The Chronicle

Dear Parents

On Monday this week, the nation and so many people further afield, paid their final respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  It was an historical moment in time and one that none of us will easily forget.  Children from each year group were involved in marking the occasion by creating artwork last week and this remains on display in school.  We will hold these memories in our hearts and minds for many years to come.

Mr Cottrill and Mrs Duigan took the U10A boys’ football team to participate in the ISA Midlands competition at Dixie Grammar School on Wednesday.  The team grew in confidence through the day and played well as the day progressed, resulting in a 7th place finish on this occasion. A good effort!

Yesterday, Princethorpe College hosted an open morning for parents and pupils.  This was an exceptionally well attended event, seemingly enjoyed by those who attended. The deadline for registering for the Princethorpe College Entrance Exams for Junior 6 pupils is next Friday; further details can be found later in this edition of the Chronicle.

During our Key Stage 2 assembly this week, I presented Stars of the Week to Sanniv, Ethan, Royce, Ella, Millie, Henry, Ethan, Ryan, Charlotte, Vaughan, Patrick, Jakob and James. Congratulations to you all on a positive week and a super effort.  I was also able to ‘premier’ our new Crackley Hall School film which was recorded during last term.  The film beautifully captures the wonder and excitement of a day at Crackley Hall School and I am sure that you will want to watch this again and maybe share with other family members.  The children were very proud to be a part of the filming process and I will also, no doubt, want to watch it again.  A link to the film can be found later in the Chronicle.

The Junior 5 music group treated us to a lovely performance, as did Grace (Junior 4); many congratulations to all of them. The music part of the assembly concluded with Isabella (Junior 6), who is our Music Captain, playing the trumpet. Her outstanding performance shows just why she is in the national youth brass orchestra and also plays at the Conservatoire in Birmingham.

During the course of today, several PTA members have worked tirelessy to ensure that tonight’s Ceilidh event takes place and that all attendees have a wonderful time. The band will be arriving at 5pm ready to begin the first dance at 6pm. I am delighted that so many of you have supported this event which provides a wonderful opportunity to meet other parents.  I look forward to seeing some familiar faces this evening and hope that you can continue to support the PTA every way you can as they really do make a great difference to the school.

I am pleased to let you know that holiday club will be operating this half term if there is sufficient need.  It is hoped to offer a slightly different provision this October with a breakfast facility and tea option.  A full list of available activities will be sent next week together with booking details.

Next week will start with the European Day of Languages with activities in school organised by Mrs Westerman; Junior 3 will be visiting St Francis Church as part of their RE lesson and Mr Stedeford will be hosting an online information evening about the Junior 4 residential visit to Kingswood.

I do hope that all children are settling in into their classes and enjoying learning new topics.  Pupil progress meetings will be held online on 12 and 13 October, and further information on how to book will be sent to families next week.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and restful weekend with their families.

God bless

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

"What sort place is Crackley Hall School?" That’s the question that followers of our school’s social media have been teased with this week.

We have repeatedly posed the cryptic question alongside a series of images of children at the school in the countdown to a big reveal today, Friday 23 September, at 4.00pm, when the new Crackley Hall School film was premiered.

Comments, Headmaster, Rob Duigan, “Crackley Hall School has long been known as ‘the next best place to home’ by its pupils, but it is also a place to learn, grow and develop. As children progress through the school from nursery to Junior 6, we see their self-esteem and confidence grow as they discover at an early age where their talents and passions lie. By the time they reach Junior 6, children have built strong foundations, socially and academically and are well prepared for senior school life and beyond.”

Produced by the Foundation Marketing Team and award-winning Affixxius Films, the new school film was shot in the Trinity Term and captures glimpses of school life as staff support and guide the children on their individual journeys.

We had gasps of excitement in school this morning in Celebration Assembly when we previewed our new school film. It was wonderful to see the children’s delight as they spotted each other in the film. There were a few tears in the eyes of the adults too.

With thanks to the staff and children who took part (they were all stars!) and the film crew for bringing what makes Crackley so special to life on the screen.

We hope you enjoy it! We'd love you to like and share it on social media too!

A Place To Change

After two years, Little Crackers Stay ‘n’ Play is finally returning to Crackley Hall School.

During COVID times, our friendly toddler group, aimed at families with children aged 0 to four-years-old, temporarily relocated to St Francis Of Assisi R C Church, but now the school is delighted to welcome everyone back.

The toddler group meets every Wednesday morning during term time from 10.30am to 11.45am and everyone is welcome.

Little Crackers Stay ‘n’ Play has lots of exciting visiting activities and events lined up for the autumn term, so there will be plenty to keep the little ones entertained. They include:

Forest Fun - Wednesday 5 October
Firework Craft - Wednesday 2 November
Paint and Glaze - Wednesday 16 November
Outdoor Play - Wednesday 30 November
Christmas Party - Wednesday 7 December

These special activities will need to be booked in advance as places are limited. Please contact Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email staynplay@littlecrackers.co.uk to book your place.

It’s great to have Stay ‘n’ Play back at school - why not come along and join in all the fun!

Did you know that we are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? We use social media to share all that goes on, day in day out, in our super school. We post regularly to keep you up to date with school news and school life, and to share all the wonderful activities and amazing work our fantastic pupils do.
So, however you engage with social media, why not check out our pages and be sure to follow us so that you never miss a post.

https://www.instagram.com/crackleyhall_littlecrackers/

https://www.facebook.com/crackleyhallandlittlecrackersofficial

https://twitter.com/CrackleyHallSch

The deadline for registrations for Princethorpe College's Entrance Exams is Friday 30 September. Junior 6 parents wishing their children to sit the Princethorpe entrance exam must complete a registration form and submit it with the accompanying registration fee by this date.

This year the exams for Year 7 to 10 entry will take place on Saturday 5 November from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

More information on the admissions process can be found in Princethorpe's Admissions Update newsletter here or on the Foundation website here.

A copy of the registration form can be found here.

If you have any queries relating to admissions please speak to the Registrars at Princethorpe College, either by email at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or by calling 01926 634201/262/297.

Thursday 29 September 2022 - 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery in Kenilworth, are hosting a dedicated Nursery, Reception and Year 3 Open Evening on Thursday 29 September from 6.30pm.

This Open Evening is a dedicated evening for prospective families wishing to join Little Crackers Nursery, Reception or Junior 3 in September 2023 and beyond. 

The evening will be split into two sessions with the first session dedicated to those looking for Nursery and Reception places and the second session dedicated to those looking for Junior 3 places. This is a perfect opportunity to see the school and talk to key members of staff who will be teaching and supporting your child. 

To book your place please click here. 

If you can't make the Open Evening but would like to look around the school, you can book a personal tour bu contacting our Registrar, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk and come on a day to suit you.

For more information visit www.crackleyhall.co.uk

Monday 3 October

Parents are invited to attend an Online Safety Information Presentation on Monday 3 October. Mr Cottrill and Mrs Malcolm will be explaining how we teach online safety from Early Years up to Junior 6 as well as ways to support children at home. If you would like to attend, please respond to the school communication sent earlier today.

Scroll through the gallery to see photos from our Celebration Assembly.

This week in Junior 6 we have had great fun finding out about one of the world’s biomes – the rainforest, as part of our Geography unit. We studied whereabouts in the world that we would find these ecosystems and what the climate is like there to support and sustain such a vast array of life.  We looked at the structure and layers of the forest and thought about the many different species of birds and animals that inhabit this part of our planet. We watched some of the amazing footage from the Planet Earth series and after carrying out our own research, we compiled our own fact files.

Junior 5W have discovered a new world when they explored the Aztecs in History this week. They have been extrapolating information from texts, maps, pictures and vidoes to find out the geography of the Aztec Empire. New places have been discovered like Lake Texcoco, Mexico City and Tenochtitlan (try saying that out loud!) and have been locating them on maps of the world and on maps of Mexico. The pupils have shown their curiosity about this topic by asking heaps of questions which is a great way to start a topic. Bring on the Amazing Aztecs!

Junior 4 have really enjoyed further exploring 'Sound' this week in Science, and have made and played an array of fabulous musical instruments. They have also been exploring pitch and have made and decorated panpipes, which were merrily played by all. A budding Junior 4 musical band has thus been created! Well done to all!

Junior 3 have had another super week enjoying our forage into the Stone Age, through English and Art. Pupils are excited to find out more and have been further investigating at home. This week we shall be moving on to exploring the sorts of tools they used ‘back in the day’ and investigating how making specialist tools became an art form using every ounce of the Stone Age brain and little else but stone and parts of the animals along with a terrific shot!

Many children watched and were in awe of the funeral of the Late Queen Elizabeth II and were fascinated and attentive of all they had seen, marvelling at the marching and the uniforms on display last Monday. History happening before their eyes in a way that only the United Kingdom can provide. We are now excited to witness the Coronation when it finally happens!

Swimming is now in ‘full flow’ and the children have been excited to catch the mini-bus and head out of school down to the pool.

We love making our learning cross-curricular in Junior 2. The children have learnt about the different parts of castles this week and what they were for. We then created our own chalk drawing of a castle and used pieces of mosaic paper to add detail. In English, we have started reading Sarah Gibbs’ version of Rapunzel. We used drama to help us write a paragraph to describe one of the scenes from the story focusing on correct punctuation and using exclamation. Maths has seen us exploring number lines with intervals of one or ten. We have focused really hard on always reading questions carefully and checking our work.

In French lessons, the children enjoyed learning a bit about life in French schools. Many liked the way children in France don’t have to wear a uniform, but were less convinced by the idea of a later school finish! They practiced writing their names with beautiful French, cursive handwriting. Très bien J2!

The Little Red Hen was our focus in English this week and after listening to the story, we used our Mighty Writer mat to help create the story in picture form. This helped us to re-tell the story in the correct order without forgetting any of the main parts! In Geography we were lucky enough to take a walk around our local area and notice some features near our school that help us to tell where we are. Once we got back to class we then had to remember the order we saw each of the features and stick pictures of them in the correct order onto a map. Science saw us look at our sense of taste and we had great fun tasting different foods and deciding if we like them or not. We then had the challenge of tasting some crisps and deciding what flavour they were, which was trickier than we first thought.

This week has been all systems go in Reception! We have started our full timetable with daily phonics, literacy and maths. The children have amazed us with how hard they are trying and shown us that they are going to be superstar learners! We have been counting in maths using lots of different items from around the classroom and in literacy we have been practising writing their name and drawing pictures of themselves and their family.

RE in Reception

In RE in Reception this week we ventured outside and we were able to recognise and describe some of the things which God had created in our world. We looked at the beauty and the detail in everything we found. We gathered leaves, sticks from trees, soft feathers from birds, grass and the odd daisy too and we made a giant tree and a stick person to show our understanding.

Next Mass

The next Mass will be at 9am on Wednesday 5 October. It will be led by Junior 4R on the theme of Harvest.

Collective Worship

Thank you to all our leaders of Collective Worship this week. It was a busy week where pupils delivered messages of ‘Developing your Gifts and Talents to celebrate Education Sunday’ and also exploring ways to show and ask for forgiveness. Pupils from Junior 4 to Junior 6 demonstrated skills of collaboration and organisation as they led sessions for their own class and for younger pupils. Thank you also to parents who gave their support.

Vocational Wheel

During Vocations Week, 31 October 2022 to 4 November, we would like to invite parents into school to share with pupils what they do for a living and to explain to the pupils the talents and gifts they use to fulfil their role. Parents will speak to a number of small groups of children (about five or six pupils) for about ten minutes each.

It would be a fantastic opportunity to inspire the children, ignite a few ambitions and reinforce positive attitudes on how we use our God given talents in different ways.

Please click on the link below for this week's weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

Activity Sheet

This week in Lego Club we have been having great fun in creating a late summer garden with palm trees and shimmering decorative flowers growing gracefully amongst a wildlife sanctuary for vet city!

There's nothing quite like the excitement of staying in your very own magical treehouse with stylish bunkbeds accompanied by a giant robot in case of emergencies with any suspicious aliens lurking in the depths of the undergrowth.

A colourful cookie stand serving specialty croissants observed by a sharp-eyed owl waiting to swoop on a Harry Potter train completed a perfect summer’s day in the garden!

What a wonderful way to fuel imagination.

Please see the attachment for information regarding Old Leamingtonians RFC 'Come and Learn to Play Rugby', running for children between 5 and 12 years old, on Sunday mornings from 10.30am

Please note this club is provided by an external provider and not Crackley Hall School.

Please click on the link for this week's newsletter.

Please see the attached dates for your diary. We also have a Facebook page - Crackley Hall PTA, please join us to keep an eye upcoming events. 

Deadline Sunday 25 September 2022

We would like to thank you for your patience with the much anticipated Crackley Hall Cookbook. As you may know we received many recipes and pictures of your children cooking their favourite dish last term. Unfortunately, over the summer we encountered a technical problem with our supplier and have had to change to a new one. The good news is the Cookbook will be delivered to you by the end of October and just in time to make wonderful Christmas gifts for loved ones. The PTA have also decided to reopen the facility, for any children who didn't get a chance last term, to submit their recipes, including new families from Nursery to Year 6. We have so many families from around the world and encourage you to submit a national dish or heritage recipe that is close to your heart. 

FURTHER ACTION NEEDED: Due to changes in the new suppliers' format, they have made it easier to stay with exact formatting by using the link (below) to upload your recipes and picture. By submitting a photograph to the link, you will be consenting to this image appearing in the cookbook and sold by the Crackley Hall PTA.  The link has been tested and is quick and easy to use but if you experience any difficulties, please let us know. 

The URL to access the form is: https://saronti.com/CrackleyHall

Password: Cr4ckl3H4ll

Unfortunately, any previously submitted entries for the Cookbook WILL need to be re-submitted or they will not appear. 

The deadline to get your child's recipe and photograph submitted is Sunday 25 September. 

Apologies once again for any inconvenience caused and we look forward seeing your recipe published. 

The PTA AGM will take place on Wednesday 28 September at 7.00pm in the Science Room.

Please see information attached from the PTA.

PTA Information

Enrolment Deadline - 29 September 2022

Ticket sales close soon for the 200 club with the first draw at the end of the September, enrolment will not open again until January 2023.

You will be entered into a draw once a month for the full academic year to win £50, £75 or £100. We love giving money back to the parents and gave away £1350 last year!

You have to be in it to win it and we wish you and your extended family members good luck!  

Friday 30 September 8:00am to 10:00am

It’s that time of year again! 

Come join us to support Macmillan on Friday 30 September. We are asking parents to donate cakes for the event - please bring them in on the morning or drop them off on Thursday 29 September. Please label any special cakes vegan, dairy or gluten free. Please all clearly label your containers. We will be serving tea, coffee and cakes at the Gables prior to assembly from 8.15am to 10.00am. All donations will go directly to Macmillian. 

For those that can’t join us, we will have volunteers in the carline to help collect any donations you may wish to give to Macmillian. 

Please come and join us to support this wonderful charity and have a lovely cake and coffee too.

Tuesday 4 October 2022 

Time to clean out your closet and donate. The PTA will be collecting all mens, ladies, children’s clothing, paired shoes, handbags, belts and accessories. 

We and Bag2School want to help promote reuse of clothes and shoes to benefit those who rely on second hand clothes as their sole option for good quality clothing. Together we can build a sustainable future by using our resources to further the circular economy. Your child will be coming home with a recycled bag and flyer towards the end of September with more details. 

We are unable to take uniform, workwear, pillows, duvets or pieces of fabrics. 

All items to be dropped off on Tuesday 4 October only, in the school porch.

We enjoyed meeting so many new parents this week at our first monthly coffee day. We hope to see you again on 11 October at 9.00am and as always we look forward to meeting new faces.

It's a great way to get meet new parents too. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported the PTA second hand uniform shop, either with donations or purchases. We are very grateful. 

As always, please continue to use the uniform@pta.crackleyhall.co.uk email to submit any requests you may need throughout the year (our stock is always changing with donations that come in).  We are volunteer run and aim to reply to your message within seven days. 

We are also always looking for donations of items your child has outgrown. Please drop these in the box labelled ‘PTA uniform’, located in the front porch of the school. 

As always, we thank you for your support and couldn’t run the second hand shop without your generous donations. 

We would also like to say a huge THANK YOU to our PTA members in charge of the second hand uniform shop who work so hark for us all!

The engraved Crackley Hall reusable coffee mugs are back! These are perfect for bringing to assembly or when you are out and about and are £10 each. 

Crackley Hall PTA - Kenilworth needs your help!

Sign up to easyfundraising and raise FREE donations every time you shop online with over 6,000 retailers. John Lewis, Argos, Uswitch, eBay and many more are waiting to give a free donation.

Plus, once you’ve signed up and raised £5 in donations, easyfundraising will give us an extra £5 bonus donation!

Sign up to support us here – Easy Fundraising

As always we can’t thank you enough for your support to the PTA. All funds go directly back to enhance your child’s experience at Crackley hall. 

Please use this link to select any of the above events/mugs.

https://www.pta-events.co.uk/crackleyhall/index.cfm

We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family.

Further information and application forms on all roles are available on the Foundation's website - www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us 

• The Princethorpe Foundation - Director of Finance
• Learning Support Assitant - Princethorpe College
• Princethorpe College - Head Librarian
• Litttle Crackers - Nursery Manager
• Little Crackers - Nursery Practitioner

Parents, please ensure that all items of school uniform and sports kits are named.

Could you please regularly check all uniform and sports kits at home – if it does not belong to your child, please return it to the School Office as soon as possible.

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 Henry (4R) has lost his named tracksuit top