The Chronicle

Dear Parents

As we approach the final week of this half term it is good time to reflect on how well we have all managed to adjust to the restrictions placed upon us since returning to school in September.   The children have been superb and are happy and thriving at school.  The lack of social interaction was hard on them and they have made the most, within guidelines, of their return to school.  I am equally grateful to our wonderful staff and parent body for the way everyone has rallied together thus far in these times.  Learning and play continue as usual even though we have had to adjust how we conduct assemblies, Mass, celebrations, fixtures and school lunches.

I was delighted to see the wonderful response to Mrs Jackson-Mayne’s request for Harvest donations.  These will be very well received by the Coventry foodbank.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to this cause and to Mrs Jackson-Mayne for co-ordinating the collection.  

I hope you enjoyed this morning’s assembly, I apologise for the late issue but the children were able to watch it this morning in class.  Our Stars of the Week were Jessica, Hugo, Leyton, Sophia, Theo, Sienna, Amy, Andrew, Chloe, Issey, Ollie, Jasper and Sam.  There were two RE Book of the Week awards; Sara and Beatrice in J3.   I also congratulated students who received a LAMDA certificate today.  Well done to everyone!

The parent consultation evenings will take place next week which will provide an opportunity for you to discuss how your son or daughter has settled into this term, as well as their initial progress.  Meetings will be with your child’s class teacher who will have received feedback from their core subject teachers too (J4 to J6). If you have yet to make an appointment, please contact your child’s class teacher for availability.

Holiday club spaces can still be booked and further details can be found later in this week’s newsletter.  If you would like to secure a place, please confirm the days required by Wednesday next week.

There will be a non-uniform day on the last day of term in return for a donation of £1 which will be directed to the PTA.  There are many other events being organised by the PTA; even a pandemic cannot stop their enthusiasm to help raise funds and ensure the children have fun doing so.  Please look out for their news articles, projects they have planned and charities that they are planning on supporting.

Thank you for your assistance in helping car line to run smoothly; it makes all the difference if everyone arrives at the correct time.  I also appreciate the goodwill of parents who kindly have made detours to the playground when traffic starts backing up to near the Coventry Road.

I hope that the weather holds for a lovely weekend and that you are able to spend some quality time together.

God bless

Mr Duigan

Next Thursday’s club for J3/4 (Cricket/Rounders) will be cancelled due to Parents’ Evening.

Monday 19 October - Friday 30 October 2020

The Crackley Hall Holiday Club will take place during both weeks of the October half term holiday. It will commence on Monday 19 October and run until Friday 30 October.

Please follow this link to book a place Holiday Club

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

We are celebrating our outstanding LAMDA examination results in the Drama department this week. Everyone who took their examination in September have been awarded the highest grade in LAMDA, a Distinction!  Children in Junior 2, Junior 3 and some in Junior 6 had worked so hard for their exams last year but had them cancelled due to lockdown. Since then they have been working tirelessly to polish and perfect their performances ready for the September examinations. All the children’s efforts have certainly paid off and they will receive their grand certificates very soon. This talented bunch have also earnt themselves a Mastery and Practice Junior de Vinci sticker each. What a fantastic achievement!

Please find a link below to the video of the recent Student Roles of Office Presentation to the Junior 6 children:

https://vimeo.com/460132996/af0e9a3653

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Wildey's group is Grace

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes' class is Shuvan

Mathlete of the week for Mr Stedeford's group is Patrick

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Hardwick's class is Zachary

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's group is Arisha

Mathlete of the week for Mrs VanZyl's group is Ivy and Beatrice

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas' group is Alex 

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Robert's group is Ollie

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Glen-Roots' class is Thomas

Well done all!

Please follow the link below for more information:

Competition

Ms Holmes invites entries from children at Crackley Hall School from Nursery through to Junior 6

The theme this year is ‘Joy to the World’

Please see information attached - CISC Christmas Card Design Competition

The Flu Immunisation Team will be visiting the School on Monday 7 December to carry out Flu Vaccinations for all children from Reception to Junior 6. Unfortunately, we have no control over the date of this as it is set by the Immunisation Team on a rolling monthly timetable every year.

The immunisation (given to the children in the form of a nasal spray) will be carried out in class bubbles, in the school hall, with the area decontaminated between each year groups.

Further details will be sent to you approximately 2 weeks before the immunisation date and this will contain a link to an e-consent form which should be returned directly to the Immunisation Team.

Please find the link below for a digital copy of Families Warwickshire Magazine.

Magazine

This week in Junior 6, the children have been working extremely hard to conquer division.  They have had to use their knowledge of division facts to maintain accuracy in their calculations and use their problem-solving skills to work out the cost of various items. 

In RE, we have looked at the story of Cain and Abel and considered the emotional themes contained within it.  We have thought about when we may have felt jealous or unhappy with others and most importantly, what we can do to establish harmony in our relationships.

In Computing, we have been learning about Internet Safety through completing missions, earning badges and playing games on Carnegie Cadets.

In our history lessons this term, we are learning about the Aztecs. So far, we have discovered that they were originally nomads and, because of a vision that their leader (Tenoch) had, they settled on Lake Texcoco and built their famous city, Tenochtitlan. They were fierce warriors who believed that if they made sacrifices to their gods, they would have a happier life. We have also learnt that chinampas are floating pieces of land created to grow crops on – they were created because the city was built upon the lake and they didn’t have much land to build on, so they created the chinampas to grow their vegetables and fruit. This week we began designing and creating some Aztec art (mainly mosaics). Take a look in the gallery for some amazing examples of our work.

Year 4 have been writing explanation texts. In Mrs Burley's English class, Dragon’s Den came to visit and we all had to brave presenting our ideas for a ‘Teacher Pleaser’ machine to all of the Dragons. They were very kind and they would invest in all of our ideas. They were particularly impressed with the machine that always made sure there were fresh flowers in the classroom, a magic marking pen and a portal to well-known stationery shops, just to name a few design ideas. Our task now is to plan how to write up our explanations using lots of causal connectives, time conjunctions and all of the other features you would find in an explanation text. 

Year 4 have also been rapping way before Christmas this week! During RE with they enjoyed studying the Pope’s letter on looking after our world and linking this with His message. They unanimously wanted to be the generation to make a change to keep God’s world beautiful and expressed this through a rap, using a rap song as their inspirational backing track! With microphones at the ready, they sang out their views with mighty voices, from pollution in our oceans to protecting everything God has given to us. Yo J4W – that’s what we call a rap!

This week in Junior 3 we have been busy weaving some creative magic in the form of acrostic poetry. After studying some effective language features, such as alliteration, onomatopoeia and similes, we set about listening to and watching firework displays on the interactive whiteboard. We thought about all the sounds and sights and smells that surround us on firework night and then used these to create all the phrases for our acrostic poems. I’m sure you will agree they are ‘booming’ fantastic!

We also added the finishing touches to our Stonehenge pictures by adding a wash of grassy green and a sky of brilliant blue.

Junior 2 have been incredibly busy this week building up sequencing and storytelling skills. We have focused on the Six Dinner Sid series by Inga Moore, a firm favourite with the children, as they discover why it is that Sid, a huge black cat, likes to make sure he eats six dinners every day.

We used a Pie Corbett technique to help with sequencing the story and we acted out a simplified version of the text before beginning our first story using our own words.

“Come on Sid……don’t let your owners get away with giving you only one dinner a day!”

This week Junior 1 have been investigating things form the past. After taking a trip back in time to a Victorian kitchen with Magic Grandad we had to sort and match the old things with the new.

We have also shown how kind and thoughtful we are this week with the focus in our prayers towards the weak and the vulnerable. Lots of us brought in donations for the Food Bank, which Mrs Jackson-Mayne will be delivering to those in need this weekend.

We wrote about this in our RE books too.

This week has seen Reception investigating the season of autumn. We used magnifying glasses to examine pine cones, acorns and different types of squashes – what a wonderful selection of colours and patterns they have! Lots of emergent writing has been taking place, both in our autumn area and also our Crackley Café role play. The children have been busy making signs, menus and labels advertising delicious cakes, milkshakes and sandwiches, tempting Mrs Green and Mrs Convey on a daily basis.

Our small world area has been taken over by jungle animals and the children have enjoyed devising exciting adventures and stories as they play with them - luckily, no animals have escaped yet!  

And we really enjoyed our time outside in the woods in Forest School. 

A huge thank you for the fantastic response to our Harvest Appeal! The Minnie Vinnies helped to pack Mrs Jackson-Mayne’s car and this afternoon it was taken to the Food Bank centre in Coventry to be distributed to the surrounding areas.  

I think we have even more than usual! All of us working together in our classes have come together to get actively involved in helping our community.

The donations weighed in at 152.2kg - well done to everyone!!

Please click on the link below for the weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Harvest Week 

Junior 3 started off the week with a lovely celebration, ‘The Harvest Mass’. Pupils in both classes were fantastic and created a beautiful and reverent atmosphere as they led the singing and the reading. Father Kevin asked the pupils what their favourite fruit was and then cut open an apple to reveal the pip. He explained in his sermon that the fruit was protecting the pip, which would then go on to make a new harvest.

In lessons pupils have been exploring our school virtues ‘Curious and Active’. This week they have been looking at the problem of hunger in the world and what we can do actively to help people, so that we can be the new seed which provides for others.

Vocations Fortnight Information

Please see the attached sheet with information on our upcoming Vocations Fortnight.

Vocations Fortnight

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

RE Book of the Week is awarded to Sara Alvis and Beatrice Parizzi in J3 for working incredibly hard since the beginning of term. I always look forward to marking their books – they include detailed reflections and explanations which are always presented to the highest standard. Well done girls!

Last weekend, Isaac ran 6.02km along with his brother for the charity Cancer Research. COVID didn't stop them from taking part in the Race For Life for 2020 and they have raised over £550 for this amazing charity!!

A super huge well done to them both!

Hello everyone! We’ve had a wonderful week in nursery, full of wet wellies, digging for worms, spotting ‘leopard slugs’ in the woods and some soapy handwashing afterwards!  I am so proud of our little ones, not only have they managed the new routines so well, but they are supremely confident and competent hand washers!  To add to the fun we’ve had outside we have also been getting in touch with some fairly slippery snails inside.  Basing our work on the real things, as well as ‘The Snail’ by Henri Matisse, the children have been reinforcing their anti-clockwise drawing skills with Miss Nicola to create large spirals.  Then they used scissors, glue and paper to make their own snail pictures.

We know that many of you are missing seeing our lovely learning environment at the moment, so please look out for our ‘Spotlight on Little Crackers’ on the school’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, where we will be showing pictures of our various activities and adventures, as well as some of the lovely work we have up on display. 

Many things have changed in this current time, but our children are just as creative as ever – we will try and make sure everyone gets to have a starring role in the photos over the coming year, so see who you can spot!   

Newsletter

This week the spotlight is on reading here at Little Crackers Nursery…

We have been following the latest Government Guidance and are ‘cosy without cushions’ in our Little Crackers Reading Corner.

The soft light from the bubble tube makes it a welcoming space where our children can share books with friends, give life to the characters, retell favourite tales and begin their own learning adventure. Dr Seuss told us… “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Reading is a window on the world, and especially at the moment, when travelling is difficult, we like to see just how far you can go in a book!

We’re all crackers about reading here at Little Crackers Nursery.

The PTA are excited to announce the Autumn Preloved Book Sale! 

The Sale will be held on Friday 20 November from 9.ooam to 11.30am.

All books will be £1 (Max 3 books per child) with 100% proceeds to the PTA that benefits your child. Please be aware no change will be given on the day to minimise risk and handling of money.  All volunteers on the day (with a maximum of 6) will be wearing appropriate PPE.

We would appreciate donations of excellent quality books (no scribbles or pages missing).  We are looking for books in the following three categories: KS1, KS2 and Pre-Teen.

Donations will be collected in the school foyer between Monday 2 November and Friday 6 November (Maximum 5 books donated per child).  Children will need to drop off the donations themselves during those dates. The drop off dates are crucial so that a 72 hour quarantine can be observed between the drop off and the date of the sale.

Good examples of books suitable for Pre-Teen are as follows: The Harry Potter series, Watership Down, Alex Rider series and the Hunger games but other suitable books are welcome.

Crackley Hall PTA are royally excited to announce New Event News!

This year the PTA need to be super creative with Christmas events and we are very excited to tell you about a brand new event for Crackley Hall!

Crackley’s Christmas Light Trail

This will be a treasure trail of Christmas light displays provided by Crackley Hall’s parents and teachers.

At each display there will be a letter which you will need to write down. Once you have completed the trail you will have all the letters for a Christmassy anagram which you will need to work out!

Crackley families can drive around the magical trail hunting for the letters at their leisure over the week commencing December 7th 2020.

There will be a prize for the winner as well as a prize for the most popular light display, as voted by all the participants!

In order to make this possible, we need lots of volunteers to provide a Christmas light display to be included on the trail map. Your displays can be as simple or as flamboyant as you like. We would just like as many households as possible to be included so we can create a really fabulous trail!

If you live within a 4 - 5ish mile radius from school and you can volunteer your Christmas light display to be included please email:

Jo Ward at PTAevents@crackleyhall.co.uk

The deadline to be included in the map is October 31st.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

Save The Date: Non-School Uniform Day Friday 16 October

Let’s help celebrate the end of this half term with a non-school uniform day!

In exchange for a £1 donation, children may wear an outfit of their choice. Money raised will go towards the school PTA. 

Join us on Friday 13 November from 7pm to 9pm in the comfort of your own home for Crackley Hall's first BIG PTA Online Family Quiz – the one thing that won’t be cancelled in 2020!

We encourage all Crackley Hall families and staff to come together for a fabulous night of entertainment! All ages are welcome to join in this evening, which will test everyone's knowledge, alongside entertainment from staff members, a Crackley Hall specific quiz round and the opportunity to win spectacular prizes! Tickets go on sale tonight and are £5 per family to join (£1 of which will go towards a raffle at the end of the quiz). Don’t miss the chance for your children to see Mr. Duigan himself as the ultimate quiz master! If that's not enough to tempt you, each family will be playing for your child’s house and a chance to increase their house points! 

For those of you wanting to go all out with this event, there is also an optional  themed 'A Night at the Movies' fancy dress option with prizes for the best dressed family. Let’s see how creative our Crackley Hall families and staff can be!

Please click here to sign up as tickets are limited, the deadline is Thursday 5 November 2020.  We promise this will be a night to remember and one your family will really enjoy!

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

• Princethorpe College - Cover Supervisor
• Crescent School - After School Manager 

Full details and information on how to apply are available on the Foundation website here:

www.princethorpe.co.uk/joinus

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

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.