The Chronicle

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Jo Merrick, the Projects Operation Manager from Helping Hands, visited Crackley Hall on Thursday 18 January to talk about homelessness in our community. The charity provides a 'hand-up' not just a 'hand-out' approach, offering a warm meal and someone to talk to, with the aim of helping break the cycle of homelessness. 

To contribute to this deserving charity, we kindly ask for children to fill a sock (or a pair of socks) with essential items and toiletries, and bring it to school by Friday 2 February.

Helping Hands Community Project will return to collect the items, which will then be distributed locally to those in need. It is important to note that the essential items can be for either adults or children.

We kindly ask for items such as shower gel, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, small packets of tissues and roll-on deodorant (no aerosols please).

There will be a box in the foyer where children can place their socks.

Thank you in advance for your support in helping this amazing local charity. We believe we can all make a difference.

Nursery parents and children will recognise these two lovely ladies who have slotted in perfectly to our dedicated nursery staff team. Tamika (left) and Charlotte (right) joined us back in December and have been enjoying getting to know all our lovely Little Crackers. They both love life in nursery and especially supporting and encouraging the children with their learning.

A very warm welcome to them both, it's lovely to have them in our nursery team.

In last Friday’s Celebration Assembly, the school celebrated another successful round of music examinations and Director of Music, Mrs Olden, and Headmaster, Mr Dugan were delighted to present pupils with their certificates.

Crackley Hall offers peripatetic music lessons on a wide range of instruments and in Singing and Musical Theatre too. This latest set of examinations took place in school in early December with pupils taking Musical Theatre, Piano, Classical Guitar and Cello exams from Step entry level up to Grade 5. 100% of pupils passed with everyone achieving the top grades of Merit or Distinction.

A huge well done to everyone for all your hard work.

Father Kevin joined the school community in celebrating mass on Tuesday for the Feast of the Epiphany - the special day when we think about the visit of the Wise Men to the Son of God. We also thought about our own enlightenment and greater understanding of the gift of life and the world around us. The mass was led by Junior 6V. 

During the Homily Fr Kevin reflected on the message of Christmas, which started with three people - Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. We remembered our own families and how we are reminded to always be grateful for the love and care our families give to us. We remembered the Shepherds, who represented God's ancient people, and how ordinary people are important in God's plan, as what we do is precious to God. Finally, we remembered the three Wise Men who came from all different backgrounds and who represented the message of Jesus extending to the whole world.

Father Kevin then invited each of us to think of a gift we could bring to Jesus which would show our love for one another and which would make a difference to ourselves and to the people we meet.

Our Junior 6 pioneers have been using their Lego and programming skills to build robots in Computing this week. Some pupils finished in record time and started to programme their robots to move and sense the environment around them.

These kits are just some of the recent investments we are making in Departments across the school, to aid pupils' learning with cutting edge technology.

Our Key Stage 1 pupils can look forward to using the equipment to build Lego houses and then use Scratch to programme the rooms inside.

It is all very exciting!

On Friday 12 January, pupils from Juniors 4, 5 and 6 joined thousands of other local school children to sing their hearts out at the annual Young Voices concert at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham.

Pupils had been practising songs in preparation for this amazing annual event, including In the Mood, The Moment, a Matilda medley and a Moana mash-up and many more. On the night they enjoyed watching performances from drummer and international celebrity Nandi Bushell, soul singer/song writer Natalie Williams and Jacob Mitchell, aka MC Grammar, a multi-award-winning teacher turned rapper.

We are so proud of the children's performance and of their parents for cheering them on! For everyone involved it was an unforgettable event, a fabulous spectacle, a celebration of all sorts of music, an experience that will stay with them for a lifetime.

It was wonderful to welcome everyone to our Stay ‘n’ Play Forest Fun session on Wednesday 17 January. It was a bit chilly, but that didn’t stop the youngsters having lots of fun.

Whether exploring amongst the trees, playing in the mud kitchen, on the hammocks, the rope swings or the slide, everyone kept busy to keep their fingers and toes warm.

Forest Fun took place in Crackley Hall’s wood, which is situated behind the school. It was led by our Forest School Practitioners Mrs Clark and Mrs Whitehurst, supported by Mrs O'Brien from our regular Stay 'n' Play team.

Don't forget our next special activity is on Wednesday 31 January when Stay ‘n’ Play will be visiting Little Crackers Nursery.

All mums and tots are most welcome to join us every Wednesday morning from 10.30am to 11.45am. For more information, contact Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email staynplay@littlecrackers.co.uk.

We heard the wonderful news this week that Felix Hughes, in Junior 5, has secured a principal role in Theatre Parade’s pantomine, Aladdin, playing the much loved characther, Wishee Washee.

There are two performances at 2.00pm and 6.00pm on Saturday 3 February at The Bridge House Theatre, in Warwick. It promises to be a fabulous family performance! 

Break-a-leg Felix, we hope you enjoy starring in the show.

Click here if you would be interested in purchasing tickets.