The Chronicle

We have been delighted with the online learning platforms which have supported the children's learning during the Covid-19 crisis, and school closure. Thank you to all parents who have supported their child/ren in accessing all our online learning. 

During the summer a significant level of maintenance is required in order to prepare online learning tools for the next academic year, many of which will be retained. Therefore please note the following:

Century Tech: Tasks will not be set by teaching staff, but pupils can continue to work through their recommended learning paths across the key subject areas of Maths and Science (J3 and J4) with the addition of English reading, SPAG, VR and Non-VR for pupils in J5 and J6.

Mathletics: Back end maintenance will be undertaken, but new classes and courses will not be allocated until staff return in September. This means pupils can continue to use Mathletics, if they so choose. 

Cracking Comprehension: This is primarily an 'in school' teaching resource, so as such, should not be accessed during the summer holiday. 

SeeSaw: All pupil accounts from this academic year will be archived early next week. New classes and journals will be set up at the start of the new academic year and parents will be advised when this is ready, and how the school will continue to use the platform once more normal routines return.
 

Mrs Holmes has been so impressed with the variety of art work and creativity of students during lockdown.  This video has been created showcasing some fantastic examples of art work by Juniors 2, 4 and 6.

So much fabulous creativity – from Native American Art to the 1930’s British artist LS Lowry plus, Junior 4 were challenged with making art out of unexpected, recycled treasures from the garage and the red bins! Amazing. Thank you to all the children who made a huge effort to keep their creative juices flowing.

We hope you enjoy the video:

There are so many talented musicians at Crackley, so much so that we see and share their music every day. Lockdown, however, has prevented the children from sharing their music, so it was decided to have our first House Music and Drama competition. The response was overwhelming with over 70 music entries from children in Reception to J6.

The winners and runners up are listed below but everyone collected 3 house points for taking part. Trophies are in the process of being awarded to the winners and the competition will now become an annual event in school.

A varied selection of singers, musicians and performers have been chosen for our first Virtual Concert. Please do watch it as there are so many exciting and interesting performances.

A link to the concert can be found here:  https://vimeo.com/435001850/10a1afee2d

Key stage 1 Instrumental

Winner: Fleur Mauxion

Runner up : Beatrice Parizzi

Key stage 1 Singing

Joint Winners: Fleur Mauxion and Amy Carroll

Lower Key Stage 2 Instrumental

Winner: Isabella Olden

Runners up: Alex Ainsworth and Andrew Parizzi

Lower Key Stage 2 Singing

Winner: Willow Rochford

Runner up: Lily Bryson

Upper Key Stage 2 Instrumental

Winner: Thomas Zanyi

Runners up: Alfie Blenkinsop and Lucas Navarro

Upper Key Stage 2 Singing

Winner: Bella Ward

Runners up: Martha Summers and Lily Carroll

A huge well done to everyone who toook part.

We have had an amazing final week in Junior 6 and hopefully made lots of lasting memories!

Two bubbles had spent time in the Forest School area exploring the environment, building dens and making swings.  It was brilliant seeing the children problem solve, adjust their ideas when they didn’t work and working together as a team.  The woods came alive with laughter and the buzz of friendship!

It was with great excitement that the children received their Leavers’ Hoodies on Wednesday and within seconds the playground was filled with the brightly coloured garments adorned with some interesting nicknames!  Make sure you’ve found your name on the back!  We then recorded a version of our Leavers’ Assembly on the top lawn with some impromptu a Capella singing!  We will make sure that you all receive this – it is wonderful and bought a tear to some eyes!

Thursday saw us don our 70s gear for a disco themed party day.  We had sequins, wigs, sunglasses, flares, collars and much dancing and serious disco moves appearing!  Enjoy our rendition of Abba’s Dancing Queen and spot the disco divas!  The afternoon saw us eating pizza and cookies – thanks to all those involved in enabling this to happen. Dancing Queen

Junior 6, it is with real sadness that we say goodbye to you.  It has been a pleasure teaching you and watching you blossom into the wonderful individuals that we see before us today.  You have been a real part of history, as we have lived the challenges of recent months and your strength, resilience and good humour throughout are a true testament of your character and embodiment of our Crackley spirit.  Good luck in everything you do and keep making the most of each and every opportunity that comes your way!  We will miss you.

This week has been most exciting in Junior 5, as most of the children have been in school for the final two days of the year. It has been wonderful being with each other ‘in the flesh’, catching up with each other and generally just being smiley! It is something that we will treasure as we go into the summer holidays.

Wednesday morning was our virtual sports day and our J5s certainly gave it their all. Wednesday afternoon, the children got to meet their new Form teachers as they move into their final year at Crackley – they will be very well looked after by Mrs Horan and Mrs Vaughan. We warmly, welcome Rafferty to J6 too!

Congratulations to silver and gold award winners this week. Maria and Alyx received their silver awards and Anabel was awarded gold.   

Thomas in J5R was again invited to represent Warwickshire as a member of their Junior’s chess team and took part in his first ever international chess tournament on Tuesday 23 June: The “Olympic Day Run Tournament Team Battle”.

The competition of 7 teams was exceptionally challenging and his team won a well-deserved 3rd place (243 points) against the Russian Saint Petersburg Izmailovsky Chess Club, 1st place (310 points), and the Latvian, LATVIA2020 team, 2nd place (247 points).

Thomas also took part in the The English Symphony Orchestra’s virtual concert recording of Hans Zimmer’s Earth that can be viewed on YouTube here  You Tube Link

We are both very much looking forward to teaching our new J5’s and it was fabulous to meet them and see how cheerful and enthusiastic they all are. 

We would just like to say that we have thoroughly enjoyed our J5 children’s company this year – they have been awesome and have coped with the pressures of home schooling extremely well. We will miss them so much but feel privileged that we can be a part of their lives for a further year as they move up to Junior 6. We will also miss two of our J5 pupils who are leaving Crackley this year and wish them every happiness and success for their future.

Happy summer holiday to you all and stay safe!

Mrs Lammas, Mrs Roberts and Mr Vaughan.

During the PSHCE lesson in our final week, pupils in Junior 4 reflected on the year and along with all the difficulties and differences it was lovely to hear so many wonderful, positive comments. Many recalled the exciting trip to Kingswood and sharing dorms or whizzing down the Wire! Others remembered sporting fixtures and particularly hard matches they had eventually won! Pupils in Junior 4 are extremely creative and love to doodle, make models and build. At home they cooked exciting recipes for their families, made houses, theatres and shops out of cardboard boxes and even made movies. They have continued to keep busy and it has been lovely to share this with you all.

Junior 4 have been making a Squirrel Challenge in Science. The mischievous squirrels at Crackley Hall are always raiding our bins so Mrs Vaughan challenged us to come up with a better idea for them to find their nourishment. We had to think of a suitable location in the school grounds, design an obstacle course that could actually be built and think of what the construction challenges may be too. Take a look at our designs!

Junior 4 have been making their own board games based on their favourite book! There has been a lot of planning involved, first finding out about positive and negative events that happened to the hero or heroine of their book. Then the children have had to draw or find pictures for their games. Some are now finished. Please take a look!

Congratulations to Alex, Sid, Isabella, Dillon and Harry who all received their Silver Award.

What a week to remember Junior 3. We were so happy to see so many of you in school earlier this week and to be reunited with our classmates after such a long time. Well done for all your efforts with social distancing whilst in school – it is tricky to get used to a new way of doing things and you coped beautifully. Superb efforts on Wednesday and we are now all looking forward to finding out the winners of the first ever virtual sports day!

You have all done so well on your home-learning journey and we are immensely proud of each and every one of you.

Have a wonderful summer.

Highlights from 3V:

Seeing you all in school! Our time in the forest school area was particularly enjoyable and we were blessed not to have rain. A huge thank you for the carline surprise on Tuesday and what a treat to be able to see Mrs Blyth too.

Highlights from J3S:

It was so lovely to see you all back at school, where you should be. Forest school was super fun and you were then given a surprise, when we bumped into Mrs Duigan having a picnic on the sports field! On Thursday, you woke up Mr Stedeford, after he turned up to form time and English, in his pyjamas; Grace proving the most effective alarm clock! Lots of you came dressed up in wonderful outfits from superheroes, to cool dudes and football fans. Thank you for making our last week in J3 so much fun, full of giggles and memories we will all cherish for a very long time.

Mathletes for J3 are:

 Junior 3V: The whole class.

Junior 3S: The whole class.

Junior 2 have been working really hard this week and not only with the academics but with sporting activities as well. Boiled eggs tumbled, brooms were jumped over, legs, arms and bodies flew over lawns, paths and gardens as the children enjoyed our first virtual sports day. Great fun had by all thank you to Mr Stedeford for a really inventive programme.  

In the virtual classroom we were so excited to meet our new teachers for next year and spent time getting to know them a little as well as letting them know a little about us. Can it be that time already?

Academic work continued with pupils reminding themselves about symmetry and shape. Quizzes were completed, mini autobiographies created and there was even a whistle-stop tour around Asia!

Our teachers would like to say thank you for all the hard work we have done and all the fun times we have had. Happy holidays everyone, whatever that may look like. See you in Junior 3.

Matheletes of the week are Issey and Ellie

In the last week of term Junior 1 have been as busy as ever.

They have looked closely at mini beasts in both science and English, recording facts about them, learning how they are similar and different and what they really look like.

In geography we finished the year off by matching suitcases to their destinations and dressing up in hot or cold weather clothes to show how to dress appropriately depending on the weather.

History saw us finish our Toys topic, showing what we have learned about old toys and how they have changed over time.

We also had time for some races in school and held a mini house competition with different activities to complete to help celebrate the end of the year.

It’s been a fantastic year in Junior 1 and after a lovely summer holiday they will be raring to go in Junior 2!

Mathlete of the week was Josh

Gold Awards were presented to Harrision, Lexi Jean, Mahnoor, Shuvan, Jude, Charlie and Jacob.

Our final week in Reception has been another busy and productive one for the children at school and the home learners. The children embraced the topic of ‘Pets’ and discovered that looking after a pet, whether it’s a gerbil, rabbit, cat, dog, budgie or even an iguana, takes a lot of commitment! Exercise, daily food and fresh water are only a few of the things that many pets need – and of course, plenty of love.

Maths saw us investigating ordinal numbers and putting a set of objects into positions such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd - all the way up to 10th position. We realised that ordinal numbers are everywhere, from the date we write in our books, to the positions in a race! Can you spot any ordinal numbers around you?

We can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by, especially over the past few months. Well done Reception, you have worked so hard and we can’t wait to see you continue to shine in J1!

Silver certificates have been awarded to Thea, Sophia and Oscar.  Well done to you!

The Summer holiday will soon be upon us.

Below – please find a list of recommended Summer holiday adventures, learning activities and tasks you can undertake with your child.

Whilst the holiday is time to rest and relax, and all these suggestions are optional, it is essential that all children, across the school, continue to read so we recommend they register for the summer reading challenge (more information in the whole school document attached).

To explore our recommended activities, please click on the links below, as relevant to your child’s year group:

• WHOLE SCHOOL – Awesome Adventures for Summer 2020 – a range of activities suitable to all year groups, including three whole school challenges.  Whole School Link
  
  
• Moving to Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 3 – Phonics review Junior 1, 2, 3 Phonics Review
  
  
• Moving to Junior 3 – suggestions for those children preparing for Junior 3 Moving to Junior 3
  
  
• Moving to Junior 4 – suggestions for those children preparing for Junior 4 Moving to Junior 4
  
  
• Moving to Junior 5 – suggestions for those children preparing for Junior 5 Moving to Junior 5
  
  

Moving to Junior 6 – these children have a range of examination preparation activities from Mrs Horan and Mrs Vaughan (current Junior 6 class teachers). These will be sent home in an envelope when J5 children are in school at the end of term. For those pupils who are not in school, work will be posted out. Given the impending entrance assessments, these activities are very highly recommended.