The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

17 pupils from Crackley Hall School are celebrating after winning the Meredith Cup for Choral Speaking at the 2023 Nuneaton Festival of Arts.

Crackley Hall’s Key Stage 2 Performance Poetry Club competed in the Juniors competition, in the Speech and Drama section of the festival, when they performed their poems at the Abbey Theatre in Nuneaton on Monday 24 April.

The pupils impressed the judge, the professional actress and famous poet Eleanor McLeod, with their beautiful performance of Television by Roald Dahl and My Little Red Alarm Clock by Michael Rosen.

The Group were awarded first place and ‘Distinction’ with a superb score of 88%, with the judge commenting on their perfect synchronisation, on how they emphasised certain words using different vocals to add meaning, and on how they physically performed their poems.

Drama teacher, Nicki Wildey, was delighted, commenting, “We are so proud of the children’s commitment to Performance Poetry. They have worked really hard and to come first is such an achievement. They have made us, their parents and the whole school very proud.”

Teams from local catholic primary schools visited Crackley Hall School on Thursday 27 April to take part in its first ever School Debate competition. Each team consisted of four or five Year 6 pupils and they were all welcomed by Crackley Hall’s Teacher and RE Co-ordinator Mrs Susanne Jackson Mayne who had organised the debate.

Each of the six teams taking part had been pre-allocated one of three questions to prepare on subjects that included: ‘Flights per person should be restricted’, ‘All packaging should be banned’ and ‘Voting age should be lowered to 16’. Pupils had worked together with their teachers to plan their arguments for and against the motions.

Judging the competition was Chris Lynn, the local CAFOD Co-ordinator, and Mike Swinburne from the Kenilworth parish.

St Augustine’s Catholic School, Kenilworth, and Our Lady’s Catholic School, Alcester, went first and they put forward persuasive arguments on whether flights should be restricted or allowed. They were followed by Our Lady and St Teresa’s Catholic School, Leamington, and Crackley Hall School, Kenilworth, who spoke passionately about the benefits and problems that packaging could cause. Finally, Winterfold House Catholic School, Kidderminster, and St Gregory’s Catholic School, Stratford, debated whether the voting age be lowered to 16.

All the teams rose fantastically to the challenge, presenting strong arguments for and against subjects that were clearly close to their hearts. The competition was tough, but the teams showed some impressive debating skills, made some very strong points of information, handled questions, put forward counter arguments and kept their cool throughout.

After all the teams had spoken the judges took time to consider their arguments reflecting on the points the pupils had made. Announcing their decision, they stressed how close the competition had been and how impressed they were by the children.

Many congratulations to all the participants who stood up in front of the audience and spoke. Public speaking is such an important skill, and it was great to see the children presenting their arguments with such confidence.

A huge well done to Crackley Hall School who were declared the winners of the debate, winning £50 to donate to a charity of their choice. £100 was also donated to CAFOD.

Many thanks to all of the schools for participating so enthusiastically and to the judges for supporting the debate.

Our U11 Netball team competed in the ISA Netball Nationals on Wednesday 26 April which was held locally at Rugby School. It was such a huge achievement for the girls to have even qualified for this prestigious national event where they faced the very best teams in the country. Historically, we have found this tournament to be a real step up in standard, both from a speed and skills perspective. However, the girls had trained hard for the challenges and approached the day positively with a mixture of nerves and excitement.

The girls started the tournament well, with a 5-2 win over Lingfield (the first time we have ever beaten them in this tournament). Next, they played Ursuline and narrowly lost 3-2.
Another close game against Polwhele House led to a 3-2 defeat. Then they played an exceptionally strong school (Lady Barn House), who played some amazing netball resulting in a 15-1 loss. Crackley’s girls showed real resilience following this defeat, picking themselves up and playing really well in their last pool game against Abbott’s Hill to draw 4-4. The team finished fifth in their group and went forward to the Bowl competition.

The quarter finals saw Crackley Hall facing St Edward’s Prep School. Following a well fought contest, Crackley came out the victors with a 5-2 win. In the semi-finals, the contest continued to be end to end action, with a really well matched opposition (Broomfield). Following a nail-biting game, Crackley were eventually defeated 4-3.

The girls then faced the third-place play-offs against Loreto Prep. At half time, Crackley were down by 3 goals to 1. They fought hard and brought the score back to 4-4 by full time. This meant the dreaded golden goal! It took more than 5 minutes for either team to score, with nerves playing a big part towards the ability to finish. Eventually, Loreto School secured a goal, so winning 3rd place.

As always, the girls did Crackley Hall proud. We had several comments from different teams saying how lovely our team were – polite, fair playing and positive. They were lovely comments from schools not known to us.

Mrs Vaughan would like to extend Crackley Hall’s thanks to:
• Dr Rea for her coaching sessions in the lead up to the tournament. The girls found these invaluable and most definitely helped them on the day.
• Crackley’s PTA for the beautiful new bibs worn by the girls on the day. Our girls really looked the part and were so smart!
• Mrs Divers for her support on the day
• The parent supporters – as always, more (and louder) than any other school!

Playing for Crackley Hall School in the U11 National Netball Squad were:
Georgie S, Georgie R, Leani dT, Esme C, Penny T, Jia M, Nell K, Lexi W, Emily D

A huge well done to them all!

Junior 5 pupils enjoyed a day at Princethorpe College on Thursday 27 April, taking part in a special Crackley Hall School only taster day. It was an early opportunity for them to experience life at the Foundation’s senior school and start to become familiar with the bigger school environment, helping to make the move to secondary school a less daunting experience.

Pupils have taken part in lessons such as Science, Spanish, French, Art, RE, Geography, Food Tech and Computer Science. They have also had a walk around the school buildings, enjoyed a legendary Princethorpe cookie, spotted old Crackley friends now at Princethorpe, taken lunch in the Refectory and participated in other activities including a Q&A with the prefects. At the end of the day they had the chance to familiarise themselves with the CEM tests used on entrance examinations day.

Their parents were invited to Princethorpe too, to meet members of the Senior Leadership Team at the end of the day.

Parents are reminded that Crackley Hall School children are not automatically entered for Princethorpe’s Entrance Examinations. Those wishing to apply for September 2024 entry must complete a registration form by Friday 29 September at the latest, with the Entrance Examinations then taking place on Saturday 11 November.

More information is available from the Admissions Office at Princethorpe, they can be contacted on 01926 634201/297 or by email at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

The new Crackley book-swap is now up and running! Please encourage your children to bring in any books in a good condition which they no longer want, to enable them to swap for another book(s).  Huge thanks again to the Lee family for the idea and implementation of the book swap; it is a marvellous and valuable addition to our school.

On Thursday 27 April, Warwickshire’s Road Safety Team visited school to work with Junior 6.

The children took part in a special session refreshing their knowledge and understanding of road safety and looking at why young people can fail to act safely when they are out and about on the roads.

As the children move on to secondary school, they face many distractions such as the use of mobile phones and headphones, time pressures and peer pressures, and these can all impact on their road safety decisions.

During their session, pupils learned to identify impulsive behaviour and how to develop coping strategies to enable them to stay safe. 

Many thanks to Warwickshire Road Safety for providing the safety session.