The Chronicle

Dear Parents

We have reached the end of another incredibly busy week at school.  Our sports teams and Junior 6 classes have been officially photographed for the last time this year and children will be sent home with the details on how to order these photographs next week.  We have had the Scholastic Book Fair in school this week and rehearsals for our production of Joseph, which will be filmed next week, have continued apace.  We welcomed a visitor from the Good Schools Guide into school on Tuesday who was also able to witness our world record attempt that afternoon when we linked up with the O2 Arena for a Big Sing (well done J4s).  Photographers have also been in school to capture lessons in action for images for our new prospectus and we had a Health and Safety Audit on Wednesday too!

As you will have seen in my letter yesterday afternoon, events in school for the remainder of this term have been adjusted since the most recent government announcement.  Thankfully, I am pleased to report that we have not cancelled any event at this point in time; everything will take place following government and Princethorpe Foundation guidelines.  A summary of events can be found here

During assembly this morning I congratulated our Stars of the Week:  Musa, Sloane, Felix, Hardaya, Henry, Finley, Rory, Georgie, Beatrice, Olivia, Dillon, Caythan and Maria.  Bronze awards were ‘presented’ to Jude and Daya in Junior 2.  Silver awards were achieved by Sophia, Thomas, Patrick, Oscar, Hector, Francesca, Alfie, William, Thea, Teo, Jessica, Isabel, Alexander and Felix in Junior 1.  Wonderfully, there were more awards in the form of Junior da Vinci’s being received by: Alfred, Marley, Oliver, Jack, Isabella, Louis, Adreena, Patrick, Aaron, Beatrice, Darcey, Molly and Freddie.

I hope you enjoyed the extra video clips at the end of the assembly where the Junior 1 recorder group performed, guided by Mrs Olden; Junior 5 Choral Group performed Pandora’s Box and Esme and Matilda reported on the recent Junior 4 rounders match.  I am pleased that the pupils are having more of an input into our weekly assembly, once again. They are brilliant!   If you missed the Junior 5 performance, there is another opportunity to view it later in this newsletter (via the link).

The booking facility for Holiday Club is now live and can be accessed via your log in on My School Portal.  As stated previously, this facility can only function if there is sufficient need and therefore I would urge you to book early so that I can assess the requirements and allocate staffing before the end of term.  If you experience any difficulties booking or have questions about holiday club, please contact the school office.

We look forward to welcoming back Mrs Emma Malcolm next week when she visits for our moving up morning and meets her new class.   Another familiar member of staff will be returning in September but with a different surname. Mrs Sophie Blyth is now Mrs Wheatley and we look forward to seeing both Mrs Wheatley and Mrs Malcolm in school in September.  Whilst on the subject of our staff, Mrs Rod Paphitis will begin her maternity leave at the end of this term and we will be wishing her well by presenting her with gifts for her new addition to the family.  If you would like to contribute to the collection, you may do so by visiting this Paypal Money Pool link. 

We are planning all end of year activities with the thought and threat of Covid in mind and risk assessing accordingly.  We are so close to the end of the school year and we must not relax our guard as we continue our attempts to avoid contracting and spreading this horrible virus.  With the R-rate on the rise, it prompts me to remind families that you are able to secure free Covid tests from the link here or are able to collect free tests from some pharmacies.  Some of our families currently test their children periodically and this certainly adds another level of safety and care in our fight against Covid.

I shall be watching the football game this evening with great interest and also hopefully following the sport over the course of the weekend.  I hope that we will all be able to afford ourselves some time outside and enjoying a little sunshine, if it arrives, and fresh air too.  I hope you all have a relaxing weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan

Holiday club will be running again this summer, from Thursday 8 July until Friday 3 September 2021. It will not be available on Monday 30 August due to the Bank Holiday, or Wednesday 1 September due to staff INSET Day.

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

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

Due to the current restrictions, holiday club will be open from 08:30 to 17:00 and will cost £30 per day. Hot lunch will be provided.

A timetable of activities will be sent out shortly, once staffing has been arranged.

To make a booking, please log on to My School Portal, and select the Clubs and Activities option.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

On Tuesday afternoon pupils from Crackley Hall School joined children in schools across the UK and the world, to sing along with music legend Billy Ocean to help raise funds for the charity Place2Be.

Streaming live from the O2 Arena in London, The Biggest Sing was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Largest Simultaneous Sing’.

Together the children performed the classic Bill Withers song Lovely Day. Independent adjudicators were on hand here at Crackley to confirm the number of children and teachers singing and we are excitedly awaiting confirmation that the record attempt was successful.

Young Voices is always a great event on the Crackley Hall calendar, so we were delighted to be able to join in with this year’s extra special 'Largest Simultaneous Sing'.

A huge well done to all the children, you can watch a clip of them singing on our school facebook page here: https://fb.watch/69I9tgeIMC/

The Junior 5 Choral Group have diligently met every Thursday lunchtime to practise communicating the poem Pandora’s Box by Paul Perro to an imaginary audience.

This hard work has culminated in a fantastic video performance which can be viewed here Vimeo Link

The children’s reliability, enthusiasm and effort to learn a very long poem was exceptional and they deserve a huge round of applause for their efforts. Enjoy!

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

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

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Van Zyl's class is Jenson

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

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

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

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

Well done all!

We have had a very successful Book Fair this week and the children have enjoyed going with their class to choose books or view the books that they have chosen at home with their parents.

Unfortunately, the lower priced stationery items were so popular that towards the end of the Fair we were not able to make up the amount from some book purchase prices to voucher spend.  Scholastic are sending more stationery items into school next week and so, should this have been the case for your child, they will be invited to go and choose items to make up the shortfall.

Mrs Holmes has asked if parents can send in any empty cylindrical crisp containers that you have please.

Thank you 

This week, Junior 6 have been studying the Evolution of Humans and the ideas of various evolutionary theorists that suggest the different development points over millions of years. The children have found additional facts at home and then have created some fantastic posters explaining the changes to the brain, hips, feet, and, most importantly, thumbs that have led to our current stage of evolution. The children have also considered that our evolution won’t stop here… and they have gone on to create an image of what they believe we will look like in another million years. Various ideas include extended thumbs with which to play computer games, and extended downward sloping necks due to extended phone/screen use! There have been some very interesting ideas!

J5 enjoyed their P.E lessons in the glorious sun this week. They have all been excited to visit the Book Fair, as we have many avid readers, and have chosen a range of books and stationery. In Science, they have continued to learn about the Human Life Cycle and have designed an array of posters showing how to keep healthy in old age. Captain speeches have now been recorded and will be shown to the school next week!

Summer has definitely arrived in Junior 4 this week! In Science we have been using the great outdoors to learn about the amazing varieties of different plants we have in and around Crackley Hall. Our preconceptions about plants and what their features are have been challenged; we have learnt that moss takes in its water through leaves rather than roots, ferns reproduce using the spores on the underside of their leaves and conifers’ cones help protect the seeds needed for reproduction. The beauty and wonder of the natural world was appreciated even more when we used our careful observational skills to draw plants around the school. It’s amazing how much we learnt just by taking our time to look at the world really carefully.

This week Junior 3 have been learning all about turns and angles in their new topic on Shape. We have given and followed instructions on making turns and even worked out that we make 7 anticlockwise turns on our way from the classroom to the playground. We also got out our right-angle finders and had great fun finding all of the right angles in the classroom and on the playground. We know that 90 degrees is a right angle and we used this to calculate how many degrees for a half-turn, a three-quarter turn and a full-turn. Now we know why those stunts are called 360’s! We have also been developing our skills in DT using a running stitch to join the parts of our pencil cases. There were a few run-away needles and knots but we got there in the end. 

Healthy Eating has played a big part of our Science lessons this week as the children have been learning all about Food Groups and ways to keep our bodies and minds as healthy as we can. We have found out WHY it is so important for our planet to eat less meat, although the reasons weren’t obvious at first, until the memory of our lock down topic of Deforestation surfaced. Food for thought.

We found out all about different food likes and dislikes, allergies and how a little of the ‘naughty’ foods can be of benefit to our well-being, as well as how rice is a staple carbohydrate food for huge areas of the planet. We also discovered that pasta (one of the favourites) is actually made from wheat, oil and eggs.

Our own veggie garden is looking packed with goodness and watering is an ongoing activity with all the amazing weather……get ready for summer!

Junior 1 have been flying high in their History lessons, as they have begun to learn about the history of flight. This week, it was the turn of the Montgolfier brothers from France who launched the first flight of a hot air balloon in 1783, paving the way for further human exploration of the sky. At the start of the lesson, the children watched black and white clips on the interactive whiteboard to see early attempts to fly. There was much laughter in the classrooms as they watched the failed attempts of people trying to jump into the air with wings attached to their arms! This led to some interesting discussion about how a hot air balloon is powered and what makes it lift up into the sky. Everyone then made their own hot air balloon to take home. In Science, we have been looking at the different parts of a plant and we then labelled them correctly. The children have all been given a broad bean in a bag (with a wet paper towel), to discover how it develops. We will be looking very closely to see whether the root or the shoot appears first! Finally, we have all been thinking about our daddy, ready for Sunday and everyone has made a card for the special person in their life. They have also made a tasty treat for them to enjoy on their special day. We would like to wish every daddy a very happy Father’s Day this weekend.

What another busy week we have had in Reception! Continuing to investigate our topic of summer, we learned about the importance of using sun cream not only on hot sunny days, but cloudy ones too.  We really enjoyed designing our own ‘Sun Safety’ posters promoting wearing a t-shirt, sun cream and a hat to protect our skin! Sharing things fairly and equally has generated lots of great mathematical discussions in Maths lessons; and in RE we have continued to reflect on the importance of prayers and praying. Our week ended with us making some Father’s Day cards for our fantastic daddies; but sshhh, they’re a surprise for Sunday!    

Following on from the Holy Communion last week, where pupils in Junior 3,4 and 5 received the Eucharist, children in their  RE lessons this week researched the Sacrament. Using ipads they were able to find answers to the questions that came out of discussion so that they could understand the importance of this special day in the Catholic Faith. In previous lessons pupils have made Matza bread and today they were able to try some of the unleavened bread before it is blessed at Mass during the Consecration.

Please find a Pastoral Letter from the Archbishop here.

Please find information below:

Childrens Liturgy

Activity Sheet

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

Weekly Mission

On Thursday, Junior 3 played a cricket fixture vs Bilton Grange. All teams played with a superb attitude, and it was lovely to see so many children enjoying the game. A special thanks must go to Phoebe, Lizzie, Issy and Amy, who stepped in to make it possible for Crackley Hall to play a second team, ensuring that every boy had an opportunity to play. The highlight of the B team match was some outstanding fielding by Blythe, whose energy and enthusiasm, saved the ball from going to the boundary on many occasions.

In both matches, Bilton Grange achieved narrow victories. 

In Lego Club this week we had imaginative play on a huge scale when we brought the classic Marvel movie action to life with an impressive cast of Marvel characters – Thor, Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man to name but a few.  We made a lab for Iron Man so he could construct an awesome Nano Gauntlet, we fabricated a leisure and meeting area, where the superheroes could convene; a prison cell and a truck that opened to reveal a time-travelling machine.  Not forgetting Bo the seal and Shelly the turtle, our superheroes managed to visit the resident pet shop for a quick catch-up and an ice lolly under a Bonsai tree to add harmony and balance, before conjuring up another thrilling universe of imaginative superhero battles.

This week we have been thinking about our lovely Dads.  We read the story, My Dad by Anthony Browne, and decided that our own Dad’s are just as amazing, then we made cards to give them on Father’s Day.  The children had lots of ideas about what their Dads were good at, and admittedly a good few agreed that cutting the lawn was important, but we also heard about the cuddles, the shoulder rides, the cooking and the fun you have together.  We would like to send our best wishes to all Dads this weekend, and hope you get to enjoy a relaxing Sunday, with your Little Crackers who so obviously love you! Happy Father’s Day, and enjoy the weekend.

Newsletter

Welcome to Crackley Hall PTA's raffle page. We're excited to join The Big PTA Summer Raffle 2021, 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.

https://www.bigptaraffle.co.uk/support/crackley-hall-pta-cv8

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

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!

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.

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Andrew (J4B) has lost his tracksuit top – it is named either Parizzi / Navarro

We are recruiting for a variety of roles currently, as you will see below, so please do share with friends and family by word of mouth.

Further information and application forms on all roles are available on our website - Join Us

• Summer Estates Assistants - Princethorpe College
• Estates Assistant (Lates) - Princethorpe College
• Lunchtime Supervisor - Crescent School
• Teaching Assistant KS2 (Maternity Cover) - Crackley Hall School
• Teaching Assistant EYFS (Reception) - Crackley Hall School
• Early Years Assistant - Little Crackers