The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Former Crackley Hall pupil, Millie Lammas, has been awarded first prize in the Independent Schools’ Association’s prestigious National Art Competition. Her impressive entry, Before Going Over The Top, a 3D model, depicting the trenches in World War One, which she produced last year when she was in Junior 6, was placed first in this year’s Key Stage 2 Art 3D Individual class.

The National competition followed on from the Regional Midlands competition which took place back in October where last year’s Junior 1 class also took first prize in the Key Stage 1 Art 3D Group class with their stunning work Town On The Hill.

Many congratulations to Millie and also to last year’s Junior 1, it was another super set of results for our young artists, and we congratulate them all on their success.

Crackley Hall has been taking part in Anti-Bullying Week, and to celebrate that we are all unique on Monday 15 November Crackley Hall joined schools across the country for Odd Socks Day.

Odd Socks Day is an annual event that reminds pupils that they are all allowed to be themselves and helps us all to mark Anti-Bullying Week in a fun and positive way. Around school there were plenty of bright and colourful odd socks, as pupils showcased their individuality.

Together the children have also explored how our words and actions can affect others. The children listened to the One Kind Word song produced by Andy Day (from CBeebies and CBBC) and his band Andy And The Odd Socks especially for Anti-Bullying Week.

During the week, Mrs Burley and Mrs Jackson-Mayne were kept busy making a short, fun film for Friday’s assembly. They interviewed the children and challenged them (Challenge Anneka style) to share their own random acts of kind words around the school.

Kindness is more important today than it has ever been, especially after the isolation of the last year, and the children have responded very well to the serious messages behind all this year’s Anti-Bullying Week's fun.

On Tuesday 16 November, Junior 6 welcomed Year 6 from Crescent School for a fantastic, full day of uplifting and inspiring music. The pupils from both schools worked together under the guidance of Directors of Music, Susan Olden and Julie Barnes, rehearsing, performing, and improvising a mix of vocal and orchestra pieces.

Mrs Olden and Mrs Barnes both agreed that the joint musical initiative had been another very successful day, remarking that, “It is so good to work together, everyone really enjoys themselves, it’s always one of the highlights of the term.”

In the morning, pupils worked on vocal pieces that included the traditional Monday’s Child, that they enjoyed singing alongside professional singing teacher, soprano, Shoshana Stokes. They also had great fun singing Abba’s upbeat Money Money Money with its catchy refrain.

In the afternoon, the pupils worked with their instruments, improvising to Hans Zimmer’s Earth, working together to develop their own stirring and emotive piece. The two orchestras co-operating and complementing each other to deliver an electrifying performance.

Julie Barnes, Director of Music at the Crescent School, continued, “Both schools have such a strong musical tradition, and the children really rise to the occasion, it is great to come over and work together.”

Susan Olden, Director of Music at Crackley Hall, added, “There is real talent within our schools and our music workshops always inspire our pupils.”

The Junior Schools Music Workshops are just one of the many performance opportunities that pupils at the schools take part in.

To listen to the children singing Monday’s Child please click here.

This year's winning Crackley Hall Christmas Card design is by Elizabeth from J4R. Her simple design captures the spirit of the season featuring an angel proclaiming from the roof tops ‘Oh Holy Night’. The design will feature on the front of every card sent out by the Headmaster this advent.

Mr Duigan commented, "Elizabeth’s design was a clear winner, with strength in its simplicity, but the standard overall was high. I was delighted to see so many entries, well done to everybody who took part."

There was an exceptionally strong field of entries this year, so our congratulations also go to the runners up whose designs will feature as cameos on the reverse of the card. Well done Marley(J6V), Blythe (J4S) and Sloane (J1S).

Place2Be, a mental health charity, has just created a website called 'Parenting Smart'.  This is a free online resource featuring practical advice and tried-and-tested tips for parents and carers of primary age children.  You can feel confident that all of the advice has the backing of Place2Be’s clinical experts.  

Parenting Smart is: 

• Created by Place2Be’s parenting experts
• Based on evidence and their experience of working with children and families 
• Designed with busy parents in mind, with short videos and articles  
• Includes topics from meltdowns to friendship difficulties, from anxiety to the transition to secondary school 

You can find out more here. 

Last week Crackley Hall joined over a million other pupils across the country celebrating ‘Maths Week England’, a grassroots movement that aims to share the joy of mathematics with everyone. 

All the year groups at Crackley enjoyed exploring the mathematics that we see all around us and use every day. Have a look in the gallery to see examples of some of the maths fun the children had in school.

The Reception classes thoroughly enjoyed being shape detectives and going on a shape hunt around school. While Junior 1 had fun listening to mathematical stories and thinking hard about the ‘maths’ hidden within them.  After hearing the Spinderella story, they played a game called Incey Wincey Spider, using a die to help them move up or down a drainpipe.

Junior 2 explored the important mathematical matter of finance and created their own amazing moneyboxes decorated with all the things they are saving for. Junior 3 enjoyed an online mathematical story time session from Roma Agrawal, with activities based on her book How Was That Built? 

Junior 4 considered patterns in the times tables and created some wonderful multiplication art. Then Junior 5 explored horizontal symmetry and then considered the properties of a cube and what a ‘net’ is. 

Junior 6 invesitgated maths through an engineering theme, understanding the strength of 3D shapes and how they are used in construction. 

It was a wonderful week of mathematical activities, challenges, stories, and games.

Calling all mathematicians and economists! Here is a chance to think hard about creative ways to save money and what you are saving for, whilst having fun.

Design, draw, colour, then make yourself a moneybox, using the attached template. Take a photo of your moneybox and bring it into school to your form teacher. The moneyboxes will be judged in school and a creative da Vinci awarded to the most inventive.

The top three will then be entered into the national competition, run by the ‘Lifesavers Financial Literacy’ programme. Please bring your entry and photo into school by Wednesday 24 November.

Design a money-box

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's class is Eloise and Oscar 

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes class is Grace

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Robert's class is Molly

Mathlete of the week for Mr Stedeford's class is Isabelle

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Wildey's group is Esme

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

Well done all!