Shinfield), Downsway Primary School (Tilehurst), Earley St Peters Primary School , Farley Hill Primary School, Fox Hill Primary School (Bracknell), Harmans Water Primary School (Bracknell), Hawkedon Primary School (Lower Earley), Long Lane Primary School (Tilehurst), Mortimer St Mary’s Junior School, Oaklands Junior School (Crowthorne), Oakley C of E Junior School (Basingstoke), Pangbourne Primary School, Rivermead Primary School (Woodley), St Annes RC Primary School (Caversham), St Mary’s School (Henley), Sacred Heart Primary School (Henley), Shiplake C of E Primary School, Sonning Common Primary School, Whitegrove Primary School (Bracknell), Whiteknights Primary School (Reading).

Director of Sports, Gareth Edwards commented,

‘Our annual Tag-Rugby tournament is just one way that Crosfields promotes the participation of sport.  We encourage all children to enjoy sports and to try hard at their own level, whatever it may be! The enthusiasm shown by all of the children this afternoon has been outstanding and we have seen some very exciting rugby on show in both the boys and girls competitions.”

Jonathan Wansey, Crosfields’ Headmaster, commented:

“The atmosphere at this afternoon’s tournament has been superb, and to see so many children enjoying their rugby is wonderful. Thank you to Crosfields sports department who have organised a terrific event and to London Irish whose support has contributed greatly to this day.”

This sporting festival is one of three events hosted annually by us for local primary school children – football in the autumn, and rugby and cross country in the Spring term.  The aim is for children to take advantage of Crosfields’ extensive sports pitches and ground of over 40 acres and enjoy an afternoon of competitive sport.  The cross country event will be held this year on 27^th March.

Crosfields welcomed back an ex-pupil who gave, along with other musicians from the Royal College of Music, two string presentations to the Junior School and Senior School.

Anton Crayton’s Manasseh String Quartet took the audience on a musical journey starting with Haydn and ending with Prokofiev. The four string players dazzled us with their virtuoso skills and kept their young audience entertained and engaged throughout.

One lucky member of the audience was asked to dress up as Haydn, complete with wig and cloak. An inspiring afternoon which showed what can be achieved through teamwork, effort, and determination.