Headmaster's Welcome
Dear Parents
I hope that you are well and looking forward to the half term break, with the extended bank holiday to commemorate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
The main area of focus for many in the school of this week has been First Holy Communion. This year we were able to return to inviting pupils from Junior 2 to Junior 6 to support Ben, Amelia and Joseph receive their First Holy Communion. This is such an important part in their spiritual journey and I am pleased that we have been able to share it with staff and children on a wider scale once again. My sincere thanks to Mrs Jackson-Mayne, Father Kevin, Mrs Simmonds, Mrs Olden, the pupils’ form teachers, the catering, the estates and the office staff who have worked to ensure that the day was enjoyed by all.
I am pleased that we have been able to complete just about all the assessments over the past week, or two. We do have to conduct formal assessments on those pupils who may have been absent for any of the tests. Thank you to all staff, especially Mrs Cowlishaw, for overseeing the testing schedule.
We did not hold our traditional celebration assembly this morning, but I was able to present certificates to our stars of the week: Edward, Haris, Henry, William, Hardaya, Himmy, Grace, Evelyn, Rory, Amy, Jack, Nell, Dillon and Willow. Congratulations everyone! It was lovely to be able to have their parents with us as well. Thank you to our House Captains and Emily for their input.
Our sports teams have been busy again this week with our Under 9 cricketers participating thin Hallfields’s Kwik Cricket Tournament on Tuesday and our athletes travelling to Solihull to take part in the ISA Midlands Junior Athletics. We have a record number of pupils through to the national athletics finals later this term – 11 in total! Congratulations to them and to their coaches, Mr and Mrs Vaughan. Thank you very much to Mrs Vaughan for organising such a successful ISA Midlands athletics meeting.
Holiday club will be operating next week, Monday to Wednesday, and there are still some places available. If you have not booked a space and would like your child to attend, please email holidayclub@crackleyhall.co.uk before arriving at school. A member of staff will respond to your request and confirm if a place is available.
Mrs Kemp, our Interim Nursery Manager, will be leaving Little Crackers today. We are grateful for the input Mrs Kemp has made during her short time with us and we wish her well with her next project and her future career. Mrs O’Carroll-Bailey (Miss Lisa) will be assuming the role of Acting Nursery Manager whilst Mrs Bird (Miss Clare) has her period of convalescence. Mrs O’Carroll-Bailey will be supported by Mrs Whitehurst, Miss Francis and the Nursery team over the next few weeks. Please direct any Nursery correspondence to Miss Lisa in the first instance. Any admissions enquiries should be directed to Mrs Jenny Vaughan.
When we return to school on 6 June, we will be welcoming a film crew into school for the week when they will capture the journey of a child through their schooling at Crackley Hall. The film crew will be moving around school and filming a variety of scenes in different year groups and you may be asked for your child to bring their full uniform in on a specific day. Please keep a look out for emails from the School Office regarding any notices to this effect as we would like to ensure as many children as possible are able to take part.
Thank you for all your support of the school over the half term. I felt that the PTA Family Fun Day was a real return to what we are about as a school community and would like to thank all the PTA members for their tremendous efforts. I would like to particularly mention our chair, Dr Card and the main organiser, Mrs Clarke.
I look forward to seeing you all again after the half term break and wish you a pleasant weekend.
God bless,
Mr Duigan
