The Chronicle

Dear Parents

It was so lovely to welcome back children in Nursery, Reception, Junior 1 and Junior 6 this week.  I think the children have enjoyed the familiarity of school even though they have had to adapt to the ‘bubbles’ which help to achieve appropriate levels of social distancing.  Online lessons have been maintained for all year groups and continue to work well.  We will continue to look at what we can do to enhance this.  I have our children who are still at home very much in my thoughts and know that it may be frustrating for some not being able to come back onto the school site.  I also know of some who are very happy to continue working from home!

I would like to thank parents for adhering to the procedures we have put in place which helps to protect staff and children.  Please remember not to arrive any earlier than your allocated arrival time for your child; if you happen to be a little early, please remain in your cars.  Any illness must be communicated at the earliest possibility to the class teacher in the first instance as this will allow us to act early if necessary.

Junior 5 parents were invited to the Princethorpe Virtual Open Evening this week and this was followed by my meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss secondary school options.  I hope that these events were useful but if you feel that you would like to discuss any issues further, please let me know.

I hope you all managed to view this morning’s assembly.  Today we celebrated our Stars of the Week including: Sloane, Thea, William, Josh, Arthur, Beatrice, Arisha, Lexi, Elsie R, Elsie G, Noah, Freddie, Louie and Lucas. 

There were several Da Vinci’s awarded this week and there are lots more to be celebrated next week too.  The children continue to work incredibly hard and staff are so impressed by the high standards of work submitted.  Da Vinci’s were awarded this week to Bella, Roshan, Neve and Matilda in Junior 6.  Rory in Junior 2 has earned a Headteacher’s award for his exceptional maths work and the RE book of the week was awarded to Arthur in Junior 2 – well done to everyone!

House points were Jupiter, 478; Mars 351; Saturn, 326; and Venus 419.  Congratulations to everyone in Jupiter!

Theo, Elsie, Issey, Merryn, Alexander, Edward (Ted), Millie, Willow, Oliva and Musa are all celebrating birthdays this week and I hope you enjoy the Junior 1 class rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ later in the Chronicle.

I am planning to open Holiday Club this summer (for all but one or two weeks) from the end of the term on 3 July but this is subject to Government guidelines and parent requests.  If you would like to use holiday club this summer, would you please email lorrainedyer@crackleyhall.co.uk  I can then look at what provision will be necessary.

I have sent a leaflet to Junior 6 parents which details information on managing screen time, and other digital world matters, for their children.  If anyone else feels that it would be beneficial to receive this document, please let Mrs Dyer know and it will be forwarded to you.

Although the weather is not as warm as in recent days, I hope that you have a pleasant weekend with your family.

God bless,

Rob Duigan

The winners of Crackley Hall's first Virtual Inter House Drama Competition have been announced today.

Mr Duigan, Mr Cottrill, Mrs Wildey and Mrs Hill were bowled over by the talent and creativity of all of the entries. They were so impressed with the hard work, learning lines and the use of brilliant drama skills to communicate the pieces so effectively and clearly. Everyone was thoroughly entertained so thank you all!

Upper KS2 winner was Jorja, the runners up were Thomas and Jasper.

Lower KS2 winner was Isabella, the runners up were Elsie and Carter.

KS1 joint winners were Arthur and Olivia and runners up were Aaran and Elizabeth.

The winners earned their house 12 points each, the runners up earned 6 points each while all the other entries earned 3 points each. When all the points were added together, the totals were:

Jupiter – 21 points

Mars – 25 points

Saturn – 39 points

Venus – 45 points

Well done Venus!

Thank you to our distinguished judges and, more importantly, to every child who entered this competition. It is hoped to be able to share the performances with you in next week's Chronicle.  You are all amazing!

Crackley Hall is delighted to present a very special treat. We hope you all enjoy this virtual performance by the school’s Chamber Choir singing the popular and poignant song Somewhere Only We Know.  

The Chamber Choir is made up of pupils from Junior 5 and Junior 6 and they have all worked together on this virtual extra-curricular project. The children were each provided with a backing track to sing along to and submitted their performance to be edited into the recording. 

Director of Music, Susan Olden, explains, “Normally, when the children sing, they have a piano accompaniment and I conduct. So, for a number, this was a totally new experience. They all had to listen and rehearse with extra care, to be in time with the backing track. I was delighted with the performance as for many it was a jump into the unknown and it was fantastic to see them all together sharing their love of singing and music.  This song has significance to them all, as it was one of the last songs we sang together when we were at school and the words are particularly special.”  

It has all come together marvellously and we know that the performance will serve as a wonderful reminder of the great times the Chamber Choir have had singing together. A huge well done to everyone involved. 

The link to the video is: https://vimeo.com/424739001

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to you all.

Theo, Elsie, Isabella, Merryn, Alexander, Edward, Millie, Willow, Olivia and Musa are all celebrating birthdays this week.

Happy birthday by Junior 1

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain invited children to  take part in a concert for the public in the recent half-term holiday. At 5pm on Thursday 28 May, across the UK, various soloists and ensembles played 'Jupiter' by Gustav Holst to local audiences.

Thomas in Junior 5 and his sisters who attend Princethorpe College, joined up with ex-Crackley Music Captain Yichen and her brother Yiyang. Their driveway proved to be a suitable place for the ensemble to perform, with neighbours enjoying the concert while socially distancing from the safety of their picnic rugs, deckchairs and parked cars. Their contribution was later posted on NYO’s social media.

Well done Thomas and how wonderful to see our old pupils performing!

Tuesday 23 June 2020 – from 6.00pm

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery are holding a Virtual Open Evening for prospective parents on Tuesday 23 June from 6.00pm.

The evening will begin with an address by the Headmaster, Rob Duigan, it will include some short, pre-recorded videos including a tour of the school, interviews with our Year 6 pupils and an overview of the admissions process. The event will give prospective parents information on the education the school provides and on how Crackley Hall nurtures and supports its pupils to achieve great things.

The Admissions Secretary, Jenny Vaughan, will follow up with prospective parents after the event to answer any questions they may have.

To register for the event please click here.

For information on availability in the different year groups or any other questions please email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk or call 01926 514410 and speak to our Admissions Secretary, Jenny Vaughan.

It has been lovely to welcome so many Junior 6 children back into school this week.  They have been so creative, especially in designing their socially distanced playground games including shadow tag and a range of relays and ‘splat’! 

Learning has continued in the classroom, both virtual and real, by researching the British Museum exhibit ‘A History of the World in 100 objects’.  This has been used to create ‘A History of Junior 6 in 48 objects’.  The classes have had fun producing transcripts and their very own podcasts.

Two classmates in Junior 5L had amazing tales to tell of their adventures camping in their back gardens.  Both the Reddish and Cowlishaw families spent time ‘getting down with nature’ during half term.  Judging by the photographs, they all had a fantastic time! 

Anabel and Rosa are our environmental queens at the moment. They spent time clearing up after the Bank Holiday Monday revellers in the Worcestershire countryside; something they most certainly should not have had to do, because the people should have taken their rubbish home with them.   As you can see from the photo, there was A LOT of rubbish scattered over the hills. Thank you, girls. We appreciate you. The twins also thought it was a good idea to do some orienteering and map reading – both skills are extremely useful! 

Our PSHECE this week was about our worries, and how we can lessen them. Henry thought really deeply about this and produced this wonderful picture about following the road to happiness.

In Junior 5R we welcomed Isabella to the class. She is a wonderful addition to Junior 5 and is proving to be a very polite, friendly and studious girl. She joins her sister Esme in Junior 3 and we warmly welcome her to our Crackley Family.  We've included a little video from Isabella and the link is below.

The class are now timing their writing pieces, ready for future exams, and they all worked hard and managed to produce a good amount of writing in a set time. Most of them are now including most, if not all, of the essential ingredients to produce great pieces of writing.

There are many talented writers in Junior 5 and Joseph has now earnt himself an English Da Vinci, as he has produced a range of consistently high quality pieces of creative writing over the year-well done!  

Caythan had a lovely half term holiday, celebrated his birthday by flying his new plane at Ryton pools.  We have many budding artists in Junior 5 too;  Mrs van Zyl has commented on the high standard of art work.  Well done everyone!

Isabella

Junior 4 have been busy this week. In English, children are really starting to use more ambitious vocabulary in their writing and this has been inspired by the book Cloud Tea Monkeys by Elspeth Graham and Mal Peet.

The Asian theme continues into the delicious topic of Indian food where the children have been learning about the importance of food in Indian culture. They have all been working hard to complete individual projects, choosing an area of India to focus on. 

Theo is the Mathlete of the Week

Junior 3V have got off to a super start to the new half term and are now much more accustomed to online learning; everyone has made a wonderful effort all week.  3V have continued to explore a wider range of Greek myths and even created their own mythical creatures.  There has been exploring of different angles in maths and searching for different angles in our environment. Well done Junior 3, you have all got the ‘right angle’ on making the best of this half term. Keep up the Aegean effort! 

Charlie’s birthday was celebrated and the arrival of his 51 new chicks. We enjoyed hearing from Jia about the Junior 6’s returning to school and Isabella’s plans for writing a novel called ‘Horrendous Hairdresser’. Mairen’s humorous poetry recital and Ralph and Mitchell’s astonishing Ancient Greek masks was very entertaining.

Junior 3S have created some hugely imaginative mythical beasts that have included some wonderful monologues from lots of children and an amazing character description from Theo. Amalia explored the Isle of Wight, learning about its rich history and Beatrice and Eve had a fun time at Blenheim Palace. 

Mathletes for Junior 3 are: Mitchell, Elena, Theo and Arisha

Theo's video

Esme's video

Mathlete of the week has been awarded to Patrick

Junior 2 have been exploring biographies this week with a focus on Roald Dahl. Children have been finding out about Weight in maths with lots of work on grams and kilograms. In RE we have been finding out about the Liturgical year and the colours that go with those different church seasons.

Science has seen a forage into the new materials world where children explored the work of Tarmac inventor, John McAdam.

In Geography, we have been finding out about the seven continents of our planet. There has been music and drama and Mrs Hardwick set a Native American art challenge to make a drum.

Altogether a very busy start to the last half term!

Ms Holmes and Mrs Malcolm.

Mathlete of the Week has been awarded to Joseph

Josh has been busy doing lots of planting and gardening during half term (here he is planting courgettes!), which was fun since the weather was so nice and he did some fun science experiments with Slime and tested out molecules and how they react in hot and cold water. Josh also sent a picture of the dinosaur puzzle that he had completed successfully.

Some of Junior 1 are back in the classroom! There were seven pupils back this week, all keen to get back to school and see their friends. As you can see they all have their own desk and keep in their own personal bubble.

Junior 1 also welcomed back Lena. Lena has been stuck in France for two months so it was wonderful to have her back in school and speaking English again. She’s been busy drawing weather symbols as you can see in the photo, and she has been smiling non-stop since Monday!

Reception have had an exciting week learning about farm animals, including finding facts out about pigs! Did you know that pigs don’t sweat? Or that they can weigh up to 300kg? We made Play Doh models, drew farm scenes and made bouncing eggs too!

In maths we have been exploring halving and sharing, using part whole and bar models to help our understanding, take a look at our fantastic work!

This week has been fantastic, it was lovely to see some of our children come back to nursery and great to chat to other friends at home as our live story time continued.  The nursery looks a little bit different, and the children weren’t able to move around quite so freely, or choose whatever toys and resources they wanted, but everyone settled quickly and made great use of the space and toys available.  We have been really proud of our Little Crackers, they have already learnt how to line up and leave a space, wash their hands following the correct procedure, and manage their own packed lunches.  They have made us smile.  Thank you for all the kind messages of support we have received as these crazy times keep changing.  Please continue to keep yourselves and your families safe as circumstances change, and have a great weekend.

Nursery Newsletter

It has been a very successful week for Junior 6 with Da Vinci Awards achieved by Neve for her wonderful art work, Bella for her Macbeth performance, Matilda for her excellent work in science and Roshan for his piano performance.  Many congratulations to you all.  Your certificate will be with you soon.

Da Vinci performance

RE Book of the Week was awarded to Arthur in Junior 2