The Chronicle

Dear Parents 

We have experienced some beautiful weather this week and I hope that you have been able to enjoy some of it.  As it is half term next week, there will not be any lessons and school will be closed to enable us to prepare the classrooms and outside areas ready for the planned re-opening of our Nursery, Reception, J1 and J6 classes on 1 June.  Thank you for being patient with the number of emails sent and requests for responses to questionnaires.  This has been necessary in order to put plans in place.

I realise that those families whose children are returning to school on 1 June may be anxious and have questions and I have tried to address as many aspects regarding the return in a letter that is currently being composed.  In follow-up to last week’s letters, I will be circulating further information to each group who will be returning.  This correspondence should provide comprehensive details on our plans to return in June, including logistics and measures put in place to do our best to ensure the safety of our pupils and staff members.

Children continue to impress their teachers with home learning and I am delighted to see the variety of work and photographs submitted this week.  It is not possible to publish everything but we all enjoy seeing your efforts.  I am also very appreciative of the wonderful help and support that parents are giving their children, including ensuring that they stick to routine and show responsibility in meeting expectations.

As you will see from the Junior 6 section, our staff and pupils have ensured that they had fun with a French theme this week as they should have been in France.  There are some super photographs and these certainly raised a smile.  Although we couldn't travel to France, the year group came together online.  I am pleased to confirm that our J6 'leavers hoodies', which I hoped you would have worn to France, will be delivered before the end of term.   Thank you to Mrs Paphitis for co-ordinating this.

I am aware that some children are continuing with their music lessons, with the peri teachers, remotely.  It has been confirmed that this will continue until further notice and I thank those teachers for their efforts ensuring that children can still access their lessons.

Congratulations to all of our Stars of the Week: Lincoln, Thomas, Beatrice, Jessie, Sara, Amy, Penny, the whole of Junior 3Z, Rhomun, Mya, Anabel, Francesca, Nancy and Henry.  Well done to all of you!  We also congratulate our Junior Da Vinci’s, our Mathletes of the Week and those who received their Headmaster’s Awards: Alexander, William, Ralph, Sam and the Cowlishaw family.  House point results this week are: are Jupiter 567, Venus 519, Mars 485 and Saturn 458.  Well done Jupiter!

I will hold a Team's meeting to discuss the Junior 5 transition to secondary schools during the first week of June and I will confirm this date as soon as I am able.

Thank you to my staff for their outstanding efforts over an unforgettable half term (and Easter holiday for some).  They deserve a good rest, amongst the planning and preparation for next half term.  Thank you to so many families for your many emails of support and thanks.  It is reassuring that, despite our current situation, you appreciate that we are doing all we can to continue to help your children make the best progress possible under the circumstances.  The children are certainly gaining in confidence and ability to progress within current constraints.  You can be so proud of them too.  I sincerely hope that you and your family have a relaxing break during half term.

God bless,

Rob Duigan

Cyber-crime – please be extra vigilant

Parents are asked to be vigilant when reading emails relating to the payment of school fees and any other items to the Foundation.

We continue to receive reports regarding spam emails.  The latest scam offers a large discount on fees for the coming academic year if paid immediately.

This is probably trying to take advantage of the fact that some independent schools have offered discounts for this term and that parents may therefore be more open to such a suggestion. You can always protect yourselves by only making payments to us in line with our normal, published methods.

As advised, there has been no change to the bank details of either Princethorpe College, Crackley Hall or Crescent and there is no intention to make any changes in the foreseeable future. Any electronic notification that appears to be from any of the Foundation schools changing these details may be fraudulent.  Our bank details are available on the Parent Bills, the Online Payment Portal and for Princethorpe in the Information Booklet 2019 – 2020 for each school, and only those details should be used.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or my colleagues in the Bursary if you are have any doubts about the correct details or indeed if anything appears suspicious.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Happy birthday to children who have celebrated a birthday this week and to those of you who will be looking forward to their birthday during half term.  Those children include: Kiran, Holly, George, Skye, Arisha, Ettienne, Seb, Henry, Patrick, Dexter, Mikey, Caythan and Charlie we hope you enjoy this video.

Happy Birthday

Drama teacher Nicki Wildey has received some very exciting news. All the Junior 5 and Junior 6 children who took their London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) examinations back in March have passed, with all pupils awarded either a Merit or a Distinction. Mrs Wildey will be emailing parents individually.

A delighted Mrs Wildey explains, “The children worked incredibly hard last term and fully deserve these results. I am really pleased for them. Although it was regrettable that the school was required to close before some Junior 5 and Junior 6 pupils had the chance to perform their pieces to the LAMDA examiner. Whilst the younger children will be re-entered for their exams next academic year, it is hoped that the remaining Junior 6 children will go on to re-enter and showcase their talents in their new secondary schools.”

Children from Junior 5 study Speaking Verse and Prose Grade 1 in their Drama lessons as part of the curriculum during the Lent Term. Junior 6 take Speaking Verse and Prose Grade 2.

The children have to prepare poems and prose to perform. They are judged on interpretation, technique and knowledge. They have to consider their diction, vocal expression, facial expression, tone and volume to communicate meaning and have to be able to discuss their understanding of the poems and prose with their examiner.

Continued Mrs Wildey, “What’s brilliant about the LAMDA exams is that they equip the children with communication skills which will serve them throughout life. They also promote an appreciation of literature and poetry, and help unlock their imagination and creative-thinking.”

Congratulations to Junior 5 and Junior 6, Crackley Hall School is very proud of you. These outstanding results are a reflection of your hard work both in and out of school – well done to you all!
 

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to you all.

Princethorpe College Virtual Open Evening – Wednesday 3 June 2020 – 6.30pm onwards

Prospective pupils and their parents are warmly invited to the College’s first ever Virtual Open Evening on Wednesday 3 June from 6.30pm.

The evening will consist of a link to a pre-recorded video comprising an address by our Headmaster, Ed Hester, short video clips of some of our pupils from Year 7 to Sixth Form and fun, interactive subject activities for children to participate in at home. The evening will also provide information as to the admissions process.

The pre-recorded video will be followed by a live streamed Q & A session with Mr Hester, Mrs Rooney, the Registrar, and the senior team from 7.30pm, which parents will be able to submit questions to in advance or on the evening via a chat function.

To sign up for the Virtual Open Evening, please complete the short online form here by Wednesday 27 May.

You will then be emailed the link to the Virtual Open Evening and instructions for the Live Q & A Session on Wednesday 3 June.

If you have any other questions related to the admissions process or Princethorpe generally please contact Mrs Rooney, the Registrar, at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or call her on 07930 601877.

As Junior 6 should have been in France this week, Madame Tatton set the children three challenges: to dress as a French person, to eat or make some French food and to make a model of a French landmark.  Most importantly, we wanted them to have fun! Here are some of their  entries.

We are also pleased to share some videos sent to Mrs Wildey by Junior 6 as part of their Drama lessons.

Conor's video

Harry's video

Jorja's video

Bella's video

It’s been yet another busy week in Junior 5; the children have been up to all sorts! Anabel and Rosa have been making pasta with their new-to-them ‘retro’ pasta maker and have also baked a cake for the NHS (see the photos). Thankfully, this was before Rosa fell out of a tree and fractured her thumb – we're sending healing sparkles her way! Anabel also sent Mrs Lammas an acrostic poem, which was such a lovely surprise! Have a look at the photo.

Henry W’s dog, Poppy was feeling too hot with her ‘lockdown locks’ so mum took her to the groomers. Poppy, as you can see from the photos, was very relieved and has lost half her body weight now!

Max’s parents installed a bird box a couple of years ago and hadn’t had any visitors until now – there's a family of blue tits currently living in there.  We will try to share the video with you later.

Amelia decided she wanted to make something with her lollypop sticks, so not only did she make a catapult, she made a tiny easel, too! How cute it looks in the photo.

In maths, Noah made a violin out of co-ordinates! See the photo.

As you can see from the photograph, Maria has been honing her gymnastics skills by doing somersaults on her trampoline. 

Thomas, who enjoys playing cello and is working towards a Grade 3, had, in the half term holidays, planned to take part in an orchestra course offered by the English Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Section. Despite the course not being able to go ahead, ESO Youth offered Thomas to join the intermediate group of a virtual orchestra project, preparing the BBC's Ten Pieces arrangement of Gustav Holst's 'Mars', and Hans Zimmer’s 'Earth'. The pieces were performed by 100 musicians (including Thomas’ sisters Andrea and Erika, both ex Crackley Hall and now students at Princethorpe College). The online premiere of 'Mars' was held last Friday. ('Earth' will be released in about three weeks.)

The performance can be seen and heard by following this link:

Youth Orchestra

Thomas thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and is looking forward to the next virtual project with ESO Youth in June.

Junior 4JM have had another amazing week. Their listening skills are improving daily! This week they have enjoyed the story 'The Cloud Tea Monkeys' and experimenting with vocabulary in Poetry. It has also been super to see them learning independently and improving their mental maths by using Century Tech.

In RE the pupils have been learning about communicating messages and have even learned some basic sign language. This would be an excellent new and useful skill to learn during our time at home.

They have also been studying the Vikings in history this term and found out about Viking writing called 'runes' last week. Kyra worked particularly hard on her detailed drawing of a Viking long boat.

Junior 4W have been learning about the story 'Treasure Island' in Drama and Music this term. The children have been reading the script, learning pieces of prose and have even written their own dialogue inspired by the characters. Marley created a treasure map after studying 'Treasure Island' and Alfred designed a costume for Long John Silver.

It has been another amazing week of learning in Junior 3, and both Mr Stedeford and Mrs van Zyl have been astonished and well entertained by the delights created by our enterprising pupils. We have acted out Greek myths, added and subtracted fractions, discovered the geography of our local areas and explored the life-cycles of plants. Everyone has contributed in their own brilliant way.

The highlights from 3V have been: Isabella’s cornet playing, Miley’s seed germination investigation, Lexi’s audio diary entry, Olivia’s piano playing, Elena and Jia’s magic tricks, Ralph and Mairen’s retelling of the myth of Icarus, Leo’s giant strawberry, Andrew’s super adding fractions with different denominators, Kate’s kindness calendar, Lawson being awarded his ‘Pen Licence’ and everyone enjoying ‘Crazy Hair Friday’.

The highlights from 3S have been: Everyone celebrating Mr Stedeford’s birthday by dressing up crazy silly for a day! Penny’s lovely geography presentation, after her walk around historic Warwick. Joseph and Seb working really hard with their maths work, on fractions. Esme, Evie, Jack, Amelia, Lucas’ and Chloe’s wonderful re-enactments of Daedalus and Icarus, which included some excellent cameos from parents! And of course, we cannot forget to say a big Happy Birthday to Arisha, who turned 8 on Thursday.

Mathletes from Junior 3 are: Amelia, James and Kate

Well done to Ralph who has been enjoying 'The Legend Of Podkin One Ear' so much that he drew a picture of Podkin for Mr Cottrill without any prompting.

Please see the links below for all the videos we are able to share this week:

Andrew's video

Ralph's video

Jack's video

Evie's video

Lexi's video

Junior 2 have been learning all about non chronological writing. The children were tasked with writing a fact sheet on Garden Birds found in the UK which has resulted in some stunning work. Blythe and some of the other children have become ‘twitchers’ even using the right clothes and binoculars to spot different garden birds. Blythe’s focus was the Swallow. Here he is in full ‘twitcher’ mode.

Junior 2H have been enjoying the ‘Castles’ topic in history, finding out about these ancient, stone fortresses, and more important who lived....... and maybe died inside them. The challenge set, was to create a knight's outfit from literally anything they could find and Mrs Holmes received some pretty spectacular efforts. Well done knights.

Junior 2M have been exploring recyclable materials in science and thinking about how important it is to recycle for our planet, as well as creating their own native American Indian art and designing knight's armour in history. It's been a jam-packed week! 

Congratulations to Ted, Junior 2H's Mathelete of the Week.

This week Junior 1 were finding what sort of tastes they could taste with their taste buds. They had lots of fun trying foods such as marmite, honey, salty crisps, lemon, ginger biscuits, fizzy sweets and chocolate! As you can see by Harrisons face it you had to be brave!

Jude has been busy taking over his mum's desk to keep up with his beloved maths, nothing can keep this boy away from a mathematical challenge!

Evelyn has been writing a letter to Max from 'Where The Wild Things Are', remembering to use questions marks. Amelia also enjoyed this task, by the look on her face.

Amelia also has been showing her support for the NHS again, this time with a wonderful poster.

Evie took on the task of re-creating a cup and ball game that was popular in the past, although I think her version is a little more colourful.

As you can see Shuvan is a happy worker, with a great desk to write on, helping to make sure his presentation is always neat and clear to read.

Mahnoor has been using her time wisely at home baking up delicious treats to share with her class and show kindness to them. A great way of bringing joy into your home after we thought about it in Collective Worship.

Our Mathlete this week is Manhoor.

This week, Reception have been learning about the concept of ‘doubles’ in their maths lessons. They had to look around their house to find things which were double and learnt to identify the double of each number. They also counted in twos to 20 and turned ladybirds into doubles by adding the correct number of spots to the ladybird’s wings. The children had lots of fun playing doubles with dice and dominoes and even made butterflies by putting the same amount on each side. At the end of the week they solved lots of ‘doubles’ word problems involving pizza and cake! We are doubly proud of their efforts.

Then also, as part of our topic on ‘People Who Help Us’, we have enjoyed learning about firefighters, the importance of fire safety and dialling 999 in an emergency. 

Last week, Niamh in J5, was awarded a Da Vinci for her wonderful animated science presentation.  We can now share her video with you here Well done Niamh!

Lots of children are working towards a full Da Vinci; keep up the good work and we look forward to hearing when you have achieved your full award.

Thank you so much the fabulous feedback from everyone in nursery this week.  Your photos are wonderful as always, and I hope you enjoy spotting your friends in the newsletter this week.  We had two birthdays last weekend, May turned 3 and Olivia turned 4.  Happy birthday again to both of you and we all hope you had a wonderful time and enjoyed your cakes. 

Half term will not be as much of a change as usual this time, but maybe as a family you might be able to do some different things, relax as much as you can, keep your fingers crossed that this lovely weather continues, and make the most of being able to safely get out a bit more.  Please continue to remember the social distancing rules, and stay safe.  I have attached a link in the newsletter to another lovely children’s book, helping to explain the strange times we find ourselves in.  See what you think, it might be more suitable for older siblings, but it is beautifully written and can be shared together.  Have fun everyone!

Our newsletter can be accessed here Nursery News

The Foundation’s senior school Princethorpe College has set up a Twitter account to provide helpful advice and guidance to parents of pupils at the school.  Much of the advice is not specific to secondary aged children so we are inviting all members of our wider school community to follow the account. 

Run by Princethorpe College’s Deputy Head Pastoral, Mrs Beth Sharpe, it is sharing information and links from a variety of official sources and includes useful learning resources as well as advice to keep us all mentally well and safe.

Search for @Parenting@Princethorpe to follow the Twitter account.