The Chronicle

On Wednesday 18 September, all new pupils to Crackley Hall will join in a Blessings of the Stones service. We are inviting all Reception children and new starters to bring in a stone that they have painted or decorated. They can write their name on it, draw their family or hobby, a flower, a symbol, a favourite place - anything that they would like to represent them - and paint it in their favourite colour and then varnish it.

Father Kevin will bless all the stones during the service and will encourage the pupils to feel a sense of belonging to the Crackley Hall School community and understand that it is the children who help to build a school. We will then add the stones to our prayer garden, reminding the pupils that even when they have left, their stones will still be there.

Please bring your stones to the class teacher by Monday 16 September.

End of the day collection times and locations are as follows:

End of the day collection times and locations after Games Lessons (if not taking part in sports clubs) during the Michaelmas Term are as follows:

You will notice that instead of a hard copy calendar, this year we have a new digital calnedar. It includes an interactive contents pages and handy live links to emails, websites and phone numbers. All can be easily downloaded onto your device of choice and the calendar is designed to be mobile friendly for ease of reference.

All the schoool's publications can also be found on My School Portal under School Information and will be updated during the year as necessary.

This move to a ‘digital first’ approach for our publications, is part of the Foundation’s drive to be more sustainable, reducing paper use, printing and postage costs and providing a more user-friendly experience.

Michaelmas Calendar Card

Club Updates

Choral Group will start a week early on Tuesday 10 September

If you wish your child to have music tuition at school, then please complete the attached form and return it back to the school office. 

Reception are able to undertake Violin lessons only. Pupils in Junior 1 can access the full range of lessons available. 

Expression of Interest Form

Please find Michaelmas Termly Curriculum Sheets for your information:

Nursery

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

School Day Timings

The school day commences at 8:30am promptly, and pupils should arrive at 8:20am for registration, to ensure that that they have plenty of time to get to their first lesson punctually.

Early Birds runs from 7:45am to 8:20am.

Any pupils arriving after 8:30am, must sign in at the School Office.

End of the day collection times and locations are as follows:

Registration

Pupils are electronically registered in the morning and after lunch. Registration closes at 8:30am and all children arriving after this time, will need to register with the School Office on arrival. Lateness is recorded and monitored closely. Persistent lateness and/or absence from school will clearly affect a pupil’s achievement and learning.

On the day of your parent information meeting, please make your way to The Gables where you will be met by staff.

Parking for the meetings will be on the School Field, please avoid parking on the local residential roads.

Children and their Crackley Hall siblings will be looked after by staff for the duration of the meeting only (4:15pm to 4:45pm or 5:15pm for the Junior 6 meeting). Please ensure you collect your children as usual from carline and bring them to The Gables for just before 4:15pm. When collecting your children, please ensure that they are signed out by a member of staff.

If you have any questions regarding the meetings please contact sharonmcaloon@crackleyhall.co.uk

Thank you in advance

From September 2024 Aftercare will need to be booked through My School Portal.  You will be able to book the whole term in advance, and you are able to cancel this yourself, should you need to.

https://princethorpe.myschoolportal.co.uk/login 

The sessions available are:

Session 1 - 3:30pm to 4:30pm (includes drink and biscuit)

Session 2 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm (includes tea)

Both Sessions - 3:30pm to 6:00pm (includes drink, biscuit and tea)

The costs for Aftercare are £5.00 per hour, or part thereof. You will only be charged for the time that your child spends in Aftercare.

If you require tea, please ensure that you have booked by 12:00pm on the day.

Please ensure that you book Aftercare in good time, as the School Office will be unable to log in to book Aftercare on your behalf.

Aftercare will be open for booking on Friday 30 August from 6:00pm

Morning Drop Off

If using the carline, please move carefully around the roundabout before dropping your child off. Do not stop in the middle of carline, do not block in parked cars or empty spaces and do not use the staff parking spaces.

If you need to walk your child into school, or need to come in for any reason, please use the Lower Playground to park considerately, before making your way into school.

The Sports Field is always open for parking in the morning, please consider parking here and walking over to school to alleviate congestion. Please do not park in the local residential roads where possible. 

Afternoon Collection 

Please arrive promptly at your child’s collection time, as arriving early can cause unnecessary congestion. If using the carline, please move carefully around the roundabout, being extremely aware of pedestrians and other cars.

If you need to come into school for any reason, please use the Lower Playground to park considerately, before making your way into school.

The Sports Field is always open for parking in the afternoon, please consider parking here and walking over to school to alleviate congestion. Please do not park in the local residential roads where possible.

The Foundation is constantly looking closely at all ways to reduce our costs and consequently keep our fees as low as possible - not least with the announcement that VAT will be chargeable on tuition fees from January 2025.  

One significant cost, despite having a highly competitive agreement, relates to the charges we incur when fees are paid by debit or credit card, currently in the region of £50,000 per annum. Direct debit and bank transfer are entirely without additional costs. 

We want to start saving money without delay, so have withdrawn the card payment option. If you currently pay by card, we would now ask you to please pay your fees by one of the following alternative methods:  

• direct debit – a form is attached, please sign and return the form to the School Office marked for the attention of the Bursary (fees are due on the first day of term so please allow sufficient time for processing);  direct bank transfer - bank details can be found on our website and your termly invoice;  
• school fee plan - leaflet attached.    
• Whilst we recognise that paying by card is a convenient option for some parents, we believe that it is better to use this money to help reduce the amount payable by all parents from January. This is one of a range of cost saving measures we will be implementing over the coming year. 

School Fee Plan Leaflet

DD Instruction

We apologise for the short notice, but hope you will understand that by working together we can reduce the impact of the imposition of VAT.  

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Informing the School of pupil absence

Parents must inform the school via the online absence form on My School Portal or telephone 01926 514444 and leave a voicemail on Option 1, as soon as possible, before 9:00am, if they know that their child will not be in school for either the whole day or any part thereof. For unplanned absence, parents must complete the Absence Form. This can be found on the dashboard or in the My Children section of My School Portal.

If a pupil has a pre-planned appointment, e.g. medical, please inform the school in advance on the Requesting Student Absence: Planned Form, which can be found within the My Children section of My School Portal. This can then be pre-coded on our attendance system. Having alerted the school for any reason of absence it is not necessary to follow up the absence with a written note.

We ask that, where possible, all pupil appointments (e.g. medical or dental) are made out of school hours, to avoid disruption to learning.

Holidays

Parents are strongly discouraged from taking their children out of school and family holidays should always be taken in the school holiday period which is published over a year in advance. Permission for leave of absence for valid reasons such as a family funeral, should be sought in writing and in advance via My School Portal, with as much notice as possible.  Pupils with persistent absence may be asked to provide medical evidence.