The Chronicle

Dear Parents 
 
A warm welcome to the penultimate Chronicle of this half term. It's remarkable how swiftly the first half of Michaelmas term has flown by, and the school calendar is becoming increasingly busy with each passing day. As you read the various articles, you will notice that this week has been full of activities that have brought together pupils from various year groups. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all staff members who have coordinated these events, as they all contribute significantly to the educational journey of our children. 

On Tuesday, the School Photography Company captured both group and individual portraits of all the children. Once these portraits are ready, we will notify you of their accessibility online. We intend to arrange another photography session later this term for the small number of children who were unable to participate in this week’s session. This will provide them with the opportunity to have their individual and sibling photos taken. We will relay the date for this to parents when the company has advised us of their availability.   

Every child has unique strengths and interests, and I strongly believe that each one possesses a special ability that sets them apart from others. Our school values these strengths and provides a range of clubs to help students explore and develop their abilities. Recently, we received fantastic news that several of our pupils won, or were placed second, in the ISA Midlands Art Competition. Their work will now advance to the ISA National Art Competition. This is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary artwork created by our pupils and acknowledge their talent and hard work. Congratulations to all of the pupils who participated, and a special congratulations, also, to Ruby Harris, a former Crackley pupil, for winning first place in the Art 2D individual KS5 class. We are incredibly proud of all of them and eagerly anticipate seeing their continued growth and success. 

As we approach our upcoming online parent consultation evening, I am most appreciative of your unwavering support for your children and our teachers, as we work together to help them on their journeys. Your continued commitment to your child's education is essential and wonderful at the same time and we cannot thank you enough. If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to use the link that was previously sent to you and book your slot for the consultation evening at your earliest convenience. 
 
For parents of children who require medication, we understand that it can be a challenging responsibility. We are here to help and to make the process as easy as possible. Simply fill out the Administration of Medication Form. It's important to make sure the medication is in date and labelled with your child's name and year group. When you bring it to school, please hand it to the school office, and not to your child.  

As next week is the last week before half term it will no doubt pass very quickly so, please take note of any notices in the Chronicle as there may be deadlines and responses needed before school closes for the half term break. However, as you probably know Holiday Club will be operating throughout the two weeks of half term and I am told that there are a few spaces available should you need to book a place. To access the school during Holiday Club hours, please use the Gables entrance where a member of staff will meet you and then ask you to sign your child into the club. 

In Assembly this morning I congratulated our Stars of the Week who were Nursery - Ned and Kiara; Rec - Aurora and Amelie; J1 – Edison and Wilson; J2 - Alexander and George; J3 – Sloane Liana; J4 Patrick and William; J5 – Rory and Othniel; and J6 – Lizzie and Phoebe. Well done to everyone! Congratulations to the pupils who received their Da Vinci’s for outstanding work and those who received various awards at their clubs. The Choral Group and Orchestra were both excellent at this morning’s assembly and I commend them on their hard work and super performances. Grace’s violin performance was also absolutely wonderful and it was a joy to hear her play. Well done to all the pupils. Congratulations to Jupiter House on winning the weekly house points competition. 

We have quite a week of sport to look forward to again. There is international football, the Men’s Cricket World Cup group matches and the Men’s Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals. I am not very confident about the Springboks’ chances against the home nation, France. I hope that everyone manages to enjoy the weekend with friends and family and, also, to have a good rest. 
 
God bless 
Rob Duigan 

"The best way to predict the future, is to create it." - Peter Drucker.

October Half Term Holiday club will be running from Monday 23 October until Friday 3 November.

Click here to see our jam-packed programme of fun activities, including some exciting trips out of school (additional charges will apply).

Please email holidayclub@crackleyhall.co.uk to make your booking.

Sustainability Challenge

Choose one of the tasks on the attached sheet to complete over the half term break.  Bring your ideas to school in any format, to share with your class teacher by Friday 10 November for a whole school display.  Be as creative as possible!

How does the food we eat directly impact the world around us?

More than half of the habitable space on Earth is currently used for food production, and the world's population is likely to grow by as much as 25% by the year 2050. Meat production methods in particular are contributing significantly to climate change. It is clear that something in the food supply chain needs to change. As we look to venture beyond Earth in the future, sustainable food productoon is one of the many challenges that we need to overcome before off-world living is a self sustaining option.

Sustainability Tasks - check the attached sheet here for further information

1. Where does our food come from?

2. Plan a mini farm

3. Did you know?

Show off your ideas for more sustainable farming and food production.

Online Parents Evening Meetings will be taking place on Tuesday 17 and Thursday 19 October 2023.

For children in Reception to Junior 5 this will be a 10 minute pastoral meeting with your child's form teacher.

For children in Junior 6 this will be a 5 minute academic progress meeting with your both your child's English and Maths teachers.

Bookings can be made through My School Portal - https://princethorpe.myschoolportal.co.uk

Bookings close on Friday 13 October at 11.00pm.

A parent guide to booking on My School Portal is available here.

Our early bird deadline for registrations for September 2024 Reception entry is Friday 20 October. We advise those already attending Little Crackers in the pre-school year and siblings who are considering registering for 2024 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.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

We have just received the exciting news that Avni and Amaya, who are now in Junior 1 and Junior 2 respectively, have come first in the Independent Schools Association’s (ISA) Regional Art Competition. While Sara and Harry (both now in Junior 6) and last year’s Junior 1 and Junior 5L have taken second place in this prestigious competition.

Every year the ISA hold an Art competition and Crackley Hall always takes part. It is a great way to celebrate the outstanding artwork produced by pupils across the school.

This year, Avni has taken first place with her striking Barn Owl pastel in the Art 2D Individual EYFS class while Amaya’s lovely painting, Fish Blowing Bubbles has won the Art 2D Individual KS1 class.

Last year’s Junior 1 placed second in the Art 3D Group KS1 class with Birds In A Terracotta Pot, Junior 5L’s Winter Print also took second in the Textiles Group KS2 class and Sara and Harry were awarded second for their Tudor Portraits in the Art 2D Group KS2 class.

We congratulate all the young artists on their super success.

Avni and Amaya’s work now goes forward to the ISA National Art Competition, that takes place locally, at Chesford Grange, in November.

It was great to see Princethorpe College’s artists doing well too with the College taking three firsts and a second place, including a former Crackley Hall pupil Ruby Harris who was awarded first place in the Art 2D Individual KS5 class for her piece Junk Food.

On Monday 9 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 52 pairs of enthusiastic and very talented mathematicians from 25 local schools, the pupils took part in a series of puzzles against the clock. In five eight-minute rounds the children tackled Tangram Triangles, Broken Calculators, Domino Jigsaws, Make 24, 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.

Felix and Evie and Ain and Grace had lots of fun solving a range of tricky mathematics challenges, they were amazing finishing in 5th and 12th place, scoring 111 and 91 points respectively.

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, there were some very talented mathematicians taking part and they made Crackley Hall School proud.”

Father Kevin visited the school on Thursday to talk to the pupils about the Rosary, as October is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Rosary of Mary. Fr Kevin explained how the beads of the Rosary are divided into five decades, each decade representing an event in the life of Jesus. These five events are then grouped into a set of four mysteries, with each looking at an important part of the life of Jesus. The Rosary beads provide a method of keeping count of the different parts of the prayer and the fingers are moved along the beads as the prayers are said. Take a look at Junior 2 in the Spiritual section as during their lessons this week they each made their very own Rosary beads!

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

A huge well done to all.

Reception children have been busy this week, learning to recognise and then blend and segment with our new letters: h, b, f and l. We are super proud of the progress everyone is making as we zip through these initial sounds, and we must thank you for the support you are giving them at home. In Maths, we focused on measuring, initially comparing sizes of objects, then we moved onto mass and capacity – even turning ourselves into human scales! We worked in a very practical way, from building towers to comparing the heights, to meeting Mrs O’Carroll-Bailey’s favourite teddies and giving them a picnic as we compared large and small, big and little, whilst making sure each teddy had the right plate and food! 

Junior 6 children have been studying fabulous fungi this week and finding out how these amazing organisms differ from flowering plants. They have learnt about where fungi grow, how big they can get and how they can be useful (making bread and decomposing dead things), and not just disgusting (athletes foot and mouldy fruit). The children have made some predictions about what they believe to be the best environment for fungi to grow and are now testing their theories through experimental investigation… they have tried to recreate an ideal mould-growing environment for bread and are now awaiting the results as our bread slices cultivate in the classroom! Beware Junior 6 classrooms… only fun-gi’s are allowed!

Junior 5 have continued to have fun with their Flanimals topic this week, working hard to complete instructional texts. They used imperative verbs to tell people how to catch their Flanimal and carefully selected adverbs to help describe how to feed them. We’ve loved hearing their ideas and are so pleased to see how motivated they are to discover and use new, sophisticated vocabulary. One week to go until a well-deserved break – keep up the great work, Junior 5!

This week, to tie in with our Science topic, 'Sound', Junior 4 made a fabulous range of musical instruments. They explored and grouped instruments in their Science lessons, whilst carefully observing which parts vibrate to create sound. They were then asked to plan and make a musical instrument out of junk materials. We were all wowed by the effort and expertise of our young designers, who shared and played their instruments to their peers. Well done, Junior 4!

Junior 3 have been imagining that they are very hungry Paleonithic and Mesolithic Stone Age children, and have to go hunting and gathering for food! In groups, the children used authentic baskets to ‘gather’ fruit, berries, nuts and seeds, whilst ‘hunting’ for animals to provide protein to their diet. We had to be very careful as there were some poisonous berries and mushrooms that we had to avoid! We learnt which foods would have been available in different seasons, and soon found out that winter would have been a very tough time for hunter gatherers in the Stone Age, leading to farming becoming more prevalent in the Neolithic Stone Age.

In Junior 2, the excitement had grown to fever pitch as we prepared ourselves to visit Warwick Castle. The day was electrifying as we wandered through stately rooms and immersed ourselves in the history of this beautiful environment. The children were very keen to share learning ideas thorough real-life experiences - we even had a chance to visit the Princes Tower. We had a lovely lunch altogether chatting about our day and fostering a sense of camaraderie. After lunch we were able to explore the gardens and marvel at the breathtaking grounds. The day complimented our current topic in History where we are learning about castles.

Giant listening ears were made and worn this week in Science to help us be more aware of the sounds that are around our school during the day. In Geography we took a trip up to Coventry Road and carried out a survey of the different types of vehicles that pass by our school while we are all busy working. To help celebrate Black History Month, we looked at the artist Alma Thomas in our Art lessons and have begun to create some wonderfully bright and colourful paintings inspired by her work. In History we compared household items that were used in the Victorian times with the modern versions that are used nowadays. We all decided it is much easier to do your washing now, than in the past! Finally, we finished looking at the story of The Little Red Hen by writing out the story in our own words using our story map to help.

This week in Nursery the children have been learning about farming. They have been busy digging the soil in the raised bed, before planting the bulbs ready for spring. They have also enjoyed digging for carrots and potatoes in the classroom.

The children have been using the wind fallen apples from Mrs Whitehurst’s Orchard to practise their counting: taking turns to read the quantity shown on a spinner and to compare numbers in the ‘great apple tower challenge’. The children have also been getting messy exploring colour mixing in the shaving foam, and printing with leaves.

The Dormice had great fun stomping through the woods on their wellie walk!

We were delighted with the response to our request for donations for our local Food Bank during the lead up to our Harvest Mass.

We wish to continue to support our local community through the work of the Food Bank during this academic year. Each month a different class will be asked to bring donations for the foodbank. This month, October, we would like to ask Junior 6 pupils to bring in their foodbank contributions. This is an excellent opportunity to put love in to action.

Please bring in donations during the month of October and the first week back after half term. All donations will be collected on Friday 10 November.

Thank you in advance for your continued generosity.

To coincide with the visit of Father Kevin this week to talk about the Rosary, Junior 2 made their very own Rosary beads. They remembered the words of the Hail Mary and the Our Father, as they learnt about the four mysteries - the Joyous - when Jesus was born; the Luminous - when Jesus was baptised; the Sorrowful - when Jesus was crucified; and the Glorious - when Jesus was resurrected. They also made their own Rosary prayer book. Take a look at their super creations!

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

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

A king invites lots of people to the wedding of his son. We consider how we can answer God’s invitation of love to us and follow Him in our lives.

Activity Sheet 

It was a weekend of sporting success with our U10 Boys at the Repton Prep Football Festival on Saturday. The team played five matches in total; winning two, drawing two and losing one. Head of Games, Mr Stedeford, commented on how well the boys played together as a team and he has high hopes for their future success!

Well done to Soren, Leo C, Theo H, Ryan M, Othniel, Malachi, Ben F, Josh B, Archie J and Rory T.

On Wednesday 11 October, Crackley U10A team attended a wet and windy rugby festival at Rugby School. The boys showed great competitiveness and sportsmanship, along with starting to transition to the new rules for their year group. The festival captured the true spirit of the game and we would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who cheered and supported from the side lines!

Mr Vaughan commented on the potential they have going forward as a team. Each game the whole squad grew in confidence and determination and the boys showed progress in their field positioning in attack and defence.

Well done to Rory, Harrison, Ryan, Felix, Theo, Leo , Jacob, Soren, Josh and Rohan.

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

Tall, towering, gnarled, rooted, branching, deciduous, evergreen, leafy and, above all, beautiful. If you were in Lego Club this week you would know that all these adjectives belong to trees, and lots of them! We created an eye-catching array of trees, with the most popular being the beloved and native sycamore tree. Enchanting stories to accompany our trees were shared and treehouses were also crafted, which were brimming with spinning turbines, rotating railings and secret staircases - not forgetting a pair of binoculars!  What a tree-mendous time we all had! 

Our Junior 1 Super Cartooners’ continue to enjoy getting busy with the pencils on a Wednesday lunchtime! It is lovely to see everyone getting to grips with their favourite designs as well as trying out new ones, and we were so busy this week, we almost ran out of chairs! Confidence is growing all around the room, and we love welcoming new faces each week.

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

 Michaelmas Term Clubs

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 Wednesday lunchtime (12:30), from Friday

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

Cancellations to Extra Curricular Clubs

Chess club is currently not running - we will update you as soon as we have a new start date

J1 and J2 Eco Club will not be running on Tuesday 17 October due to Parents Evening Meetings

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

Children will be bringing home their Christmas Card design order cards today.

Order your child's special design on unique and Christmas cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, mugs, and coasters.  Great gifts for grandparents, aunties and uncles, godparents and as a yearly addition to your Christmas collection. 

Scan the unique QR code to verify your child's design and details and it will take you to the Christmas shop.  We would highly recommend keeping hold of the card until you receive anything you order as the design code specific to your child's artwork is key.

The shop is open from now until next Wednesday 18 October.

The company we work with will close our shop at midnight on Wednesday 18 October so please make sure you action your special cards and gifts whilst you are thinking about it! We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out.

Christmas Shopping

Three great ways to support the school's PTA and your children!

1. Order your child's special design on unique and Christmas cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, mugs, and coasters. Great gifts for grandparents, aunties and uncles, godparents and as a yearly addition to your Christmas collection. Order cards in book bags today, just scan the unique QR code to verify your child's design and details and it will take you to the Christmas shop. We would highly recommend keeping hold of the card until you receive anything you order as the design code specific to your child's artwork is key.

The shop is open from now until next Wednesday 18 October.

The company we work with will close our shop at midnight on Wednesday 18 October so please make sure you action your special cards and gifts whilst you are thinking about it! We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out.

2. Another way to support without much effort at all - sign up to Easyfundraising for Crackley. Download the mobile app and it automatically pops up if you visit a site offering a donation. It doesn't cost you anything and really could boost funds if we all chip in a little bit by how we shop.

3. We will be holding a Grand Christmas Raffle and welcome both individual and corporate donations for prizes to create some extra joy and excitement! Please click here to let us know if you can help.  Look out for our business donors in future PTA communications.  

PTA Opportunities

We're mobilising for the Christmas Fair and would welcome anyone who wants to help. It's a magical time of year for the children and how better to make it extra special than by helping to create a fun filled afternoon for them to enjoy with their friends? The children LOVE to see you helping! 

We have open roles for a Vice-Chair and Vice-Treasurer: please contact the office or the PTA directly if you would like to find out more about how you can support the school in either of these positions.

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.

There will be an in person uniform sale on Friday 20 October between 8:30 and 9:30am in the Gables - the perfect opportunity to pick up winter uniform in readiness for after half term.

Next PTA Meeting

Our next PTA meeting will be held at 4.30pm in the school hall on Thursday 9 November. With advance notice to the Chair, complimentary aftercare for a parent wishing to attend will kindly be provided by the school.

Contact us via the office or on mariagordonpta@gmail.com

PTA Key Dates

Our next event is the annual Christmas Fair and it promises to be a real treat for the children. Please mark the afternoon of Saturday 2 December in your diaries.  Key PTA dates are in the poster for your reference. Do note that these are the dates we have anchored in but sometimes circumstances do change so check back every so often to keep abreast of what's on.

The Crackley Hall Junior Da Vinci programme encourages all pupils to be inspired to be the best that they can be. The Junior Da Vinci programme embraces three adapted principles - Creativity, Practice and Mastery - that the children demonstrate in their learning.

This year we are ensuring that all pupils in the school have opportunities to achieve Junior Da Vinci awards. The attached leaflet gives more information about this programme.

Da Vinci Leaflet

Look out for children achieving Junior Da Vinci's in the Chronicle over the year.

To order uniform please use the electronic form.

New Uniform Order

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 you require either permanent or occassional Aftercare for the new Term you will need to book in your 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.

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

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

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/Foundation

• Alumni Relations and Development Officer
• Archivist
• Minibus Driver
• Cleaner
• Part Time Estates Assistant 
• Casual Estates Assistant

Crackley Hall School

• Nursery Practitioner

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

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. 

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.

Lost Property

Laura (J3V) - Pink wellies

Felix (J5L) - Gelert walking boots (blue/grey)

Ben (J5S) - Sports fleece

Ethan (J4A) - Sports fleece and black/orange Air Up water bottle

Olivia (J6H) - Sports fleece

Sophie (J4A) - 1 Sports fleeces 11-12

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):