The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Although everyone seems to be discussing the news of tier system being introduced next week, it will be business as usual at Crackley Hall.  The pace of learning and activities in school are gaining pace and excitement is building in classes as we prepare for the final weeks of term.

This week seems to have passed by very quickly and Advent will soon be upon us. This marks the beginning of a very busy period in school, celebrating this special time of the year.

As you will have read in a communication earlier this week, there are a number of events taking place in school during these last few weeks to make the end of term as special as it can be for our children. Mr Sansum and his catering team will once again be providing our Christmas lunch. The PTA are busy preparing for ‘Crackley’s Enchanted Christmas’, where there will be a few lovely and magical surprises. Sshh! Not a word to anyone younger than 12.  We will also have our annual Christmas Jumper Day, where we raise money for Save the Children, and a non-uniform day and pizza lunch, on the last day of term.

A highlight of the year is always our Nativity productions, and I have already heard some of our younger children preparing for them. Nativity rehearsals are going well and Mrs Olden has assured me that we are in for a spectacular performance from our younger children. 

Although we are unable to invite parents into school at this time to watch, I know that you are in for a real treat, albeit via the virtual performances this year.

LAMDA examiners have been in school this week, hearing Junior 3 and Junior 4 pupils perform their selected pieces.  I hope that all the children gained confidence from this experience and I look forward to their results in due course.

Junior 2 also had a virtual visit from a local dentist and dental nurse, who explained why we all have teeth and how best to look after them. The session ended with the children getting to try a disclosing tablet, to see just how well they brush their teeth!

In assembly this morning I was delighted to announce the results of the ISA Art Competition that was judged recently.    Some of the winners have now moved to other schools but I am sure that they will be delighted to read their names in the Chronicle this week.  Cadie, last year’s Junior 6, won the first prize in the KS2 2d Art category and Neve, also last year’s Junior 6, was awarded second prize.  Elizabeth in Junior 3 was highly commended for her artwork in the KS1 category and our current Junior 4 children submitted a group entry which was awarded second prize in KS1.  All the art work is being currently displayed in school and the children will receive their certificates shortly.  Congratulations to all our budding artists.

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week: May, Olivia, Felix, Aaryan, Josh, Austin, Louis, Elena, Eve, Amelia, Marley, Scarlett and Maxwell. Arabella from Reception is also congratulated for her lovely work on Random Acts of Kindness and Josie and Esme both received their bronze awards.  Exceptional efforts continue with our Junior da Vinci awards.  This week Noah received his award for Maths and Rafferty for music.  You can also watch Rafferty’s wonderful performance as it was sent with this morning’s assembly link.  Well done to everyone on your continued hard work, it is wonderful to see your efforts rewarded.

As mentioned, the PTA have been incredibly busy these last couple of weeks, helping to organise more events for the children to enjoy.  There is a particularly exciting event planned for December 11 and this is one that we would like to keep as a surprise for the children to make it as memorable as possible.  My thanks to the whole PTA team who work tirelessly thinking of new ideas, managing the second-hand uniform, promoting the social media pages and being an ever-friendly team to approach.  All of your children see the rewards of their efforts and your support.

As you will have read in my letter earlier today, children can start to bring in their Christmas cards for posting and these will be quarantined to ensure the COVID and hygiene procedures are being followed.

This week I have met with local residents who are particularly concerned about the traffic congestion and parking in the residential area.  May I ask you to please park safely and considerately.   Do not block driveways or on the hatched line areas.  Please arrive at the time allocated to your child’s collection time and use the carline area as effectively as possible.  It would also be much appreciated if you could turn your car engines off if waiting for any length of time.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy and restful weekend.

God bless

Mr Duigan

Holiday club will be running from Wednesday 16 December until Wednesday 23 December, 2020.

It will be open from 8:30am to 4:00pm and will cost £30 per day.

Hot lunch can be booked at a cost of £3.00 per day.

Please use the link below to confirm your booking:

Holiday Club

Holiday club will only operate on the days where there are sufficient numbers to open, therefore it is important for you to book early.  We may not be able to accommodate last minute bookings, due to staff ratios and COVID bubbles.

If you have booked a day and the numbers attending are not high enough, you will be contacted to either cancel or rearrange the day booked.

Thank you

The Flu Immunisation Team will be visiting the School on Monday 7 December to carry out Flu Vaccinations for all children from Reception to Junior 6. Unfortunately, we have no control over the date as it is set by the Immunisation Team on a rolling monthly timetable every year.

The immunisation (given to the children in the form of a nasal spray) will be carried out in class bubbles, in the school hall, with the area decontaminated between each year group.

You should have received a letter and e-consent form from school this week. Please note that, if you have more than one child at the school, you will need to complete additional forms for each child by clicking on the link again.

The link will close on 2 December 2020 and, following this date, you will not be able to request a vaccination for your child.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Former Crackley Hall pupil, Cadie Hardwick, has been awarded first place in the Independent Schools’ Association’s Midlands Region Art Competition. Her entry, 2.20am, a watercolour on paper, depicting the sinking of the Titanic, which she produced last year when she was in Junior 6, was placed first in the Key Stage 2 Art 2D Individual class.

Then former Junior 6 pupil, Neve Anderson, who is now in Year 7 at Princethorpe College, took second place in the Key Stage 2 Art 2D Individual class with her painting on card, a poignant reflection on this year’s events, View From My Bedroom.

Other award winners from the school included Elizabeth Edkins who received a highly commended in the Key Stage 1 2D Art class for her colourful oil pastel, After Georgia O’Keeffe and last year’s Junior 3 for their watercolour on paper, After Henri Rousseau, their work was awarded second place in the Key Stage 2 Art 2D group category.

It was a super set of results for the young artists and we congratulate them all on their success.

This year's winning Crackley Hall Christmas card design is by Junior 6 pupil, Thomas Zanyi. His striking image of a trumpeting angel soaring above the earth is both simple and effective.

Headmaster, Rob Duigan, was delighted to announce the competition results last week commending all of the children who took part. He commented, “It’s great to see so many pupils getting involved and producing such great work for the Christmas card competition. There was an exceptionally strong field of entries this year, plenty of original ideas delivered with lots of attention to detail.  Thomas’s use of strong colour really helped his design stand out and made it the perfect choice for the school’s Christmas card this year.”

Congratulations also go to the runners up whose designs feature as cameos on the reverse of the card: Noah Cowlishaw and Sloane Camilleri-Willis.

A huge well done to everyone who took part!

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery are once again delighted to be sponsoring Kenilworth Christmas Lights. Traditionally the school choir sings at the official turning on ceremony in Kenilworth Old Town and we will all miss being a part of our community’s celebrations.

The virtual switch on takes place this evening at 5.45pm and we look forward to seeing the town decorated festively and all lit up.

We hope everyone enjoys Kenilworth Lights this year and the excitement of the run up to Christmas.

Junior 2 are exploring the Living World in Science and have been investigating the topic of teeth. In their lesson on Wednesday, they were joined through Teams by a local dentist and dental nurse, Mr and Mrs Kharbanda, for a special fang-focused fact-finding session.

The children had previously explored models of the mouth and teeth and they all understood the importance of visiting a dentist. Using questions and answers, Mr and Mrs Kharbanda explained why we all have teeth and how best to look after them. Junior 2 now know you need to eat healthily, avoid sugary drinks and snacks, brush your teeth for two minutes twice a day and go to see your dentist regularly.

The session finished with the tooth-brushing song and the children all practised saying it together. It was a great way to remember a really important message.

After saying thank you to their visitors, Mrs Holmes had one more final toothy treat for the children – a disclosing tablet! Everyone got to try one and to see just how well they brush their teeth!

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Hardwick's class is Angelica

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Glen-Roots's class is Teo

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes's class is Jessie

Mathlete of the week for Mr Stedeford's group is Fraser

Mathlete of the week for Mrs VanZyl's class is Beatrice

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Wildey's class is Grace

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's group is Amelia

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Roberts's group is Mikey

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas's group is Morton 

Well done all! 

As part of Christmas Jumper Day, the Student Council have created an extra (optional competition) that involves designing a Christmas jumper for Mr Duigan.

The £1 entry fee will be donated to Save the Children.

All entries must be created on an A4 piece of paper (with or without the template below) and should be handed to your form tutor by Friday 4 December.

There will be a small prize for the winner, which will be judged by Mr Cottrill (as voted by Student Council), on Christmas Jumper Day. 

Template

The date for this year's Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children is Friday 11 December.

If children would like to participate, they should come to school in their usual uniform with a Christmas jumper in place of their school jumper.

All children wearing a Christmas jumper are asked to bring in a £1.00 donation for Save the Children.

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-jumper-day

Please follow the link below for a digital copy of Families Warwickshire Magazine.

Magazine

Junior 6 are having enormous fun in DT making Marble Runs at the moment in the form of a wooden maze. They have spent time planning out their designs carefully using paper strips, meticulously measuring exactly how their work will look when completed in wood.

The pupils have learned to measure accurately, saw and secure their designs and are well on their way to becoming Games Masters of the Future.

Our J5s have been thinking about others this week.

All the children have made a personal pledge detailing what they will be doing to make the world a better place: picking up rubbish; not wasting food; donating food to food banks, etc, were some of the fantastic ideas they came up with.

In Sports, we have been hard at work improving our skills on the sports fields with massive improvements already noticeable. 

Finally, three of our J5s were awarded Bronze certificates in the annual Primary Maths Challenge – well done to all who entered.

Junior 4 have been so excited learning about electricity in Science recently. The children predicted and then tested complete and incomplete circuits using batteries, bulbs and crocodile clips. We also made human circuits in the playground in teams to see who could make the most creative complete and incomplete circuits.

The children then moved on to experiment further with the equipment to find out more about different types of complete circuits. Every time a bulb lit up and a buzzer buzzed, the children were amazed by how they had made it work.

You could say that the atmosphere was electric in J4W this week!

Bold use of colour, striking geometric shapes, clearly defined lines and a huge ripple of excitement has run through the Junior 3 classes this week, as we have continued our study of the world-famous Brazilian pop artist – Romero Britto.

Both Year 3 classes have loved finding out about the early life of Romero and what inspired him and motivated him to persevere to become such an acclaimed artist. We have explored the features of his art before setting about creating our own vibrant and joyful self-portraits. One student was so inspired that he contacted Romero all the way over in Miami and Romero replied with a video message. Imagine everyone’s delight at receiving such a wonderful surprise.

Thank you, Romero and Fraser, for lighting up our week. 

You can watch Romero's video message to Fraser here. 

In J2 this week we have become intrepid fossil-hunters as we researched fun facts about Mary Anning, a famous fossil hunter from the 18th Century. Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis, a beautiful coastal town on the south coast of England. This is an area where lots of incredible fossils have been found.

Mary found and identified many pre-historic fossils from the time of the dinosaurs which she and her family sold to make money. At this time Mary shared her specimens and impressive knowledge about them to scientists who were very impressed. Using soft clay, we moulded and made our own fossils in the classroom.

We are waiting for these to now dry before they are painted. We hope you like them!

This week Junior 1 have been busy learning all about trees in Science. They have found out that trees which lose their leaves are Deciduous trees and trees that keep their leaves are Evergreen trees. They found lots of examples whilst out in Forest school and in their own gardens!

In Art we have been looking at the artist Paul Klee. Last week saw us completing some wonderful oil pastel pictures inspired by his ‘Castle and Sun’ piece of art work. This week the focus was on ‘Cat and Bird’. After carefully drawing the cat and bird in pencil, they used watercolours to paint each part a bright colour, making them all different and unique.

I’m sure you will agree they make a wonderful display!

It has been another jam-packed week in Reception!

Linking to our topic of ‘In the Dark’, we have been busy exploring our Dark Den, using UV lighting, glow in the dark tape, torches and projector torches. The addition of a small disco light has really helped us to understand that there are lots of different types of lights we can use in the dark.

Our theme continued as we read ‘Funnybones’ and noticed the repeating phrase of ‘dark, dark’. Great fun was then had by writing labels for our skeleton model – who knew there were so many bones in the human body?! We have also been busy comparing one more and one less in maths, in addition to role-playing the story of Jesus being lost in the temple in our RE lesson.

As you can see from our photos, there’s never a dull moment in Reception!   

Please click on the link below for the weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

At Little Crackers even bad weather doesn’t stop us having fun, and last week’s rain gave us a ‘splashing idea’!

Wearing our waterproof wetsuits and wellies, we squeezed blobs of paint onto the paper, then stomped on them to make them go ‘splat!’ We created a wonderful autumn picture with our feet, throwing handfuls of leaves into the mix too, then finally we enjoyed the simple fun of splashing in the puddles to wash our wellies off!

Learning outside is exciting and enriching for the children, they enjoyed working collaboratively and creatively on a stimulating and active learning task.

I can’t believe it… Advent is just around the corner!  With everything going on around us right now, beyond our Nursery doors, it is quite wonderful to come into work at the moment and see everything is just as it should be.  The children are playing; making friends, sharing toys and developing their learning in many different ways, the early preparations for Christmas are going ahead as we practice songs and words for our Nativity, and Miss Anupa already has the glitter out!  

We stood in Forest School this morning, watching the sun stream through the trees, creating a magical environment to climb, run and play in, and as we watched our breath condense in the cold air, it was good to know that some things don’t change. 

I hope you all have the chance to stop, look around, and find the beauty in your surroundings this weekend.  Stay safe, and we will see you next week.

Newsletter

We're excited to announce The Big PTA Raffle 2020. This has been a really tough year for everyone and this is an amazing opportunity for us to have some fun and raise money for our school.

For every ticket you buy you will have 12 chances to win up to £5,000!* At the same time we will raise 50% from every ticket sold to support our PTA fundraising. It's a fantastic way to bring Parents, Carers, Teachers and the wider community together, in partnership with our PTA, and at the same time give something back. We hope to raise funds that can support and enrich the education of our children - we aim to provide extra resources for the children, improve the school environment as well as run extracurricular activities such as music, art and sport.

Your support is greatly appreciated and we wish you good luck!

Please click on the link below to buy tickets:

Tickets

The PTA are excited to announce ‘ Enchanted Crackley Christmas Day’. The rest of the year may have not gone exactly as planned, but the Crackley PTA are determined to make the year end with sparkle, magic and fun!

While many of the usual PTA Christmas activities are not able to take place, an amazing surprise is being arranged (fully funded through very generous donations within our community) that will be a super memorable and special day for all the children in Nursery through to Junior 6.

Working closely with the school and keeping strictly within COVID-19 guidelines, we present to you 'Crackley Enchanted Christmas'. As far as the children will be aware this day will be special because it's the day they will be raising money for Save the Children and wear their wonderful Christmas jumpers ... little will they know that a naughty elf, a fairy, and Father Christmas will also be popping into Crackley for the day! To add to the magic, Father Christmas will also be bringing his sleigh together with his most trusted reindeers (real ones, not the cardboard variety!).

To add even more magic to this day, we ask that each and every family keep it a surprise for the children. This event will be held at school and within school hours, keeping all classes within their bubbles, and following a strict 2m distance (Father Christmas' knees will get a rest this year). Children may also post their letters to Father Christmas on their way into the enchanted area.

Thank you so much to all the families who have volunteered their houses for the Christmas light trail.

The maps are underway and will come home in the children’s school bags on Friday 4 December.

Any families that live a little bit further out and couldn’t be included, please do take phots of your displays and we will upload them onto the Crackley Hall facebook page.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Foundation has the following vacancy:

• Graduate Sports Coach for the 2021-22 academic year

Full details and information on how to apply are available on the Foundation website here:

www.princethorpe.co.uk/joinus

Should you know anyone who might be interested in this post, please do share this information with them.

Lost Property

Edward (J1H) has lost his named sports fleece

Patrick (J3S) has lost his white water bottle with flowers on it

Patrick (J1G) has lost his named black PE fleece

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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.