The Chronicle

Dear Parents

The last full week of the Michaelmas term 2020 has been one to remember.  I am sure that when you speak to your children this evening they will have so much to tell you about the excitement in school, especially today.

On Monday, ‘flu vaccinations were given to children in school by the visiting nurses.  This year consent was managed online by the NHS and if you have any concerns following the vaccination, the school office will be able to give you contact numbers for the immunisation team.

On Tuesday Christmas lunch was served to Junior 2, 4 and 6.  Mr Sansum and his team prepared a wonderful spread and children ate in their usual class bubbles which worked particularly well.  Unfortunately, as I am sure you are all now aware, Christmas lunch on Wednesday had to be postponed and lunch was delivered to classes with the help of our teaching and office staff and the Princethorpe catering team.  We were however able to resume service on Thursday with the assistance of Mr Ridgeway, Chef at Princethorpe College (from Holroyd Howe) when he served Christmas lunch.  I am hugely grateful to everyone for pulling together this week in order to make sure the children did not miss out on their Christmas lunch this year.

Our Nursery, Reception, Junior 1 and 2 classes all enjoyed their Nativity performances this week.  Mrs Stephenson, from Princethorpe, was on hand to capture the events on camera and a video of all of the children will be available shortly – the link will be shared with parents as soon as it is received by the School.  I would like to thank Mrs Wildey, Mrs Olden, Mrs Paphitis and Mr Vaughan for helping to co-ordinate this event and I look forward to watching the video soon.

We welcomed Father Kevin into school on Thursday when he met with Mrs Jackson-Mayne and carried out the Sacrament of Reconciliation for our older Catholic pupils.  We look forward to seeing Fr Kevin again on Monday for Mass which will be led by our Key Stage 1 pupils.  I should like to thank Fr Kevin for all that he continues to do in supporting the spiritual development of our school community.

Today, our lovely PTA parents pulled out all the stops and revealed Crackley’s Enchanted Christmas.  This was another first for Crackley Hall and the fun started when a cheeky elf welcomed children into school; a magical fairy then greeted classes as they visited the reindeer who were waiting just outside a magical grotto.   The children had a lovely time chatting to Father Christmas who was keeping warm in his sleigh before collecting their gifts of reindeer food and a reindeer bell.  I know that I speak on behalf of the children and staff when I say an enormous thank you to the super efforts of our PTA team who coordinated this event.  My special thanks to Mrs Lamb, Mrs Wright, Mrs Davis and Mrs Ward for giving of their time today and in the days leading up to this special occasion.  I am sure that the children will remember this day for a very long time and their excited laughter and smiles today made the hard work so worthwhile.  The parents were well supported by a gang of school staff, especially Mrs Dyer – so a huge big ‘thank you’ to all of them!

The PTA Christmas light trail was also very successful and we even received calls from the public enquiring as to whether they could also participate.  The results from the trail will be announced by the PTA and prizes will be awarded to the winning entries. 

I hope you were able to watch assembly this morning where I congratulated our stars of the week who were: Musa, Lillyrose, Angelica, Francesca, Theo, Ivy, Olivia, Julia, Alex, Leo, Aaron, George, Anabel and Isabella.  Da Vinci awards were presented to Elizabeth and Amy in J3, Olivia, Jack, Matilda, Theo and Isabella in J4.  Super efforts from all of you collecting 3 stickers in one subject area.  Jia and James in Junior 4 were presented with RE Book of the Week following their excellent work on David and Goliath.  We also congratulate a number of pupils who received their bronze certificates this week and the talented and hardworking musicians who all passed their recent examination with merit or distinction.

On Thursday we welcomed a new member of staff to Crackley Hall.  Adam Peters has joined the Aftercare team as Supervisor and I am sure that you will have the opportunity to meet him at some point soon if you use our aftercare facility.

As you are aware, term ends on Tuesday next week however, holiday club, the school office and nursery will remain open until 23 December.  Please remember that holiday club hours are 8.30am until 4.00pm.  Those parents who have booked their children into the club will be sent a list of planned activities next week.  Tuesday, 15 December will be a non-uniform day where children can choose to wear either pyjamas, onesies or party clothes, with donations for this day going to the PTA.

I sincerely hope that we will be able to gradually return to offer the usual full Crackley Hall provision in 2021 with Masses, assemblies, comprehensive clubs’ timetable, sports fixtures, trips and having year groups playing together again.  Your support and understanding during 2020 has been very much appreciated by me and wider Crackley Hall family – thank you.

I should like to thank, on behalf of the whole staff and me, all our pupils and parents for their many cards, gifts and good wishes at this time.  We all love being there to support our wonderful families.  My thanks are extended to the dedicated and caring Crackley Hall staff team.  My best wishes go to everyone in our school community, that you have a peaceful and blessed Christmas and a happy New Year.

God Bless

Mr Duigan

Tuesday 15 December will be a non-uniform day where children can choose to wear either pyjamas, onesies or party clothes, with donations for this day going to the PTA.

Should you wish to make an individual donation, please use the link below:

www.pta-events.co.uk/crackleyhall

Please can you check at home to see if you have any locker keys, if so please can you hand them into the school office.

Thank you 

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

The magic of Christmas arrived early at Crackley when Father Christmas and his reindeers popped in to see us all on Enchanted Crackley Christmas day. The excitement in school has been building for weeks, with advent activities, noisy nativities and even a scrumptious Christmas dinner and then to top it all today, it was Christmas Jumper Day.

So, it was a super extra surprise for the children to be called down in turn in their class bubbles to discover our marvellous PTA elves and fairies had laid on a special treat.  In the outside classroom, courtesy of Woodbine Reindeer, Fergie and Buddy, some of Father Christmas' reindeer were waiting to meet the children. The reindeer keepers spoke to the children sharing fascinating reindeer facts, did you know that reindeer can see ultra violet light to help them find their favourite food, lichen moss, or that in the wild they can live in herds of thousands? The children were all captivated as they learned about our festive friends.

But of course, that wasn’t all, for accompanying the reindeer on their visit was the big man himself. Father Christmas had taken time off from all of his festive preparations to come and meet the children. In turn he spoke to each class asking and answering questions, discussing essentials such as who was and wasn’t on his list and what he liked to eat and drink, he even enjoyed listening to the children singing festive songs and carols before the elves sent the youngsters on their way, clutching small gifts of reindeer food and Christmas bells.

What a magical morning they all had, meeting Father Christmas and the reindeer.

A huge thank you to the PTA for organising this wonderful treat and to parents for funding this super memorable and special day.

What fun the children had yesterday filming the nativity plays and we can’t wait to share the finished films with parents.

This year Nursery performed ‘A Bundle of Joy’, a story of about Grumble, a very grumpy donkey. The children really enjoyed learning all the songs and dances that help tell the story of the birth of Jesus and Grumble’s realisation that life isn’t so bad after all.

Reception’s nativity was ‘The Angel Who Nearly Missed It All’ and the children put on an excellent show. The angel chorus really did rehearse for hours to be ready to spread the joyous news and we met a whole host of familiar characters as we followed Late Angel's dash to join in the fun.

Junior 1 performed Noisy Nativity, filled full of songs, actions and plenty of excitement, as the story unfolded the children discovered that Christmas is not just about presents. It was a lively retelling of the story of Jesus’ birth.

Junior 2’s nativity was ‘It’s A Miracle’, and it was a story of wow and wonder. Set in heaven and on earth (the playground) it captured all the beauty and wonder of the true Christmas story.

Filming took place in the school hall and also this year out on location – in a real stable (the outside classroom) and even included a real pony! You can’t get more magical than that!

We couldn’t resist sharing a few photos to give you a sneak peek of their wonderful productions.

A huge well done to all!

Mrs Goode has sent a message praising her pupils:

"In spite of all the challenges and difficulties with learning which has been thrown at our children this year, my Crackley Hall pupils have just received one of the best set of musical theatre results ever.

You are all an inspiration and I am so totally blown away at such tremendous results, congratulations to you all!" 

Well done everyone we look forward to seeing you being presented with your certificates.

We are delighted to welcome Adam Peters to Crackley Hall School. Adam will be our new Aftercare Supervisor, working with the team to provide care for the children who stay with us at the end of the school day.

Adam joined us this week and is looking forward to working with the children, encouraging them to participate in all the different activities the team offer. He has a calm and supportive manner and strong organisational skills that will ensure the children can focus on completing their work but also enjoy some play time too.

Adam attended Pangbourne College, a Christian Boarding School and has worked in a variety of independent schools. He values the home from home environment that Prep schools like Crackley Hall provide.  He is currently Head Coach for Warwick University Rugby, Captain of Coventry rugby team and has experience of teaching sport in prep schools.

He is sure to be an excellent addition to the Afterschool team.

Local Kenilworth Mayor, Councillor Richard Dickson and Councillor Alan Chalmers visited the school on Wednesday 9 December to deliver a new grit bin. Provided by Warwick County Council, the new grit bins are being donated to schools to help keep us all safe in the ice during the winter weather. 

Junior 3 have loved finding out about the life of world-famous Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto and what inspired and motivated him to become such an acclaimed artist. Together they have explored his bold use of colour, striking geometric shapes and clearly defined lines before setting about creating their own vibrant and joyful self-portraits.

They were even lucky enough to receive a special video message from the artist himself, causing such excitement amongst the children. A huge thank you to Romero for that wonderful surprise.

We hope you all enjoy seeing our finished pieces here.

Mrs Gilbert and her violin students have been taking part in a five week 'practisathon'. The children have been sponsored for each 30 minutes of practice they have completed on the violin, to raise money for their preferred charity.

Junior 3's Arthur, Finley, and Issie kept track of their practice and showed Mrs Gilbert their practice charts every week. Arthur showed real commitment, raising £35 for CAFOD, whilst making good progress on his Grade 1 pieces. Finley practised so much that he has learned nine songs in his violin book, after only starting the violin in November. Issie worked hard to master Twinkle Twinkle.

Children in other year groups who learn the violin will also be tallying up the time they have spent practising so they can donate money to charity too. Mrs Gilbert joined in the practisathon, donating her sponsored extra practice time towards Save the Children.

Well done everyone!

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes's class is Harrison

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs VanZyl's group is Adreena

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Wildey's class is Sebastian

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Roberts's group is Alfred

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas's group is Olivia

Well done all! 

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

Magazine

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

This week, Junior 6 have been working exceptionally hard in the lead-up to Christmas, sitting end of term assessments for English and Maths! As a break from this, in Science, the children have been learning about viruses, bacteria and fungi and, in particular, about Coronavirus. They now have a much better idea of why they need to keep their hands clean and why it is so important to socially distance! In addition, we had a ‘foot-fungus’ competition… you’ll be pleased to know our J6 are athlete’s-foot-free!

Our Junior 5s have been getting creative in their Art/DT lessons this half term and have all produced a felt bauble under the expert guidance of Mrs Clark! They have had to get close up and try not to prick themselves on their needles. In Music, the children have been getting their Christmas performances polished in time for the recordings this week. They sound amazing – you’re in for a treat when the videos are published.

Junior 4 have been learning all about Romans.  In Art and Design Technology they have designed and made Roman style shields and Roman coil pots decorated using the method of sgraffito; a process whereby the clay pot is painted and a design scraped off revealing the underneath colour of the clay.  Using a pencil in their art books, they designed Roman patterns and used Roman numerals to create their own designs, carefully transferring these onto their pots using a metal instrument or wire.

Said their subject teacher, Mrs Clark, “It is a really tricky subject, not only getting the coil pots right, but the fine motor skills involved which the pupils have to employ to get the end result just right. Year 4 have done a marvellous job!”

In our final full week of term, Junior 3 have been feeling fully festive and have turned our attention to making gingerbread men and women hand puppets. We learned two different stitches (running stitch and blanket stitch) and we helped each other when the inevitable knots appeared! We have also completed our wonderful Romero Britto self-portraits, written an adventure story set in the Stone Age and become masters of the four times and eight times tables.

Our class elves are so proud of us and we can’t wait to find out what Santa has heard about our busy, bustling classrooms. Well done, everyone, for a fantastic first term.

Have a truly magical Christmas.

This week Junior 2 have been working their socks off in writing a descriptive letter to their imaginary friend, Frederick. Children have blown Ms Holmes and Mrs Bhogal away with their amazing thoughts on the vision of a Christmas tree discovered in a winter wonderland. Picture ‘The Nutcracker’, if you will!

One pupil described the lights from the tree as ‘dancing upon her tongue’ – quite a statement at six-years-old! Others described twinkling colours, shivering branches, snow squirrel babies and glimmering shades of blue, gold and pink. Pupils loved the task and it was fabulous to see such focus and delight in our bubble of Christmas excitement.

Christmas has arrived in Junior 1! Not only have we been busy re-telling the story of Jesus’ birth in our English lessons, but we have also been getting festive creating some wonderful decorations and Christmas crafts. We have made star decorations for the tree, turned each child into a Christmas elf with ‘springy’ arms and legs, made some beautiful star-shaped Christmas cards and decorated mini-boxes with a winter scene. You never know there might be a little treat added into our boxes before the end of next week!

Elves Poppy and Chippy have also been busy helping us out. During the night the cheeky elves got together and added some green sparkles to our ‘springy’ elves and got covered in the glitter whilst doing it!

Christmas preparations have been in full swing in Reception this week.

We have been busy making paper chains, writing cards and Christmas lists, playing in the snowy small world and even found some time to make lovely gifts for our families too (ssshhh, they are a surprise!)  In fact, we have been so industrious that we are pretty sure that Father Christmas could give us all jobs as elves! Amongst all the Christmas cheer, we have also been focusing in our RE and Literacy lessons on the real meaning of Christmas - the birth of baby Jesus. Ending the week by performing our nativity play, ‘The Angel Who Nearly Missed It All!’ helped us to understand that Jesus really is the best Christmas present of all!

Thank you to all of J3 for their lovely assembly on Monday. They set the children the mission of being ‘peacemakers’ during Advent. Through their words and actions they conveyed the theme of forgiveness and reminded us to show empathy and understanding to those around us.

Continuing the theme of forgiveness, pupils in J5 and J6 received the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday afternoon.

It has been an extremely busy week! Pupils have been preparing readings and carols for the Advent Liturgy and Christmas Concert. Pupils will have an opportunity to join an online Advent Liturgy, led by children across Key Stage 2, on Monday. Junior 1 and 2 will be celebrating Mass in the hall with Father Kevin.

Please click on the link below for the weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Sunday 13 December - Third Sunday of Advent

Sunday 20 December - Fourth Sunday of Advent

Friday 25 December - Christmas Day

Sunday 27 December - The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Sunday 3 January - Second Sunday after Christmas

RE book of the week has been awarded to Jia (J4B) and James (J4B) for their super stories retelling the fight between David and Goliath.

Well done!

All clubs will not be running on Monday or Tuesday next week (including external clubs).

What a fantastic day!  As I write this we have just finished our Nativity filming, complete with ‘real’ donkey selfies to finish the day!  Thank you to Mr and Mrs Moss for bringing Breeze the pony, in disguise as a donkey, to add to our day, we really appreciate the effort you went to – it was lovely!  Our Nativity was wonderful, and the children behaved brilliantly on stage – it was so hard for them, no audience, no applause, however they coped with the filming very well and sang their hearts out.  I can’t wait to see the results, we are all looking forward to watching the final show soon!  Thank you to all our parents for the wonderful costumes, and to all the nursery staff for helping them to be the best they could be on stage.  I hope you all have a restful and relaxing weekend, as we move even closer to Christmas!

Newsletter

Our Little Crackers had plenty of phonic fun when they explored the letter sound t t t … they mixed playdough with tea which smelt terrific, they made tracks with the trains through the paint, and collected all sorts of things that started with the t sound. The children then had a tremendous time taking turns to choose objects to ride in the train - it’s not often you find a tiger, a tortoise, a turtle and a tree, all travelling together across the nursery floor! It was totally tip top fun for them all!

Next Wednesday we will publish the fourth in our series of Stay ‘n’ Play At Home videos and it will be a Christmas special.

The video includes lots activities to entertain and support early learning and as before, families can choose to join in with all or part of each session at a time to suit themselves.

The video will be released on Wednesday 16 December and if you know someone who would be interested in joining our Stay 'n' Play community and receiving the video links, then please ask them to contact Jenny Vaughan on jennyvaughan@crackleyhall.co.uk or on 01926 514410.

We hope to resume Stay ‘n’ Play in its familiar format as soon as it is safe to do so.

What a busy few weeks it has been with events at Crackley! We hope that you and your families have been enjoying getting into the festive spirit with all the school and PTA activities.

The Christmas light trail began last Friday and so far has been well loved by all who have taken part! You still have until Sunday 13 December to drive around the trail and be amazed by the wonderful decorations at each of the houses along the way. Rumour is that whoever hid the letter on the Crackley Hall light display was especially cunning in making it tricky to spot - but we can assure you that there is definitely a letter hidden there in the tree - and if you are there at the weekend, you'll see it on the gate too (maybe it was one of those pesky elves!).

Don't forget to post your completed maps in the box at school by Monday morning at the latest and the lucky winner will be drawn at school on Monday by the Chair of Trustees.

Once again, a big thank you to all who helped make the event as successful as it is, especially the families who added all the sparkle and pizazz to their houses. Special thanks too to Mrs Ward and Mrs Lee, who had the initial idea for this event and worked there magic to make sure it happened; from making the maps, to organising the order of the trail and delivering posters.

Yet another success to come out of this crazy year and an event that we are sure to be repeating again next year!  

Please remember to use EasyFundraising when you do your Christmas shopping.

Over 4,300 shops and sites will donate to Crackley Hall PTA - Kenilworth for FREE.

This means you can raise donations when you buy gifts, toys, jewellery, tech, experiences or anything else!

Please help us raise more. If you’ve not already signed up to EasyFundraising please click on the link below: 

Sign up

The Foundation currently has the following vacancies:

• Assistant Head (Director of Studies) – Princethorpe College

• Deputy Head (Academic) – Princethorpe College

• Teacher of Business Studies – Princethorpe College

• Lunchtime Supervisors - Princethorpe College

• Development Database Assistant - Princethorpe College

   

  The following vacancy at Crackley Hall will also be advertised today:

• Assistant Head (Key Stage 2 and Academic)

  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.

Lost Property

Hugo (Rec) and Jenson (J3V) have both lost their named school coats

Francesca (J6H) has lost her named tracksuit top

Leo (J5L) has lost 2 x Sports Fleeces

Olivia (Rec) has lost her named Sports Fleece

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Parents, please ensure that all items of 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.