The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

On Thursday 8 March Junior 4 left modern day Britain behind to discover all about the Dark Ages. The children and staff came to school in Anglo-Saxon costumes, adopted Anglo-Saxon names and participated in everyday tasks in a ninth century Anglo-Saxon village.

Their day began gathered around the fire listening to their Chief. He told them of worrying news, that the Vikings under King Guthrum had invaded England, that the Saxon King, King Alfred, wanted his kingdom back and that rumours abounded of a forthcoming battle. He tasked them with completing their daily tasks, but also preparing for war.

In the village the children enjoyed exploring Dark Ages crafts that included carving runes for fortune telling, weaving cloth, candle making, pottery making, crafting amulets from metal for good luck, preparing ink for writing, practising the skill of illumination and working with the wise woman to make medicines and potions to heal themselves.

The children also prepared for battle. They trained to be warriors, learning the skills they would need to protect themselves from the invading Vikings. They listened to wonderful battle tales of King Alfred and then learnt about discipline and the organisation needed for battle. Then they had the chance to get hands-on practising Anglo-Saxon fighting drills and handling weapons and wearing armour.

When the Vikings were sighted, in this case Deputy Head, Charles Lamprecht, they lined up in formation and charged. After some vicious fighting the Anglo-Saxons successfully won the day only to discover that their King had made peace with the invaders.

Our Anglo Saxon day was led by History Off The Page a specialist company who help bring history to life in the classroom. It was an action packed hands on day full of fun and fantastic hands-on learning.

Click View Gallery to scroll through lots of photos from the day.

This Monday students from Warwick University's UNICEF Department came to our lovely school to host a most interesting seminar on climate change for the great geographers that comprise Junior 4.

Tied in with our current Geography curricular topics of reduce, reuse and recycle our guests focused in on how our actions with regards to green house gases have implifications for each other and our precious blue planet.

And so a most entertaining and informative seminar unfolded before the children of J4H and J4J.  Beginning with the Paris Agreement of 2020 and ending with a most enlightening insight into the plight of the many Mongolians and Indians choked by both car and coal pollution.  It was shocking to find out that some children in India are afraid of dogs, only because they are unable to see them in the smog that surrounds them, in their towns and cities.

We are endebted to Mrs Lammas (J6L Class Teacher and Geography Coordinator) for inviting such engaging and enlightening speakers to enrich the lives and understanding of our students. 

For a small school Crackley always punches well above its weight and at this week’s ISA U11 Netball Midlands Championship the girls really played their hearts out. Sadly, this time they missed a place in the semi-finals just on goal difference, but the result does not reflect their high standard of play.

The competition took place on Tuesday 6 March at Malvern St James’ and was played inside in their amazing sports hall which has two indoor courts.

Teaching Assistant, Lottie Jones, described the games, “We played Bedstone first and won 4-0. We then played the home team Malvern St James’, who were brilliant, we held our own in the game but unfortunately lost 3-1. The girls then picked themselves up and played Dodderhill, winning 5-1. With two wins and a loss we knew the last game would be the decider. We were playing Grantham Prep, one of the strongest teams in the competition. It was a very difficult game that ended with a 2-2 draw, followed by a tense five minutes waiting to hear the group results.”

She added, “The girls just missed going through to the semi-finals only on goal difference. We were absolutely gutted, the U11’s played the best I had ever seen them play, they have all of a sudden clicked as a team and did the school proud. They were really remarkable from the off with energy and commitment as well as organisation and competitiveness. We overheard other schools saying that we were the team to beat and we took this as a huge compliment as we are a much smaller school compared to the schools that were playing.”

Playing in the team were: Honor Mae Minshull, Sofia Mehta (player of the tournament for her superb shooting), Alice Minshull, Kaena Wasley, Emily Hennegan, Eva Plevin (Captain), Abigail Gillard (Vice Captain) and Harriet Sharpe (first time out).

All eyes were on Crackley this week as Mr Duigan hosted fellow ISA Midlands Region Heads for a very prestigious and important ISA meeting.

The daylong event saw the region's best educational institutions come together within our school to share best practice and governance. 

The latest edition of Crackley Hall and Little Cracker's Admissions Update e-newsletter was published this week in time for our Spring Open Morning, this Saturday 10 March - 10.30am to 12.30pm.

This issue is packed with news to give prospective parents and pupils a feel for Crackley life, information on forthcoming events and helpful advice about the admissions process, particularly for those who are looking at entry in September 2018.

Our Admissions Update Newsletters are issued twice a year to coincide with key admissions periods, the next edition will be published in autumn 2018.

Please click here to go to the Admissions Update newsletter.

Or if you have any queries relating to admissions please do feel free to email the team at admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk or telephone our Admissions and Marketing Secretary, Jenny Vaughan, on 01926 514410.