The Chronicle

Dear Parents

As Mr Duigan is attending a Headteacher’s conference in London today, I have been given the opportunity to prepare this week’s Head Master’s message.

As many parents will have noticed, the PTA worked incredibly hard, yet again, this morning serving refreshments and selling a wonderful selection of cakes for the charity coffee morning.  Some of the creations look worthy of a Paul Hollywood handshake and I am sure that a substantial amount of money has been raised for Macmillan Cancer Research.  I look forward to hearing the final total from the PTA next week.  Thank you to everyone who contributed cakes, to those that bought the delicious creations and the PTA for co-ordinating this fund raiser. 

Nursery, Reception and J1 enjoyed a visit from Nick Cope on Tuesday who delivered another splendid performance that entertained and enthralled the youngest of our children.  This is the second time that Mr Cope has visited Crackley Hall and we look forward to welcoming him back again soon.

The class and individual school photographs took place yesterday and I would like to thank Mrs Edkins for helping to co-ordinate the morning which was quite a feat trying to avoid important lessons, ensure sibling photographs were taken and also accommodate those children who enjoyed visiting Princethorpe College during the open morning.

It was my pleasure to host Celebration Assembly today and award stars of the week to: Sophia, Katherine, Ted, Theo, Elizabeth, William, Beatrice, Mairen, Elsie, George, Sebastian, Thomas, Bella and Archie – congratulations to you all, your awards are very well deserved.

Jasper was awarded gymnast of the week and Isabella received the RE book of the week award.  My thanks also to Junior 2 who performed and impromptu piece whilst parents were enjoying their cake and coffee.

We will look forward to opening our doors to visitors next Tuesday when we host another Open Day.  Children are always very keen to volunteer as guides during these events and are incredibly proud to be able to show visitors around school.

It was an extremely busy week of sporting fixtures with J3 and J4 girls playing hockey against Grace Dieu, J5 and J6 girls hockey against Crescent and J5 and J6 boys playing rugby against Balsall Common.  Congratulations and thank you to all those children making their debuts for Crackley hall.  I hope they all enjoyed the experience.

I hope you enjoy the weekend, whatever your plans.  If rugby is your thing, I think South Africa should be comfortable winners against Namibia, but the Wales v Australia match is too close to call.

God bless,

Duncan Cottrill

On Monday 30 September J3V have a trip to St Francis Church, during their RE lesson, to find out all about the Sacrament of Baptism.

Please check bags for letters.

Please find attached the termly curriculum sheet for your child's year group:

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Crackley Hall was excited to welcome back, children’s songwriter and performer, Nick Cope, who visited the school on Tuesday 24 September.  Nick treated Nursery, Reception and Junior 1 children to his own brand of acoustic folk-rock, with a special performance of his most popular songs.

Nick, who gets the inspiration for his creative renditions from the children themselves, was at his best and had everyone, including teachers, up and moving with fingers, ears, mouths and bodies engaged.  He treated the children to favourites such as Grow, Grow, Grow, The Polar Bear And The Honey Bee, Ralph Is A Rusty Robot, Have You Heard About Hugh, Round of Applause For The Dinosaurs and the unique, but very popular, The Baby’s Done A Poo.

The children had a great time singing and dancing along enthusiastically, especially when Nick got the glasses and guitars out so everyone could join in with his special songs.

Director of Music, Susan Olden, who had organised the show said, “Nick clearly enjoyed performing for the children, and they responded very well and joined in readily with his catchy songs and music."

Our thanks to Nick for entertaining us all so well.

Huge thanks to Crackley's PTA for organising Crackley’s annual Macmillan Coffee fundraiser.

At morning drop off plenty of parents took advantage of the drive through tea and coffee service whilst others took the opportunity to enjoy coffee and cake with friends in the Gables and listen to the lovely entertainment provided by the children. Later at break the children had their chance to buy lots of tasty biscuits and cakes.  

We hope that you enjoyed all the delicious cakes and pastries. Thanks go to all the bakers and special thanks also to Ian Sansum and Holroyd Howe Catering for the pastries.

The money is still being counted but it looks like we’ve raised a healthy amount, which will all go to Macmillan Cancer Research.  It’s not too late to donate if you haven’t already - just text our unique code YUM CJM7 to 70550 to donate £5*.

A great morning of fundraising for a very worthy cause!

(Please collect Tupperware from the cake sale from the foyer)

Time to start thinking about your costumes!

As part of our Vocations Week, we will be focusing on Super Acts of Kindness. Pupils can come dressed as a well-known superhero or come as one they have made up.    ..............Super

Kind..... Super J  ...... Fantastic Fred ............... etc

With a little over six weeks to go, the countdown to Princethorpe's Entrance Exams for admission in September 2020 is well underway. This year the exams for Year 7 to 10 entry will take place on Saturday 9 November from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

The deadline for registrations is next Friday 4 October, to enable the seeking of references from junior schools. 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.

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 feel free to email the Registrars at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or call them on 01926 634201.

Tuesday 1 October - 10.00am to 3.00pm

Please do spread the word that Crackley Hall and Little Crackers Nursery are opening their doors for an Open Day on Tuesday 1 October from 10.00am to 3.00pm.

This is an opportunity to look around the school and to meet staff and pupils on a normal working day. There is no need to book, all are welcome.

There are some places available across the school and we will be recruiting for places in Reception 2020. Please speak to our Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan for availability in other years.

If you can’t make the Open Day but would like to look around the school, please call our Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk and come on a day to suit you. We welcome visitors on most days.

For more information visit www.crackleyhall.co.uk

Please click on 'View Gallery' to scroll through a few photos from this week's events.

Thank you to all those pupils who took part in celebrating the Class Mass on Tuesday. It was lovely to see all the children involved. Father Kevin explained the background history of the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham as pupils reflected on the theme of what it is to be a pilgrim.

The next Whole School Mass, which will be on Tuesday 8 October at 9am, will celebrate the theme of the Harvest.

Pupils are asked to bring in donations of food - packets, tins, boxes - during this week, so that we can support our local community, in Warwickshire, who need our help.

Thank you

Mrs Jackson-Mayne

Please email Mrs Jackson-Mayne if you would like to enrol your child to make their First Holy Communion next year. This applies to any children who are practising Catholics in Junior 3 upwards.

sjacksonmayne@crackleyhall.co.uk

Minnie Vinnies are busy collecting spare foreign coins - there is a box at Reception for donations. 

RE Book of the Week has been awarded to Isabella (J3VZ)

On Wednesday 25 September, the U10B hockey team went to Rugby College to play against Crescent School.  We won 5-0 - Millie scored a hat-trick, Louisa scored one goal and so did Alyx.

Amelia and Lily were great in defence and Bella was fabulous at tackling. It was Niamh's first game, and she tried very hard and nearly scored a goal. Bella was voted player of the match and all of us played well as a team.

Thank you to Mrs Roberts for supporting us, cheering us on and making us feel determined during the game.

The Team

We are pleased to announce that Jasper (J5SL) is our gymnast of the week. 

On Wednesday 25 September Little Crackers Stay ‘n’ Players enjoyed a visit from Drama Tots.

Sam took the little ones on a learning journey through imaginative play. The session was based on the theme, 'All About Me'. Bodies were wiggling and hands were waving as Stay 'n' Players learnt how our  expressions can show how we feel. There was plenty of amazing bubble popping and the children used ribbon rings to locate different body parts.  The session finished with fun using silk scarves to demonstrate the importance of keeping nice and clean.

The session was just one from a regular programme of visiting activities at our Stay ‘n’ Play toddler group that runs every Wednesday morning from 10.00am to 11.30am at Little Crackers during term-time.

On Wednesday 9 October we will be welcoming Zumbini, make sure you don't miss their toe-tapping and sing-a-long fun!

To find out more about what Drama Tots offer, you can contact Sam via email on sam@dramatots.co.uk

Well, after a wet, wild and woolly few days we’ve been blown away by wonderful wellie skills this week! 

The Badgers and the Hedgehogs have been putting their wellies on whenever we go outside and almost everyone in the group can take off their shoes, put on their wellies and then put their shoes back on again, all by themselves!  They are super stars and we are really proud of them for such fantastic independence skills.   

Fingers crossed this weekend is more bright and breezy than wet and wild, then maybe we can all get out and about and enjoy the autumn sun.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Newsletter

This event was designed to be relaxed and informal and to give us all a chance to learn more about what we do in our day to day lives, it also taught us a few tricks on presentation skills and the chimp paradox theory.

The paradox was explained by Dr Tracy Rea, many thanks to her for sharing the theory with the group. We also hope you enjoyed our speakers and a special thank you goes out to penny@psconsultinggroup.co.uk for helping to organize the event and to Lorna Sheldon https://www.lornadsheldon.com/ for her informative and fabulous presentation.

Thanks also go to Ian Sansum and Holroyd Howe Catering for the light refreshments.

Friday 11 October - 7.30pm

You are all cordially invited to join our popular quiz night hosted by our very special quiz master for the evening, Mr Duigan, this year on Friday 11 October 2019 at 7.30pm.

Teams of up to eight people are invited to battle it out against other year groups and our reigning champions from last year.

Tickets are on sale now and we are limited to a maximum of 12 teams only, so please don’t miss out

The tickets are priced at £7.50 each and include a shared cheeseboard. You are welcome to form your own teams or book individually and we will allocate you to a team of parents from your child’s year group. A licensed bar will be available on the evening to purchase refreshments and you are encouraged to bring any additional nibbles to enjoy. We regret that this event is for grown-ups only but there will be lots more family events to look forward to throughout the year.

We hope you can join us for what promises to be a fun and sociable evening. If you have any questions regarding the event email Melissa Fox mfox1401@gmail.com who will be happy to help.

To purchase your tickets please click here 

Saturday 30  November 2019 - 1.00pm to 4.00pm

Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas yet? Some might say yes but please save the date as it will come round quickly!

Please email mfox1401@gmail.com if you might be able to help. Thank you for your support. 

Lost

Helayna (J5L) has lost the following named items:

• Pink recorder
• Locker key on Sea Life Centre lanyard
• School coat
• White PE top
• Piano book

Holly (J4W) has lost her named school hat

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

Could you please regularly check all uniform and sports kits at home – if any of it is not yours, please return it to the School Office as soon as possible.