Headmaster's Welcome
Dear Parents
We have sped through to the end of this half term and what a difference to this time last year. We are now, slowly and cautiously returning to some form of normality with more events planned for next half term such as day trips, First Holy Communion, our annual school production, Masses and prize givings. All of these events will be carefully planned and risk assessed, against conditions at the time, before we can invite large groups of parents into school. They will typically be for year groups at a time. Assemblies, being for the benefit of the whole school, will continue online for the time being and children for all parents to enjoy at a convenient time.
On Wednesday we held our first open evening since the initial COVID lockdown where we able to invite prospective parents into school for limited, pre-booked appointments. It was an opportunity for staff and pupils to showcase Crackley Hall to our visitors, albeit in a very controlled and socially-distanced manner. There were some wonderfully positive comments received and I am very grateful to the children who acted as super ambassadors (although you weren’t able to be tour guides just yet), staff who worked the extended day, Mr Sansum for providing extra catering and Mrs Jenny Vaughan and the Marketing Team for organising this event.
Thankfully, we were able to hold the Key Stage 2 Inter-house Sports Day today after a washout last week. It was a huge success, enjoyed by all the pupils. The fact that they were in year groups, and not houses, did not detract from the enthusiasm, camaraderie and competition. Thank you, again, to Mrs Vaughan for the organisation and overall running of the event and to the Estates Team for preparing the school field. Mrs Stephenson will be arranging for photographs from both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 sports day to be available on a Flickr account for parents to access after half term.
During assembly this week I announced our Stars of the Week as: Monty, Josh, Aaryan, Alfie, Charlie, Sienna, Isla, Matilda, Oliver, George, Freddie and Daya. Silver Awards were ‘presented’ to Hugo, Sloane, Jai, Chace, Ashleigh, Fiorella, Rory and Cameron all in Reception.
There was another impressive haul of Da Vinci certificates this week:
Helayna, Noah, Anabel, Maxwell, Millie, Jasper, Isabel and Thomas in Junior 6; Oliver in Junior 5; Julia, Esme, Matilda, Lucas, Amalia, Blyth, Arthur, Sienna, Sukhmani, Molly, Jenson, Darcey, Ivy, Elsie and Alfred in Junior 4. Well done to everyone; you’ve all worked incredibly hard this term and I am so pleased to read of your achievements. Sid and Leonardo reported on last week’s football match and George performed confidently and well on the drums to end this week's assembly - well done boys.
During half term there will be various maintenance tasks undertaken at school including re-decorating the dining hall ready for children to return to using the facility on 7 June. Class and year-group bubbles will still be observed and the revised queuing and serving procedure will be explained to children, in classes, when we return after half term.
The bubbles at aftercare and holiday club will cross different year groups but the intention is that they remain consistent, eg Rec, J1, J2 together. We will also maintain our current drop-off and collection arrangements. We will be considering spectators at sports events – we will update you on this prior to the next set of fixtures.
Our holiday club will be open from Tuesday to Friday next week and there are still some places available each day. Should you wish to enquire about places, please contact Ms Osborn directly by emailing victoriaosborn@crackleyhall.co.uk The school office will be open from 9am until 4pm each day if you need to speak with a member of the office team.
Thank you to all the staff and to all parents for their hard work and support over the half term – all to the benefit our fantastic young pupils. I sincerely hope that you and your families enjoy a relaxing half term. Please travel safely if going away.
God bless,
Mr Duigan
