The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Crackley Hall has a long tradition of excelling in the arts so it is no surprise that our fantastic teaching staff have schooled our latest cohort to success in the prestigious ISA Regional Art Competition continuing our school's winning streak.  

The competition is comprised of eight separate categories, from 2D to 3D, textiles and photography, for the individual and group, there is a category for one and all.

The roll call of honour will forever record the names of the following Crackley students, well done to you all!

1st Charlie Ferguson (J6) ‘Humming Birds’ : 2D Individual

Highly Recommended Rocco George (J5) ‘Tudor Royals’ : 2D Individual

2nd Megan Shipton ‘Paw Print’ : Art 3D Individual 

1st Junior 4 ‘Swimming Together’ : Art 3D Group  

On Thursday 12 October Junior 2 had a super interactive trip out to visit the best museum in Warwickshire. The MAD museum (Mechanical, Art and Design), in Stratford upon Avon, is the UK’s only permanent venue for mechanical art. It is a real Aladdin's cave of treasures which aim to surprise and amuse. The cleverly made, complicated and fully interactive displays provided plenty of hands on experiences for the children. They eagerly operated sensors, buttons and handles aplenty to see what happened next.

The visit to the museum supported many of Junior 2’s curricular topics, but particularly informed their Design & Technology and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) studies.

The children loved all of the displays but especially enjoyed the clapping machine, that when you clap at it, claps back to you and the motion sensor designs that came to life as you walked past. The huge magnetic marble wall where the children were able to design, build and modify marble runs was also great fun.

Junior 2 teacher, Mrs Hardwick, said, “It was a fabulous day, the children thoroughly enjoyed the interactive elements in the museum and were all able to get involved with a number of different activities and work together to solve problems.”

After the museum the children took a short walk down to the canal where they boarded a boat called the ‘Jennifer May’ for a pleasant cruise down the river while they ate lunch. Their visit to Stratford-upon-Avon finished with a chance to let off some steam in the autumnal sunshine in the park.

Many thanks to Mrs Hardwick, Mrs Malcolm, Mrs Convey and Miss Pearce for organising such a fascinating and participative trip.

The Ancient Egyptians believed that they had to take everything with them to the afterlife, so all the objects they needed were placed in their tombs or painted on the walls. It's thanks to this that we know so much about their lifestyle and are able to recreate it today.

Junior 3’s Egyptian Day took full advantage of this knowledge to transport the children back over two thousand years to the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Crackley’s school hall was transformed into an Egyptian tableau with a temple set up at the front and bustling Egyptian workshops all around. There the children made their own Egyptian artefacts and experienced many of the skills prevalent of the era, in the hope of impressing their wise leader and to offer some of their crafts at the temple to the Sun God – Aten.

The children learnt how to make perfume cones – using beeswax, tomb painting and hieroglyphic writing. They also made Canopic jars from clay and carved scarab beetles in soap. They even tried their hand at mummification, as they embalmed and mummified small peg dolls using spices, perfumes and animal fat.

In the afternoon the Royal Court was set up and food was prepared for a grand banquet. The children were given roles and tasks to complete which they executed with enthusiasm. Dances, music and plays were performed whilst the banquet of bread, ‘wine’ in goblets, cheese, figs, dates and fruits was served by the slaves.

Junior 3 teacher, Anna Van Zyl, said, “Junior 3 had gone all out with some simply super costumes which gave the day a fabulous authentic feel. We were even plagued by locusts and rats during the day – which was hilarious and a real highlight for the children, as the rats were hidden around the hall and they had to ‘flush’ them out with brooms.”

What another fun filled fabulous learning day at Crackley Hall, we can’t wait for the next one!

Not even the slate grey skies of Staffordshire could dampen the enthusiasm and exuberance of this year’s Junior 4 adventurers on their residential trip to Kingswood. For two days (Monday 9 - Wednesday 11 October), our Junior 4 pupils took up the challenge of working together as a team to face an exciting range of activities, including zipwiring, problem solving, archery, fencing, climbing and, perhaps the most challenging of all, bed making!

All pupils showed a wonderful willingness to try new experiences and to celebrate each others' successes. Way to go, Junior 4!

It is with great excitement that we can reveal two former Crackley pupils are to tread the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) boards this Christmas and beyond in their production of The Christmas Carol.

The Chronicle has been told that both Tom Lomas and Toby Convey will be appearing on stage for the Saturday 27 January evening performance and there are still a limited number of seats available for this performance!

Further information and tickets can be found from the Box Office at the RSC, on their website: https://www.rsc.org.uk/a-christmas-carol/ or if you prefer, we're sure a justifiably proud Mrs. Convey, Mum to Toby and TA to J3M, can give your further details on request.

Thank you to everyone who came to the quiz last Friday and helped in any way.

The Chronicle has heard from the PTA that the questions asked by Mr Duigan were both 'challenging and interesting'.  The winning team “Par Excellence”, made up of staff members, proved once again that they really know their stuff.  It's comforting to know that those charged with the teaching and learning of our children came out on top.

Lots of fun was had by all, alongside a very healthy £568 raised towards PTA funds. Remember, there's only 51 weeks to get some study in before the next Headmasters' Quiz.

Mr. Duigan was pleased to announce earlier the details of this year's combined Crackley Hall and national Catholic Independent Schools' Conference (CISC) Christmas Card Competition in our Whole School Assembly today. 

Every pupil is invited to take part by interpreting the theme of 'God is with us' in paint, pencil, photograph, mixed media and/or textiles. Please note that all entries should be on A4 paper/card and have the name and class of the pupil on the back.

Every entry will need to be in school by Friday 10 November for judging, as an esteemed panel led by Headmaster Mr. Duigan and Art Co-ordinator Mrs Van-Zyl will be perusing them prior to making their selection for the winning design for our own School Christmas card and entry into the CISC Christmas Card competition.    

Further details and winning entries from previous years are available to view on the CISC website by clicking on this link.

A letter from Mrs Van Zyl explaining how to enter is available here.

Best of luck, one and all.