The Chronicle

Dear Parents

I hope this week's Chronicle finds you well and looking forward to the weekend ahead.  As usual, staff and children have enjoyed several events in school this week including the annual J5 residential visit to Alton Castle.  As I write this letter to you, tired J5 children (and staff) are about to board the coach to return to school.  No doubt there will be many tales to tell from their visit and I look forward to hearing them and seeing photographs of the adventures they have during their visit.  I am grateful to Mrs Roberts for organising the trip and to her and all the staff (Mr Cottrill, Mrs Geran, Miss Jones, Mr Kefalas and Mrs Vaughan) who gave their time to accompany the Junior 5s this week.

Our J6 year group visited St Augustine's Church yesterday as part of their Lenten preparations.  Mrs Lammas, Mrs Horan, Miss Kefalas, Mr Harris and myself accompanied the year group and were thankful for Father Kevin for leading the service.

My thanks to all of the children who were involved in Open Morning on Saturday 10 March and to their families for allowing this time out of their weekend to support our school.  Our pupil tour guides, class room helpers, orchestra and sports participants were all exceptional and I am very grateful for their help.  Our visitors to the school complimented the children on their enthusiasm and felt the warmth of the spirit of Crackley Hall School which is what I hoped for.  The helpers were all stars and I was very proud of every one of them.

Some of the children may have mentioned to you that there have been changes to our lunchtime arrangements.  These are merely occasional trials at this moment in time to look at alternative ways of improving the current lunchtime provision.  When we have met with staff and received feedback from all involved, including the pupils, I will let everyone know the outcome and if any permanent changes will be made. 

There have been several sporting fixtures over recent weeks that have been postponed due to the exceptional cold or wet weather.  I am hopeful that some of these will be rearranged soon and I know that the sports staff will be able to keep you updated in this regard.

Congratulations to all our Stars of the Week and other award recipients from this morning’s assembly.  I’d also like to congratulate Sebastian on his fantastic performance as well – it really helped make a lovely assembly.

We wish Ollie, Hannah, Iman and Ollie all the best for the Independent Schools’ Association National Cross Country event on Sunday.  I hope to be there, at Princethorpe, to cheer them on.  Having being asked to hand out some of the medals at the nationals, nothing would delight me more than presenting a medal to a Crackley Hall pupil.

Congratulations to Ireland on their fantastic triumph in the Six Nations!  It is all down to the St Patrick’s day clash at Twickenham to see if they can win the Grand Slam.  I am sure that 15 Englishmen will do their very best to stop them!  I hope you all have a restful weekend; my family and I will be celebrating Mrs Duigan's special birthday.

God bless,

Robert Duigan