The Chronicle

Junior 6 pupil, Elora, has read nearly 3 million words this academic year and currently tops the leader board in the school’s annual reading challenge, having devoured an incredible 40 books. It’s an amazing achievement but Elora is not the only book worm at Crackley Hall, as there are a further 12 pupils at the school who have read over a million words this school year.

Crackley Hall’s approach to reading and literacy is supported by Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader system. Children in Junior 3 to Junior 6 take a quiz after reading each book that tests their understanding. The approach promotes reading for pleasure whilst ensuring the children read appropriately challenging books. It totals up the books and words read, and we find the competitive element has a positive impact on children’s motivation to read.

Studies show that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance. Crackley Hall’s structured approach to reading facilitates children’s progress and helps develop reading abilities well beyond national age expectations.

Junior 6 teacher, Sorcha Horan, who leads on literacy at the Crackley Hall School, explains, “There are so many good books out there for children to read and we have a very positive reading culture in school. Pupils from Junior 3 onwards take part in the reading challenge and quiz regularly on the computers at school. We find our pupils engage really well in our reading challenge and its awe-inspiring to see we have so many reading millionaires.”

Just look at the amazing word counts of our millionaire readers:

Junior 5:
Jude W 1,016,459
Ain L 1,415,452
Ella W 2,170,208

Junior 6:
Sara A 1,158,109
Austin R 1,096,310
Beatrice P 1,257,448
Ria M 1,476,246
Sophia F 1,328,018
Josie-Jean S 1,412,845
Elsie W-P 1,512,159
Alexa B 1,416,437
Fergus C 1,798,608
Elora H 2,952,947

Following on from the Midlands region ISA Athletics event back before the half term we have now had our National Finals qualifiers confirmed.

Huge congratulations go to Sienna L (J6) who qualifies for the 150m sprint, Leo C (J6) who qualifies for the 600m, Casper B (J4) who qualifies for the Throw and to Grace A, Amalie S, Jessie J and Scarlett (J5) who qualify for the Girls Relay.

The ISA National Track and Field Championships take place later this term, on Monday 17 June, at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. 

Crackley Hall's athletes will be competing for the Midlands team and we wish them all the very best of luck.

Wednesday 5 June, was World Environment Day and to mark the occasion, Crackley Hall School welcomed Ruth Payne from Warwickshire County Council's Waste Management Team to talk to pupils. In an assembly with the whole school, Ruth talked about how reducing plastic waste is good for nature while saving money too. She explained how garden waste is turned into compost and put onto farmers' fields. Domestic waste is channelled into making electricity or recycled and turned back into glass and cardboard. She spoke about the new Sherbourne Recycling Centre in Coventry, which opened last year, and uses robots and artificial intelligence technology to sort rubbish. She challenged everyone to reduce the amount of waste they create and to reuse and recycle.

Ruth then spoke separately to the Gardening and Environmental Stewards in Junior 6 and the Years 5 and 6 Student Councillors about how we as a school could improve our waste management.

Please see here for Warwickshire's Schools Waste and Recycling Newsletter.

Many thanks to Ruth for visiting school to talk to us on Wednesday.

Crackley Hall Dads will be facing The Croft School Dads in two exciting charity football matches and they would love your support.

These thrilling games, organised by Adam Ward and Ian Houghton, are being held at Kenilworth School, Glasshouse Lane, Kenilworth CV8 2AL on the Saturday 8 June (2.00pm kick off) and the Home Guard Club, Main Street, Tiddington, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 7AY on Sunday 23rd June (10.30am kick off).

The teams are raising funds for OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity. OSCAR's exists to support and care for children facing brain tumours and their families, to raise awareness of children’s brain tumours and to fund new research to drive down diagnosis time, increase survival rate and improve children’s quality of life during and after treatment.

Show your support by cheering for your team and making a donation to our JustGiving page. Your contributions will help fight children's cancer and support vital research. Don't miss this chance to make a difference while enjoying a great community event. Donate now and be part of the cause!

justgiving.com

Over the half term holidays, Junior 4 pupil, Angelica performed with the English Symphony Youth Orchestra in a concert at Worcester Cathedral. Angelica, who is a talented celloist, was one of 130 young musicians who took part in the Elgar for Everyone Family Concert that took place on Wednesday 29 May.

To prepare for the performance, Angelica had attended a two-day ESO Youth Orchestra workshop at Bromsgrove School where she worked in the Beginners group, as she is working towards Grade 3, with musicians many much older than herself. Together the young musicians rehearsed and then played Festival March to the Trumpet Tune, Jupiter and The Firebird Finale.

Both the course and the concert were marvellous opportunities for Angelica that will have helped develop her instrumental skills. In fact, Angelica enjoyed herself so much that she hoping to take part in further ESO courses in the summer.

What an amazing experience for Angelica!

Super huge congratulations to Junior 6, Darcey, who competed in the National Schools And Riding Clubs Two Day Event at Princethorpe College at the start of half term. Darcey and her pony, Court Chester, rode in the 70cm class for the Princethorpe Montargis team. Princethorpe’s event is the only school’s two-day-event competition and welcomes school teams from across the country. Darcey took on dressage and show jumping on Saturday and then roads and tracks and cross country on Sunday. She was amazing, finishing in 8th position individually, and we are all very proud of her. Well done Darcey!

By the time you’re reading this we’re hoping that everyone will have had a gloriously good time at the PTA's third ever Colour run! 

Many of our children and indeed some of us will have charged through tyres, leapt over noodle rainbows and played dodge ball round the track culminating in a technicolour finish. At least one brave ‘lucky’ teacher will have been gunged to the bittersweet delight of the children. 

The PTA hopes the children will take away plenty of special memories and look forward to sharing a gallery of snaps next week. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed with time or materials to make it happen!