The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Junior 2 performed their joyful nativity to a packed school hall of parents on Friday 15 December. The traditional story brought to life beautifully in a celebration of dance and song.

Mary and Joseph and a host of travellers are all on the move, making their way towards Bethlehem. The three wise men with their camels, the angels, shepherds and their sheep are all keen to get in on the action too. As the story unfolds, all are delighted with the wonder of the nativity.

It was a fabulous performance from all the children who delivered their lines with panache and sang exuberantly and enthusiastically.

A huge well done to Junior 2.

Reception and Junior 1 put on a sparkling display for their Nativity this year, when they performed Stable by Starlight.

In Bethlehem, a stable stood peacefully in the darkness. It was a night like any other, but everything was about to change. Mary and Joseph take shelter there and before they know it, the humble stable is bathed in starlight and they are joined by a newborn baby, angels, shepherds and three kings. 

Our youngest children danced and sang their hearts out while telling the traditional story of the birth of Jesus. After all their hard work rehearsing, learning the songs and memorising their lines, what a spectacle it proved to be. We hope you all enjoyed their brilliant performance.

Our very youngest children took to the stage on Thursday 14 December to tell the story of the nativity. With smiles on their faces, they sang the super catchy songs beautifully and delighted in asking ‘What happened next?’ as the story unfolds.

Performing on stage to a large audience of excited parents takes more than a little courage, but our Nursery animals, innkeepers, stars, angels, shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph and the donkey were all magnificent.

There were lots of magical moments and a few memorable mishaps, baby Jesus is absolutely fine after his tumble to the floor!

A huge well done to nursery - you were all amazing!

Congratulations to William H who was chosen as the overall winner of the Lego Sleigh Competition. Runners up were Hugo in second place and William C in third place. 

Many thanks to our judges, Eugenia Latham, a physicist who works for JLR doing models of physics of failure for the reliability study of advanced powertrain systems. Andy Cowell a British Formula One engineer and recently the Managing Director at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, and David Johnson, TA and Aftercare Manager at Crackley Hall, who studied Product Design and has a Batchelor of Arts and Master of Arts qualification.

Will's amazing techincal design wowed the judges as he had thought of many technical improvements to Santa's sleigh, including emergency back-up options! Hugo's design was a very creative idea with Santa's sleigh being pulled by an aeroplane. Mrs Latham commented on how original it was as it was not limited by snow and could reach everyone all over the world. William C's was also a very creative design with an evacuation exit for Santa and very thoughtful interiors for Santa's comfort. 

Other designs were a beautiful caravan which was thought out carefully for the animals comfort and another design that enabled the sleigh to land in Venice which was indeed an engineering feat!

Well done to everyone who competed!

For their latest inter House competition, Mr Vaughan challenged the school houses to a Christmas Carol sing-off. On Tuesday morning, in the hall, before the dress rehearsal for Reception and Junior 1’s nativity, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus took it in turns to perform three Carols. Led by their House Captains the children did not disappoint, with spirited renditions of Once in Royal David’s City, Away in A Manger and Love Shone Down. A super huge well done to everyone involved, Mr Vaughan had a very hard decision to make indeed. After much deliberation on the performance across all of the carols, the results were as follows: 1st Venus, 2nd Mars, 3rd Jupiter and 4th Saturn.

You can watch a clip of the singing here.

To explain the meaning of why we were wearing Christmas Jumpers on Wednesday, we welcomed a guest speaker who spoke to pupils about Save The Children.

Monique Morris, who is a volunteer for the charity, explained to the children how, over 100 years ago, the founder of the charity, a courageous women called Eglantyne Jebb, responded to the terrible suffering children were facing, declaring that all children should have rights.  The right to go to school, to be healthy and to be protected and safe. Mrs Morris helped pupils comprehend how much their donation would help other children who lived in remote villages throughout the world - how £2 could buy 12 special food sachets to help children grow; a midwife kit; purification tablets; a school bag and two goats.

We discovered that Elliott in Junior 2, had a Great Great Grandfather called Captain George Gracey, and in the 1930s and 1940s, he devoted himself to the work of helping children all over the world as the General Secretary of the Save the Children fund. 

Thank you to everyone for their generous donations on Christmas Jumper Day, they will be passed on to Save The Children.

It was Christmas Jumper Day on Wednesday, one of our favourite days of the year, when we all come together to raise funds for Save The Children.

We had a super turnout, well done everyone, you all looked amazing! 

A huge thank you to our wonderful catering team from Holroyd Howe who served us with a delicious Christmas dinner on Wednesday. The children enjoyed every mouthful and all had a great time!