The Chronicle

Pupils at Crackley Hall School enjoyed a magical Quidditch Day on Wednesday 24 April when the youngsters became honorary Hogwarts students and learned to play the fast and exciting game made popular in the Harry Potter series.

Quidditch is an upcoming sport that is a mixture of Handball, Dodgeball, Tag-Rugby and Football. Crackley Hall’s Quidditch Day was funded by the PTA and facilitated by Ben and Owen from Enrich Education.

The day began with an assembly where the school’s House Captains were sorted into their Harry Potter houses – Jupiter was Ravenclaw, Venus was Slytherin, Saturn was Hufflepuff and Mars was Gryffindor. Pupils then took part in training sessions in their year groups. They picked up the rules quickly, first practising using the ‘Quaffle’ and ‘Bludger’ in drills before moving on to play mini-games. The object of the game was to score more points than the opposition by throwing the ‘Quaffle’ through three hoops at either end of the pitch and all before the ‘Golden Snitch’, or in our case the 'Golden Teacher', was caught.

The event was rounded off with an awards ceremony where the best Beater (J4A Nieve H), Chaser (J4A Jess G), Keeper (J6V Seb R) and Golden Snitch (Miss Eve) were presented with certificates before the overall winning House was announced. Congratulations go to Slytherin (Venus) who scored the most points across the day and were presented with the Quidditch Cup.

Crackley Hall School’s Quidditch Day was thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part. At the end of the day a number of staff received training on the sport and the plan is to now run a regular Quidditch House event. Quidditch proved to be fast and physical and was popular with pupils and staff alike.

We hope you enjoy this short video of photos and clips from the day.

Crackley took a team of Junior 4s to the ISA U9 Tag Rugby Tournament at Stafford Grammar on Tuesday 23 April.

Taking part were 13 teams from across the Midlands. Crackley’s squad put on a great show and were delighted to come home with the Bronze medal.

The players made a good start, winning every one of their group games to earn a place in the quarter finals. They won that match in overtime to progress to the semis where despite showing excellent tagging and support play, they just lost out by one try. A determined team went into the Bronze medal match which they won comfortably.

There was lots of learning for the young squad to take away. Well done team Crackley you showed great promise and should be proud of yourselves!

Crackley Hall was excited to welcome Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from local Kenilworth primary schools on Friday 19 April for a Junior Schools' cross-country challenge. The event took place out on a breezy but sunny sports field at Crackley Hall School.

The children were all keen to compete and ran with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, demonstrating determination and perseverance as they wound their way round the course and over the obstacles.

The Year 5 girls’ race was the first to get going and it was a close matched affair. Park Hill Juniors took overall first place, but Crackley Hall’s girls ran a strong race to finish in second place. Lexi-Jean was first home for Crackley just missing a medal after finishing in fourth place.

The Year 5 boys were next, with pupils giving their all and showing fabulous team spirit. Leo was second across the line to take the individual Silver medal. Priors Field took team first place with Crackley Hall’s boys claiming team second place.

The Year 6 girls showed grit and determination. Fantastic running from Eloise saw her finish second overall, to also claim a Silver medal helping the Crackley Hall Girls team claim another team second place.

Finally in the Year 6 boys’ race the runners set off at a fast pace. Patrick ran hard to keep up with the leaders and his perseverance helped him claim an individual Bronze medal after finishing in third place overall.

The individual races were followed by the Relay Race, where teams of four competitors ran a shorter course. Congratulations go to the Saturn House team (Sienna, Amy, Issy and Scarlett) who won the Girls Relay Race and to Crackley Hall’s Boys team (Ryan, Josh, Harry and Alex) who claimed victory in the Boys Relay Race.

There were fantastic performances by all of Crackley's pupils of which we are very proud, not only whilst running but also for their support of one another cheering and encouraging all the runners along.

Many thanks to Princethorpe’s young sports leaders who supported the event and especially to Lower Sixth Former, Ben, who ran as the hare in all five races!

It was a super afternoon of community cross country fun.

Father Kevin celebrated Mass at Crackley Hall on Tuesday this week to acknowledge the legacy of St George, who we remembered for his courage, endurance and sacrifice. The intention of the mass was for Mr Duigan's birthday and his family. Former teachers Mrs Snape and Mrs Flynn were also remembered and prayed for as they had recently passed away.

The mass was led by Junior 3 and mention was made of how St George, who came to England from Palestine, stood firm in his belief for what was right and turned away from things which were wrong. We reflected how this was related to us and how we could choose to go with God, rather than against Him.