The Chronicle

This year's winning Crackley Hall Christmas Card design is by Rosie Russell from J6H. Her simple design captures the spirit of the season featuring a star shining down on the nativity. The design will feature on the front of every card sent out by the Headmaster this advent.

Mr Duigan commented, "Rosie’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 Mairen (J6V), Beatrice (J5W), Anthony (J4R), Archie (J3H) and Jessica (J3V).

Thank you to all those pupils who made a decoration for our entry into the St Nicholas' Christmas Tree Festival. The tree is now on display at St Nicholas Church. There is an opportunity to visit the church on Friday after the light switch on and on Saturday to see the many trees on display. The church looks lovely so do go and have a look. Please go and vote for your favourite tree and join in this wonderful community event.

Vaughan Woollacott has just been selected for Warwickshire’s U10 Boys Development Cricket Squad. Vaughan, who is in Junior 5 at Crackley Hall School, is just ten years old but has already played cricket for five years. He currently plays for Corley Cricket Club, in their U10 team.

Vaughan attended a selection camp at Edgbaston Cricket Ground with 150 other hopefuls where he showed off his hardball batting, bowling and fielding skills. He will now train weekly through the winter honing his cricket skills, with a view to being selected to play matches against other counties.

Vaughan is a key member of the school’s U10 cricket team who particularly enjoys the challenge of wicket keeping and catching, and he clearly impressed the selection coaches with his all-round excellent play.

Headmaster, and cricket enthusiast, Rob Duigan, comments, “We are very proud of Vaughan, he is a talented and exciting cricketer, and this is a great opportunity for him. We look forward to following his progress over the winter in the Development Squad.”

Vaughan is thrilled, commenting, “I love playing cricket.” And so he should be, as being selected for the Development Squad is a real achievement and a pathway onto the Regional and National Academy programmes.

The Primary Mathematics Challenge is a fun and exciting mathematical challenge aimed at pupils in Years 5 and 6.

The PMC is not designed to be just another test in the school year. The PMC encourages enthusiasm, boosts confidence in mathematics and shows the different way questions can be asked. Problem solving is hugely important as a means of helping pupils develop their reasoning skills.

The PMC is designed to make pupils think outside the box. The questions asked are not necessarily subjects that have been covered in the curriculum by this time but the questions can create a great starting point and lead to discussions later in the year. The questions are not heavily reliant on formal mathematical knowledge, but can be solved by logical reasoning.

At Crackley this year we had 20 Junior 6 pupils and 17 Junior 5 pupils take part in the Primary Maths Challenge and we were delighted with the results.

Gold – Theo, Lucas, Georgie, Matilda, Georgina, Ding and Arthur

Silver – Julia, Leo, Amalia, Kit, Jay, Andew, Isabella, Nell, Molly, Beatrice  and Sara

Bronze – Emily, Leani, Penny, Mairen, Darcey, Fergus, Elizabeth, Finley, Elora and Harry

The Gold and Silver winners have had their scores submitted to go through to the next round, but this will depend on what the threshold score is this year. Hopefully we will have some pupils who qualify.

A huge well done to all pupils who took part!

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

As we approach Advent, we help the children to understand that it is a time for preparing for Christmas, both practically and spiritually. During our RE lessons, drama and assemblies we think about the true message of Christmas.

This year we have decided as a school, to take part in a Reverse Advent Calendar. This is when the pupils and staff each pick a number from 1 – 25 out of a hat. On that day they then bring in either an item of food, a toiletry product or a small toy.

The donations will be collected by the class teachers who will put them in a box in the classroom.  They will be displayed at the Advent Mass and the final assembly of the year.

All the donations will be collected on Friday 16 December and taken to Kenilworth, Leamington and Warwick Food Banks to help communities in need. Please check out www.warwickdistrict.foodbank.org.uk to find out more.

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

Please do not send in these items if at all possible:

• Dried pasta
• Baked beans
• Soup
• Tea

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

Thank you for your support.