The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Welcome to the last edition of the Chronicle this half term.   I am sure you will agree, the first half of the Michaelmas term has flown by and the school diary seems to be busier than before the pandemic.

As you will see when reading the various articles, this week has been filled with activities involving many year groups.  I am hugely grateful to all the staff who have arranged these events which serve to enrich and enhance the children’s learning. 

The week started with Junior 2 visiting Warwick Castle and exploring the history of this local medieval fortress.  Thank you to Mrs Burley and Mrs Thomas for co-ordinating this particular visit.  Junior 4 stayed closer to home when Mrs Jackson-Mayne arranged to host a Faith Walk with Winterfold House School.  The children all visited the Common enjoying an alfresco lunch, playing games and then back to school for hot chocolate and cookies.   Mrs Cowlishaw accompanied some of our Junior 5 pupils to Princethorpe on Monday to participate in a Maths challenge.  I am delighted to report that our teams finished in 6th and 10th places; certainly amongst the highest finishers.  I would like to thank to our catering team who provided lunches for these visits and guests.

On Tuesday, class and individual photographs took place in the Hall and we also had Marcus Perkins photography in school capturing, on camera, the children at work and play.  We will keep you informed as to when the school photographs are ready and there will also be a ‘mop up’ session, to take the photos of any absentees, after half term.

Online pupil progress meetings were held on Wednesday and Thursday this week and a new system was trialled which, I am informed, worked very well in most instances. If you have not fed back and would like to, we are welcoming any further feedback, via the school office, up until the end of the first week of the half term break.  The next parent consultation evening will be held in the school Hall during in March but we will continue to use the new booking facility.  If you feel that you need more time to speak to your child’s class teacher, please contact them by email and they will arrange a further appointment with you.

There was another trip to Warwick yesterday when Junior 1 classes visited St John’s Museum to experience life in the Victorian era.  This brought their history lessons to life when the children were able to use the same materials that Victorian children used.  Thank you to Mrs Hardwick, Mrs Glen-Roots, Mrs Verma and Mr Kefalas for making this visit possible.

During celebration assembly this morning I congratulated our Stars of the Week who were: Joel, Edward, Edison, Oscar, Jovan, Chace, Savannah, Tristan, Rohan, Shuvan, Sebastian, Elizabeth, Carter and Oliver.  Well done to everyone!  We were also able to enjoy some delightful music performed by Carter and Amelia which was a lovely way to end this half term’s assembly. Georgie created a wonderful hydraulic arm and demonstrated how it worked to the whole assembly. She spoke most clearly and concisely.

There has been a super response to Holiday Club and each day is almost at capacity.  If you do want to book a day for your child, this can only be done by contacting  holidayclub@crackleyhall.co.uk and Ms Osborn will confirm, by return, if a space is available.  If you are using holiday club during the next two weeks, please use the staff car park and the main entrance then call the school mobile to announce your arrival.  A member of staff will meet you and then ask you to sign your child into school.

The school enjoyed some good results on the sports fields this week and I would encourage all pupils to continue to practise hard as we continually aim to improve.

I wish everyone a restful and relaxing half term.

God bless

We will be wearing odd socks joining in with the Anti-Bullying Alliance and their patrons, Andy and the Odd Socks, on Monday 14 November for Odd Socks Day.  Will you?

The School Immunisation Team will be visiting the school on Tuesday 29 November to carry out Flu Vaccinations.

Further details to follow closer to the date

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

On Thursday, Junior 6 were treated to a visit from PC Lund, who came to talk to them about being safe and kind on the internet.

PC Lund began his talk by explaining the role of the police was to keep people safe from harm. Having revisited cyber safety this half term, pupils were able to answer questions eagerly and accurately.

What was great about the session was that PC Lund was able to express the enormity of the negative impact being unkind to someone has on them as a person – reinforcing that once you’ve said it (or typed it) it cannot be taken back! He explained that EVERYTHING the children searched for or looked at, using a device, and for how long they looked at it, could be traced back to them. This hopefully deterred a few from making a poor choice in the future. Altogether, this was a great opportunity for the pupils to have, hopefully preparing them for their next phases in life. 

The children watched a video in which a 12-year-old girl was ‘catfished’ by a man, posing as a 13-year-old boy. This video demonstrated how dangerous it is to post pictures and personal information (such as your uniform) online and not secure your profile on social media through the privacy settings. It was a very educational visit and we thank PC Lund for helping to keep our children safe! 

On Monday 10 October Crackley Hall School took part in Princethorpe College’s Year 5 Maths Challenge. The event was run by Douglas Buchanan of DCBEAGLE Challenges, who specialises in organising exciting and innovative maths activities for primary school aged children.

Crackley took two teams of two to compete alongside 36 pairs of enthusiastic and very talented mathematicians from 18 local schools, the pupils took part in a series of puzzles against the clock. In five eight-minute rounds the children tackled Tangram Triangles, Make 24, Broken Calculators, Domino Jigsaws, Card Order and Curly’s Cycling Circuits.

Ably supported and marked by a team of Princethorpe’s Year 10 pupils, the competition stretched and challenged the children with mathematical activities that required both reasoning skills and mathematical knowledge.

The event was huge fun for all who took part and everyone who participated received a certificate and a special Princethorpe cookie.

Mrs Cowlishaw, who accompanied the children, said, “The children had a great time and really enjoyed putting their maths skills to the test. Well done to them all, they made Crackley Hall proud.”

Crackley’s teams finished in 6th and 10th place, very respectable results. A huge well done to Beatrice, Ding, Elora and Arthur.

Pupils from Winterfold House School in Chaddesley Corbett, joined Crackley Hall’s Junior 4 on Monday afternoon for a Walk of Faith on Kenilworth Common.

The youngsters started by eating lunch together outside in the sunshine before splitting into four groups and playing a getting to know you game. They then walked to the Common, where they took part in different activities reflecting on Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Their afternoon session finished with some enthusiastic communal singing before the pupils walked back to school.

We were delighted to help Winterfold School as they work to develop the spiritual life of their school.

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

This week, Junior 6 have been busy creating biomes in boxes, as their unit of work in geography comes to an end. They have conducted lots of personal research about their chosen biomes and put a visual presentation together to inform others about it.  They then gathered lots of resources to build a 3D model of what their biome looks like, including the animals and plants that have adapted to suit their environment. The children have made their own representations of the tundra, the taiga forest, the savanna, the ocean, and the desert to name a few. It has been a fantastic opportunity to see the children fully engaged and immersed in their learning and living out so many of our Crackley Compass elements including collaboration, responsibility, activeness, and enthusiasm.  We are looking forward to after half-term when the children will be able to present their work to each other.

As October is Black History Month, Junior 5 have been learning about this topic across the curriculum. During PSHE, Mrs Duigan gave an interesting talk about Nelson Mandela and her own experiences of growing up in South Africa when it was against the law for those with different ethnicity to mix. In English, Junior 5 completed a comprehension, expanding further on their knowledge of Nelson Mandela. For Science, Junior 5 researched Katherine Johnson by using texts, books, and the internet to create a fact file. In the last two Art sessions, Junior 5L have been learning about the prominent Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. They have been working in two groups to recreate his painting ‘Flower Carrier’, each child creating one section of the painting using colouring pencils exploring shading and tones before combining them to create the whole picture.

This week, Junior 4 had a wonderful time finding ways to persuade people to buy their own tea. They started by having a tea tasting lesson, where they were asked to become tea connoisseurs and generate feel good phrases to help them with their persuasive writing. Some ideas included ‘feel the sunset kiss your taste buds’ and ‘it was like a warm embrace on a cold winter’s day’. Enthusiastically, they then used all of this vocabulary to create their own persuasive writing and we were all very impressed with their work. We are now nearly at the end of the first half-term of Junior 4 and all of the children should be very proud of their hard work, creativity, curiosity and excellent attitude towards their learning. Well done Junior 4!

This week, in Maths, Junior 3 have been practising the strategy of bridging through 10 to help us quickly and efficiently add numbers mentally. We used a super resource called the ‘Rekenrek’ to help us visualise the numbers and spot the bond to 10. We are so excited for our maths lessons, and we are working much more flexibly with numbers. We have also been working hard in English lessons, planning our own Stone Age characters complete with captivating details such as scars, missing teeth, and windswept hair. We drew some inspiration from our Art and DT lessons where we have been making Stone Age tooth and shell necklaces out of clay and twine. I am sure you will agree that we look both fetching and fearsome.

Well done for a wonderful half term, Junior 3. We have had such a lot of fun together and we are looking forward seeing you again soon after a restful half term.

This week Junior 2 explored the medieval fortress Warwick Castle. The trip was packed full of educational opportunities alongside an equal measure of fun. The children walked under the portcullis entrance before visiting the Great Hall where they saw a knight in armour with his horse, along with a jaw dropping display of swords and spears. Children enjoyed a guided tour and found out more about our fascinating past from an expert historian. In the Time Tower, Junior 2 learnt all about the history of the castle through spellbinding story clips which walked them through the ages. The exciting day finished with a trip into the Zog playground.

Junior 1 have completed their first half-term being as busy as ever! We were delighted to welcome Louise and Warwick Bear into school from Warwickshire Road Safety to talk to everyone about how to improve their safety skills, as well as trying to make our journeys' greener. She reminded everyone of the benefits of walking or catching public transport which includes reducing pollution, being active and finding time to talk! On Thursday we visited St John’s Museum in Warwick as part of our Victorian topic. Everyone loved the immersive experience which really brought the Victorian experience to life. The highlight of the day was the 1888 school room led by a School Ma’am where everyone got the chance to do their reading and arithmetic by rote, use a class abacus for their sums and practise their handwriting using slates. What a wonderful end to this half term; we hope everyone has a lovely break.

In the summer term of 2022 Junior 1 worked together to create a wonderful piece of 3d artwork to which we gave the title ‘A Fishy Tale’.

Everybody created fish using different materials, such as sticks, card, netting, googly eyes etc. and after tie-dying some material for the sea they were sewn on to create a collaborative sea scene. The work was sent off to the ISA reginal finals and we are delighted to be told that we won in our age category. A copy of the work will now be sent off to the national finals and we will be keeping our fingers crossed for another win. If you would like to see this award-winning piece of work it is hanging on the wall between the two Junior 1 classrooms.

Well done to last year’s Junior 1 class who helped create this masterpiece.

As part of Black History Month, Reception have been learning about the extraordinary life of Mae Jemison. They recreated a timeline of her achievements, from becoming a doctor, to working in the Peace Corp, to developing a vaccine. She was the first black woman to go into space, then after leaving NASA she set up a number of educational programs to teach children about science. She then became an Author, writing a book about her life as well as a number of books about space for children. Reception agreed at the end of the lesson that she had led an inspirational life, with several children vouching 'to be like her when I grow up.'

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

Weekly Mission

Mrs Burley led the Monday School Assembly to celebrate World Mental Health Day which raises the awareness of looking after ourselves, how happy we are and how we feel. 

We all have mental health, just like we have physical health. Mental health is a person's condition with regard to emotional and social wellbeing. This can affect how we think, feel and act. The pupils shared ideas of how it is important to take care of our mental health. This could be by nurturing what's good for us and limiting things that have a negative impact on our mental health. Pupils from the Student Council in Year 6 read and acted out the story of Humpty Dumpty from a different perspective about accidents happening and how these accidents can have a positive effect. Humpty Dumpty had a fear of falling which resulted in him being remembered as an egg who feared heights, but persevering in trying to overcome this fear resulted in him learning to fly. The moral was that success can happen slowly and to have the courage to keep on trying without giving up. Mrs Burley shared a mindfulness technique called 'Blossom Breathing' with the school to help improve calmness by focussing on breathing and each form were given a wooden heart to remind them to 'breath' when feeling stressed. Mrs Burley ended the Assembly with the whole school sharing in a spirited dance routine.

Reception RE

In our Reception RE lesson we talked about the wonderful things we can all do. We had lots of fabulous answers like playing, smiling, running and listening. We then explored with the children their own individual gifts and how they are used, always remembering that our special gifts are given by God. We created our group prayers to thank God for these gifts and also to thank God for the gifts which God has given to other people that are different from ours and how to respect and show care to people who are different from us. We hope you like our photos!

Rosary Assembly

On Thursday, it was lovely to once again invite Father Kevin into school to lead an assembly on the theme of the Rosary. He explained to the pupils the significance of the months of October and May, where we are encouraged to think about Our Lady.

Pupils used rosary beads or their fingers to say a decade of the rosary and were asked to dedicate their prayers to the whole school community.

Christmas Decorations

It’s almost half-term and it is also Christmas Tree decoration time!

The theme this year is ‘Love and Compassion’ and the decoration is the shape of a heart.

Mrs Jackson-Mayne has shared the activity on Seesaw for over half-term as it is such a lovely activity to be involved in.

Food Bank

During the week beginning 31 October, we invite parents with pupils in Junior 1 to send in tins or packets of food or hygiene products so that these can be donated to people in need in our local community. Please give your donations to the class teacher who will put them in a box in the classroom. On Friday 4 November the donations will be taken to the Kenilworth, Leamington and Warwick Food Banks to help communities in need.

Donations particularly in need are:

Long Life UHT Milk
Washing up Liquid
Male & Female Deodorants
Shower Gel
Packets of Instant Mash
Tinned Vegetables
Jam
Toothpaste
Products to avoid: dried pasta, baked beans, soup and tea.

If you have any questions or indeed any suggestions in ways we could help our local community, please contact Mrs Jackson-Mayne at sjacksonmayne@crackleyhall.co.uk

Thank you all so much in advance.

Vocations Week 2022

Vocations Week runs between Monday 31 October to Friday 4 November.

We have an exciting week planned to celebrate the gifts and talents we have each been given by God.

Each House will be able to hotseat their Saint to find out more. A House quiz will take place on Wednesday to see what they remember.

Junior 3H will lead the All Saints' Mass at 9.15am on Tuesday 1 November.

Parents and members of our wider community will come to school from Monday to Thursday to explain what role they do and the talents that are needed to fulfil this role.

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

Jesus tells a story of a bad judge and a widow who would not give up, reminding us of how important it is to keep praying and never give up hope.

Activity Sheet

On Saturday 8 October, eight Junior 4 and 5 boys travelled to Repton Prep for their annual U10 football festival. The team played five excellent matches, all back-to-back without a rest. Despite the tough schedule, their attitude was brilliant throughout and they definitely improved as a team. Admirably, it was their ability to bounce back from disappointment that impressed most. Whenever they conceded a goal, they showed amazing determination and great skill to try and fight back, almost always creating a goalscoring opportunity. They also showed some exciting skills, and the highlight of the afternoon was Leo’s double Maradona spin, evading four players! A special mention must also go to Harry ‘Schmeichel’ B, who was outstanding in goal. Well done to all players who were involved.

U11B team played Bilton Grange on Wednesday. The final score was 1-0 to Bilton but the girls were fantastic and showed great determination. It was a brilliant result girls.

Crackley Hall played a very experienced Bilton Grange side on Wednesday. Crackley dug deep, showing great tackling and breakdown skills throughout the game. Mrs Thomas was impressed with how the team stuck together and showed great resilience against a very well drilled side.

Who isn’t curious about life under the sea? In Lego Club this week we were practically jumping out of our Lego boxes with excitement about investigating the oceans and introducing the official Lego Advent calendars! We played out our own daring sea rescue adventures and dived with submarines to explore the depths of the ocean floor. We saw a giant sea turtle gliding through the crystal-clear water - it was unanimous that Shelley was making her weekly appearance and we even found Bo the Seal lurking in the depths of some Lego bricks! Our submarines were built with inspection arms and a pirate treasure chest with hidden gems. We saw sponges, an underwater drone who went in search of a stingray, whilst mini-intrepid explorers chilled out on the coral covered ocean floor which was just teaming with amazing wildlife. What a wonderful sea world we made - and a thrilling raffle Advent calendar start too!  Happy Lego building during half-term everyone and remember – Keep Calm, Build Lego and always check the floor!

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

Please find attached a leaflet from Stamptastic which gives details of how you can purchase labels to make naming your child's uniform really easy.

We know that school are struggling with the amount of unnamed lost property and this is a very easy way to help them to return your child's expensive uniform to you whilst also boosting PTA funds.

For every order, the PTA receive 20-30% cashback - please quote the code CRACKLEY1.

www.stamptastic.co.uk 

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.

Two more weeks to take part before our October Draw.  

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. 

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.

Thank you to everyone who attended the October Coffee Day earlier this week.

We look forward to seeing you next month, Monday 7 November at 2pm. As always we look forward to meeting new faces, it's a great way to meet other new parents too.

Do please note the recent change of venue.

We now have many sports and uniform items back in stock. If you have any orders you would like to place, 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 

• 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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Esme (J6) - Black Water Bottle - please see photo