The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Welcome to this week’s Chronicle.  It has been a very mixed week weather wise which resulted in a cancellation of one of our sports fixtures on Wednesday but thankfully the U8 and U9 netball team were able to join Crescent School for a fixture on Thursday afternoon.  Both teams were delighted to be able to take part in a competitive fixture once again and they played brilliantly.  A full match report and photos of the fixture can be found later in this edition.  The Junior 5 and Junior 6 teams were able to enjoy a competitive practice match against each other. We look forward to the fixtures being re-arranged.

It was wonderful to see so many children dressed up and taking part in the ‘dress up for digits’ day and raising money for the NSPCC in the process.  At the last count, we raised £404.00 for the charity which I am sure will be gratefully received.  My thanks to Mrs van Zyl and Mrs Cowlishaw for their work co-ordinating this event and to Mrs Stephenson for visiting Crackley Hall to capture the marvellous costumes on camera.  Of course, thank you to everyone who dressed up and contributed to the valuable cause.

The PTA committee met with some of our new parents on Wednesday evening.  This was a very useful meeting which allowed our PTA members to introduce themselves and give an outline of their role on the team.  As most of you will know, the PTA is an incredibly pro-active team organising events for the whole school to enjoy and if you would like to be involved in any way, please let them know.  There will also be a general meeting online on Wednesday 12 May.

In assembly this morning I announced our Stars of the Week who were:  Lucas, Fiorella, William, Tristan, Lena, Elsie, Sara, Charlie, Evie, Agnes, Isabella, Lily and Helayna.  Bronze awards were ‘presented’ to Jessie, Evie, Amelia, Olivia, Agnes and Leo.  Esme was the recipient of a Silver award today.  In Junior 6, Jacob, Rosa, Scarlett, Lily and Thomas were recognised for their outstanding work and awarded a Junior da Vinci by Mrs Horan for their RE work.  At the end of assembly today, William in Junior 5, played a lovely piece on the piano; I do hope you are able to watch the recording at some point over the weekend. Congratulations to everyone and keep up your super efforts.

I will be closely monitoring the continuing easing of lockdown measures to keep you informed of changes within school.  Unfortunately, this year we will not be able to invite all parents to watch our summer production.  It has therefore been decided to focus on Junior 5 and 6 performing the roles with other year groups supporting vocally.  We have arranged for the performance to be recorded for families to enjoy outside of school.

I am aware that some parents have enquired about the provision of holiday club during half term and it is planned to provide this between Tuesday 1 and Friday 4 June.  The school office will be sending information regarding bookings shortly so please keep a look out for that.

Finally, Miss Emma, in Little Crackers will be leaving Nursery at the beginning of June.  I am sure you will join me in wishing Emma well when the time comes to leave and if you would like to contribute to a leaving gift, please contact the school office or nursery who will be able to advise you further.  Whilst we will be sad to see Emma leave, we will be welcoming back Mrs Blyth and Mrs Malcolm who will be returning at the end of this term following their maternity leave.

The Lions’ team to play the Springboks is quite interesting! English teams have done extremely well in European football thus far this season.  There is lots of sport to keep us entertained.

I hope you enjoy the weekend and that the inclement weather predicted for tomorrow passes very quickly.

God bless,

Mr Duigan

The Crackley Hall Holiday Club will take place on the following dates during the May Whitsun holidays:

Tuesday 1 June to Friday 4 June

More details of how to book a place will be sent out next week.

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!

Crackley Hall joined schools across the country today, Friday 7 May, for a mega maths fundraising day for the NSPCC. It was a fantastic end to a whole week of mathematical fun after pupils in Junior 1 through to Junior 6 also took part in the Mathletics World Maths Day challenge earlier in the week.

Maths lead, Mrs Van Zyl, and her Junior 3 class gave 100% out on the playground in their Maths lesson and across the school the children took part in a host of mathematical activities. Pupils made a donation to come to school in number themed costumes and together raised an amazing £404 that will be donated to support the work of the NSPCC.

There will be a full write up on all the mathematical fun for a great cause in next week's Chronicle!

Last week Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle joined Junior 2 to set up a commission, to help the people of 1694 whose lives were altered when a fire ravaged through the town, one hot evening in September.

To help set the scene, St John’s Museum loaned their acquisition ‘loans box’, containing all manner of exciting household goods and chattels, that were used by the townsfolk in the 17th century. These included fine leather gloves, rushlights, leeches and their glass container, crucifix, snuff box and blacksmith’s apron and hammer.

Pupils became commissioners for the afternoon, listening to the hardship stories of a range of characters, from poor Annie Ryder (who lost her home and belongings) to Sir Henry Puckingham, rich gentleman and landowner whose suffering was minimal.

The children were horrified to find out that the although the claims were heard by the commission, very few people received any or very little compensation for their losses, including the blacksmith, who lost his home, his business and all his goods but received only £8 for his trouble. Sir Henry, of course, whose home wasn’t damaged, received the most!

Junior 2 would like to say thank you to St John’s for their online session which was very informative and Mrs Holmes was delighted that Sue, our guide for the afternoon, said, “The children were so knowledgeable and were very fair citizens!”

It was a very informative online session. Many thanks to St John's Museum and to Sue.

Well done to Elsie in Junior 5 who with the help of family members organised a cake sale on Sunday as part of the Captain Tom's 100 challenge. Elsie sold cakes to her local community raising just over £400 for the charity Zoë's Place Coventry Baby Hospice.

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Glen-Root's class is William

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Van Zyl's class is Sukhmani

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

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

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

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

Well done all!

Wednesday 26 May 2021 - 5.00pm to 7.30pm

Please share news of our Open Evening for prospective pupils.

Prospective pupils and their parents are warmly invited to Crackley Hall's Open Evening on Wednesday 26 May from 5.00pm.

The evening will consist of a welcome from our Headmaster, Rob Duigan, and a guided tour around the school. Families will also have an opportunity to ask questions to our Senior Leadership Team. 

The evening will be split into two, hour-long sessions, so that we can manage numbers and adhere to government guidelines. A maximum of two family members will be able to attend with the prospective pupil/s.

To book your place, please click here.

For more information on admission to Crackley Hall and Little Crackers please email Jenny Vaughan at admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk or call 01926 514410.

This week in Junior 6, we have seen the culmination of an in-depth novel study.  Children were able to choose a novel from a given list and were tasked with reading it and then producing their own 'book in a box'.  Pupils had to paint or colour the outside/inside of the box so that it represented the setting of the book; put in three objects that represented the main character and put in five (or more) objects that represented different things that happened throughout the story. 

We have seen some fantastically creative interpretations of these novels and have now switched our attention to reading a selection of novels based around World War II and evacuation during this time.

This week, our wonderful Junior 5 pupils have continued to read our half-term novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and are thoroughly enjoying its magical atmosphere.

In Maths, we have begun recapping our angle knowledge and seem to be coping quite well overall.

Our Art project this half-term is ‘Pop Art’ and Mrs Clark is certainly inspiring the children to produce some stunning pieces.

Junior 4 have been busy exploring the powers of persuasion in English. The children have identified effective persuasive language from a range of texts including holiday brochures, letters and online debates. Some groups even presented their points of view via TV infomercials and they were extremely convincing! Finally, the children have been writing their own persuasive arguments ranging from the danger of mobile phones to the evil of little girls in the woods (from a letter of complaint from the Big Bad Wolf!)

Watch out, Mr Duigan – letters designed to persuade you to ban school uniform may be winging their way to you very soon too!

This week in RE, Junior 3 have been exploring the Feast of the Ascension. Pupils have combined literacy skills and art work to help them remember this important feast.

In Science, Junior 3 have enjoyed investigating mirrors, discovering what happens when light rays encounter the shiny reflective surface. It has also been delightful to see the progress they have made with their wonderfully enormous feathers, which will eventually result in a spectacular mythical display.

Well done to everyone for yet another excellent week in the classroom. 

This week Junior 2 have been busy using their maths skills for Problem Solving. Applying knowledge can be really tricky and extracting the ‘maths’ from a word problem can prove challenging. We have been using resources to help us this week as a way of seeing what needs to be done. The children have also had enormous fun using the Rapid Recall Maths cards, which check their mental maths at every level. So appropriate during the week we have Number Day!

Work on the Fire of London continues this week in the form of a diary write. Children are also loving our class novel The Great Fire Dogs which tells the story of a turnspit dog called Woofer and his best friend, the King’s dog, Tiger Lily.

Even with a Bank Holiday, Junior 1 have worked hard and been as busy as ever. We have begun to look at fractions in maths. This week we have investigated halves and quarters of shapes. We also had Number Day on Friday where we could wear our own clothes if it had a number on it and some of us even made costumes to dress up as an actual number!

In History, we finished our Viking longboats as an example of an early form of transport and in DT we used card tubes and other materials to make our own type of moving vehicle – some were very creative (I think Mrs Armitage may have had an influence there!)

Our PE lessons have also kept us busy with a lot of practising for Sports Day, developing our skills to get quicker and quicker.

After a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, we eagerly returned to school on Tuesday with a spring in our step. Despite the wet, blustery and chilly weather, great fun was had in Forest School.

We enjoyed playing on the swings, role-playing families and we were so excited when we discovered a beautiful butterfly fluttering amongst us! Continuing on with our butterfly theme, we put pencil to paper and wrote some fabulous caterpillar facts which extended our vocabulary further.

In Maths we have been thinking about shapes, tangrams and spatial awareness. Additionally, our school role-play area is proving a big hit – Mr Duigan had better beware, as there are quite a few prospective Headteachers in the making!  

This week’s Shining Stars in RE include Jessie Johnson in J2 for her fabulous work on the community.

During their RE lesson J2 were researching different people who help us in our day-to-day local communities. They thought about vocational work and investigated how and when different people who have differing roles can help us.

Also included in our Shining Stars are the pupils from Junior 3, 4 and 5 who are busy preparing for receiving Sacraments. Pupils have been working at home and in their lunch time to help understand the importance of this next step in their faith journey. Father Kevin met with Junior 3 and Sebastian in J5 today and next week all the Holy Communicants listed below will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation with either Father Kevin or Father David.

Elsie received a special card through the post this week.  When Elsie heard the sad news that the Duke of Edinburgh had died, she decided to write to the Queen to send her condolences. In her long letter, she expressed her sadness and deep concern for Queen Elizabeth and her family. Elsie explained that she hoped her letter would make the Queen smile and reassure her that, ‘Prince Philip would now be a Prince in heaven’.

Please pray for our Holy Communicants:- J4 Beatrice and Eve, Amelia, Andrew, Mairen, Julia, Sebastian, Jay, Elena. In J3 Ted, Beatrice, Josie-Jean, Evie, Blythe, Elsie, Adreena, and Sebastian in J5.

Please find information below:

Childrens Liturgy

Activity Sheet

Please click on the link below for this week's weekly mission;

Weekly Mission

Junior 5 and 6:

Having not played a sports fixture for over a year, you can only imagine the excitement for all of the girls in KS2 as all year groups looked forward to their first fixture of the year (and for some, their first ever fixture!).

Junior 5 and 6 girls were due to play Crescent on Wednesday 5 May but the weather was against us. Freak hail storms made the courts at Crescent unplayable, meaning a cancellation of the matches and a group of extremely disappointed girls!

However, our courts remained playable, so the teams set a challenge between them and we played our matches internally at home. The J5A and B teams took on the J6A and B teams respectively!

What closely fought games they were! Both teams are out of match practice but soon got into the swing of it. The J6 teams managed to hold out for a win in a tightly fought contest.

The standard of play bodes well for both year groups and we look forward to challenging Crescent on our rearranged date of Wednesday 19 May!

Players of the match:

U11A – Alyx Bakewell-Beards

U11B – Isabella Card

U10A – Olivia Burley

U10B – Merryn Cleary

Thank you to the captains for their leadership and good sportsmanship on the day:

U11A - Rosa Davis ©, Maria Howe (VC)

U11B - Isabella Card ©, Helayna Collins (VC)

U10A - Isabella Downes-Black ©

U10B - Elle Weir ©

Junior 3 and 4:

The matches this week were the first opportunity for most of Junior 3 and Junior 4 to play a netball match, but didn’t they rise to the challenge!

The weather held on Thursday and the group of extremely excited (and somewhat nervous) children got onto the mini-bus for their first competitive challenge in their netballing careers.

Having had little opportunity to prepare, plus no other games to compare, we didn’t know what to expect from the girls but in true Crackley style, they really rose to the challenge.

The U8 team gelled so well as a team, showing great energy and enthusiasm, resulting in a 9-0 win.

The U9A and B teams were closely matched with the Crescent girls and had to hold their nerve. The U9A team were eventual victors with a 2-1 score-line. The U9B team result was a very fair 2-2.

Players of the match:

U9A – Georgie Rae

U9B – Chloe Tomkinson

U8 – Grace Farmer

Thank you to the captains for their leadership and good sportsmanship on the day:

U9A – Georgie Rae ©, Julia Kohzan (VC)

U9B -  Chloe Tomkinson ©, Jia Mehta (VC)

U8 -  Phoebe Ward ©, Amy Carroll (VC)

Please find more details of an externally provided Netball Camp on the flyer.

Thank you 

In Lego Club this week we helped save the earth with our very own Superheroes!  With super-cool strengths and abilities, we had a flying Iron Man who hovered and unleased a powerful unibeam.  Fear not, as Spiderman was on standby shooting his webs and using his spider senses to spot those objects invisible to others, which included a new superhero called Combatman with robotic armour and an indestructible sword.  Not to be outdone, ever-popular Captain America threw his mighty shield at the enemies, whilst Hulk and the iconic Wonder-Woman smashed and twirled their way in to save the day!  We even had a superhero in disguise looking after a pet seal! What an action-packed time we all had!

Also inspired by creativity and innovation at home, Arthur has made a three-layered truck with three carriers and all invented from scratch.  Included in this imaginative set up is a boat, helicopter, bikes and cars meaning it can be used for sea, air and land.  A fleet of mini vehicles are to follow.  Watch this space!

This week we have dodged the raindrops, in order to spend some time outside!  Whenever we got the chance we made the most of a little sunshine and had some fun exploring the windy weather with ribbons.  Miss Nicola made us some fantastic twirly sticks with coloured ribbon and the children loved involving these in their play… I watched as children twirled in the wind, took dinosaurs for walks on ribbon leads and sat on the big tyres to go fishing.  Something so simple made so many of us smile! 

Obviously you all had a giggle at my ‘hat and suncream’ message last week  - I didn’t realise the power I had to control the weather so effectively!!  But thank you everyone for taking note, we will follow the summer advice again soon I hope.  Our caterpillars have disappeared into their cocoons, and so now we wait… hopefully during the next couple of weeks our butterflies will be ready to fly free, as long as the sun is out!  Hoping everyone has a lovely weekend.

Newsletter

Ordinary Meeting – Wednesday 12 May 7.30pm

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

Dust off the dresses, shine those shoes and un-crease those coats.  As always, thank you, to our wonderful second hand uniform team, Nikki, Linda and Katie, for being ever patient and serving our wonderful school community with much needed preloved uniform.

Please feel to contact them on ptauniform@crackleyhall.co.uk to arrange an appointment, or to simply check stock availability.

To offer this service, we rely on wonderful donations from you. So if you have any good quality uniform your child has outgrown, please use the collection box in the school front entrance.  It will then be quarantined for 72 hours before offering for sale.

All money raised from the PTA Uniform shop is spent on extras for your children throughout the year at school and helps the children’s day become even more special!