The Chronicle

Dear Parents

The saying ‘time flies when you are having fun’ certainly seems to be appropriate this term as time seems ‘to have flown by’ and, hopefully, everyone at school has had a little ‘fun’ this week.

This is the last full Chronicle this term as we break for Easter at the end of the school day next Wednesday; an abridged version of the Chronicle will be circulated on Wednesday.  Some children will return to school on Thursday and from Tuesday the following week to spend time in the holiday club and I look forward to joining in the fun and games during that time.

This week started with the St Joseph’s Day Mass and I was grateful that Father Kevin could lead the service and also assist with the opening of our St Joseph’s Prayer Garden.  The prayer garden has been in the planning for some time and is an area now available to staff and children for when they feel they would like time to visit a quiet area to pray or simply have some contemplation time.  There are two benches located in the garden which have been dedicated to Mr Ryan, former Headmaster of Crackley Hall and Mrs Astle, parent helper and mother of Sam who was a J6 pupil last year.  In addition to the benches, a display box has been made to contain the stones decorated by children for the Blessing of the Stones service and this collection will grow over the years.  My thanks to those involved in helping arrange this small and personal service.  I hope that the prayer garden will bring comfort and peace to all those who use it.

On Monday afternoon, the School Quiz was re-introduced and children across the school enjoyed taking part with Jupiter winning, followed by Venus, Mars and Saturn.  Thank you to Mrs Hardwick for co-ordinating the arrangements and to Mr Sansum for supplying all children with a cake which was thoroughly appreciated by all.

I was delighted by the support of our Junior 3 and Junior 6 families on Tuesday evening as we witnessed another performing arts extravaganza – our Easter production, The Tale of 3 Trees.  I am sure that those who attended enjoyed the performances and were left most impressed with the high standard of acting and singing. It was particularly wonderful to see and hear some children who had not yet sung solo on stage.  Mrs Wildey, Mrs Olden and Miss Kefalas work tirelessly to help prepare the children for such events and I know that the children also work hard to learn their part – thank you to them and to all our teachers. 

It was a busy morning in the Hall on Wednesday when our Stay 'n' Play visitors were able to join in an Easter Crafts morning.  As you will see from photographs later in this issue, parents and the little ones had a wonderful time.

As mentioned in a letter to you earlier this week, I delivered a ‘lock down’ assembly on Tuesday and arranged for a whole-school drill on Thursday morning.  The first drill was a very worthwhile exercise and children responded well.  My thanks to Mr Hardwick and Mr Rawson with their assistance in this important exercise in addition to all the teachers responding so quickly to ensure that children were not panicked or frightened.

We have enjoyed some good sporting achievements over the past week and I would encourage you to read the various match reports – many thanks to Mrs Vaughan and our super games staff for all the extra hours that they devote for the benefit of our children.

Well done to everyone who received an award of any sport at this morning’s Celebration Assembly.  Special congratulations to all our stars of the week and the recipients of the da Vinci certificates.  A lot of hard work goes into most moments of success or achievement.  Well done and thank you to Reception, Giorgio and Eva who entertained us so magnificently at assembly – they were all absolutely superb!  I look forward to seeing the results of our recent music examinations as well – a few more pupils will be taking their exams next week.

We invited an RE inspector/advisor into school on Wednesday to visit classes, speak to various people in our community and to feed back of what we do well and where we could improve with respect to our RE, spiritual and religious life of the school.  He had many complimentary things to say and was able to offer some very good advice for making some improvements in certain areas.  He was overwhelmingly glowing in his praise for our polite and well-behaved children and the enthusiasm of our staff – I couldn’t have asked for better compliments – well done to our staff and pupils!

I hope that you are all able to enjoy a happy and relaxing weekend with your families.

God bless,

Robert Duigan