The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Happy feast day to all in our school community – past and present.

Welcome to this week’s Chronicle which is brought to you on St Joseph’s Day, our Patron Saint.  It has been a day where we have celebrated with an online Service and children enjoyed St Joseph cupcakes, baked by Mr Sansum.  Although it would be preferable to celebrate a Mass in school, I would like to thank Father Kevin, Mrs Jackson-Mayne, Mrs Paphitis, Mrs Olden, Mr Sansum and Junior 6 for making this event as special as it can be given the circumstances.  I hope that you also enjoy watching the Service.

This week Junior 3 enjoyed a virtual visit from Severn Trent Water where they learned about the water cycle and the journey water makes to and from our homes.  Mrs Stephenson visited school this week to capture the event and you will be able to read more about this later in this edition.

Junior 5 and Junior 6 have been involved in their LAMDA examinations this week and we look forward to hearing the outcome of their efforts early next term.  Thank you to Mrs Wildey for organising these examinations and to our Drama staff for preparing children for LAMDA.

In this morning’s assembly, I announced our Stars of the Week: Ryan, Jai, Jessica, Leyton, Leo, Isabelle, Ivy, Elena, Jakob, Harry, Jack, Rosa and Amelia.  RE book of the week was awarded to Alexa in J4B.  Merit Certificates (Bonze) were given to Evelyn and Grace in J2, Arisha, Sebastian and Jack in J4 and Anabel in J6.   Julia in J4 received a Junior da Vinci today for her wonderful work in RE.  To conclude our assembly, Thomas, our Head Boy, played a superb piece on his cello.  Congratulations to everyone, I am always so pleased to see your continued determination and hard work.

The PTA met online this week to discuss forthcoming events and they have been most busy trying to discover more innovative, COVID-safe ways of how to involve everyone in fun and fundraising events.  Next Thursday we will be holding a pre-loved book sale in school which will be managed by teachers and TA’s and on the last day of this term, Tuesday 30 March, there will be a non-uniform day.  Please do try and support the PTA whenever you can, all proceeds go directly back into school which will benefit all the children.

I am ever-more aware some parents are eager to come back into school and take up their volunteer roles once again but unfortunately, we do not have a date yet when this will be restarted.  This is not only due to COVID but also to safeguarding practices.  As soon as I can welcome parents back into school, I will let you all know.  Thank you for your interest and, in the meantime, I would ask for your continued understanding.

As in previous messages, I would like to reassure parents that we are doing our very best to follow the current lockdown guidance which includes class bubbles, staff wearing masks when moving around the school site, thorough and regular cleaning and all staff taking twice-weekly lateral flow tests.  I would respectfully ask that families also follow the guidelines so that we all do our bit to keep everyone safe.  This also extends to childcare bubbles; please do not ask for your child to accompany another child home unless you have formed a childcare bubble with that family.  Whilst we do not wish to seek information regarding individual family arrangements, if you are bringing or collecting another child to and from school, we will assume that you have formed your childcare bubble with that family. Further clarification regarding childcare or support bubbles can be found on the government website Making a childcare bubble with another household - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

We have a good weekend of Six Nations rugby to look forward to, with both Wales and France feeling particularly confident.  The French looked particularly good in the first half against England last week, before succumbing near the end.  I think that England started the competition too slowly.  It’s also interesting that all three remaining English clubs in the Champions League have managed to avoid one another in the draw for the quarter-finals.

I hope that you all have a restful weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan

The Crackley Hall Holiday Club will take place on the following dates during the Easter holidays:

Wednesday 31 March to Thursday 1 April

Tuesday 6 April to Friday 9 April

Monday 12 April to Friday 16 April

You can book a place for your child by visiting My School Portal and selecting ‘Clubs and Activities’.

This system will be open until 29 March after which date you will need to contact the School Office to enquire about availability. We have lots of activities planned for this Easter break and hopefully the weather will be kind to us so that the children can enjoy playing outside too.

Please find more information below regarding school parking:

School Parking Information

Please can you check at home to see if you have any locker keys, if so please can you hand them into the school office.

Thank you 

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Crackley Hall celebrated Pi day this week as a fun way to get the children excited about Maths. Pi day is marked by mathematicians around the world as the mathematical constant which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The circle is often the first shape many learn in childhood and can be observed in nature everywhere. Across the school the children enjoyed a wide range of pi and circle themed learning.

Little Crackers got cracking with their maths exploring the circumference of a circle, following the rounded edge with their feet led to some interesting discussions about foot size! They thought about measuring circles in different ways, and then developed this interest into the creative area where the children cut out, stuck down, stamped, printed and created images using circles as a centre point.

Reception had great fun exploring Pi in their lessons. They learnt that the shape which is important to Pi is a circle, and played the Pi Circle game, calling out the numerals written in a circle on the ground and jumping on them. They put the first 18 digits of Pi in order and looked to see which of the numbers could combine to make bonds to 10.

Junior 1 celebrated Pi Day by learning that Pi helps us to find the circumference of a circle. On Numberblocks a new character was introduced to us - π. Everyone had the chance to design their own Pi character and name them. We had many different variations, from Victorian Pi, Mr Pi, Miss Pi, Cute Pi and Douglas Pi. There was even a Spy-Pi!

Junior 3 spent a fun filled maths lesson learning new vocabulary for the parts of a circle. They spent time measuring all the circular objects they could find before investigating the special relationship between the circumference and the diameter. They were fascinated with this amazing number that never ends, so much so, that many pupils decided to try to memorise the digits of Pi. Darcey managed an incredible 40 digits – what an achievement.

Junior 4 also had great fun investigating Pi. They enjoyed becoming more and more accurate with their measurements and there was great delight when one pair of children calculated 3.14 as Pi! 

Junior 5 took part in lots of different challenges including measuring the circumference of a circle using ribbon, then measuring its diameter and comparing the two. They then used string, to measure the circumference of circular objects in the classroom (water bottles, glue sticks, hand sanitisers and more) and the diameter to further explore the relationship between the two. The children even learned songs to help memorise Pi with many then able to comfortably recite up to 10 decimal places.

Finally, Junior 6 enjoyed their investigations into the relationship between the circumference and diameter of a circle, testing their theories using compasses, string and ruler and a little bit of brain power! The children then explored Pi Art made totally of circles and tried to create their own versions and worked out their Pi Birthdays and tried to see how many digits they could remember, they were all amazed to discover that the World Record is 70,000 digits!

It has been a marvellous week of maths.

As part of their Science studies, Junior 3 enjoyed a very special livestream session courtesy of Severn Trent Water. Educational workshop leader Maxine supported by her virtual assistant Molly took the children through the water cycle, explaining the journey water makes to and from our homes.

As well as explaining how Severn Trent deliver nice clean water to all our taps the children also learned all about how dirty water is treated and recycled and some of the problems and strange items that they have encountered in the sewers!

The children had great fun learning the 3P’s song, to help them remember the only acceptable things to flush down the loo. They had a tour of the sewage works and played the bin it or flush it game before finding out all about fatbergs. It was fascinating for them to discover the power of poo and why it is so important to use the drains only as they should be used.

It was a very informative and interesting workshop for both the children and teachers, and no one is going to forget the special song all about pee and poo! The session finished with a chance for Junior 3 to ask their own questions.

Many thanks to Severn Trent and to Maxine for such an informative and fun workshop and thanks to Mrs Woodall-Pagan for sharing details of the educational activities that Severn Trent offers.

Last week we reported that Crackley Hall School took first place in the latest Independent Schools Association (ISA) Limitless Skills Challenge scoring a huge total of 7,558 points, nearly double the score of the second placed school.

This week Mr Duigan received confirmation that Crackley's first place prize was in the post alongside a link to a video celebrating all of the participants achievements. You can watch the clip here. 

It was an amazing six weeks of physical challenges that Crackley Hall pupils threw themselves enthusiastically into and we are incredibly proud that their determination and commitment helped Crackley Hall to the top spot!

Junior 6 pupil, Seb spent last weekend supporting his local church. Their Youth Church Co-ordinator has been actively helping members of the local village who have needed assistance during the pandemic. As part of that support they had the idea to deliver a Mothering Sunday posy to every house in the village.

Seb volunteered to help and along with his sister delivered posies to approximately 100 houses; not even the stormy weather dampened their enthusiasm!

That was super kind of Seb and his sister, and we were very impressed to hear of their thoughtfulness.

Lego Club returned with lots of excitement this week when pupils brought in their own Lego to retell what they had created.  We had a super safari search, a monster car with supersonic blasters, an animal rescue centre with cats being caught in a tree and presents being exchanged at a beach resort!  This culminated in Lego stickers and Create the World Lego cards.  What fun!

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Glen-Root's class is Thomas

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

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

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

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas's class is Willow

Well done all!

Calling all budding artists and inventors!

Please click and read through this information to enter the British Science Week 2021 poster competition on the theme of Innovating For The Future.

https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/poster-competition/

Scroll through to the last page which gives details for the poster competition:

https://www.britishscienceweek.org/app/uploads/2021/02/BSQ_BSW_PACKS_0221_Primary_v15.pdf

Please send a photo of you holding your poster (make sure we can see it all clearly), or of your poster only, to me at juliaroberts@crackleyhall.co.uk by Friday 23 April, at the latest. Please ensure you send me details of your full name and your age, so that you get entered into the correct category.

Good luck!

Mrs Roberts

The Broadway Arts Festival are running a short story competition – it is the one that Seb Dibb won last year.

You can find the information here:

https://broadwayartsfestival.com/short-story-prize/

It is free to enter and there is no theme.  There is word limit of 2000 words and there is a prize of £50 for the U13 category.

The deadline for entries is 5pm on Wednesday 31 March.  All information on how to enter is on the website.

Please do have a look and encourage the children to enter.  We have some fantastic writers in all parts of the school!

The winning stories will be shared on the Broadway Arts Festival website - you can read Sebastian's winning story there!

This week Junior 6 have been doing some wonderful work in their Art lessons.  They have been looking at the work and art of Gustav Klimt, an Austrian artist, who helped develop the Art Nouveau movement. 

Junior 6 have studied his famous mural 'The Tree Life' which is a symbolic painting representing life and growth and have interpreted it to be representative of their own unfurling and unfolding lives. 

Each class has been given a different scenario and has used mixed media to create their own representations of the original painting.

Our topic this half term is ‘What’s Going on Around the World?’. We have decided to ignore all Covid-19 stories and, instead, research happier, and sometimes more bizarre, news stories. The most interesting news we found out is that a sea slug has been discovered (in Japan), which can regenerate its own heart and other organs even after being decapitated! WOW!

In other news, Junior 5 have been learning how to create tension and suspense in their writing. The J5 teachers have been ‘chilled to the bone’ with some of the descriptions the children have created this week.

Since being back in school Junior 4 have been really enjoying lots of practical science. It all kicked off with British Science Week when we investigated the role oxygen plays in burning flames. We imagined we were young Antione Lavoisiers and Joseph Priestlys, discovering oxygen for the first time! We investigated different melting points, our favourite being the chocolate experiment – I wonder why?

Finally, observing the changing state of water in the ice cube investigation, kettle boiling and, then the salt and ice investigation, left us asking lots of questions which we will be answering in our lessons about the water cycle next week.

This week Junior 3 have continued to find out about Mary Anning and her astonishing discoveries. We have redrafted our paragraphs from last week and thought carefully about all the elements of successful non-fiction writing, from subheadings to diagrams, captions to concise facts! We have absolutely loved making decisions about what information to include and how to present our final posters. I am sure you will agree they look fossiltastic and contain an impressive amount of information! 

Junior 2 have had their investigative heads on yet again this week as we looked at Plants in our Science topic. We were trying to find out if and how, plants drink. The children have enjoyed experimenting with food dye and celery; seeing if the colour rises up the stem overnight. Results to follow! We have also been tiptoeing quietly into the events of Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and finding out why people turned against Jesus during that fateful time. The challenge has been set to recall all the diners at the Last Supper!

This week Junior 1 have been busy learning about nocturnal animals, in particular ‘Owls’. After discovering lots of information about owls, they have written some brilliant facts, which will be on display in the classrooms in the disguise of an owl itself – just lift the wings to read the facts! This led to owls being created from card tubes in our Art/DT lessons, which were such fun to make. In geography we have been busy learning which countries make up the UK and where they are on a map.

Science took us away from birds this week and onto fish. Once the parts of a fish were labelled and different fish recognised, there was the opportunity to learn new facts, such as a sailfish can swim faster than a submarine - fascinating!

It has been another busy and fun-filled week in Reception as we continued to explore ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy, by imagining what Baby Bear would do next. Brilliant ideas abounded as we wrote about visits to far flung places such as Easterland and Mars by means of rocket boosters, cardboard boxes and a dustbin, to name but a few. With our feet back on terra firma we enjoyed painting lunar landscapes in Art & DT and in Understanding the World we discussed and then drew what the moon is like compared to what we can see outside our classroom window.

We also had a super time in Forest School and enjoyed more outdoor learning in our Ball Skills lesson with Mrs Thomas. What another great week at school! 

Past pupils and friends of Crackley Hall and St Joseph’s were invited to join us on Friday 19 March for a special St Joseph’s Day service. Due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions, this year the service was virtual and parents and friends of the school can watch the pre-recorded celebrations using the link here: https://vimeo.com/524219575/9c8647ffa9

Including a welcome from Rob Duigan, Headmaster, and messages from Father Kevin Hooper, the celebrations were hosted and led by our current Junior 6 pupils.

Back in December, Pope Francis announced that 2021 would be the year of St. Joseph, who is the patron saint of our school. So, this year’s service was particularly special, and although we couldn't invite parents, past pupils and former members of staff into school to help us celebrate, as we would normally do, we hope that by sharing the service the wider community will still be able to join in our commemorations and prayers.

As part of today's celebrations each of the children enjoyed a cup-cake, made by our lovely catering staff each cake was beautifully decorated with the image of St Joseph. 

Calling all budding artists out there! The Diocesan Vocations Team have launched a competition to create an inspirational piece of art linked to our Saint Joseph.

Please see the poster and visit the website to find out more information. It would be lovely if our school  Crackley Hall, formerly St Joseph’s could send off the most entries or even win a prize.

https://www.vocations.org.uk/vocation-stories

Thank you to all those involved in our Service today for St Joseph, the patron saint of our school.

The beautiful singing and readings led by Junior 6 which has been shared across the school community, helped to bring us altogether and celebrate our school saint in a different but in a very special way.

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Following on from last week when Junior 4 reflected on the meaning of the Nicene Creed.  Julia (J4W) decided to turn hers into a poem.  Here’s a snippet for you:

“I believe in Angels that protect you day and night and when you are stuck with a problem in life, they will help you with what is right. 

I believe that when you die, you go to a cozy heaven that reaches for miles more than 77

I believe in Mary and Joseph, the donkey and the whole Nativity, and I believe that God Almighty has a great sense of creativity!

I believe that you should listen carefully to Jesus’ preaching and one day you will be grateful and remember what He was teaching.

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J4 have been practising this week for their end of term service, they have been learning in detail all about Holy Week.

Please find information below:

Childrens Liturgy

Activity Sheet

Please click on the link below for this week's weekly mission;

Weekly Mission

Please find a link to the Lent calendar below:

Calendar

Our week in nursery has been filled with circles after a wonderful beginning on Monday with Pi Day.  From measuring with our feet to sharing segments of pizza, there were lots of opportunities for mathematical discussion and problem solving – it was fascinating how challenging one idea was; when sharing different sized pizzas, all cut up in the same way. There were still 6 slices, even when the pizza was huge!  We had lots of fun counting, re-counting and trying to prove each other right.  The circular art work reflected the fun, as the children practised their scissor skills when cutting out different sized circles, printing with various wheels and using a range of materials to create mixed media final pieces. 

As we look forward to a week of Easter preparation it is lovely to see signs of Spring all around us in nursery – we have been watching our daffodils grow, the minty herbs are popping up again and we have been finding even bigger worms!  I hope you continue to look around and enjoys the signs of Spring this weekend, remember to stay safe, and we will see you next week.

Newsletter

The latest edition of our Stay ‘n’ Play at Home virtual videos, featuring activities such as settle down for story-time, join in our sing-a-long and get creative with craft, was released on Wednesday.

It’s another exciting edition full of lots of fun. This time you and your little ones can listen to two lovely stories, Little Chick and Runaway Rabbit. Then as it was St Patrick’s Day the craft activity included making bright green shamrocks as well as some egg-cellent Easter craft ideas with Easter baskets, Easter rabbits and fabulously fluffy Easter chicks. To finish, as always, there is the sing-a-long to nursery songs including everybody’s favourite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

If you would like to receive our latest Stay 'n' Play at Home video, then just email Jenny Vaughan at staynplay@littlecrackers.co.uk

Thursday 25 March

Please see the poster for more details.

Tuesday 30 March

Let’s help celebrate the end of this half term with a non-school uniform day.

Children are allowed to wear an outfit of their choice, in exchange for a £1 donation to the school PTA.

Dust off the dresses, shine those shoes and un-crease those coats.  As always, thank you, to our wonderful second hand uniform team, Nikki, Linda and Katie, for being ever patient and serving our wonderful school community with much needed preloved uniform.

Please feel to contact them on ptauniform@crackleyhall.co.uk to arrange an appointment, or to simply check stock availability.

To offer this service, we rely on wonderful donations from you. So if you have any good quality uniform your child has outgrown, please use the collection box in the school front entrance.  It will then be quarantined for 72 hours before offering for sale.

All money raised from the PTA Uniform shop is spent on extras for your children throughout the year at school and helps the children’s day become even more special!