The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Crackley Hall’s U9 and U11 Rounders Teams travelled to Stafford Prep on Thursday 20 June to play in the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Midlands Rounders Tournament. 

In the U9s tournament, Crackley Hall set the pace as they faced four teams in succession in a round robin competition. Batting brilliantly and sharp on defence, they remained unbeaten throughout.  They faced Stafford Prep (win), Old Vicarage (win), Bedstone (win) and finally the Crescent (draw).  A super set of results that put them at the top of the table and earned them a well-deserved gold medal!

The U11 tournament was played in pools, with the winners of each pool then playing off for the final positions.  That meant the pressure was on from the start.

Crackley began impressively and stayed determined.  First up were the hosts Stafford Prep and the girls batted slickly and quickly went ahead, claiming a good win 11-3 ½.  Next up were Bedstone, another good team.  This was a much closer match but Crackley just edged it to finish with a win 5 ½ to 4 ½.  That put Crackley Hall at the top of the pool and through to the playoff finals.

In the finals they faced tougher opponents, the matches were more challenging but the girls played superbly showing skill, determination and great teamwork.  First they played Old Vicarage and won 5 ½ to 3 ½.  Next were Birchfield, they were an awesome team showing precision in fielding and thunderous batting and deserved their win 11 to 5 ½.  Crackley Hall were delighted to come away with the silver medal.

Describing the day, PE Teacher, Mrs Kat Vaughan commented, “What you want from a competition like this is for the teams to realise their potential and that’s what our girls did today.  They played brilliantly and deserved their medals and as always we were exceptionally proud of their conduct throughout the day.”

Playing in the teams were:

For the U9s: Anabel Davis, Rosa Davis, Scarlett Hammond (Vice-Capt), Maria Howe, Adelaide Hunter (Capt), Millie Lammas, Isabel Reddish, Issey Cleary, Jasmine Staveley and Elle Weir

For the U11s: Isla Berger, Martha Harris, Caitlin Horan, Francesca Kelly, Annamaria Kordas, Madeline Lambeth, Amisha Modi (Vice-Capt), Isabella Osborne and Hannah Wildey (Capt)

The Summer holiday will soon be upon us.

Please find below a list of recommended summer holiday adventures, learning activities and tasks you can undertake with your child.

Whilst the holiday is time to rest and relax, and all these suggestions are optional, it is essential that all children, across the school, continue to read so we recommend they register for the summer reading challenge (more information in the whole school document attached).

To explore our recommended activities, please click on the links below, as relevant to your year group:

WHOLE SCHOOL – Awesome Adventures for Summer 2019 – activities from Mrs T Hill (Assistant Head, Academic)

Summer holiday 2019 WHOLE SCHOOL.pdf

Moving to Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 3 – Phonics review

Summer holiday 2019 new J1 J2 J3 PHONICS.pdf

Moving to Junior 3 – suggestions from Mrs Van Zyl and Mr Stedeford (Junior 3 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J3 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 4 – suggestions from Mrs Jackson-Mayne and Mrs Wildey (Junior 4 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J4 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 5 – suggestions from Mrs Lammas and Mrs Roberts (Junior 5 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J5 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 6 – these children have a range of examination preparation activities from Mrs Horan and Mrs Vaughan (Junior 6 class teachers). These will be sent home in an envelope on Monday. Given the impending entrance assessments, these activities are very highly recommended.

This year’s spectacular summer production took place on Friday 21 June at Leamington’s Royal Spa Centre.  A ‘Spoonful Of Naughty’ featured two much loved, musical classics; Mary Poppins and Matilda The Musical.  Crackley’s children confidently took to the stage bringing the audience to their feet as they performed their numbers with passion and pizzazz.

The show opened with the story of Mary Poppins; faced with a new nanny, the Banks children are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins, together they embark on a series of amazing adventures, with Mary’s friend Bert, that help them all learn what is important in life.  Full of plenty of familiar singalong songs, including A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed The Birds, Chim Chim Cher-ee and Let’s Go Fly A Kite, colourful costumes and snappy dance routines, Reception, Juniors 1, 2 and 4 and the principals from Junior 6 delivered an opening act that was a real crowd pleaser.

Matilda The Musical came next, Roald Dahl’s much loved story providing a roller coaster of a second half, delighting the audience with engaging characters and energetic toe tapping songs.  The story of a genius of a girl and her wonderful teacher pitched against her awful parents and monster of a headteacher, the odious Miss Trunchbull, with ultimately right overcoming wrong.  The cast delighted the audience with more brightly coloured costumes and clever routines delivered in style by Junior 3 and Junior 5 with the lead roles played by members of Junior 6.  Everyone enjoyed the modern day classics that included Naughty, Bruce, When I Grow Up, The Smell of Rebellion and the amazing finale of Revolting Children.

All through the show, the crowd greeted each performance with applause and when the final number was complete, the appreciative audience went wild, clapping and cheering. Headmaster, Mr Duigan looked on proudly, Mrs Wildey, Mrs Olden and Mrs Paphitiss were all delighted that after all the endless, tireless rehearsing the show was a triumphant success.

Of course no show like this could happen without the help of many, many people. Our thanks go to all of the staff involved in whatever way, all the parents for providing costumes and props and most of all to the children for working so hard at their numbers and lines.

Crackley Hall is celebrating after another successful performance in the Independent Schools Association’s (ISA) National Track and Field Athletics Championships.  After great success at the Regional Qualifier, Crackley’s athletes returned to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham for the National Championships on Wednesday 19 June.

Wilf Grindal made it three in a row when he won the Silver Medal in the Year 6 Cricket Ball Throw, having taken the Bronze Medal in the same event in Years 5 and 4, in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

There were plenty of good placings for Crackley’s other athletes too.

Junior 3, Elle Weir came 4th in the 600m in the Year 4 race.  Despite being a year young, Elle led all the way and was just run out of the medals in the last few metres.  Elle improved on her Midlands qualifying time by a superb four seconds; there was only a second between the top four.

Year 6 Freddie Knott jumped adeptly and finished 7th in High Jump, Year 4 Maxwell Kiely ran determinedly to finish in 5th in 60m sprint and 12th in 600m and the Year 6 Boys Relay Team (Freddie Knott, Oscar Glover, Alistair Darnell and Bobby Chapman) were placed 6th.

Congratulations to all of our athletes and huge thanks to the parents who took the children to the event in what was a very busy week at Crackley Hall.

Pastures new beckon for our Junior 6 Minnie Vinnie members, so it seemed a most opportune moment for Mrs Simmonds (Chaplaincy Assistant) and the children to get together and celebrate their time together.

This group of fantastic, dedicated and hard working students have made a sustained positive impact on the School's Christian and charitable mission. We thank you for your service and wish you all the best of luck in all you turn your mind to.

Wednesday saw our corridors and classrooms welcome their new class cohorts for next year. All year groups from Reception through to Junior 5 sampled pastures new, with many teachers transferring their talents too!

We at the Chronicle wish everyone but especially our current Junior 6, who are leaving us this term, all the very best. We know that all of you have incredible talents: just listen to your teachers, try your hardest and you will be rewarded with great things.

Last weekend Aryan won the Quorn Family Cup, winning all of his seven matches against other England clubs. A great day was made sweeter still, as he was presented his winners medal by non other than the women's world number three player Karolina Pliskova.

Such obvious talent as Aryan's then led to an invite from the Warwickshire LTA to compete at the Nature Valley Cup at Edgbaston earlier this week. Here he got to play next to Venus Williams and the Women's World Number 1 player Naomi Osaka. Aryan competed as part of a team challenge, where he met eight rival clubs at the tournament. A closely fought match found him initially two nil down in the semi-final during which his back tooth fell out. Happily, he managed to put that to one side and came back three games to two to secure his place in the boys final against Edgbaston Priory Club. Aryan then won the boys' final five games to love; however the concurrent girls' final was lost, meaning a well earned silver medal would be added to his growing trophy cabinet.

We at the Chronicle have been closely following Aryan's progress over the years and we are keen to report more success for Crackley's tennis ace as he hopefully will be serving up more victories at the AEGON final at Edgbaston this Saturday.