The Chronicle

Dear Parents 

I feel that almost everyone in school is settling into routines and the summer feels like a distant memory. We have held our remaining parents` evenings this week; I hope that you found these to be good opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, to be informed of systems and expectations and to be reassured that we strive for the highest standards, care and teaching at Crackley Hall. I also hope that you were able to use the opportunity to ask those questions that you might have had at the start of the school year. Any feedback on these meetings would be most welcome.

Fr Kevin joined the school community as he led the school in the celebration of our first whole school mass of the year on Thursday. It was wonderful to come together as a community for time to pray and be thankful for what we have and to ask our Lord’s blessing on the year ahead. Thank you to our staff for reading, to all pupils and staff for the beautiful singing and to Mrs Forino, Mrs Simmonds, Mrs Olden and Mrs Horan for their input and leadership. As always, we are sincerely grateful for Fr Kevin’s spiritual support and guidance. Well done to Mahnoor and Jessica for carrying out their role so efficiently.  

We look forward to all our extra-curricular clubs commencing from next week. I hope the children enjoy trying new activities form the variety on offer, from sewing to baking and fencing and the traditional school sports. I feel this is important just as much as learning in the classroom. Mrs Vaughan devotes time and effort into arranging a great and varied range of clubs to satisfy all interests; we thank her for this. 

Our sports fixtures also start next week, so please refer to the SOCS system to keep an eye out for the team sheets, which contain information on selections, locations and timing of the fixtures. This is the same system that we have for our extra-curricular so is an ideal online platform for your go to. I have also learned that if you subscribe to the calendar it populates onto your mobile phone, which is a convenient and easy place of reference. It will certainly save you having to spend a lot of time on WhatsApp groups.

Our carline and collection timings are working well, so thank you and please try to adhere to the times we allocate for the end of the day to keep this running smoothly. Thank you to all the parents and families who parked over at the sports field last week, and today, for our assembly. It made such a difference to the surrounding roads and shows consideration for our neighbours.  

We also are excited to announce that our 20-year anniversary of Stay 'n' Play sessions at Crackley Hall is next week. These first acquaintances can base the start of our Foundation for Life journey for lots of families who have progressed and continued their educational journey with us. Our staff have done a marvellous job in welcoming families from the local community into Crackley Hall, many of whom decide to stay with us through their primary school years and then onto Princethorpe College.

Our annual Blessing of the Stones Service will take place in our prayer garden next Wednesday morning. All new pupils are invited to paint and decorate a stone, which will then be placed in the garden and remain there, into the future, as part of the legacy of our school and each pupil’s part in the life of Crackley Hall. Parents and family members of all new pupils (including those pupils who started during the course of last year, but after the last blessing of the stones service) are welcome to attend. Please refer to the school calendar for information on timings. 

In our first KS2 assembly of the year we were treated to outstanding singing by Evie, our Music Captain; it really was a delight to watch. Huge congratulations to all our Stars of the Week: Nursery – Emmie; Rec – Oliver and George; J1 – Milo and Amelie; J2 – Ryan and Toby; J3 – Jovan and Henry; J4 – Oscar and Harry; J5 – Niamh and Gabriella; and J6 – Jacob and Isabella.

I may see some families at Princethorpe College’s Open Day on Sunday afternoon. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to get a real feeling for the school.

It would be wonderful if a number of our families joined the school community for the annual PTA Headmaster’s Quiz on Friday 27 September. It is being jointly hosted by the Town Mayor of Kenilworth, Councillor Alan Chalmers. Further details and information can be found in this edition of The Chronicle. You could form a team of eight players or come along as individuals or couples and we will find a team for you to join. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet other Crackley mums and dads (or grandparents).

I hope that you are able to enjoy a happy and restful weekend.
 
God bless, 
Rob Duigan 

'To make a difference in someone's life, you don't have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect. You just have to care enough and be there.'- Arthur unknown.

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.

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.

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.

Please see detailed below events for the first half of the Michaelmas Term.

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

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.

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.

Crackley Hall School is thrilled to have achieved both the Bronze and Silver levels of the Woodland Trust’s Green Tree Schools Award.

The awards are designed to encourage outdoor learning, by inspiring pupils to take part in environmental projects and to discover more about trees, woods and wildlife. Working towards the award, has allowed pupils to take positive action for the environment while also enjoying learning in the great outdoors.

To earn the Silver certificate pupils completed five ‘Green 15’ challenges, that included taking a lesson outdoors, making natural art and conducting wildlife surveys. They also harnessed pupil power to recycle waste, visited a wood to explore and connect with nature and took on a tree dressing challenge.

Crackley Hall’s Forest School Practitioner, Verity Clark, said, “The children have enjoyed working towards the awards. They have helped pupils learn valuable lessons about the natural world and the activities have supported our school's drive towards sustainability too.”

The school is not resting on its laurels though, as it has set its sights on achieving the next level, the Gold Award.

The latest issue of The Minnacle has just been published, showcasing yet more of our pupils' excellent work. The Minnacle celebrates our pupils at their best and this edition includes plenty more examples of their outstanding efforts.

You can download a copy of The Minnacle to read here and it is also available on our school website here.

Why not take a look at the latest Pinnacle, which shares equally impressive work by Princethorpe College pupils. You can find it on our website too.

With just eight weeks to go, the countdown to Princethorpe's Entrance Exams for admission in September 2025 is well underway. This year the exams for Year 7 to 10 entry will take place on Saturday 9 November from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

The deadline for registrations for the Entrance Examination is Friday 27 September. Year 6 parents wishing their children to sit the Princethorpe entrance exam must complete a registration form and submit it with the accompanying registration fee by this date.

More information on the admissions process can be found in Princethorpe's Admissions Update newsletter here or on the Foundation website here.

You can register for the Entrance Examination by filling out our online registration form here. 

If you have any queries relating to admissions please speak to the Registrars at Princethorpe College, either by email at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or by calling 01926 634201/297.

On Thursday, Father Kevin celebrated Mass to mark the beginning of the new school year. We celebrated our return to school and looked ahead to the challenges of the future. During the Homily, Fr Kevin spoke about the Gospel reading of the wise man who built his house on rock and the foolish man who built his house on sand. Fr Kevin explained that if we build our lives on firm foundations, we become stronger, which will help us look to the future with confidence.

We are thrilled to share some wonderful news - Miss Rogers has welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Aria Piper, to their family. This joyous occasion marks an exciting new chapter in their life filled with love, laughter and sleepless nights! Congratulations and best wishes to her big sister in Junior 2 and to mummy and daddy. We wish them much happiness as they enjoy this special time together.

Sunday 15 September 2024 - 2.00pm to 5.00pm

Princethorpe will be holding its annual Open Afternoon on Sunday 15 September from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. All are welcome to visit the College and for younger visitors, there will be many fun subject related activities organised by the departments.

The Headmaster will address visitors during the afternoon and refreshments will be available. 

Booking has now closed but please still come along and we can register you on arrival. 

NEW Pathway to Princethorpe - Admissions Podcast

Discover the ins and outs of applying to Princethorpe College in this new informative podcast series. From choosing the right school to preparing for the entrance exams, this podcast aims to help parents navigate the admissions process step by step. This is perfect for parents whose children are looking to join Princethorpe in Year 7 to Year 10. Join Catherine Rogers, Registrar and Georgia Newborough, Assistant Registrar, as they explore Princethorpe, share expert tips, and demystify the journey into independent secondary school.

Each episode is released every Friday on Spotify YouTube and Amazon Music, please click the links below and subscribe so you do not miss an episode.

Spotify

YouTube

Amazon Music 

Thursday 26 September 2023 - 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery in Kenilworth, are hosting a dedicated Nursery, Reception and Junior 3 Open Evening on Thursday 26 September from 6.30pm.

This Open Evening is for prospective families wishing to join Little Crackers Nursery or Crackley Hall's Reception or Junior 3 class in September 2025 and beyond. 

It's a perfect opportunity to see the school and talk to key members of staff who will be teaching and supporting your child. 

To book your place please click here. 

If you can't make the Open Evening but would like to look around the school, you can book a personal tour buy contacting our Registrar, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk and come on a day to suit you.

For more information visit www.crackleyhall.co.uk

Monday 28 October to Friday 1 November, 8.00am to 5.00pm

We know many of our pupils enjoyed the Foundation's Holiday Camps over the summer, and we are pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Team Super Sports again to offer an action-packed October half-term for children aged 5 to 16 years. From Monday 28 October to Friday 1 November, our Holiday Camps will run from 8.00am to 5.00pm.

Children aged 7 to 16 can choose from a variety of sports, including rugby, cricket, football, gymnastics, netball, hockey, and tennis to create their own personalised sports camp! For our younger campers (ages 5 to 7), along with sport we’ve got arts, crafts, and dance activities to keep them engaged and having a blast!

Why Team Super Sports? They’re experts in sport and multi-activity holiday camps, providing top-level coaching for all abilities.

Click here to visit the Team Super Sports website to secure your child’s spot.

Camps are priced at £37 per day or £150 per week. Book before Sunday 29 September to receive an extra 10% off for early booking!

Crackley Hall’s Holiday Club will continue to run as normal, information will be shared soon!

Our Stars of the Week this week are: 

Congratulations to them all!

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 some photos from this morning.

A huge well done to all!

Our Junior 6 children have impressed us this week, their first full week of the new term. In Maths the children showed they had the X-Factor with some excellent work on factors and multiples. English involved identifying elements of effective writing using the mnemonic DADWAVERS CORD! Then, the children demonstrated their observational skills when spotting patterns and similarities between shapes in Verbal Reasoning. While in Science Junior 6 investigated shadows and how the distance between the light source and object affects the size of the shadow. They finished the week by exploring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in Music. What a busy but happy week. Well done Junior 6, we are proud of how you are settling into this term!

Junior 5 have been amazing throughout their first two weeks of this term. Their attitude towards their new year group has been exemplary and, importantly, they have shown a love for learning. In French, the children having been learning how to tell someone where they live, playing role play games to help them remember how to give details such as, where they live near and what type of settlement they live in. They all demonstrated wonderful enthusiasm and Madame Westerman was very impressed.

This week Junior 4 have been working on partitioning of numbers up to 10,000. We have used lots of equipment to help us break our numbers down into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones before we worked on some problem-solving examples.

In Music we have been listening to one of the BBC Ten Pieces - A Bao A Qu - and using it as inspiration to come up with our own animal that is a blend of two others. 

We have also begun our topic on Roman Britain, exploring the rise of the Roman Empire and the reason why they were so successful and powerful. This work will continue as we start our Topic book, Queen of Darkness, which tells the story of Boudicca’s rebellion against Roman rule in Britain.

Junior 3W all earned themselves a collaborative star to stick onto Archimedes the Ant on their Crackley Compass star charts this week! The children worked co-operatively in groups to sequence periods of history onto a chronological timeline. The activity created many opportunities for discussion and questioning amongst the groups, and the children all rose to the challenge with enjoyment. We think that Sherlock the Meercat and Waggles the Dog will soon also find themselves with stars on, as the curiosity and enthusiasm that this group of children are demonstrating this term is huge. We also had our first school swimming lesson, which was very exciting! Well done, Junior 3!

This week, Junior 2 have been continuing to explore two-digit numbers, using a variety of manipulatives to represent our understanding. We have used rekenreks, number squares, base ten and place value counters to build numbers and have amazed our teachers with our super counting skills. In English, we have been reading the story of Rapunzel and we used our digital journals to sequence the pictures from the story to support our retelling. We are looking forward to reading a different version of the story next week and finding out more about a rather rebellious Rapunzel character.

Junior 1 have been very excited about our sensory walk enjoying all the wonderful ways to connect with the hidden details of the world around us. Using our senses, we explored the earthy senses, felt the warmth on our face from the sun. We remained silent as we acknowledged the subtle shift in the wind change. This sensory experience has revealed an appreciation of the intricate beauty around us. We are fortunate enough to have such wonderful grounds to explore and learn from.

The children have really impressed us this week as they completed their first full week of school. They have thrown themselves into all the new activities and tackled them all with enthusiasm. This included going to Forest School and learning how to explore the woods safely. In PE the children pretended to have a spell cast upon them and practised moving like different animals. In Computing the children have been learning how to stay safe on line, and how to use the iPads to record themselves. In Understanding the World the children have been sharing their likes and dislikes with each other, as they continue to form friendships and learn about each other. In Literacy the children drew pictures of their family, and in Maths they had a go at representing numbers up to five.

Mrs Horan led the Monday Mission Assembly and reminded the school about the school's ethos.  The theme was Creation and as we listened to All Things Bright and Beatiful, we reflected on the role that we play in looking after our world. This was then linked with Pope Francis' World Day of Prayer, recognised as being on the 1 September, which encourages people around the world to pray for our common home. Mrs Horan asked the school community how we can look after our world. Answers ranged from being responsible about recycling, feeding the birds in our gardens, being gentle with animals, and not wasting food. The assembly concluded with pupils from Junior 6 reciting the Laudate Deum prayer, where we thought about the things we can do to protect our shared Earth. The world sings of an endless love. How can we fail to care for it?

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

Weekly Mission

Please remember to check team sheets and find further fixture information on www.crackleyhallsport.co.uk or on SOCS.

Please can we remind all parents that whilst sports fixture information, once published, usually remains the same, parents should check www.crackleyhallsport.co.uk or SOCS on the day of the fixture for the most up to date information.

Club Timetable

Please see the below link showing Club information including Pick up location and times.

Michaelmas 2024 Clubs Timetable

Reception and Key Stage 1

This half term’s House Art Competition is to create a wonderful superhero please see attached for the instructions.

Key Stage 2

For this competition we would like you to design your own comic strip as per the attached instructions.

The winner of the KS2 competition will also get to design a new comic strip using the superhero from the winner of the Reception/KS1 entries

Good Luck!

Please see here for the poster to see all the details, and to get inspired!

• 1st place - 25 house points
• 2nd place - 20 house points
• 3rd place - 10 house points
• All entries will receive 5 house points

Closing date is Tuesday 15 October.  Please hand your entries in to Ms Holmes.

We have continued to welcome and to settle our second round of children into both Nursery classrooms.

Badgers have met Mrs Westerman, their French teacher, and are looking forward to beginning subject specialist lessons in PE and Music next week.

They enjoyed their first outing to Forest School and everyone tried to put on their kit with maximum independence and minimal assistance from the adults. A excellent start, well done!

A big thank you to all those parents who remembered to send in waterproofs with the legs pre-zipped, it is a great logistical help. Lots of parents had also remembered to send the kit in a large, open bag, which allowed their child to easily access and to pack away their muddy suit at the end of the session.

This week’s woodland challenge was a treasure hunt to locate four wooden owls which had been hidden around the site.

The children also practised returning promptly to our circle share space, by listening out for a recall signal (Mrs Whitehurst’s wolf howl).

A gentle reminder to those who still need to bring in named wellies and waterproofs.

The children met our designated Junior 6 prefects, Ava and Isabella, who came down to introduce themselves. The girls will pop in from time to time, to read stories and to play with our Little Crackers.

Badgers and Hedgehogs have also been introduced to the idea of taking turns to be our special ‘Helping Hands’ monitor in class. There were lots of eager volunteers to wash-up the cups following afternoon break!

During RE, we have begun to learn a simple morning and lunchtime prayer, as well as how to make a respectful Sign of the Cross.

In the Dormice room the children have been using their creative construction skills to build structures using the giant rubber blocks. There were lions and tigers roaming and roaring in the sand tray; and the children came into the big room to design their PTA Christmas cards, which need to be sent to the printers this month.

The Dormice children have also been practising the lunchtime prayer. 

Come and join us for a fun social evening with Mr Duigan, as well our esteemed host Alan Chalmers, the Mayor of Kenilworth, in our joint Quiz Night!

Our Quiz takes place on Friday 27 September from 7.00pm to 10.00pm at Crackley Hall School. Tickets are £10 per person for the quiz, which comes with a cheeseboard.   

We are asking you to form a team of up to eight, however, if you cannot find that many, do not be put off, you are more than welcome to come along! You can also ask us to sit you with others to form a team - just say and we can sort it out!  

Please do not bring any drinks as we will be happy to serve you at the PTA bar with a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic refreshments. See the link below for tickets and further information. 

Mayoral and PTA Headmaster's Quiz Night Tickets

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Many thanks to all who joined us for our Welcome Back Picnic, we hope you enjoyed yourselves.

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:

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

We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family. Current vacancies include:

Crackley Hall School

• Site Supervisor

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