The Chronicle

Dear Parents

I hope that this week’s Chronicle finds you well and not battling with flood waters.  The adverse weather has affected both fixtures and extra-curricular activities this week but we have tried to carry on to the best of our ability where possible.

This week was national anti-bullying week with all children (and some staff) wearing odd socks on Wednesday to help raise awareness about the simple but important message that everyone is different and that we should celebrate our individuality.  The message was reinforced in class and at an assembly, led by Mr Cottrill.  Photographs that captured Odd Sock Day can be viewed later in this newsletter.

On Monday, Junior 2 held their assembly marking Remembrance Day before the whole school took part in a service in the Hall.  The school fell silent for two minutes whilst we remembered those who have served in conflict and continue to serve their country; the poppy appeal funds were then collected and I will update you in due course regarding the total amount raised.  Whilst on the subject of charitable donations, I am pleased to let you know that the PTA will be purchasing several CAFOD ‘gifts’ from some of the money raised at the last non-uniform day.  These include water for a family, the gift of play and a school starter pack.

Junior 6 have benefitted from an amended timetable this week and have been involved in some wonderful activities organised by Mrs Horan and Mrs Vaughan.  I was lucky enough to see the sweet creations made by the children during the bake off.  They were certainly the best that I’ve seen by any group of Junior 6’s.  Mr Cottrill had the difficult task of judging the competition and the standard was simply outstanding.  I am looking forward to joining Junior 6 on their visit to Costa Coffee in Kenilworth on Monday.

On Tuesday we welcomed children from Crescent School to our choral day.  The event, organised by Mrs Olden, was a huge success and enjoyed by pupils of both schools.  Parents and family members from both schools joined the teachers and pupils for a concert and final performance to close the day.  Thank you to Mrs Olden and the staff from Crescent School for organising this day.

Messers Cottrill and Stedeford accompanied our footballers to the Midlands ISA Football competition in the Wyre Forest on Wednesday.  The U11A team reached the quarter finals, losing 4-5 on penalties to the eventual winners, and our U9A team performed well in winning The Plate Competition.  Congratulations to both teams.

Well done to all our Stars of the Week: Dalilah, William, Tristan, Grace, Aaron, Beatrice, Amelia, Miley, Grace, Mikey, Woody, Noah, Alfie and Thomas.  Congratulations to all of our stars.  The RE book of week was awarded to Jia for her continued good work, especially over the last week on vocations and superheroes.  Two wonderful musicians entertained us at the start of assembly – thank you and well done to Issey and Beatrice.

I have been involved in admissions meetings at Princethorpe this week and can reassure parents and pupils that the team at Princethorpe are working hard and looking very closely at all applications.  I understand that this is an anxious time for both parents and children; please know that I am available to discuss any concerns with parents and am very happy to offer any advice, if necessary.

I wish you all a very restful weekend, keeping warm and dry if possible.

God bless

Mr Duigan 

Please be advised that there will be no Thinking to Think Club next Thursday 21 November.

The club will take place the following week on Thursday 28 November and then run weekly on Thursday until the end of term.

For more information please click on the link below:

https://historicengland.org.uk/get-involved/visit/where-light-falls/

Warwick Arts Centre – Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas - Nursery 2, Reception and Junior 1 Trip - Thursday 28 November 2019

We are still in need of a couple of parent helpers and also have a few spare tickets available if any parent from Nursery 2, Reception or Junior 1 wishes to accompany their child on this trip. 

If any parents from other classes within the school are able to volunteer to help or wish to go along this would be greatly appreciated. 

These tickets will be available at a reduced cost to cover the ticket price only of £13 but includes a seat on the coach, leaving Crackley Hall at 12.45pm and being back at school in time for the end of the school day.

Please contact Mrs Glen Roots, Mrs Bird or the School Office if you are interested. They will be issued on a first-come first-served basis.

As usual we are taking part in the Christmas Tree Festival held each year at St Nicholas School, this is a lovely community event and is one of the ways that our school prepares for Christmas during Advent.

This year the decoration will be linked to the book, 'Have You Filled A Bucket Today?' (please google) Pupils will be given a cup and pipe cleaner and asked to decorate their cup with ideas of ways they can be kind to others. They can add a face, stick or draw on the cup, pop things inside. There are a few pictures on the internet which will give you ideas.

The cups will be given out this week and decorations need to be back by Wednesday 27 November. Thank you for your support in advance.

On Tuesday 12 November children from Crackley Hall School and Crescent School had a fantastic, full day of uplifting and inspiring singing when they took part in a joint Foundation Junior School choral workshop.  The pupils from both schools worked together under the guidance of Directors of Music, Susan Olden and Julie Barnes, to prepare and rehearse a mix of joint and individual choral and solo pieces ready for an afternoon concert for parents.

Mrs Olden and Mrs Barnes both agreed that the joint musical initiative had been another very successful day, remarking that, “It is so good working together, everyone really enjoys themselves, it’s one of the highlights of the term.”

The concert opened with a lively performance of A La Carte, the voices of the 60 plus children blending together.  The choirs performed a wide variety of pieces; they included From A Railway Carriage, Riversong, London Fire, What A Wonderful World, Ode To Joy and as a finale the super scary and spooky medley Frightfest.

Both schools individually showcased their choral skills, with Crescent School singing One Of Us May Sow and Crackley Hall, Can You Hear Me. The audience were also treated to incredible, individual solos from Tumi Oredope who sang I Could Have Danced All Night, Sienna Moran who played Sundowner on the clarinet, Jorja Parris who performed Honeybun and Kiki Dhillon who sang The Ugly Duckling.

Julie Barnes, Director of Music at the Crescent School, continued, “Both schools have such a strong musical tradition and the children really rise to the occasion, it is great to come over and work together.”

Susan Olden, Director of Music at Crackley Hall, added, “There is real talent within our schools and the choral workshop inspires our pupils with their singing.”

The Michaelmas choral workshop is followed by a return visit in the Lent term when Crackley Hall will travel to Bilton, Rugby for an orchestral workshop with the Crescent School.

The shared workshops are just one of the many performance opportunities that pupils at the schools take part in.

To listen to the choirs singing What A Wonderful World please click here.

On Monday morning Junior 2 hosted a Remembrance Day assembly. Pupils read poetry from WW1 and sang ‘We are the World’ to commemorate Armistice Day.

Ms Holmes and Mrs Malcolm said “The pupils worked hard to deliver a respectful yet uplifting assembly and had practised hard with their lines. They even had a WW1 captain and a nurse join them for the occasion.

Just before 11.00am the whole school came together once again to observe a two minute silence.

The children have been proudly displaying their poppies and other associated Royal British Legion Remembrance symbols around school for the last couple of weeks. Thanks to Conor, our RE Captain for giving up his break times to sell the various items.

On Wednesday 13 November the children came to school wearing odd socks for Anti-Bullying Week.

Crackley Hall's pupils joined children across the UK by deliberately coming to school wearing odd socks.  Odd Socks Day encourages people to think before they speak and to consider how their words and actions can affect other people. It is also designed to be fun and allow children to express themselves and celebrate their individuality.

Odd Socks Day was just one part of Anti-Bullying Week here at Crackley as the school joined in the national initiative that encourages children to embrace their differences and report bullying behaviour. 

The date for this years Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children is Friday 13 December.

If children would like to participate, they should come to school in their usual uniform with a Christmas jumper in place of their school jumper.

All children wearing a Christmas jumper are asked to bring in a £1.00 donation for Save the Children.

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-jumper-day

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Mathlete of the Week for J2H is Sienna

Mathlete of the week for J2M is Rory

Mrs Wildey’s Maths Group Mathlete of the Week is Alfred

Mathlete of the week for J1 is Jessie 

Joint Mathlete of the week for J3AZ is Andrew Parizzi and Oliver Stringer

Well done!

Thursday 21 November 2019 - 7.00 to 8.00pm 

Crackley Hall is holding a Nursery and Reception Open Evening on Thursday 21 November 2019 from 7.00pm to 8.00pm. This is an opportunity to gain an insight into the Early Years at Crackley Hall and Little Crackers.  Parents will be able to look around the school, see examples of children's work and activities and to talk to the Headmaster, Rob Duigan, and Assistant Head Early Years and Key Stage 1, Susan Glen-Roots and meet members of the Nursery and Reception Team. 

All are welcome, no need to book.

If you can't make the Open Evening but would like to look around the school, please call our Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or alternatively email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk and come on a day to suit you, we welcome visitors on most days.

For more information visit www.crackleyhall.co.uk.

The countdown to Christmas will begin in earnest at Princethorpe College on Sunday 1 December when their wonderful Parent Teacher Association will be holding their annual Christmas Fair from 2.00pm to 4.30pm.

On offer is a festive feast of stalls, games, activities, music, refreshments and a special visit from Santa. They aren't promising snow but there will be lots of Christmas cheer!

If you are not shopped out after our own Winter Wonderland then this is a lovely opportunity to visit the College, please do spread the word amongst family and friends, as all are welcome.

Entrance is just £2 per car. They looking forward to seeing you there.

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 Jia (J3AZ)

Crackley Hall’s U11 and U9 Football teams travelled to Kidderminster on Tuesday 12 November to the Wyre Forest Leisure Centre to take part in the ISA Midlands Junior Boys 5-a-side Football competition.

The U11 boys played superbly, showing an impeccable attitude throughout the day and admirable character. During the morning group phase, the team battled to third place in their group which qualified them for the quarter-finals of the Cup. At one stage, they had lost two matches in a row, so to stand a chance of qualifying, their task was to win their remaining matches. They achieved this through grit, determination and some outstanding team play; eventually finishing with four wins and two losses. 

In the quarter-final, they played the strongest placed team in Group A who had won all six of their first-round matches, conceding only two goals. Despite dominating the match, and creating almost all of the goal-scoring opportunities, Crackley Hall found themselves 2-0 down with just one minute to go. Somehow, they managed to dig deep, scoring two last gasp goals to force the game to extra time and penalties. Agonisingly, they then lost the penalty shoot-out 5-4 and were unable to progress to the semi-finals.

Team coach, Rich Stedeford, was delighted with the team’s performance, commenting, “Despite the penalty shoot-out disappointment, this group of boys should be highly commended for the way they performed. They were quite clearly one of the strongest teams at the event but more importantly, they showed an exemplary attitude, working beautifully as a team all day. These players all have a bright sporting future.”

Crackley Hall’s U9 team had a tricky start to the tournament, despite some very close games.  After the initial round they went forward to the plate competition and from there they were unstoppable. The team then played another four games winning them all well before beating Stafford Prep 4-1 in the semi-finals and then St Joseph’s 2-0 in the final.  

Deputy Head, Duncan Cottrill, commented “The boys played very well on the day and didn’t look in any trouble once the plate competition started.  I was extremely proud of the way they bounced back from some opening defeats; they showed great character and thoroughly deserved the win in the final.”

What a wonderful wet and windy end to the week, something the Badgers made the most of on Thursday in Forest School. 

Our plans had to change as the wind got windier and the rain fell faster, so we decided to stay away from the trees and jump in the playground puddles instead.  This proved to be a super plan and everyone had a wonderful time, making the most of the water and finding the positive in every situation!!  

Please can I make a gentle request for Nativity costumes to be sent in as soon as possible, thank you to those who have already done this. As rehearsals heat up, we are getting quite excited about our upcoming performance and hope you are all able to come and watch. 

Have a good weekend and don’t forget, it’s time to start Christmas Shopping!!!

Newsletter

We lost quite a few of our regular bakers this year when their children moved on to secondary school.  So we have rather a depleted list!

So if any of you fantastic bakers can manage to rustle up a whole cake/minces pies/something to sell on our cake stall at our Winter Wonderland Fayre (Saturday 30 November) - we would really appreciate it  - as always.

Also, if anybody is feeling particularly crafty and would like to donate any unwanted gifts or handmade gifts such as candle holders, photo frames, decorative jars or homemade jams, marmalades or chutney’s this would also be very much appreciated and something you could maybe involve your children in creating!

Please let Emma know what and how many you can make emma.mauxion@gmail.com; boxes will be provided for cakes.

There will be a box out in the main entrance for donations in the run up to the Fayre

Please bring your donations into school on Wednesday 27 November. 

There will be a non-uniform day on Friday 29 November for all the children. In return we are asking for specific donations for the Christmas Fayre:

Little Crackers, Reception and J1 children: we kindly request that each child donates a box of chocolates for the hugely popular chocolate tombola stall.

J2, J3 and J4 children: we ask each child to donate a glass jar filled with Christmas-related treats for the ‘Goodies in a Jar’ tombola stall. Suggested fillings include:  Christmas chocolates, stationery items, small toys, craft items, etc.  (unisex where possible please)

J5 and J6 children: we would love every child to donate a bottle for the bottle tombola stall, such as a bottle of wine or spirits.

Donations can be left at either the main school entrance or the Gables entrance.

In addition we are also holding a teddy tombola and this year we are also adding a fabulous fancy dress stall which we are sure will be a HUGE success with all the children, so have a look and see if you have any unwanted teddies and fancy dress costumes at home in good condition that you can donate. There will be a box out shortly in the main entrance for donations in the run up to the Fayre.

We are still short of a few helpers on the day too, so if you can spare a couple of hours to help on the day then please let a member of the PTA know or email mfox1401@gmail.com

We really do appreciate all your help and all of the money raised goes straight back into the PTA fund.

Saturday 30 November - 1.00pm to 4.00pm

Planning is now underway for what we hope will be another fantastic PTA event. This year's Winter Wonderland will take place on Saturday 30 November 

As always these events are a success because our wonderful school community come together and once again we are asking for your help.

As well as lots of help on the day we are looking for help with the planning and setup of some of the stalls. Any aspiring chefs (or chefs), caterers or just parents who love to cook and can come up with some exciting and new suggestions around the food tents?

Home crafts is always very popular, so if you have any home craft skills in your back pocket please do let us know, the children and parents love buying Christmas gifts and goodies on this stall

We have set up a WhatsApp group for those of you who would like to get more involved, please let mfox1401@gmail.com  know if you would like to be added to this?

All help is welcome, both in the build-up to the event with planning and on the day so please do let us know if you are able to offer your support in any way?

Please see below our current vacancies:

• Director of Sport (Foundation)
• Teacher of Latin
• Decorator - part-time
• Estates Assistant - casual\zero-hours contract

Full details and how to apply are available here: 

Should you know anyone who might be interested in these posts, please do share this information with them.

Lost

Eve/Beatrice (J3S) has lost her named coat

Jacob (J1H) has lost his named blazer

Hugo (J6H) has lost his winter coat, named and PE shorts, named

Hannah (J3S) has lost her named violin

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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 it does not belong to your child, please return it to the School Office as soon as possible.