The Chronicle

Dear Parents 

I hope that everyone has settled into the school routine and the children are happy to be back in their normal term-time routine. This week I have had the opportunity and pleasure to speak with several parents - in the morning, after school, and during parent information evenings. It was lovely to see many new families, and I hope you gained valuable information about the school and the upcoming year. 
 
Beginning your parent academic journey at a new school comes with its own challenges. However, rest assured that with a little time, you'll become accustomed to the routines and expectations. The Chronicle can be a source of valuable information about events and extra-curricular activities as well as giving you an insight to school life. If there are any unforeseen changes to the week ahead, your child's teacher or the school office will keep you informed. If you require any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our welcoming office team or your child's teacher in the first instance. 
 
Participating in a social media group, such as a Parents WhatsApp group, can be an extremely helpful tool for connecting with other parents who have children in your child's class. It can be a great way to share information about upcoming school events and obtain valuable advice on parenting-related issues. However, it is important to keep in mind these groups are not officially affiliated with the school, and there is always the risk that inappropriate comments may be made in the chat or misinformation may be shared. To prevent any misunderstandings and ensure that our standards are upheld, we ask that all participants in Parents WhatsApp groups refer directly to the school for any information or queries and also exercise good judgement, consideration for others and respect for all when contributing any posts. Positivity and teamwork go a long way – so do the opposite approaches. 
 
The PTA held their AGM on Thursday, and I would like to thank our Chair, Mrs Maria Gordon and her committee very much for all that they do for the benefit of our school and pupils. The PTA is an integral part of the school community. It has been a tremendous source of help and support to the school over the years, both in terms of fundraising and social activities, and assisting at school events and with various projects.  The money raised by the PTA has funded many projects over the years which have been enjoyed by all. I am grateful to all parents who find time to help during their busy lives. As you can appreciate, however, they need a strong team of volunteers to commit to keep it functioning. It is totally flexible, whether you’re a full-time parent or working traditionally long hours, anyone can become involved. It is an ideal opportunity to meet and chat with a wider circle of families from different classes and year groups. Mums and dads, please do consider joining in whatever way that you can, even offering support at one-off events. 

We are already receiving numerous enquiries about our popular holiday club, and I can confirm that during the October half term, this will be available. Details of how to book and the timetable will be released soon. Further details of when it will run over the Christmas holidays will be circulated soon.  

Only recently the lovely staff in the front office were exchanging recipes for homemade soup and ginger ‘flu shots, while also deliberating on the best places to purchase pumpkin spice candles for the approaching winter season. However, I did not expect to see the arrival of COVID-19 and winter illnesses so soon. Therefore, I strongly ask that you take the time to remind your children on the importance of proper hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or elbow, to safeguard the well-being of all individuals.

Our school has a strong tradition of celebrating achievement and encouraging children’s self-esteem. Our weekly Celebration Assemblies are used to formally celebrate and reward children’s achievements in class and outside of school. Parents are always warmly invited to join us at our assemblies. I was impressed by the number of awards and achievements by the children this week. Congratulations to all our Stars of the week: Nursery: Reeyan and Hari; Reception: Rosie and Isher; Junior 1: Jamie and Margot; Junior 2: Ella and May; Junior 3: William and Harriet; Junior 4: Beatrice and Francesca; Junior 5: Ava and Zara and Junior 6: Phoebe and Arthur. We were treated to a wonderful performance in assembly from Matilda by Daiya, Jessie, Diya, Harriet and Grace, and Sienna was excellent on the piano – well done to all of them. There were fantastic achievements by pupils outside of school, particularly by Isaac in making the Warwickshire tennis training squad for the fourth year running and Henry who won his category at the Leamington Music Festival. Congratulations to Venus for winning this week’s house competition. 
 
A lot of sport awaits us this weekend and Ireland are favourites as they come up against the Springboks. England have an easy game against Chile, hopefully Wales will do well against Australia in a make-or-break game and Scotland should beat Tonga. 
 
Have a lovely weekend with your families.  

God bless

Rob Duigan

"Children don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are."

Jim Henson

Please find attached the termly curriculum sheet for your child's year group:

Nursery

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

If your child is interested in taking music or singing lessons at school, please complete the below Expression of Interest Form and hand in to the school office

Expression of Interest Form

When dropping off in the morning, if you are using carline, please move round the roundabout before dropping off and do not leave your car unattended. Carline can cause traffic issues on the Kenilworth Road, so please be mindful.

If you are dropping off and wish to walk your child up to the school or are coming into school please use the Lower Playground or the Sports Field. Please remember to park considerately as parking is at a premium.

We would ask that if you use the lower playground at morning drop off, that you leave the school site promptly, as parking is at a premium, and it has been causing traffic congestion.

Please do not park on the Grasscrete Parking area or on the left hand side when you enter the school main carline, as these are both staff parking areas.

Where possible, please avoid parking on the local residential roads, and if you do, please park considerately and legally. 

When collecting in the evening, please adhere to the collection times, as if you arrive too early, this causes traffic congestion. If you are early, we would suggest parking on the Sports Field and walking up to school.

If you are unsure or wish to clarify any points, please call the School Office.

 Please see below the carline locations and collections for the Michaelmas Term:

Please see below collection locations for after games lessons (but not clubs):

If you require either permanent or occassional Aftercare for the new Term will need to book in their intentions by emailing aftercare@crackleyhall.co.uk or receptionist@crackleyhall.co.uk with as much notice as possible to ensure the children attending, receive tea.

If you have booked an Aftercare session, it would also be helpful to let your child know.

Please also note that permanent bookings are only valid for the term, due to club and activity changes.

Any children who are not collected from carline, for example if parents are stuck in traffic, will be taken to Aftercare at 4.15pm, when carline finishes and charged accordingly.

Aftercare runs from 3.45 pm until 6:00pm, with charges being £5.00 per hour or part thereof.

Childcare vouchers can be used as payment or part payment for Aftercare.

The office closes at 4.30pm, please call Aftercare directly on 07732 036625 if you need the staff after this time.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

In their final year at Crackley Hall, Junior 6 take on leadership responsibilities. This morning in Celebration Assembly, Mr Duigan had the great pleasure of introducing the new Captains, Stewards and Prefects for the 2023-2024 academic year, and of presenting pupils with their badges of office.

This year sees the return of Form Prefects, with each form allocated a specific Junior 6 prefect to support and guide the pupils in that form. Every pupil in Junior 6 takes on a role either as a Captain, Steward or Prefect and together they support the running of the school. Mr Duigan spoke about the importance of their responsibilities and encouraged pupils to rise to the challenge of their new roles as excellent leaders and role models for the younger pupils.

We look forward to working with you Junior 6.

Ms Holmes is excited to announce the theme for this half-term's inter-house Art competition is HARVEST. You can take the idea of Harvest Festival from any culture you like, remember it’s all about colour, shape and foods grown in the countryside

Work should be the child's own, completed and handed in with their name, year group and most importantly their House, before the closing date on Wednesday 18 October. Work should be no larger than A3 please. They can work in any medium you like; pencil, pen, paint, crayon, pastel, junk box, paper, charcoal – it’s up to them.

The information is also on SEESAW for your reference.

Beaky the Owl says get creating Crackley Hall!

Ms Holmes is looking for your unwanted/unused costume jewellery please for an art project.

If you are happy to donate, please leave them in a named envelope with the school office, so she can thank you personally. Ms Holmes is particularly looking for faux pearls.

Please note, they would be used for the project and not returned.

Thank you in advance. 

We love to celebrate our pupils' talents so every week in Celebration Assembly we hear of pupil success and achievements and we watch performances by some of our pupils. Here are photos from this morning.

A huge well done to all.

This week in science Junior 6 have been budding taxonomists (someone who classifies living things); thinking about how we can classify all living things based on various criteria. Is it a fungus? Can it fly? Does it make Mrs Vaughan jump up in the air when we hide it on her chair? We even spent one lesson exploring the outdoor classroom and playgrounds hunting for our own specimens to classify. It was amazing to discover all the plants and critters that make their homes within our school. Well done Junior 6; with your curiosity and enthusiasm, we know you’d all make super scientists one day.

Junior 5L have been learning about the creation of life in Religious Education over the last two weeks. They have been exploring both the Hindu and Christian creation story, creating comic strips to show the story’s journey from beginning to end. The children watched a video clip about each story and read the bible verses relating to the creation story. Through discussion, they recognised the similarities and differences between the two stories. The children have further explored the two different creation stories found in Gensis, comparing them and identifying both the similarities and differences.

In Music this week, Junior 4 revised their recorder notes, crotchets, minims and high notes.  We discussed the amazing opportunity of taking part in the Young Voices Choir next year on Friday, 12 January in Birmingham. Young Voices is an organisation that runs children's choir concerts hosted in arenas and stadiums throughout the world. Prior to the concert they provide schools with music, lyrics and dance moves. Junior 4 practised with actions the Walking Medley, including the Lambeth Walk and These Boots are Made for Walkin'. Accompanying the children from many different schools will be a full live band and backing singers. Historically, they have collaborated with celebrities such as Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet), Gary Barlow (Take That), and Clean Bandit. Let's get ready to rock, Junior 4!

This week Junior 3 have been really getting to grips with their mathematics topic of place value. We have used base 10 and place value counters to represent numbers to 1,000 and have begun to use these skills to add 1, 10 and 100 to any number. We are all working hard to practise our Maths Passport targets and have enjoyed our fluency sessions where we get to practise using games and the ipads. In our Art lessons we have already turned our minds to the festive season as we prepared our Christmas cards ready for printing.

This week in Junior 2, it has been all about dragon's eggs! The children received a letter from Professor Hanan al-Hroub from Warwick University. She is conducting a very important experiment. She believes that the character of dragons is changed by the environment in which the egg lays, and she is hoping that by having the egg in our classroom for three weeks, the baby dragons will be born with a kind and hard-working nature. The egg will have to be returned to the university before it hatches, but we will receive news, and possibly some pictures following the birth. The only problem was that the egg disappeared! Thankfully, we found it and we are keeping it very safe, showing it how to love and care for each other so that when they hatch, they will grow to be as wonderful as Junior 2 are. We have also created dragon world landscapes to help ignite our imaginations for our English lessons next week. 

This week Junior 1 have been tantalising their tastebuds by exploring the sense of taste in their Science lessons. Everyone had lots of fun trying different foods which were sour, sweet or bitter before recording their preferences. Our lessons also included learning how the parts of the tongue could detect the different tastes. On Monday we started our focus book The Little Red Hen by retelling the story with Mighty Writer before re-enacting and sequencing the story. Our Geography lesson was also a wonderful practical experience when we all went to look at different styles of houses in the local area. We are so lucky to have a variety of flats, semi-detached and detached houses, as well as new and old properties nearby.

What a week we have had in Reception! We have embraced the autumnal weather and have sploshed and splashed around outside in our puddlesuits at playtime, as well as adventuring at Forest School. We have also been naming different parts of the body using correct terminology and enjoyed finding the different pictures of parts of the body on a scavenger hunt around the playground. The children have continued to adapt to our school routines and we couldn’t be prouder of everything they are achieving!

This week the children have been making potions outside, using mud, sticks, petals and leaves. We had a go at making up some spells that rhyme together.

The children also embraced a massive rain downpour and the magic of being 3-years-old…the squeals of delight as they pretended to have outdoor showers and wash their hair!

This week in RE, Junior 2 have been learning about the Old Testament and how it is a collection of books, stories and events which happened to the Israelite people before Jesus came. They pretended they were Noah and were able to understand why this story from the Old Testament is so special. They even had a go at role-playing!

Please click on the link below for this week's Weekly Mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy
A children's liturgy resource for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). Jesus tells us a story about some workers who all receive the same wages, even though some worked all day and some just worked for an hour.

Activity Sheet 

Please check team sheets and further details on www.crackleyhallsport.co.uk

At lunchtime, Junior 1 enjoyed Cartoon Club. The children are following six steps to draw cartoon characters and some are progressing so well that they have even started to put the speech bubbles in too! We were fascinated by the characters they are choosing that include spacecraft and objects. Lots of imagination and creativity on show here along with plenty of concentration. Keep going, Junior 1!

Roar! Growl!! Grrr! Yes, Lego Club is back full of fun and action with the world’s wildest animals! We put our thinking caps on this week to welcome animals with a difference.  We thought how awesome it would be if animals could show their feelings on their faces the same way people do, so we conjured up some wildlife with a cheetah looking happy, a pig looking sleepy, a lion looking surprised, bees buzzing around blisssfully content in a pool full of nectar, and a flock of sheep looking graceful in the ocean.  With a bucket full of Lego, we can tell any story.

As a reminder, please find attached the Extra-Curricular Club Timetable:

Michaelmas Club Timetable

Changes to Extra Curricular Clubs

J5 and J6 Chamber Choir has moved to Thursday morning, from Wednesday.

J5 Art & DT Club has moved to Friday afternoon, from Thursday.

J1 Cartoon Drawing has moved to Friday lunchtime (12:30), from Monday

Rec Yoga has moved to Tuesday lunchtime (12:30), from Monday

Cancellations to Extra Curricular Clubs

There are no club cancellations for this week.

Afterschool Clubs - pick up locations and times

Mondays

J1 Rugby Tots - 3.45pm - Lower Playground

J3 to J6 Move It Shake It - 4.45pm - Gables

J4 STEAM Club - 4.45pm - Front Steps

J5 and J6 Girls Hockey Club - 5.00pm at North Leam School or 5.20pm at Crackley Hall

Tuesdays

J1 and J2 Eco Club - 4.15pm - Front Steps

J1 and J2 Coding Club - 4.15pm - Front Steps

J3 and J4 Hockey Club - 4.30pm - Lower Playground

J4 to J6 Fencing Club - 4.45pm - Gables

Rec to J6 Bayleaf Cookery - 4.45pm - Front Steps

J3 to J6 STEM Young Engineers - 5.00pm - Science Room Door 

Wednesdays

Rec to J2 Move It Shake It - 4.15pm - Gables

J5 and J6 Girls Football Club - 4.30pm - Crackley Hall Playing Fields

J5 and J6 Boys Football Club - 4.30pm - Crackley Hall Playing Fields

Thursdays

J3 and J4 Girls Football Club - 4.30pm - Crackley Hall Playing Fields

J3 and J4 Boys Football Club - 4.30pm - Crackley Hall Playing Fields

Fridays

J1 and J2 ATMA Karate - 4.00pm - Gables

J1 to J6 Complete Cricket - 4.30pm - Lower Playground

J5 Art and DT Workshop - 4.45pm - Science Room Door

J3 to J6 ATMA Karate - 5.00pm - Gables

We're very much looking forward to our first event this term, the children's activity afternoon tomorrow, Saturday 23 September.

We have lots of opportunities for roles both on and off the core committee, all of which play a part in shaping the extra experiences we can offer our children, often the fun ones!  In the last year it has been the PTA that has organised popular events such as the Colour Run, Christmas and Summer Fayres and the Christmas pantomime.

We support a whole host of other activities too, such as Fairtrade Fortnight, One World Week, the Inter School Cross Country Championships and many other sporting and social activities.  

Joining meetings and participating is a great way to enhance the experience for your child and for you too! There are lots of ad-hoc ways to help without huge ongoing commitment.  Please do join the meeting and/or get in touch.

Children's Activity Social

We're holding a relaxed social at the school tomorrow, Saturday 23 September from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. Please do join us for an easy afternoon of catching up and letting the children play with new and old friends.  

We will be welcoming an African dance leader to our event who will run two, free of charge workshops, maximum 20 children per workshop. As there are limited numbers, the workshops are ticketed and are available first come first served on the PTA events platform with the following link: click here.

We will have art activities and ball games available for everyone. The bar will be open selling drinks and snacks plus free tea, coffee and squash. 

Our hello@pta.crackleyhall.co.uk address is experiencing issues temporarily so any questions, thoughts or ideas do contact us via the office or mariagordonpta@gmail.com.

Pre-loved Uniform

The weather is slightly chiller now and we have winter uniform in stock. We will continue to sell jumpers, coats and winter pinafores for the next few weeks. If you have any orders you would like to place, please email uniform@pta.crackleyhall.co.uk. Please remember that we are volunteer run and aim to get back to you within seven days. We are continually grateful for donations, and these can be dropped into the box labelled ‘PTA uniform’, located in the front porch of the school. A huge thank you for your support; we couldn’t run the second hand shop without your generous donations.

Next PTA Meeting

Our next PTA meeting will be held at 4.30pm in the school hall on Thursday 5 October. All are welcome.

Save the Date!  Crackley's Got Talent

It's back and will be better than ever. Our amazing children will be dazzling us with their performances as individuals and/or groups. Make sure you save the date - Friday October 13 from 5.30pm to 8.00pm.  Lucky for us!

Please see the attached menus for the Michaelmas Term. These rotate on a five weekly basis.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

For children who require any medication periodically or on a permanent basis, the Office will require a completed Administration of Medication Form a copy is attached for your convenience. 

Administration of Medication Form

Please ensure that any medication brought into school is in date and labelled with your child's name and form.

Please hand medication into the School Office, please do not give to your child to hand in. 

Please click on the link for the 2023-2024 term dates.

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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To order uniform please use the electronic form.

New Uniform Order

Earrings of any description are a health and safety issue and must not be worn.

We are aware that some children have had their ears pierced during the holidays and are therefore unable to remove their earrings for six weeks. During this time, earrings (plain studs only) can be worn to school but must be covered with tape or a plaster at all times.  After the six weeks has elapsed and the hole has formed, earrings should not be worn to school. 

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

Princethorpe College

• Examinations Invigilator

Crescent School

• Learning Support Assistant
• Supply Teacher

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