The Chronicle

Dear Parents

I hope that you are keeping well; I know lockdown is very hard on everyone, especially during the winter months, but I am thinking of you all and look forward to seeing the children at school once again as soon as possible.  We have continued to deliver learning via the various platforms and I, along with the class teachers, have really enjoyed seeing some of the super innovative ideas and wonderful creations that the children have been working on.

It is also good to see that children are able to have some time outside, despite the gloomy weather, where they can burn off energy.  I know that some of our KS2 pupils are taking part in Mr Stedeford’s ‘Fits a Knockout’ where they are invited to take part in an additional physical challenge each week.  This week, the challenge is to complete as many lunges as possible in 1 minute.  Hopefully we will extend this initiative to KS1 children too.

I understand that each family faces different demands on their time and home learning can be difficult, especially whilst trying to work from home.  Striking the right balance for everyone is quite difficult which is why we will continue to review our home learning provision where necessary.  Children do need time away from their device or their exercise books as much as they do at school and teaching staff have set tasks that can be completed during this time.  Please also keep in communication with your child’s class teacher, for example, if you find that the workload is too much or if your child requires additional time to complete any task.  Staff are there to help and advise.

Mrs Wildey has informed me of the good news that there was a 100% pass rate with the LAMDA exams.  This is wonderful – with the top mark of 90%    Certificates have yet to be released by LAMDA and this will be delayed due to their offices closing during lockdown but everyone will be told if you have a pass, merit or distinction very soon.

Congratulations to Mars House, our winners for the week, who were awarded a total of 633 house points over the first weeks back!

Unfortunately, our assembly was a little delayed this week due to technical problems but I hope you have received it by now.  Apologies for this.  I announced our Stars of the Week who were:  Calista, Liana, William, Will, Malachi, Elsie, Jenson, Charlie, Esme, Willow, Mikey, Millie and Maria.

Also, congratulations to our da Vinci Award recipients including: Patrick, Amalia, Elena, Esme, Evie, Jack, Mairen, Sebastian, Joseph, Ralph, Thomas and Noah.  You have all worked incredibly hard in English and achieved all three strands required to be awarded a full da Vinci Award.  Keep up the good work!  

I wish everyone a restful and happy weekend.

God Bless

Mr Duigan

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Hardwick's class is Aaryan and Angelica

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs VanZyl's group is Arthur and Jenson

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's group is James and Amalia

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

Well done all! 

We were delighted to have so many prospective parents join us for our Virtual Open Evening. We hope they enjoyed gaining an insight into life at Little Crackers Nursery and at Crackley Hall School and the firm foundations we give our children for their future learning.

If you know someone who missed the open evening, just ask them to contact our friendly Admissions Secretary, Jenny Vaughan, who will be happy to send links to recordings of the evening’s presentation and virtual tour, just email admissions@crackleyhallschool.co.uk or call 01926 514410.

More information is also available at www.crackleyhall.co.uk/admissions-crackley

This week in Junior 6, the children have been busy creating autobiographical pieces of writing that try to showcase the uniqueness, individuality and strengths of each individual.  They have been multiplying and dividing fractions in Maths, as well as thinking about the order of operations.  They had fun researching the construction of the Titanic in History and sketching WW1 soldiers poised for battle in Art (as you can see from the photo of Jacob's artwork).  They also tried hard to fit in some physical activity with some fun dance moves using Kidzbop to help.  A busy week of Home Learning!

Wow, what an amazingly diverse, talented and daredevil bunch of children we have in J5L – Elsie zipping around on her quad bike, Harry zooming along on his Christmas go kart and Jasmine riding her horse!

We all know Dexter LOVES PE as can be seen in his photo. Olivia has been using her spare time to hone her drawing skills; I think you will agree that she has a talent in this area. And, Amelia has been using her hair chalks to ‘rainbow’ up her dog!  

J5R have worked enthusiastically on all of their home learning tasks this week-impressive!

In between online lessons, dog lover Hattie, has enjoyed walks and snuggles with her adorable dog, Bette Davis. Mikey has been extremely helpful and cleaned his Dad’s car. Will has been enjoying sketching this week, revealing his emerging talent. With a love of outdoors, Aaron and his sister went on a fun and MUDDY walk with Dad. Alex, a fountain of historical knowledge, wowed us with his wonderful Tudor Monarch PowerPoint and Merryn, a budding performer, has enthusiastically been singing her new musical theatre songs! On the Science front, Alfred’s remarkable potato clock runs by converting chemical energy into electrical energy, which is then used to power it. The potatoes together with the zinc and copper strips act as the battery. 

Junior 4 have embraced online learning this week like true professionals  - maybe with the odd glitch here and there! Mr Stedeford and Mrs Van Zyl must have trained them well last year because the children all knew how to behave online, camera and microphone etiquette and know when and when not to use the chat facility. However, it was great to see the children taking the time to step away from their screens and being creative with puppets!

In English and Drama, the children will be looking at fables over the next few weeks and what better way to start than putting on a performance of The Hare And The Tortoise. Children made their own puppets, used toys, crafted sets and also enlisted the help of siblings to create stunning shows of this famous story.

Well done, Junior 4, you have impressed as all!

This week Junior 3 have really immersed themselves back into remote learning and our new ‘bubbles’ within school. We have already made huge strides in our mathematics; exploring 2-digit multiplication methods and completing some super problem-solving tasks. We have also begun our exciting new history topic on the Ancient Egyptians and sketched some fantastic pharaohs.

We are so proud of everyone for the way they have risen to this challenge again and are happy to be able to share weekly news to keep our sense of class-spirit burning bright.

Junior 2 have been fantastically busy, getting to grips with the new tech and with the amazing platform that is SEESAW.

We have been sharing in Maths, exploring creative writing in English, looking at Materials in Science and finding out about the Flight to Egypt of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. To help us understand more about refugees, Ms Holmes is reading The Boy At The Back Of The Class with hankies at the ready.

Whilst lockdown this time has been chilly, we have headed towards the steamingly-hot Equator to familiarise ourselves with the birds, animals, trees and insects of the Rainforests of South America and Asia.

What a busy start to the Lent term Junior 1 have had!

They have immersed themselves into home learning and shown what amazing pupils they are and why we are so proud of each and every one of them. They have been creating animal facts files in English, learning about making groups and sharing in Maths and discovering what sorts of toys their grandparents played with, and comparing them to their own in our new History topic.

In Geography they have been looking at the continents of the world and which animals come from where, and then explaining the life cycle of a butterfly in Science considering how butterflies and moths are different!

Not only that, they had a chance to design and make their own snakes and ladders game with some absolutley amazing and wonderfully creative ideas.

As you can see from our lovely photos, Reception have been busy bees, embracing their home learning with plenty of enthusiasm this week! Reading and exploring Stick Man saw us drawing and labelling pictures of our favourite part of the story; identifying and matching rhyming words and re-enacting parts of the book. Great fun was had by all and we were so relieved that Stick Man finally found his way back home!

In Maths we continued investigating the different ways we can make 5 in addition to understanding what ‘altogether’ means.

Our super scientists investigated floating and sinking this week, with plenty of water being splashed around causing great hilarity!

The learning certainly never stops even when we are at home!

Please click on the link below for the weekly mission:

Weekly Mission

Please find information below:

Children's Liturgy

Pupils across the school have been exploring so many themes in RE and PSHCE. There's been jokes to spread happiness; creative clips on the Nativity and Mother Teresa as well as writing to reflect pupils' understanding.

J6H had to choose one of the Church's Christmas Traditions that interested them most and find and present some information about it.  The animation that Niamh created was brilliant!  Niamh's animation

We were also impressed by our Junior 4 RE Stars J4 RE Stars 

Well done!

This week turned into a bit of an ice exploration theme, even though the weather tried to change our mind!  We were all astonished to find our ice sculptures were still in evidence after a night of rain, hanging in our outdoor area, and this stimulated lots of conversation around melting and freezing.  Our youngest children were so excited and rushed to tell me that the ice had gone, other were checking out the leaves that had previously been suspended in ice, whilst our older children discussed why they had melted overnight – without the sun to help. 

It is always wonderful to watch the children taking control of their learning, and to witness everyone, whatever their age, responding to what they see around them.  We should all follow their example, take time this weekend to see the wonder around us, even on a rainy day. 

Stay safe, and make the most of your time outside.

Newsletter 

Last week’s chilly temperatures were a super opportunity for the children to develop their understanding of the world.

They wrapped up well and went on a frosty cold nature walk to collect interesting leaves to make hanging ice-sculptures.  Back in Nursery everyone enjoyed arranging their treasures in different moulds, before they were frozen over the weekend. 

Then this week when the sun came out we hung them outside to watch what happened when the sun shone through them.  We left some out overnight and looked at them again the next morning.

Our ice exploration was fantastic, freezing fun!

The latest edition of our Stay ‘n’ Play at Home virtual videos, featuring activities such as settle down for story-time, join in our sing-a-long and get creative with craft, was released on Wednesday.

It’s another exciting edition full of lots of fun. This time parents and their little ones can listen to the story of Lets Go Home Little Bear and follow his adventures in the woods, make their own super cool snowman and join in with the actions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

To join our Stay 'n' Play at Home community just email Jenny Vaughan at staynplay@littlecrackers.co.uk.

Friday 5 February - 6.30pm

Join us on Friday 5 February from 6.30pm from the comfort of your own home for Crackley Hall’s first family online Bingo.  

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, and we will also have some fun half-time entertainment.

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 bingo ). 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.

Please click here to sign up for tickets. We hope this will be a night to remember and one your family will really enjoy!

We are always looking to welcome new members, so if the PTA is something you would like to be involved with, we would be very pleased for you to join us.

The committee get together once per half term and would really welcome some new faces, now more than ever. 

If you would like any further information or to be added to our email list, please contact Chanel Camilleri-Willis ccamilleriwillis@gmail.com

We would be delighted to hear from you.

We hope that you enjoyed watching your child's performance in their nativity.

If you would like to purchase the downloadable video, please follow this link to the PTA website where you will be able to select the nativity performance for your own personal download.

www.pta-events.co.uk/crackleyhall

We are recruiting for a variety of roles currently, as you will see below, so please do share with friends and family by word of mouth.

Further information and application forms on all roles are available on our website   www.princethorpe.co.uk/joinus

• Foundation Marketing and Communications Executive - Princethorpe College
• Assistant Head (KS2 and Academic) - Crackley Hall