The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

A talented young dancer from Crackley Hall School is currently performing at the Birmingham Hippodrome in what for many is one of the treats of the Christmas season, the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Christmas production of The Nutcracker. For Junior 6 pupil, Aaron Anderson, this is an amazing and exciting opportunity to gain performance experience on stage alongside world-class dancers.

Ballet is a performing art that takes years of hard, physical training to master. Young Aaron has been dancing since he was two-years-old and currently trains every Saturday morning at the Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham in their Young Dancers programme. He is also a Junior Associate of the Royal Ballet School a prestigious and very competitive training programme for the best young dancers.

Aaron is really enjoying performing and being part of a big stage production commenting on how exciting it is. Our Director of Music, Mrs Olden was lucky enough to watch the production last weekend, and she said, “How fantastic for Aaron, it is wonderful to see pupils who believe in themselves following their dreams.”

A huge well done to Aaron, we are all very impressed!

Junior 2 performed their nativity, A Midwife Crisis, to a delighted audience of parents on Tuesday 7 December. It was a modern take on the traditional nativity story and told of a very busy midwife and her put-upon donkey Steve.

Determined not to miss a very important birth, she rushes out into the night in search of a shiny golden palace fit for a king. Steve doesn’t think he’s ever heard of Bethlehem Palace, but the midwife is in no mood to listen and off they go to look. On reaching Bethlehem, the townspeople, shepherds and kings that they come across have never heard of the palace either and the midwife starts to panic. However, with the help of some angelic angels and a very bright star, the midwife is led to a humble stable to find the very special baby already waiting for her.

It was a fabulous performance from all the children who delivered their lines with panache, danced exuberantly and sang enthusiastically. Headmaster, Rob Duigan, congratulated them all commenting, “Children you were absolutely fantastic.”  He thanked the staff involved in putting together the show and thanked the parents for coming.

Well done Junior 2, what a wonderful and uplifting nativity that was.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Reception children took to the stage to perform Busy, Busy Bethlehem, a nativity told through the eyes of a busy Bethlehem solider.

Bethlehem is busy, busy, busy with preparations for the day of the approaching census. Watching the excitement and directing the crowds is a little soldier sent to Bethlehem by Caesar Augustus. He loves to organise everybody and thinks that nothing could be more important than being in charge.

So when Mary and Joseph arrive late, the little soldier is initially very cross, but something changes and he can't understand why. He forgets all about organising and follows the shepherds and wise men to discover a very special baby has been born.

The simple story was told beautifully with each child carefully enunciating their individual lines. We are so proud of all of them, they performed brilliantly. A huge well done to Reception.

On Tuesday morning, Junior 1 proudly took to the stage to perform A Little Bird Told Me, a lovely nativity full of catchy songs that the children really enjoyed.

One cold, snowy night in the middle of winter, little Robin is shivering away wishing he could be somewhere a little warmer when a little bird tells him of some exciting news about the birth of a very special king far away in Bethlehem. Robin is invited to join a flock of birds flying south to find the baby. On their way the birds meet shepherds, a star, angels, wise men and their camels and come up with their own unique present for Jesus.

All great fun and what an enthusiastic performance, great job Junior 1, we think you were amazing!

The title of Little Crackers’ Nativity this year was Away In A Manger and it told the story of Maurice the mule and his very special manger. 

The performance took place on Tuesday morning and it was wonderful to have parents back in school to watch. A lot of hard work had gone into the rehearsals, learning the songs, memorising the lines, sorting out costumes, scenery and planning the production, and what a spectacle it proved to be. The children enthusiastically (for the most part) sang and those with lines delivered them with panache. ‘There’s a baby in my manger, it’s amazing,’ said Maurice the mule, and so it was.

Performing on stage to a large audience of excited parents takes more than a little courage, but our Nursery animals, stable folk, star, shepherds, wise men and Mary and Joseph were all magnificent.

Nursery Manager, Clare Bird said, “The children loved the singing and acting, and they all did so well. We did have a few wobbles but this type of activity really helps the children gain confidence. I am very proud of them all. They were amazing.”

Kind-hearted youngsters at Crackley Hall School have been writing cards and wrapping presents to be given out at Christmas to local housebound and disabled parishioners. The children, who are in Junior 5 and Junior 6 at Crackley Hall School, are all members of the Minnie Vinnies, the junior arm of the charity St Vincent de Paul Society, an international Christian voluntary organisation with local and regional networks dedicated to tackling poverty and disadvantage through the provision of practical support to anyone in need.

The children are pictured here with Mini Vinnies’ Co-ordinator, Mrs Simmonds, and their handiwork – how thoughtful they all are.

The magic of Christmas arrived early at Crackley this year, when Father Christmas popped in to see everyone at the PTA’s Children’s Christmas Fair. The excitement in school had been building for weeks, with advent activities, nativity rehearsals and the odd visit from a cheeky elf or two!

So, it was a lovely surprise for the children to be called down in turn in their class to discover the marvellous PTA elves and fairies had laid on a super treat. The school hall had been transformed into a winter wonderland filled full of activities and games and behind a screen was the big man himself.

Father Christmas had taken time off from all his festive preparations to come and meet the children. In turn he spoke to each class asking and answering questions, discussing essentials such as who had been good and who was and wasn’t on his list. Then every child was encouraged to share their Christmas wishes and to hang them on the magic sparkling tree before the elves sent the youngsters off to the fair clutching a small gift of a teddy bear.

Then oh what fun they had, playing the tombola, making reindeer food and Christmas baubles, trying their luck at hook-a-duck, enjoying candy floss and so much more. What a magical morning for them all.

A huge thank you to the PTA for organising such a special treat and to parents for helping fund such a magical day.

We have arranged for all children to have FREE access to the RocketLearn Online Christmas Camp – usual cost £20/child. The camp runs over the holidays and includes a variety of online broadcast lessons and activities covering Maths, English, Skills, PE and Wellbeing all aimed at children aged 7-13.

If you would like to sign up please visit https://bit.ly/RLchristmascamp and enter the code CRACKLEY on checkout to reserve a free place.

You can find additional information also on the attached pdf. We hope your children enjoy the activities and it would be wonderful to see our pupils enter the Creative Writing Competition that is also taking place at the camp

Camp Information

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Hardwick's class is Charley

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's class is Oscar and Hector 

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Van Zyl's class is Joseph

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes class is all of J3H 

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Wildey's group is Sebastian

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas group last week was Kate

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas group this week is Theo

Well done all!