The Chronicle

Dear Parents

We have come, rather suddenly, to the end of an incredibly busy and productive half term.  There were many ‘additional and exciting activities’ taking place this week, including J4 going to Kingswood for two nights, J3 having the Ancient Egyptians into school for a day, J2 enjoying a day at the Mad Museum and Reception spending this afternoon (staff included) in their pyjamas (well done to our mums and dads for keeping this a secret).  Thank you very much to all the staff and parent helpers for going the ‘extra mile’.  Our pupils are really enthused and buzzing at the moment.

We were treated to some wonderful music at this morning’s assembly – thank you and well done to our recorder group, Eden and Dari for their superb performances.  Music always adds to the enjoyment of our assemblies.  Congratulations to all the recipients of awards; I am delighted to see how involved our pupils are.  Equally, their achievements continue to be excellent.

After settling down into routine over the first half term, we will look to intensify the learning and academic focus as we return after the half term break.  Junior 6 in particular though have already been hard at work preparing for the next stage in their academic careers.  Our older pupils will be coming home with ‘a little holiday work’.

I would remind everyone that Mrs Jayne Geran joins us after the half term break as Assistant Head: Academic.  Jayne will also be a form tutor in Junior 5.  She joins us as a very highly regarded academic and teacher and, I know, will continue to drive up standards at all levels in the school.  I look forward to welcoming Jayne after the break.  Mrs Nicki Wildey will be working in Junior 3 as we are splitting the class for English and mathematics lessons when the children return to school.  We will announce the pupil groupings closer to the time (via electronic correspondence to J3 parents).  Nicki will continue in her role as Drama Teacher.  James Ferris remains with us for his final half term and will hand over his Assistant Head:Co-curricular duties to Charles Lamprecht in January 2018.

Thank you very much to Kara Wasley and her PTA committee for putting on a super Quiz last Friday evening.  The time and effort was greatly appreciated and I enjoyed being able to test the knowledge of parents and teachers. I am delighted to report that the staff team returned to defend their title and recorded a hat-trick of victories.  Well done to Carrie Holmes, Jayne Ellis, Ian Sansum, Kat Vaughan, Cat Hardwick, Duncan Cottrill, Steve Vaughan and Anne-Marie Convey!  A super selection, cross-phase, of our Crackley Hall staff.  As parents, it has to be reassuring that the staff have a very good general knowledge!

We enjoyed some wonderful sports results over the past week – well done in particular to the ISA U11 football team for getting through to the quarter finals in the Midland Competition.  It was also pleasing to see the U11A rugby team beating Eversfield and King Henry’s this week.

I was delighted that the Springboks put in a performance against the All Blacks that was probably more deserving than the one-point loss that they ended up with.  It was a great game of rugby and certainly went a little way to atoning for the thrashing that New Zealand meted out to them a couple of weeks earlier.

I would like to wish everyone a restful and enjoyable half term break.  Travel safely if you are going away.  Thank you, everyone, for your support over the past half term.  We will only continue to be a hugely successful school with the continued support of all parents and staff, working in unison, for the good of all our children.  Thank you to all our staff for their tremendous efforts over a busy half term, including the added pressure of an inspection.  We await a report in five weeks.

God bless,

Robert Duigan