The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Next week will be our last full week of the Michaelmas term.  Parents, children and staff have all had to make adjustments this term so that we can all continue to work, learn and have fun in school.  It has been difficult at times but supporting each other has made a difference; this year will be one to remember for various reasons. 

It’s wonderful that we continue to be incredibly busy in school and the Nativity rehearsals in Key Stage 1 can be heard each day.  The children are practising their lines and are most excited for next week. 

Following on from Vocations Week, the children continue to think about acts of kindness.  As you will read later in this edition, Amelia, Millie, Annalise, Sam, Jasper, Seb and Henry in Junior 6 and Leyton in Junior 1 all took part in a fast from 7.00am until 5.00pm to raise money for the Trussell Trust.  This was such a kind act, thinking of others and in turn raising over £2,000 for local families who are not so fortunate to have regular meals.  A fantastic achievement by just a few that will benefit many.  Well done to you all.

There were other acts of kindness mentioned in my assembly this morning including Niamh and Finley who have between them filled nine boxes of toys and treats for ‘Carriers of Hope’ and even helped nurse a four-week old kitten back to health recently.  Well done to both of them.  The School Poppy Appeal, together with eight other schools, helped raise £2,170.87 for the Royal British Legion.  Thank you to everyone who supported this charitable cause.

Mrs Jackson-Mayne met with Fr Kevin this week as we plan for next term.  It was lovely to see him back in school and I am delighted that he will be celebrating Holy Mass with our KS1 pupils before the end of term.  Fr Kevin was also very pleased to hear of the kindness and thoughtfulness shown by our pupils.

I hope that you were able to watch the Celebration Assembly today and the delightful performance from Ciara, who is in our Little Crackers Nursery.  During assembly I congratulated Mairen and Theo for their excellent work which resulted in a Da Vinci for both of them.  Rory, Fiorella, Lilyrose, Jacob, Leo and Oliver all received their Bronze Awards today for their super efforts too.  Stars of the Week were awarded to Edward, Josh, Tristan, Thea, Jacob, Elsie, Elizabeth, Beatrice, Lawson, Elle, Sid, Isabel and Lily.  Congratulations, once again, to all of you.

Our PTA will be starting the first Crackley Christmas Light Trail this evening and this is something that you can all take part in – you will spot one letter on the tree at car line.   The maps for the trail have been sent home with children and, if you would like to enter the competition, we look forward to receiving your completed forms in school by Monday 14 December.  The wonderful PTA parents are busy preparing for the exciting event planned for next Friday and I sincerely hope that the weather is kind to us that day; remember it is a surprise for the children as we are hoping to make it as special and as memorable as possible. 

As a brief reminder, next week’s events are as follows:

7 December                Flu vaccinations

8 December                Christmas Lunch for Junior 2, 4 and 6

9 December                Christmas Lunch for Nursery, Reception, Junior 1, 3 and 5

10 December              Nativity performances recorded in school

11 December              Christmas Jumper Day - £1 donation to Save the Children and £1 to enter ‘design a jumper’

11 December             Crackley Enchanted Christmas

I hope you and your families have a wonderful weekend and good luck with the light trail if you are taking part!

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.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Eight Crackley Hall pupils aged 5 to 11-years old have just completed a sponsored fast to raise money for local food banks. The children, Amelia, Leyton, Millie, Annalise, Samuel, Jasper, Seb and Henry, set out to raise £100, but their thoughtful fundraiser has touched people’s hearts, helping the children to raise just over £2,000.

The idea for the sponsored fast came after the older children had reflected on empathy in RE lessons at school.  Their empathy for local families and children who, through no fault of their own, might face a Christmas without food, led to the idea of a fast to raise funds for the food bank to help families in need have a Christmas dinner this year.

Between them the children decided to fast for a day, and to go without food from 7.00am to 5.00pm. Their fast took place on Saturday 28 November, and having not eaten since the evening before, in the end the children managed a whole 22 hours without any food.

Amelia’s younger brother Leyton, aged just 5-years-old, joined in the sponsored fast, planning to fast for five hours, but was so in inspired by his sister and her friends’ actions that he went without food for the whole day as well.

Amelia explains, “It wasn’t too difficult and we talked to each other during the day and that really helped, but I only realised quite how hungry I was when I finally had something to eat after we finished the fast at the end of the day.”

It has been a valuable lesson for the children about the importance of empathy, as well as giving them an insight into the experience of children who face this situation in their daily lives.  

So far, the fundraising fast has received donations of £1,770.44 and including gift aid, the total raised is an amazing £2,125.69. The money is all being donated to The Trussell Trust, who support a network of food banks across the UK.

Crackley Hall School is very proud of all of the children and their achievement which was shared with all the pupils in assembly in school.

Crackley Hall pupils have been busy this week taking part in music exams. Children have been examined on a wide selection of instruments ranging from the piano, violin and the cello to musical theatre. 

The pupils had an opportunity to perform in the spacious hall and the examiner commented that he had a very entertaining time.

A huge well done to all.

We just thought that we'd share some acts of kindness that Niamh, Finley and the rest of their family have been involved in recently.

Over the weekend they managed to fill nine shoe boxes full of toys and treats for local children whose families are struggling at the moment. Niamh and Finley wrote some Christmas cards to put in the boxes to wish them all a Happy Christmas and the family then drove to Coventry to drop them off at a charity called Carriers of Hope.

As a family they have also been involved in rearing a tiny four-week-old kitten who was found by a runner collapsed on the pavement. She was so cold that the temperature on the thermometer didn't even register. Niamh and Finley's dad is a vet and he had to give her fluids into her thigh bone because her veins were so collapsed. They managed to warm her up and get her drinking kitten milk, and thankfully she made a full recovery. Niamh and Finley have taken on the role of surrogate mummy over the last two weeks and she will now go to her forever home. She is a very happy and playful little kitten who has become a big part of our family. We'll all miss her when she goes to her new home.

Well done Niamh and Finley, it is great to see you being so thoughtful and kind.

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

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

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs VanZyl's group is Sienna

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

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

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

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

Well done all! 

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 have revisited learning Mandarin numbers from one to ten this week. 

Based on their prior knowledge and recognising that Chinese numbers have patterns, they swiftly moved from eleven to ninety-nine. This progressed to Junior 6 saying months of the year matched with their birth month - January is ‘one month’ and December is ‘twelve month’. 

Continuing with the number theme, they learnt how to say dates (1st to 31st), putting months and dates together to say their birthdays in Mandarin. 

Well done, J6!

This week in Junior 5, all of our pupils worked enthusiastically to design, make and test out a parachute, to tie in with our 'Forces' Science topic. Everyone eagerly launched their designs and the slowest parachutes per class were our worthy winners. Agnes was the winner in 5L, followed closely by George W and Harry G! Marley is in the lead in J5R at the moment, but we have one more parachute to test!

In English, all of the J5’s have been busy designing and describing their very own 'Flanimal' creature - inspired by the books written by Ricky Gervais. Made up 'Flanimal' like vocabulary, ambitious words and examples of figurative language were all heard in the J5 classrooms, as they excitedly wrote and shared their fabulous creations! 

As part of our 'Extreme Weather' topic in Geography, J4B rehearsed what to do if they were in a real-life earthquake. We learned how to 'drop, cover and hold on' and where a safe place to take cover would be. We had great fun!

The children are still finding our Electricity topic very exciting. We investigated whether materials are insulators or conductors and we are so good at making complete circuits that allow the current to flow. This week has seen us design our own electric Christmas cards with a complete circuit including a switch. We have had a visit from our Christmas elf but he is self-isolating at the moment. We are looking forward to seeing what mischief he gets up to when he gets out!

We are also taking the time to reflect on our achievements this term; we think we have been awesome! 

As we turned over to the month of December,

Christmas festivities have begun.

Sparkling and glistening, jolly and playful

Christmas trees bring a warmth of fun.

Elf on Shelf and Secret Santa

Virtual nativities, reverse advent calendar

Tis the season to be jolly (careful)!

Yet, still time to write a Stone Age story.

This week and in our bid to highlight significant women of colour, we have focused our history lesson on the very famous ‘doctress’ from the Crimean War, Mary Seacole. Mary was an important woman who left her home to attend to soldiers in the Crimean war. As well as being a doctress, a female doctor who can cure illnesses with local herbs and medicines, Mary was also a businesswoman who set up hotels and shops throughout her life. An outbreak of Cholera – a contagious disease that causes vomiting, cramps and diarrhoea – hit Jamaica in 1850. Mary studied the disease, and with the help of a military doctor learned how to treat those people infected. She later treated an epidemic of Cholera in Cruces, and caught a mild case of it herself!

We explored the herbs and vegetables she would have used which was very exciting. Children focused on a range of medicinal plants and fruits that are useful as remedies. Did you know there is a Mary Seacole Memorial Statue in London?

Advent has arrived in Junior 1 with the customary visit from our cheeky elves.

This year, we have welcomed Chippy and Poppy into our classrooms to the delight of all of the children, who excitedly come into school each morning to see where they are hiding. Our elves brought cups and candy canes, with a special letter from the North Pole arriving at the school office on the same day. The children were all keen to respond and immediately busied themselves by writing their replies. We have also explored the meaning of Advent in our RE lessons, with the emphasis placed on waiting for baby Jesus.

The children learnt about the Advent wreath and what each of the candles represent. We discovered the wreath is made with evergreen leaves in a complete circle to represent God’s everlasting love. This linked perfectly with our science lessons where we have been learning about evergreen and deciduous leaves, how they change colour or stay the same and how they remain on the trees or fall to the ground. Amongst all of our classroom learning we have also been practising our Nativity with Mrs Olden and Mr Vaughan and we are really looking forward to sharing our wonderful production with you very soon.

Reception received a special visitor in the form of an elf from the North Pole this week!

You can imagine how surprised we were when Mr Duigan came rushing into the classroom clutching two mysterious but very magical looking parcels. He explained that he had heard rustling noises in his office, caught a glimpse of red and green and turned around to see the parcels on his desk.

Upon opening these wonderful parcels, we found an elf, a letter from Father Christmas and some of Mrs Claus’ cookies too! Excitedly, we named our elf (we voted for ‘Chip’), and promised that we would be kind. Chip has been reporting back to Father Christmas each night – so far, so good!

Along with our North Pole role play and Christmas decorations, we are certainly getting into the Christmas spirit!

It was lovely to see Junior 1 helping to create our crib scene as we celebrate Advent this week.

The next mass for Junior 1 and Junior 2 pupils only is on Monday 14 December and will be led by Junior 2.

Please click on the link below for the weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

The Badgers had a wet and wild Forest School morning this week, and made everyone smile as they trudged back to nursery, almost unrecognisable as they were covered in so much mud!  All the children very much enjoyed themselves under the wet trees, in the wet leaves and sliding down the wet slide, but we would have preferred a bit of snow!  Weather reports keep promising, but not delivering at the moment! 

Our Garden Room was also busy during the week, and was particularly popular with the Dormice who combined the farm animals with the logs, leaves and sticks to create their own imaginary worlds.  The animals also helped us with our maths, as we used scales to compare which were heavy and which were light. Everyone learned that when the scales went down the object must be heavy, but some of us spent time testing and working out that an object can sometimes be heavy, but also light, depending on what you tested it with – great problem solving and thinking going on!

Newsletter

Last week in nursery we had a great adventure and put the spotlight on developing early writing skills.

“We’re going on a cone hunt, we’re going to find a big one! It’s a chilly day, but we’re wrapped up warm!”

Our lovely Little Crackers really enjoyed hunting for treasure; balancing on logs, kicking leaves, sliding across ice and squeezing through sticks, then climbing on rocks, trudging across mud, jumping over logs, scrambling through the net, until finally they found their Autumn Treasure: five fabulous fir cones!

Once back inside, the children worked together to create a super storyboard, recalling and recording their version of the Autumn Treasure Adventure – activities that encourage, develop and support writing skills from a very early age.

This Wednesday we published the third in our series of Stay ‘n’ Play At Home videos featuring favourite activities such as: settle down for story-time, join in our sing-a-long and get creative with craft. The video included lots activities to entertain and support early learning and as before, families can choose to join in with all or part of each session at a time to suit themselves.

The fourth video will be released on Wednesday 16 December and will be a Christmas Stay 'n' Play at Home special.

If you know someone you think might be interested in joining our Stay ‘n’ Play community and receiving the video links, then please ask them to contact Jenny Vaughan on jennyvaughan@crackleyhall.co.uk or on 01926 514410.

We hope to resume Stay ‘n’ Play in its familiar format as soon as it is safe to do so.

Please remember to use easyfundraising when you do your Christmas shopping.

Over 4,300 shops and sites will donate to Crackley Hall PTA - Kenilworth for FREE.

This means you can raise donations when you buy gifts, toys, jewellery, tech, experiences or anything else!

Please help us raise more. If you’ve not already signed up to EasyFundraising please click on the link below: -

Sign up

Crackley Hall PTA's Raffle - SOLD OUT

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

For every ticket you will have 12 chances to win up to £5,000!* At the same time we will raise 50% from every ticket sold supporting our PTA. 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.

The first draw will be on 7 December 2020. We will then have a draw every day until the 12 December and the final draw will take place on the 18 December 2020.

All winners will be advised by email. The winning number will also be published on our website, Facebook and Twitter following each draw.

The draw process is a raffle, whereby the winning ticket is chosen at random from all the eligible tickets for that draw. Each ticket is unique and has an equal chance of winning, including any additional tickets you may buy. The winning ticket will be selected at random using the online resource www.random.org who are independently verified for their random number generation using atmospheric noise. The winning number will be displayed on the website and we will email the winner to let them know.

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

Enchanted Crackley Christmas Day – Friday 11 December.

The PTA are royally 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, a fully funded (through very generous donations within our community) super memorable and special day has been arranged for children in Nursery 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 have been produced and are coming home in the children’s school bags. Thank you so much to all who are taking part in the displays.

Any families that live a little bit further out and couldn’t be included, please do take photos of your displays and we will share them too.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Foundation currently has the following vacancies:

• Development Database Assistant – Part time (Princethorpe College)

• Lunchtime Supervisors (Princethorpe College)

  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 these posts, please do share this information with them.

Lost Property

Hugo (Rec) and Jenson (J3V) have both lost their named school coats

Francesca (J6H) has lost her named tracksuit top

Leo (J5L) has lost 2 x Sports Fleeces

Olivia (Rec) has lost her named Sports 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.