The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Monday was a tremendous day for Crackley Hall as our U10s went off to play in the ISA Midlands rugby tournament. We played outstanding rugby all day, resulting in Crackley Hall winning the tournament. What a performance! Well done to all those who played. My thanks extend to Mr Vaughan and Mrs Carroll for coaching and accompanying the team!

I hope that parents and families of Junior 5 and Junior 6 enjoyed our Advent Service last evening. The warm welcome included the wonderful smells of Christmas, with home-made mulled wine and a selection of cakes available, prepared and served by our super catering team. We were treated to a special message of us preparing for the arrival of our Infant Saviour on Christmas Day. It was a privilege to see and hear the talents of the children bringing such joy to everyone present. Thank you for joining us.

We had a fantastic turn out last week at the annual PTA Christmas Fayre, with a lovely atmosphere enhanced by so many exciting activities for our pupils and families. I was so pleased to see so many families attend and, as Headmaster, I really enjoyed being able to speak to so many of you. Thank you to everyone who helped plan, set up, clear up, clean, bake and serve, to name a few of the many jobs needed to ensure the day ran smoothly! Special thanks to Maria Gordon, Aimee Clarke, Sara Higginbotham and Sandrine Farrow and their team, along with past families and pupils who helped and also our staff helpers, particularly Sarah Lammas. We will let you know as soon as we are informed on how much was raised. These funds help the school in so many ways. So, a big thank you to everyone!

It is wonderful to hear the practising and rehearsals taking place in school for the upcoming Nativities. As you can imagine there is a lot of work that goes on to prepare for what you ultimately get to see. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge Mrs Paphitis, Mrs Olden and the classroom staff from Nursery to Junior 2 for the input, direction and commitment to this aspect of school life. Thank you for your efforts.

Congratulations to this week’s Stars of the Week: Nursery – Akira; Rec – Matilda and Maya; J1 – Emma and Joshua; J2 – Avni and Tianna; J3 – Ted and Elliot; J4 – Michael and William; J5 – Thomas and Thea; J6 – Henry and Alexander. Well done to all who received their Da Vinci’s; they are so well-deserved. Huge congratulations go to all the recipients of Crackley Compass stars as well.

We were treated to some outstanding music today. Well done to Josh for his wonderful guitar performance, to the guitar ensemble for their excellent Christmas tunes and to the orchestra for their outstanding rendition of ‘Walking in the Air’. You are all so inspirational and I am immensely proud of all of you.

I find it unbelievable to say that next week is our last full week of the term! Holiday Club is popular so, if you are wanting to make a booking, please do so at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment at holidayclub@crackley.co.uk

I will be writing to Reception, Junior 3 and Junior 5 parents regarding collection routines. Please do look out for the email on Monday.

I will also be writing to Junior 3G parents regarding arrangements that have been put in place for the introduction of Mrs Copland over the next few weeks and early next half term.

Thank you very much for participating in the recent parents’ survey. I am delighted to have been able to sift through the information (with a little help from AI) and to have started on a response and, on some points, the beginnings of an action plan. I shall share with you the general outcomes before the end of this term and will address the action points with you at the start of the Lent Term. It becomes so powerful when home and school can work closely and constructively together. The pupil’s benefit!

I would like to wish you all a very happy and restful weekend.

God bless, 
Rob Duigan 

`Kindness is doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.` - Raktivist

We will be having our annual Christmas lunch on Tuesday 17 December 2024. 

Please note that there will be no Jacket Potato option on this day. 

Please find the Christmas menu here! 

Merry Christmas! 

Choral Group is cancelled on Tuesday 10 December. It is replaced by a Year 4 to 6 Young Voices Choir rehearsal at 8.00am instead.

Christmas Holiday club will be running on Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Monday 23 December 2024, and then on Thursday 2, Friday 3 and Monday 6 January 2025.

For a programmae of events, please click here

Please email holidayclub@crackleyhall.co.uk to make your booking.

Everyone who is attending Young Voices has already received the details to log onto the Young Voices Music Room, please can the children focus on the following songs this week: 

Please concentrate on the dance moves and get the whole family involved.

• Pop Medley 
• Lets Dance Medley 
• Out Loud - With Actions 

Songs already covered are:

• Try Everything
• Little Blue
• Birdhouse in Your Soul
• Oceania
• Marley Magic

Have fun, listening and learning!

Susan Olden
Director of Music 

Please ensure that everything your child brings to school is clearly labelled.  This especially includes uniform and sports kit. Excellent personalised labels may be purchased from easy2name.com or ablelabels.co.uk. We ask for support from parents to ensure that their children take full responsibility for looking after their property carefully.

We discourage pupils from bringing valuable items into school.

Lost property will be displayed outside The Gables on Friday 13 December for collecting. Any unclaimed items will be donated to charity or the PTA.

We are introducing a weekly calendar to keep you up to date with what is going on in school. Click on the link for the calendar for the week beginning Monday 9 December. 

Week Beginning Monday 9 December

It was wonderful to see so many of our Crackley Hall School alumni being recognised at Princethorpe College’s recent Prize Giving. Their annual celebration of achievement took place in The Butterworth Hall at The University of Warwick on Friday 22 November.

No less than seven former pupils were awarded prizes receiving acclaim for outstanding academic or personal achievement and success.

• Chloe O’Carroll Bailey (Class of 2017) was presented with the Trudy Scott Award for determination and service to the school and in particular performing arts.
• Zara Simpson (Class of 2017) received two awards, the Edward MacFetridge Award for the highest achieving Linguist of the Year and in addition the Rotary Club Award for Service.
• Molly McGrory (Class of 2017) received the A-level Law Award for the highest achievement in Law.
• George Wild (Class of 2017) was presented with the Sr Alban Award for Public Speaking.
• Aryan and Jai Chima (both Class of 2017) in their absence were awarded the Matthew Jacoby Trophy for courage.
• Charlie Wilcox (Class of 2019) received the James McLeish Award for endeavour that resulted in commendable and noteworthy progress.

We were also delighted to see former pupils from the Classes of 2017 and 2019 being presented with their A-level and GCSE certificates respectively. Congratulations to them all on their well-deserved success. Their teachers here at Crackley Hall School applaud them.

Then not forgetting our very newest alumni, from the Class of 2024, who sang their hearts out in the Year 7 Chorus performing Pachelbel’s Canon Medley and the rather appropriate Best Day Of My Life.

Headmaster, Rob Duigan, was impressed, commenting, “I applaud all our former pupils, it was heartwarming to hear of their success at Princethorpe. Their achievements are inspiring for us all and no doubt a reflection of their dedication and determination. Their commitment and passion have paid off and I am confident they will go on to achieve even greater rewards. I wish them all the very best for the future.”

Click here to see the Prize Giving Programme.

Crackley took a team of ten Junior 5s to the ISA Midlands U10 Rugby Sevens Tournament at Market Bosworth RFC on Monday 2 December. The squad put on a great show, enjoying playing against teams from across the region. They remained unbeaten all day and were delighted to finish top of the table and be presented with the tournament trophy.

During the day, the boys played six games and scored over 30 tries. Led by Captain, William C, all ten players gave excellent accounts of themselves but impressively remained humble in victory. There was lots of learning for the young squad to take away but their success means they continue their unbeaten streak since they were U9s.

The team were awarded their Gold medals on Friday morning in Celebration Assembly. Well done team Crackley you should be proud of yourselves and huge thanks to all the supporters who attended on the day!

Many congratulations to Junior 1 pupil, Isher, who has been awarded first place in the 2024 Catholic Independent Schools Conference Christmas card competition. Isher was presented with his certificate by Mr Duigan in our Celebration Assembly today.

The theme for the competition this year was ‘Hope Renewed’ reflecting on the upcoming theme for the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year 2025. Isher's winning design featured a vibrant nativity scene with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in his manger.

Liana in Junior 4 and Josh in Junior 6 were both awarded Highly Commended for their entries in the competition and were also presented with their certificates this morning.

A super huge well done to them all.

Over the past month, Mr MoAshley, Mr MoDuigan (Jr) and Mr StedeMoford have been working hard to grow and maintain moustaches of varying styles. It’s been a long slog (mainly for observing loved ones and colleagues) but eventually, all three were able to achieve something to be proud of, in the spirit of raising money for an important charity that increases awareness of men’s health.

Please support Crackley Hall’s Mo-Bros by making a small donation towards Prostate Cancer UK, using the QR code in the photo. Any donation will be hugely appreciated and will go a long way to helping those in need.

Thank you for everyone’s support.

Last Friday 29 November, Charlotte P (J6) travelled to the London Olympic Pool, to compete in the ISA National Swimming Finals. Having won the Midlands freestyle event, Charlotte was part of the medley and freestyle relay teams, as well as competing individually.

Her first event was the medley relay, where she swam excellently to finish off a brilliant team performance, with the Midlands team finishing in fourth place. Her individual race came next and Charlotte was up with the leaders for much of the race, before finishing in an impressive fifth position – which means she is now one of the top five freestyle swimmers from independent schools across the country! Finally, the Midlands team competed impressively against many other quick teams and finished in sixth position in the freestyle relay.

We are all incredibly proud of Charlotte’s achievements. Her success story is one of hard work and perseverance, and we are all looking forward to seeing her continue along her swimming journey. Well done, Charlotte!

Last Saturday 30 November, Crackley Hall was transformed into a 'Winter Wonderland' for our annual PTA Christmas Fair. Families and friends were welcomed warmly for plenty of fabulous, festive fun.

There were games and craft galore for the children to enjoy as well as traditional tombolas and stalls and even our very own Crackley Christmas toy shop, Elfridges. Father Christmas and his elves made their usual stop off at the Fair, delighting children of all ages. The crowds enjoyed musical entertainment with a range of traditional melodies to get everyone in the Christmas spirit and in the hall families gathered to enjoy warming hot drinks and delicious mince pies.

Huge thanks to our wonderful PTA and to everyone who helped out or who came along to support us on the day. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves and getting into the festive spirit.

Amanda Kelly from Princethorpe College visited on Tuesday morning to teach a group of pupils, from Junior 3 to Junior 6, the Our Father in sign language. Amanda, who is fully qualified in teaching sign, shared her knowledge, first teaching pupils the vowels and then leading on to the alphabet using their paper hand and pen hand (left and right hands). Pupils then watched and listened intently as Amanda went through the Our Father in sign. Amanda said, "It was a pleasure to see the children so eager to learn in such a warm and welcoming environment."

This morning, pupils showcased their knowledge during Celebration Assembly.

Crackley Hall's Choir and Choral Group came together last Friday evening, to deliver a delightful medley of magical Christmas carols and seasonal favourites at the Kenilworth Old Town's Lights switch-on. Fortunately, the weather remained dry, and the children enthusiastically performed their set list to the crowd's obvious delight. Their polished performance and rousing finish culminated in the traditional countdown.

Mrs. Olden expressed her joy, saying, "It was so good to see pupils and families enjoying the music, and this is always such a great way to start the Christmas preparations."

A big thank you to Mrs. Olden and her team for creating such a heart-warming start to Advent.

The Crackley Hall Junior Da Vinci programme encourages all pupils to be inspired to be the best that they can be. The Junior Da Vinci programme embraces three adapted principles - Creativity, Practice and Mastery - that the children demonstrate in their learning.

This year we are ensuring that all pupils in the school have opportunities to achieve Junior Da Vinci awards. The Da Vinci leaflet gives more information about this programme. 

We have moved away from termly and half termly JDV challenges and are using a monthly theme to suggest activities to challenge and interest pupils. Each month different activities will be suggested. Pupils do not have to complete all, or any of these activities. They are available to all pupils in all years, so pupils can choose to investigate something that they are interested in. Bring any examples of activities that have been completed to Mrs Cowlishaw to share with the whole school.

This is the December Challenge

Look out for news of the children achieving Junior Da Vinci's in the Awards section of the Chronicle over the year.

Our Christmas Jumper Day this year will be on Thursday 12 December 2024. On that day, children should wear normal school uniform, but instead of their green jumper, they can wear a Christmas jumper, if they wish. 

Any children that normally wear a sports kit are welcome to wear their Christmas jumper instead of their sports fleece - just remember to pack the fleece in their bags for their sports lesson!

Monique from Save the Children will be coming in to see the whole school for assembly. 

All children from Reception up to Year 6 will hear about the invaluable work that this charity does around the world.

It's time to put on our Christmas jumpers and help children in the UK and around the world get the best future ever. There's more to Christmas Jumper Day than wearing a fun jumper. You'll be helping children facing serious issues like war, hunger and poverty. And this year, with so many children having a really tough time, getting involved matters more than ever.

If your child chooses to wear a Christmas jumper, we are asking for a donation of £2 for Save the Children.

Following in the footsteps of Princethorpe College, we are going to be trialling adding this £2 donation to your next school invoice to lessen concerns around pupils forgetting or losing their donations and to simplify the administrative process.

Pupils are not compelled to participate in the Christmas Jumper Day and if your child does not wish to take part please reply by return to inform us that this will be the case.  Please note that if your child does not wear a Christmas jumper or is absent from school on the 12 December then this cost will not be added to your next school invoice.

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 Stars of the Week this week are: 

Congratulations to them all!

Congratulations on all our Junior Da Vinci awards for this week.

• Maths - Ella
• Geography – Fiorella, Mikaela
• English – Grace, Josh, Charlotte, Jessie, Harrison, Alexander, Eleanor
• History - Harry G

Advent is a special time in the Christian calendar, full of expectation, hope and preparation. This week Junior 6 have been working hard to explore the meaning of Advent in their RE lessons. They learnt that Advent has two parts: Christians celebrate Christ’s birth at Christmas time, and prepare for his expected return in the Second Coming.  

The children have also been busy preparing for their Advent Service this week, approaching rehearsals with maturity and focus. On the night, staff were impressed with the confident delivery of their heartfelt readings, poems and songs.  

Both Junior 6 classrooms are now adorned with beautifully decorated Christmas trees and, of course, the playful Junior 6 Christmas Elves - Cookies, Cream and Snowy - are keeping a watchful eye on them as they work! 

Junior 5 have continued to be an amazing group of learners, showing wonderful enthusiasm for their lessons. In History, they have been demonstrating their knowledge of The Aztecs, portraying the legend of their empire in the form of a comic strip. They loved the activity and created some excellent work. Well done, Junior 5, we continue to be amazed by your hard work – it's not long now until you have a fun and festive break!

This week in Science, Junior 4 have designed, completed, and evaluated an experiment to see which materials helped an ice cube to stay frozen the longest. We looked at the three methods of heat transfer – convection, conduction and radiation, and used materials from home and school to insulate an ice cube. We took readings throughout the day and monitored whose ice cubes had melted the most. Some ice cubes were still frozen when we went home! We discussed our findings and wrote about what kind of heat transfer method we thought was at work.

Junior 3 have been continuing their travels around Kenya in their Geography lessons this week, this time comparing differences and similarities between Kenya and the UK. The children worked in groups, looking carefully at photographs of Kenya and the UK, and planned a verbal group presentation about what they found was similar and different. Each group had a different theme to explore; food, clothes, landscape, farming and cities. The children collaborated really well and delegated jobs within their teams with maturity, as well as spotting some really interesting details in the photographs to help them make effective comparisons. Plenty of Crackley Compass stars were earned for their excellent collaboration, plus house points were awarded to the team which spotted the most details. Well done, Junior 3!

This week Junior 2 have been learning all about food chains. After thinking about the different plants and animals that we would find in several common habitats, children set about building food chains for each of these habitats. We all know that a food chain must start with a plant and that the arrows indicate 'is eaten by'. We had great fun swapping animals around on the food chains and thinking about how much we really know about what animals eat. We now know lots of creatures who are herbivores, carnivores and even omnivores - like us. I think we have a class full of budding zoologists! We have also been thinking of chains in RE, as we each wrote an act of kindness for our Advent paper chain, which we have now placed onto the class prayer table for a child to read each day and to then complete the task in school.

There was much delight in Junior 1 this week as the elves came to visit. They have been named by the children as Snowflake and Chippy. Each night they fly back to the North Pole to report to Father Christmas about what has been happening at school and who is or is not behaving themselves. In English, the children wrote letters of thanks to their elf as they were given candy canes as a thank you for being named, and they also wrote to Father Christmas to check in with him, to see how he is doing and, of course, to tell him what they would like for Christmas. We linked our Science lesson with RE and everyone learnt about Christingles - what they are, why they are used and how they are an important way to help celebrate Advent. Everybody had the chance to make a Christingle and thought carefully about how they can bring light to others who are feeling sad or lonely at this time of the year.

The children have been busy this week with the official countdown to Christmas. In English, they have been applying all their new phonics skills to writing letters to Santa. They have enjoyed decorating the class Christmas tree and home corner and welcoming Elf on the Shelf into Reception. In Art and DT, they have started to make some Christmas decorations, including their own little angel. They have also managed to squeeze in some extra rehearsals for the Nativity, ready to impress parents and the rest of the school next week.

Mr Duigan led a deeply meaningful Monday Mission assembly introducing the season of Advent. Using a beautifully crafted Advent wreath made by pupils in Junior 6, he explained the traditional Advent wreath, contains four candles - three purple and one pink - all symbolising Jesus coming as a light in the darkness. As Christmas approaches, one candle is lit each Sunday, progressively bringing more light into the world.

Whilst pupils from Junior 6 read Bible passages and prayers, Mr Duigan lit the first purple candle of Hope and asked the children why the wreath surrounding the candles was evergreen. A profound reply came from a pupil suggesting that because grass is always green and growing, this represented how God’s love for us is always alive.

Exploring the wreath's symbolism further, Mr Duigan highlighted how none of us know where the circle begins, but that this is a symbol of God’s everlasting and continuous love for us with each candle carrying a distinct message of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

As the school moves through Advent, these candles will each be lit in preparation for the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.

Junior 6 had an amazing time last week crafting Advent Wreaths for each class. They took great joy in sharing their beautiful creations with the entire school. These wreaths will now be a centrepiece in each classroom, serving as a heartfelt reminder of the season's message - to spread love and hope to everyone.

Weekly and daily Masses are held at St. Francis RC Church, Warwick Road, and St Augustine RC Church, Beehive Hill, Kenilworth. Mass in ordinary times are generally held at the following times. 

St Francis 
Sunday 10.30am 
Monday 9.30am
Tuesday 12 midday
Wednesday 
Thursday 7.30pm
Friday  7.30pm
Saturday 10.00am and 5.30pm

St Augustine
Sunday 8.30am
Wednesday 10.00am

Sacrament of Reconciliation
Saturday 10.30am to 11.00am and 4.45pm to 5.15pm.

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

Weekly Mission

We brought some festive cheer to Lego Club this week as we had our own countdown to Christmas with evergreen Advent wreaths complete with brick-built candles - all lit and ready to welcome baby Jesus at Christmas.

It's the first week of Advent, and the Badgers and Hedgehogs have been busy with lots of purple-themed activities to prepare for the birth of Jesus. They've enjoyed tasks like a purple bottle-top and tweezer activity in the water tray, painting giant purple candles of 'Hope,' playing with purple play dough, and using various purple writing and colouring tools. We also added the first purple candle to our Advent wreath and lit it during prayers.

In Phonics, the children have been honing their rhyming skills by listening for the sounds at the end of words and finding matching pairs of pictures that rhyme.

We had our first chance to sing Nativity songs on the newly erected stage in the Hall. The children did an amazing job filling the big space with their voices, much to Mrs. Olden's delight.

The Dormice have had a fanatastic time exploring our sensory porridge oats tray. They were fascinated by the sound the oats made as they fell into the tray, and they eagerly swept up any oats that escaped onto the floor.

We've also been sneaking in some seasonal activities! The children have been dressing and redressing the classroom Christmas trees with baubles and tinsel every day. We've started our Advent countdown by adding numbered baubles to our collaged Christmas tree, revisiting 2D shapes like circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. Each day, our classroom Christmas Elf selects a child who has been trying their best to unwrap a Christmas/Winter story. We have a seasonal story gift for every day in December, so all our Little Crackers will get a chance to unwrap one as we move through the month.

Please find below links to useful information.

Useful Information  

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

The Princethorpe Foundation

• Trustee 

Princethorpe College

• Teacher of Law
• Apprentice Grounds Operative

For further information please refer to the link below 

www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us