The Chronicle

Dear Parents

This week I have been fortunate to attend The IAPS Heads Conference in Scotland which focussed on Enlightened Education.  It has been a most interesting and indeed ‘enlightening’ few days and I will be able to apply much new learning upon my return. 

Before I left for Scotland this week, I welcomed parents into school on Monday afternoon to attend an Online Safety Meeting which was hosted by Mr Cottrill, Mrs Malcolm and Mr Compton.  The meeting covered various aspects of online safety when children are using handheld devices or computers.  As many parents were unable to attend this meeting, a recording has been sent to all parents which I hope you will find helpful. The online dangers confronting our children are very real, and especially so where parents and teachers are complacent in thinking that they are ‘cyber savvy’. We need to remain vigilant and responsible at all times. 

On Wednesday, our Reception classes were visited by a representative from the Road Safety team.  This was a valuable lesson reminding the children how to stay safe near roads and this session will be repeated next week for our Junior 1 classes.   

We welcomed Father Kevin into school on Wednesday for the Harvest Mass and we were able to show him the collection of food that has been gathered in a short space of time by some of our classes.  There has been a collection today which will make its way to the local food banks and help many families.  Thank you to Father Kevin, Mrs Jackson-Mayne and everyone who has contributed so far to our harvest collection.

I am grateful to Mrs McAloon who hosted assembly this morning, I understand that the performance by our orchestra and chamber choir was simply outstanding.  I believe there is a recording which I look forward to watching upon my return.  Congratulations to the Stars of the Week who were: Monty, Avni, Tianna, Nirvair, Ciara, Lewis, Beatrice, Hector, Harriet, Henry, Elsie A, Sukhmani, Eve and Penny.  I have been able to read your certificates which were presented today and you should all be very proud of your achievements this week.

Next week is the last week before half term and a busy week is planned.  There are several events taking place, with Junior 2 visiting Warwick Castle, Junior 4 involved in a Faith Walk, Junior 1 visiting St John’s Museum and a some of our students attending a maths challenge which is to be held at Princethorpe College.  On Tuesday, individual and class photographs will be taken by Gillman and Soame.  Children should arrive at school in full uniform for these photos and, if available, wearing winter uniform.  All children should please wear their winter uniform when we return to school after half term.  Another opportunity will be provided for photographs after half term if your child is not able to attend school next Tuesday, due to illness or attending a Year 7 entrance examination.

Online pupil progress meetings will take place on Wednesday and Thursday next week.  If you have not yet booked an appointment, this can be completed by accessing My School Portal and the booking system will close on Sunday afternoon.  Any changes after this date will need to be made by the school office. Due to the number of appointments each evening, these meetings have a limited time allocation and parents are invited to make follow-up appointments with staff if necessary.

I have learned today that the total raised at last week’s Macmillan cake sale was just under £560.  This is a terrific amount and I know that some of the left-over cakes were gratefully received by the local foodbanks.  Thank you to the PTA for overseeing this event and for everyone to contributed.   There will be a non-uniform day next week and we will not be asking for a donation on this occasion, it is simply a chance for the children to wear their own clothes as they enjoy the last day of this half term.

I would like to wish everyone a restful and happy weekend.

God bless

Due to the Parent Information Meetings on Wednesday 12 October and Thursday 13 October, the Junior 5&6 Sports Club, and the Junior 3&4 Sports Club will not be taking place after school.

Our early bird deadline for registrations for September 2023 Reception and Junior 3 entry is Friday 14 October. We advise those already attending Little Crackers in the pre-school year and siblings who are considering registering for 2023 entry to please do so by this deadline.

For more information visit www.crackleyhall.co.uk

To download a registration form please click here.

If you would like more information about our admissions process please contact our Registrar, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk.

We currently have an extremely large amount of unnamed lost property, from clothing, to shoes to water bottles and books.

Any vaulable items, such as glasses and watches are kept in the office for safety, at the moment there are four pairs of unclaimed glasses.

This will be put out on a table outside the Gables every Friday before Assembly and it will remain out until the end of the day. After two weeks any unclaimed items will be donated to the PTA for re-sale.

If your child is missing any items, please ensure that you check the lost property every Friday.

Please help us to return your child's property to them by labelling everything clearly.

The menus for the second half of the Michaelmas Term can be viewed here:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Please be advised that Gillman & Soame will be taking class, sibling and individual photographs on Tuesday 11 October. 

Children will need to wear their full school uniform, ideally winter uniform.

If your children are in any sports clubs, or have PE lessons, please can they bring their sports kit in a separate named bag, and they will be able to change later in the day.

The photographs will take place in the Hall and parents will be able to bring pre-school siblings in for the sibling photographs, however please contact the School Office to arrange this.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the School Office.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

On Wednesday, Louise from Warwickshire Safe and Active Schools visited Reception to teach them how to stay safe on the roads. The children played a game, with Louise introducing six small steps to staying safe: Think, Stop, Listen, Look, Hold Hands and Walk.

The children then listened to a story about Warwick Bear, who forgot his magic thinking hat. The children learnt a song using the six words to remind them all how to stay safe. Everyone received a sticker and a book Warwick Bear And The Thinking Hat to take home with them.

Well done Reception, it’s never too early to start learning the road safety code!

What an amazing response from the Reception pupils and their parents, a huge thank you for all your kind donations. Andy from the Food Bank for Warwick and Leamington was staggered that the donations were from only one year group! The donations were picked up this morning and will be distributed to people in need in our community this weekend.

On Thursday, 13 October Fr Kevin will lead Collective Worship for Years 4 to 6. The theme will be the Rosary.  Pupils are invited to bring in their own Rosary beads.  

Many congratulations to Henry in Junior 3H who came first in the Leamington Spa Competitive Festival in Piano Grade 1-2 and was awarded the Henri Shawe trophy.

For our whole school half-term da Vinci challenge we are asking pupils to research the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth reigned for 70 years, she led an interesting life. Did you know that she drove an ambulance during World War II?

After completing your your research about Queen Elizabeth II, then choose one or more interesting fact that you find particularly exciting that others may not know. Present these in a creative way, that will help others learn about her extraordinary life. You could create a PowerPoint or a poster or even a 3D model. The more creative the better.

Topics you may wish to explore:

• her family tree
• a timeline of her life
• her houses
• her love of animals
• her roles
• her jewellery
• her hats
• significant events such as her wedding, her coronation, her jubilees, her funeral.

Remember to…

Name your work

Present your research in a creative way, that we will be able to display in school.

Please bring your work in by Friday 4 November and give it to your class teacher.

Scroll through the gallery to see photos from our Celebration Assembly.

This week Junior 6 have been thinking about choices and the consequences that come with every choice we make. We began by reading the Story of the Fall from the book of Genesis and discussed the actions of Adam and Eve and the consequences that came from their choice to take the apple even though they had been told not to. We then looked at a range of fictional scenarios where we had to consider what the right choice would be in each case. We thought about how even when we make the right choice, sometimes the consequences may not always be positive and how we need strength and courage to do this. We finished this section of our RE unit by watching some poetry by Michael Rosen from his Big Book of Bad Things and identified times when we have made incorrect choices and also when we have listened to our ‘inner’ voice and made correct choices.

Junior 5W have proudly completed their Protective Behaviours course. We have enjoyed class discussions and sharing opinions on a range of topics, all designed to help us feel safe at all times. Discussions about how far feelings of being scared are fun, and when it tips into feeling so scared that our Early Warning Signs are triggered, it was very interesting to us all. It showed how we all have different emotional responses and all of these need to be respected and validated. We explored closing our eyes and visiting our safe place in our minds and then visualising these through drawings. We now all have an updated network of adults who we trust and can talk to about anything, even if it feels awful or small which is a key message of the scheme.

After making a range of musical instruments and pan pipes, Junior 4 tested out string telephones. We all went outside and worked in pairs, sending a range of secret messages through our plastic cups and along the string to our partners. We learnt that when you talk into the cup your voice sends sound waves inside the cup, vibrating the bottom of the cup. The sound vibrations are transferred to the string, across the string and into the bottom of the other cup, where they are then heard. We all had fun testing these out!

Junior 3 have been loving the Stone Age lessons this week as we have linked it beautifully with Science and been discussing the types of food that a Stone Age person would eat. Along with our Food Diaries, the children have learnt that we eat quite differently from our ancient ancestors, although fruit and vegetables did form an integral part of their diet too. Ms Holmes brought Mesolithic bark-platter in for the children to look at. We found mushrooms, berries, seeds, leaves and fruits as well as chicken, bran and grains. Most of the pupils felt that they may still not have enough energy to chase a woolly mammoth around the hills! In English, we spent a happy hour in Forest School using our five senses to help us imagine a Stone Age setting. Great fun – but we all decided we would definitely need our animal skin clothes if we were spending the nights outside in the chilly autumnal air. Trainee teacher Mrs Lavelle led a fantastic Science lesson on sugar in children’s drinks – what a shock we all had to find out how many teaspoons of sugar are in some of our favourites!! Our Collective Worship session led by Junior 5 had us all thinking about how we can better ‘love’ our fellow-man. Well done to all!

In Junior 2 our Science lessons are taking off with great imagination and environmental awareness. We have discussed materials around us and we have been on a material investigation tour around the school. We are keen to find out the properties of materials, what things are from and learn how they are used. Is it a suitable material for the right job? We also created our material monster using recycled materials. What a great week we have had!

Mathematics this week in Junior 1 saw the introduction of a part-whole diagram, the addition symbol, fact families and number bonds - phew! In English we wrote speech bubbles for the Little Red Hen and then helped her to express how sad she was in a letter to the animals when they did not help. Over in Science we continued exploring our senses, this week it was touch. Using only our hands we had to feel and describe an object from the classroom to the class to see if they could guess what it was. We then sorted materials according to their properties – such as smooth, bumpy, rough etc.. and learnt about what things we can or cannot touch. Finally, as October is Black History Month we began to find out about Alma Thomas and her wonderful art work.

This week in Reception we have been starting to write words and sentences in our books. The children have been trying so hard in phonics and have now shown some amazing letter formation! In Maths we have been matching and sorting objects into lots of different groups and noticing how items can be the same and different. We have also started collecting for the local food bank. Thank you to all of the families who have already donated so generously.  Reception have also had a visit from Road Safety Officer Louise to teach them about how to cross the road safely. 

Monday School Assembly

Mrs Glen-Roots led Monday's School Assembly and she spoke about St Francis of Assisi and how he is the Patron Saint of animals. His preaching was about giving thanks for the good things God has given to us, using them and enjoying them for what they are, all the while keeping our hearts free to love and serve God before anything else.  We also learnt that St Francis established the Franciscan Order and he was born in Italy and grew up leading a privileged life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. The school listened to the hymn about peace-making attributed to St Francis - 'Make me a Channel of your Peace' - which was also sung at the school mass on Wednesday.

Mass

The Harvest Mass was led beautifully by Junior 4S this week. Each child was awarded a Crackley Compass Star for being organised and involved. The pupils read with clarity and understanding. The singing was particularly powerful this week – we sang the Our Father for the first time, accompanied by Josh Burley on the drums and Isabella Olden on the trumpet. The new Chamber Choir made their debut with You Are My Shepherd at the Communion Reflection. It was a very moving Mass, to celebrate the Feast of St Francis and thank God for our world and the food it yields.

Walk of Faith

Pupils in Junior 4 are taking part in a Walk of Faith on Monday – look out for pictures next week. Pupils will be outside so definitely need a coat and need to come to school in their PE Kit.

Collective Worship

Classrooms rang out this morning with pupil led Collective Worship. It is wonderful to see the pupils engaging others with songs, actions, games and presentations to get their message across. This week the older pupils were looking at Resilience and the younger pupils were finding out what God said about Love in the Bible.

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

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

Jesus healed ten men, but only one of them came back to say thank you. We consider the importance of thanking God for all the wonderful things He has done for us.

Activity Sheet

The force was definitely with Lego Club this week as cool weapons roared through the atmosphere! With major discussions about Ninja battles against the Ice Emperor taking place, we opened up a galaxy of creative play adventures and re-enacted the Star Wars enterprise in our own unique and inimitable style. With our very own Hoth AT-RT Walker, our battle adventures commenced with questions flying through the intergalactic atmosphere – should we fight the good fight to save the galaxy or join the dark side and rule with the Emperor? Accompanied by Jedi Master Yoda with his green lightsaber, a selection of tame horses and a catwalk fashion show beckoning, Shelley the turtle decided to join forces with Yoda to set up their very own intergalactic pet shop serving ice-cream and milkshakes to keep the dark side at bay! Just what the wise and powerful Yoda ordered!

Please click on the link for this week's newsletter.

A big well done to everyone, together we raised £559.00 for Macmillian this year! 

Did you know you can find us on Facebook?  Search CRACKLEY HALL PTA to keep up with our events and what we are doing to help enhance your child's experience at Crackley Hall.

Please be advised that there will be a whole school non uniform day next Friday, 14 October.

There is no theme and there will be no charge for the children to wear their own clothes on this occasion.

A big congratulations to our September 200 club winners!

£100 - Sarah Cowell

£75 - Alice Goonan

£50 - Geraldine Higginbotham

We have had a few people ask to join the 200 club and have extended the annual enrolment until the end of October. For £50 you will be entered into a monthly draw from October to July for a chance to win £100, £75 or £50.

We absolutely love giving back to the families, enrolment via the link below:

200 Club

Good luck!

Please see the attached dates for your diary. We also have a Facebook page - Crackley Hall PTA, please join us to keep an eye upcoming events. 

A big thank you to the parents and teachers of Crackley Hall! Together we managed to donate 460kg worth of clothing to our Bag2School program and raised £184.00. Your donated items will help promote the reuse of clothes and shoes to benefit those who rely on second hand clothes as their sole option for good quality items, most items are sent to East Europe in their time of need.

Thank you to the volunteer parents whom helped in the carline this week by collecting donations.

100% of the funds generated from your donations will go directly toward enhancing your child's experience this year.

The PTA would like to offer period costumes and Christmas jumpers to families when needed throughout the year, aiming to offer a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to buying new!

As each year group will experience a period day at Crackley Hall, we are starting to build our collection of costumes/jumpers.

We are, therefore, looking for the following donations please:

• Christmas jumpers
• Nativity clothing
• Victorian Day clothing
• Tudor Day clothing
• Roman Day clothing
• Stone Age clothing

As always, we really appreciate your help to make this resale successful for the families at Crackley Hall. All clean clothing can be dropped off at the front porch where the Second Hand PTA uniform box is located.

These will be on sale for £4 each on Friday 14 October at the next Second Hand uniform sale.

We hope to see you again on 11 October at 9.00am and as always we look forward to meeting new faces.

It's a great way to get meet new parents too. 

We will be holding a Winter Sports and Uniform sale on Friday 14 October from 8.00am to 9.00am and from 3.30pm to 4.30pm - a great time to update your child's winter sports kit and uniform. We now have many sports and uniform items back in stock.  

As always, if you have any orders you would like to place prior to the sale, please email uniform@pta.crackleyhall.co.uk - we are volunteer run and aim to get back to you within seven days.

We are also always looking for donations of items your child has outgrown. Please drop these in the box labelled ‘PTA uniform’, located in the front porch of the school. 

As always, we thank you for your support and couldn’t run the second hand shop without your generous donations. 

We would also like to say a huge THANK YOU to our PTA members in charge of the second hand uniform shop who work so hard for us all!

The engraved Crackley Hall reusable coffee mugs are back! These are perfect for bringing to assembly or when you are out and about and are £10 each. 

Please use this link:

https://www.pta-events.co.uk/crackleyhall/index.cfm

Crackley Hall PTA - Kenilworth needs your help!

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We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family.

Further information and application forms on all roles are available on the Foundation's website - www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us 

• Head of Learning Support and SENCO - Princethorpe College
• Little Crackers - Nursery Practitioner

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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Eloise Bickerton (J3) - School Hat (named)

Blythe Camilleri-Willis (J5) - Tracksuit Jacket (named)

Sloane Camilleri-Willis (J2) - Winter Coat (named on pocket label)

Esme Card (J6) - Black Water Bottle