The Chronicle

Dear Parents

I hope you have enjoyed the sunshine that we were lucky to experience at the beginning of the week and I shall keep my fingers crossed that it returns next week, especially for the Junior 6 visit to France.

I am writing this week’s Chronicle at the ISA Head Teachers’ Conference in Eastbourne.  This is a valuable event for Heads from the independent sector to meet and exchange ideas and share good practice and also an opportunity to be brought up to speed on the latest information on inspections, pedagogy and curriculum matters.  I am grateful to Mr Cottrill for hosting this morning’s assembly - and more on that later.

I would like to start by thanking everyone involved in the Family Fun Day last Saturday.  Whether you were involved in the arrangements, staffing a stall, performing or supporting the day I am hugely grateful to everyone and the day raised over £4,000 towards PTA funds.  The tireless energy of our wonderful PTA is to be applauded and I encourage parents to become involved whenever possible.

The ISA Netball was also held on Saturday and our U11 team travelled the long distance to perform.  I am pleased to report that they were placed second in the group which resulted in a final fourth place in the Plate Competition.  Thank you to the parents, children and staff who had an exceptionally long day cheering on our team.

On Monday of this week Junior 3 enjoyed their Ancient Greek day where they were able to dress up, learn and experience life as an ancient Greek.  My thanks to the parents who helped on the day, Mrs Holmes, Mrs Bhogal, Mrs Duigan and Mrs Van Zyl.

On Tuesday, the doors of Crackley Hall School were open to visitors for Open Evening.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the energy, enthusiasm and beautiful performances from the children were recognised by all our visitors.  Whilst it means an extended day for the children, I am pleased to say that they are very proud to act as tour guides or assist in whatever way possible at these events.

Junior 1 classes were treated to a Heritage Workshop held in school yesterday and experienced vintage toys and games that would have been used years ago in the playground at in the home.  Workshops such as these and the Ancient Greece day bring learning to life and is something that we like to arrange as often as possible for all year groups.

Well done to all of our Stars of the week:  Felix, Jessie, William, Adreena, Esme, Ralph, Jasmine, Harry, Max, Francesca, Nancy, Rosie, India, Stuart and Jack.  In addition to the Stars of the Week, I understand that awards were presented to Junior da Vinci recipients.  This is indeed a marvellous achievement for each child.  This week’s RE Book of the Week was awarded to Grace in J2 and the gymnasts of the week are Elizabeth, David, Isabelle and Jenson.  Congratulations to you all.  I am told that the Junior 2 recorder group performed a wonderful piece in assembly and I am sorry that I was not able to enjoy it personally.

All our Junior 6 parents will know that the French trip departs in the earlier hours of Sunday morning so I hope that all the children are almost packed and looking forward to spending a week with their friends in France.  We join in wishing them well for a lovely trip - J6’s final group trip with all their peers. It is also Mrs Williams’ last visit with Crackley Hall and we will be celebrating Mr Stedeford’s birthday during the visit, so certainly lots to celebrate and many memories to be made.

In staff news,  I am able to inform you that Mr Richard Hill will be leaving Aftercare at the end of next week as he takes a brief holiday before starting his full-time employment with a premier league football club.  We thank him for his contribution and wish him well for the future.  His position will be filled from within our team of teaching assistants for the last half term of the year.

Shoshanna Pavett, who teaches singing at Crackley Hall, is getting married next weekend.  We wish her and her fiancée a wonderful day and the very best for the future as they begin their married lives together.

Have a restful weekend with your families.

God bless,

Robert Duigan

Please find information attached regarding costumes for the Summer Production.

J6 Letter

Rec - J5 Costume Letter

Tuesday 28 May - Friday 31 May 2019

If you struggle for child care during the school holidays, then look no further. The Crackley Hall Holiday Club will be taking place during the May half-term holiday.

It will commence on Tuesday 28 May and run until Friday 31 May (Please note that school will be closed on Bank Holiday Monday).

There will be exciting crafts, games and activities taking place at school between the hours of 8.00am and 6.00pm. Children are kept busy with baking, arts and crafts, films, team building activities, party games and trips to the park or common. There is always lots of fun to be had!

Please be aware that places are limited (due to staff ratios), and are allocated on a first come first served basis.

We do sometimes get fully booked, so you are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.

Please follow the link to book a place https://princethorpecollege.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

Attached is a flyer with useful information on Warwickshire's Well-being services.

Warwickshire Health And Well-being Service Flyer

Please find attached the termly curriculum sheet for your child's year group:

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

If any parents have a plastic rotating garden see-saw we can use for our show please can you contact Mrs Wildey - please click on the link below for more details:

Garden See Saw

Thursday 6 June 19 - 6.00 to 7.00pm

We’d like to invite you to a meeting to discuss the new All About Me Programme which we will be delivering after half-term.  The meeting will be led by Jonny Hunt, a Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) Consultant, working on behalf of Warwickshire County Council.

The All About Me programme is designed by Warwickshire County Council’s Public Health Respect Yourself Team. It is an evidence based programme of Comprehensive Relationship & Sex Education and is endorsed by the Sex Education Forum, a national organisation which shares good practice in the field of RSE.

All About Me is designed on a spiral curriculum and based on a values and human rights approach. It is built on the premise that it is much better to drip feed positive messages and have little conversations, to ensure that children will feel prepared for the changes of puberty and for the challenges of moving on to high school.

The programme is split in to five core categories; children having one lesson from each:

All About Me - personal identity

My Relationships - families, friendships and personal relationships

My Body - understanding anatomy, autonomy, and changes during puberty

My Thoughts, Feelings & Behaviours - emotional literacy

My Choices & Personal Boundaries - understanding consent

All About Me is designed to review and reinforce all of the key messages from Protective Behaviours, allowing children to refresh their support networks and build on previous learning. This teaches the children the key messages designed to keep them safe.

We hope that by attending the meeting, any questions you may have around Relationships and Sex Education will be answered.

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Junior 5 and 6 Crackley Hall pupils who took the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) examinations in March passed with exceptional scores.  Half of the Junior 5 pupils and two thirds of Junior 6 pupils received a distinction and four pupils, Andrea, Seamus, Isabella and Francesca, were judged as perfect receiving a phenomenal 100% score.

“These are the best Junior 6 LAMDA results we have ever achieved. I am amazed and delighted”, said an excited Nicki Wildey, Drama teacher at Crackley Hall School in Kenilworth, “Over the years the children have traditionally gained excellent results but to have four judged as perfect at Grade 2 has surpassed even our high expectations.”

Children from Junior 5 study Speaking Verse and Prose Grade 1 in their Drama lessons as part of the curriculum during the Lent Term.  Junior 6 take Speaking Verse and Prose Grade 2.

The children have to prepare poems and prose to perform. They are judged on interpretation, technique and knowledge. They have to consider their diction, vocal expression, facial expression, tone and volume to communicate meaning and have to be able to discuss their understanding of the poems and prose with their examiner.

Continued Mrs Wildey, “What’s brilliant about the LAMDA exams is that they equip the children with communication skills which will serve them throughout life.  They not only promote an appreciation of literature and poetry, but also help unlock their imagination and creative-thinking.”

Congratulations to all of the children involved, Crackley Hall School is very proud of you.  These outstanding results are a reflection of your hard work both in and out of school – well done to you all, clearly all that rehearsing paid off!

Early last Saturday eight of Crackley's finest came together to take on the 'best of the rest' at Queen Ethelburga's in Yorkshire. For today, their manicured college courts were to play host to the prestigious 2018/19 ISA U11 National Netball finals. 

Our girls steadied their nerves and reacquainted themselves with Amy, their inspirational coach for the day. A quick team talk and training session later and battle was to commence, with their first match timed to start at 10am sharp. Crackley took on the stiff opposition that presented within Pool 'D', winning their first two games and narrowly losing to Lingfield in their last.  

The weather seemed to mirror our girls on court fortunes, given storm clouds rolled over as we matched up and lost out to stiff rivals within the Plate competition. This is no Chronicle tale of woe, however. Our girls, came, saw and fought for every ball; acquitting themselves very well, whilst winning much admiration from many for their match play. Our thanks are extended to Mr Lamprecht and Mrs Horan for accompanying our charges, Miss Amy for her invaluable on court assistance and Mrs Vaughan as coach. And the moral of this story? Try as hard as you might, and you too might be recognised as finishing eighth overall in your ISA National Netball Competition.    

On Monday 13 May Crackley Hall’s two Junior 3 classes, travelled back in time to explore Ancient Greece courtesy of history specialists, History Off The Page. Some 2,500 years ago, Ancient Greece was one of the most important places in the world made up of small 'city-states’, such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Olympia. Its people were great thinkers, warriors, writers, actors, athletes, artists, architects and politicians and their ideas started a way of life that is similar to the life we lead today.

Junior 3’s Ancient Greece Day transported the children back to 490BC to the city-state of Athens and news that Persia has invaded Greece.  Crackley’s school hall was transformed into the Athenian Agora (an assembly and marketplace).  Dressed in ancient Greek costumes and taking on ancient Greek names the children adopted traditional roles making their own artefacts using skills prevalent at the time.  They worked as wax tablet makers, potters and painters, sculptors, fresco painters, pavement makers, lamp makers and even physicians.

As news of the impending invasion came, the children gathered to make a democratic decision to ask for help from the warriors of Sparta.  Although the children were not at all impressed to discover that in that early democracy slaves, metics (foreigners), children and even women weren’t allowed to vote!  However, they did enjoy hearing about the famous Battle of Marathon and how the Athenians managed to defeat the Persians despite being outnumbered by them.

In the afternoon the children celebrated with a banquet, they enjoyed Greek foods including feta, figs, dates, pitta and cooked meats.  There was also entertainment with dancing and a performance of the myth of Pandora.  It was yet another fun-filled, fabulous learning day.

Modern day Junior 3 teachers Ms Holmes and Mrs Van Zyl were very impressed, commenting, "The day was really engaging, it really brought history and our ancient Greece topic alive.”

J5SL pupil Louisa Cooper has just finished a run of 16 performances as Little Cosette in the hit musical Les Miserables at the Birmingham Hippodrome.  In a production that has received rave reviews she worked alongside a cast that included Killian Donnelly as Jean Valjean.  Louisa said,  “It was very exciting and I really enjoyed it.”  Louisa is clearly a natural when it comes to treading the boards as her latest performance follows on from a successful outing with the RSC in their amazing winter production of A Christmas Carol.

Well done Louisa – what an experience that must have been.

Next week school will feel just that little bit quieter and oh so much bigger as our senior members of the school student body will be having a most marvellous time on the continent. 

We do hope they all have a lovely time and have many, many great adventures and bring back lots of stories to swap and treasure for a lifetime.

The whole school wishes you a smooth Channel crossing and safe return. 

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery opened our doors for the final Open Event of the year on Tuesday 14 May.

It was a great chance for prospective families to look around the school and nursery and to chat to our friendly staff, pupils and PTA members. There were some fantastic music performances and sporting activities on display plus the chance for visitors to see some of the amazing work our pupils have been doing this term in displays in the classrooms.

A big thank you as ever goes to our wonderful pupils for their help – they are excellent ambassadors for our school! – and a special thank you also to members of our PTA who gave up their evening to help with refreshments.

Parents are reminded that the deadline for final registrations for entry in September 2019 is Friday 24 May 2019 – interest is high for Nursery and Reception, with limited places available in other years. Our nursery is open 51 weeks a year and is carefully structured for two-year olds, three-year olds and pre-school.

For more information about availability and the admissions process, please email Mrs Jenny Vaughan, Admissions and Marketing Secretary at jennyvaughan@crackleyhall.co.uk or call her on 01926 514410.

This year the PTA Family Fun Day took place on Saturday 11 May, the weather was great and everyone enjoyed a fabulous, feel good, fun filled family event.
All the essential elements of a British summer fair were spread out across the school grounds. Every class had responsibility for a stall and it was lovely to see the children helping out and to witness all their amazing ideas. They included - nail and face painting, a popcorn stand, the human fruit machine, a coconut shy, chocolate and bottle tombolas, slam dunk basketball, football shootout and a bouncy castle. Some stalls, which first featured last year, made a most popular return. New favourites that included gladiator duels, sumo wrestling and the ‘Young Drivers’ experience all tempted our charges.
For the fifth year running the Fun Day hosted ‘Crackley’s Got Talent’. All the children that took part were fantastic and had their few moments of fame. Their acts included lots of singing, dancing and comedy. Of course there was also lots of audience participation and support.
Such an offer as listed requires fortification to complete, so we at the Chronicle are delighted to report that all tucked into a veritable feast.
Although the final figures are still to come in it looks like the PTA have raised £4,000, a really fantastic total. The money will be put to good use buying equipment for the children at school and funding school events.
Crackley always puts on a good event but the Fun Day could not have happened without the great teamwork and efforts of all the people who worked behind the scenes in the build-up and on the day. Our thanks go to all those members of the PTA and other volunteers who donate their time, help run a stall, provided food and supported in so many other ways.

The Chronicle is delighted to announce that pupils will be hosting a Children’s Fundraising Day on Monday 10 June, to raise money to support our chosen local charity.

Repeating the successful formula from last year's event, children will have the opportunity to run their own fundraising stall. Children should register their interest in running a stall for our Fundraising Day using the attached letter. They would need to work with a partner or small group and be able to run the stall, which could be; a small table game, selling home baked goods or bric-a-brac, or running a craft activity.

As before the children will be responsible for running their own stalls during break time and lunchtime, but would need their parent/guardian's support with organising and providing resources for their stall. This would obviously need to be at minimal cost to you.

Don't worry if your child does not wish to run a stall, as there will be lots of other opportunities to take part in the day and have fun. 

Further details will follow.

We are delighted to share the news that one of Crackley Hall’s past pupils, Christian Starkie, has just been selected to play hockey for Australia U21s. 

Christian attended Crackley Hall from 2007 to 2011 before moving on to Princethorpe College.  He started playing hockey in Junior 4 when Mrs Vaughan gave him a go in goal at an ISA hockey tournament.  Crackley won the tournament, without conceding a goal, and that was the start of his hockey career.

At Princethorpe, Hockey Coach Colin Dexter took him under his wing and he regularly played for the College and for Rugby & East Warwickshire Hockey Club until April 2013 when he left the school as his family emigrated to Perth in Western Australia.

Over the years, Christian has represented Western Australia at Under 15, Under 18 and Under 21 levels as well as playing for the senior State team.  In April 2018, he represented Australia at the Oceania qualifiers for the Youth Olympics in Papua New Guinea and then in October he played in the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Chrisitian will now play for Australia in an eight-nations invitational tournament that will take place in Madrid in June.

Christian’s father, Neil Starkie, shared his news, he said, “Christian’s hockey career started back at Crackley Hall and grew with the brilliant coaching from Dex – Christian knows how much he owes to his coaches in those early days.  Since arriving in Australia his hockey has gone from strength to strength.  Christian is hoping that his Australian team might get to meet Great Britain if they make it to the tournament final!”

Well done  Christian – it was great to hear of your success and to know that it all started back here at Crackley Hall.

Wednesday 5 June 2019 - 6.30pm to 8.30pm 

The College's Summer Open Evening will take place on Wednesday 5 June from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. This is an informal opportunity for prospective families to look around the school and to meet members of staff and pupils.

There will be activities in each department for children to participate in, and the Headmaster will also address visitors in the Chapel during the evening. Light refreshments are available.

There is no need to book.

For further information please contact the Registrar, Mrs Vanessa Rooney, on 01926 634201 or email admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

Trinity Term Calendar

Please click on 'View Gallery' to scroll through a few photos from this week's events.

RE Book of the Week has been awarded to Grace (J2M).

We are pleased to announce that Jenson (J1GR), Elizabeth (J1G), Isabella (J2H) and David (J2M) are our gymnasts of the week. 

U9 'B' Cricket v Warwick 189/6 v 245/3 (loss)

Player of the Match - George Moreton

Please find information attached:

Half Term/Summer Tennis Camps

Please find details attached of the schedule for the Trinity Term:

Schedule

Can we please remind you that if choosing a club led by an external provider, you must sign up both on SOCs and with the provider themselves.

Please see the attached letters for more information on individual clubs: 

Bayleaf Cookery Club

Karate

Mad Science

Chess

Rugbytots

Cricket

Tennis

Yoga

Ballet

Mini Brass

For those of you as interested as Miss Lisa, the caterpillars have grown enormous this week and have spent the last two days preparing to change. 

We are having a great deal of discussion, as only pre-schoolers can (!!), about the correct words that need to be used.  Both pupa and cocoon have been talked about, but according to the company ‘Insect Lore’ (the home of our caterpillars) the cycle goes: egg caterpillar chrysalis butterfly!

After a little hunting we now know that pupa and chrysalis are the same thing, but the cocoon is the silk casing that is spun before it turns into a chrysalis… so there you go!  However, after all that, we have agreed that they will definitely turn into butterflies! 

This lovely weather has certainly made everyone smile this week and I hope it continues so you can all enjoy the weekend. 

Newsletter

Family Fun Day - Well Done Us!

Thank you to everyone who supported this event in any way.

It was a lovely day and we raised over £4,000 which is an amazing amount. 

Please click on to the News section of this edition of the Chronicle to find out more about this fantastic event.

Lost

Jakob (J2M) has lost his named winter coat

Mikey (J3V) - has lost his school cap

Seb (J5R) has lost his school cap

Reeve (J4JM) has lost his blazer and school cap

Elle (J3H) has lost her blue 'joules' reading glasses

Thomas (J4W) has lost his blazer

A dark navy grey water bottle with a grey lid and white writing has gone missing from music room

----------------------------------------------------------

Parents, please ensure that all school uniform and sports kits are named.

Could you please regularly check all uniform and sports kits at home – if any of it is not yours, please return it to the School Office as soon as possible.

Interested in working for the Princethorpe Foundation?  We currently have the following vacancies:

• School Nurse
• Summer Estates Asisstants
• Graduate Sports Coach

Full details of the roles and how to apply for them are available on the Foundation's website:

https://www.theprincethorpefoundation.co.uk/join-us