Welcome to the Chronicle, Crackley Hall School's e-newsletter. The Chronicle is mailed out each Friday evening and includes school news, updates from the classrooms and information for parents. 

It has been wonderful to have the children back in school this week, they have made a great start, settling quickly back into the routines of school life. At the beginning of the week we made the most of the sunshine, gathering together for the first time in a long time, outside of course, for a whole school assembly.

Read on for news of Crackley Hall's first review by the Good School Guide and to find out what has been happening in school this week. 

Preview

Headmaster's Message

Headmaster's Welcome

Dear Parents

Welcome to the new academic year and the first Chronicle of this term.  I have had the opportunity to meet many parents in person this week as your bring your children to school and collect at the end of the day.  It has also been wonderful to see familiar faces and some new faces too.  Staff and children have settled well into their new classes and there is a wonderful buzz around school again.   I hope that with continued cleaning measures and an element of caution, we can return to function as we did before the pandemic in the very near future.

I must apologise again for the rather hectic start to Monday morning, as well as the grid-locked carline on Monday afternoon.  As we move into the routine of extra-curricular clubs next week and staff, pupils and parents become more familiar with the routines, we would expect to see a much smoother collection time.

As I am sure you will have noticed on your arrival to school, we have a super new surface on the middle playground.  This astroturf surface has been made possible with the generous funds raised by our PTA over the past nine years.  If you haven’t thought about joining our PTA yet, please do get involved, the events they arrange and funds raised make a huge difference to school and, as you will see, every child benefits.  The PTA have their own section of the Chronicle so please do take a look.  Whilst on the subject of the PTA, Mrs Lamb, our current Chair, recently completed a 13-mile charity hike for MacMillan Cancer Support raising money for this charity.  A further MacMillan event will be held at school later this month when we support the coffee morning.

Our Good Schools Guide review was published at the end of the summer and I was pleased to invite our Head Boy and Head Girl to be involved in a photograph for the local press.  A copy of the full review can be found on the Good Schools Guide website.  It was a pleasant surprise having been contacted by them with regard to a possible inclusion in the guide, subject to a successful review.

Father Kevin was welcomed into school this morning when we celebrated our start of the year Mass, with Junior 6 leading it.  Mass will be shared with the wider school community early next week.  Thank you to Mrs Jackson-Mayne, Mrs Simmonds, Mrs Olden and Father Kevin for their work today ensuring that we could celebrate Mass at the start of this new academic year.

Following Mass, the children were able to watch our celebration assembly where I announced the Stars of the Week as: Clement, the whole of both Reception classes, all Junior 1H, Zachary, Eloise, Casper, George, Archie, Anthony, Felix, all of Junior 4R, Rory, all of Junior 5L, Sofi, George and Henry.  Congratulations to all of you on your super start.  I will return to announcing birthdays, starting next week, so please don’t worry if you had a birthday at the very start of term, I will not forget you.  We will look to inviting parents back in to join in the celebration as soon as possible.  As mentioned in assembly, we will aim to have different year groups in at each week’s assembly.

It was a busy morning today as I met with Junior 6 to present them with their Steward and Captains badges.  Unfortunately, Mrs Horan could not attend but Mr Cottrill and Mrs Vaughan were able to support Junior 6H and the event was recorded to be sent to all our Junior 6 parents by Monday next week.  I am sure that Junior 6 will take pride in their roles and serve their school well.

Swimming is back on the timetable this year and Junior 3 and Junior 4 will begin their lessons at Abbey Fields next week.  I am hoping that we will be able to continue swimming at Abbey Fields but I am aware that there will be renovation work taking place at some point in the not too distant future.  If I receive further information, I will share this with you.

England will have to be at their highest level in all areas in the final test against India if they want to square the test series against a very strong team. The England footballers had a successful international stint over the past ten days but I am now looking forward to the South African rugby matches against Australia and New Zealand.

I hope you enjoy reading this week’s Chronicle and have a restful weekend.

God bless,

 

Mr Duigan

 

 

 

 

Important Information

Change Of Circumstances

Please can you inform the office if you have a change of address or contact telephone number so that we can update our records.

Thank you 

Top Tips For Navigating The Chronicle On Your Mobile Phone

To help families new to the school, and as a reminder for all, here are some top tips for navigating the school's e-newsletter, The Chronicle, on your mobile phone.

Each edition of The Chronicle has a general overview message followed by an index list of the news, events and other information, split into categories, with clickable title links.

  • Click the title link of the article or event you are interested in.
  • From here you can scroll through all the articles in this category.
  • To get back to the top of a category quickly, use the arrow in the bottom right corner of your screen. Click this and you will jump to the top of the page and see the category index.
  • Select ‘NEWSLETTER INDEX’, to return you to the main newsletter index listing all the categories and articles.
  • To move between different editions of The Chronicle use the dark button with three white lines towards the top right of the newsletter. Click on the button and choose which edition of The Chronicle you would like to read.

The Chronicle is one of the school's main communication tools and is always a good first place to look for information and news.

Bookmarking https://chronicle.crackleyhall.co.uk/ will allow you to get to the newsletter quickly.

Earrings

Earrings of any description are a health and safety issue and must not be worn.

We are aware that some children have had their ears pierced during the holidays and are therefore unable to remove their earrings for six weeks.  During this time, earrings (plain studs only) can be worn to school but must be covered with tape or a plaster at all times.  After the 6 weeks has elapsed and the hole has formed, earrings should not be worn to school. 

News

Stars Of The Week

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Nursery  Clement
Reception C  All of Reception C
Reception M  All of Reception M
J1H  All of J1H
J2G  Zachary 
J2B  Eloise, Casper, George     and Archie
J3H  Anthony
J3V  Felix 
J4R  All of J4R
J4S  Rory
J5L  All of J5L
J5W  Sofi
J6H  George
J6V  Henry


Congratulations to them all!

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First Review For Crackley Hall By Prestigious Good Schools Guide

Crackley Hall School has received its first ever review by the prestigious Good Schools Guide. The Guide, which selects schools to be included on merit alone, is famous for its unbiased and candid reviews of state and private schools, and is trusted by families worldwide. Crackley Hall is now one of just 1,300 schools currently reviewed by the Guide, out of over 30,000 schools in the UK.

An editor from the Guide visited the school in June, interviewed the Headmaster, Rob Duigan, toured the site with pupils, observed lessons and spoke to teachers and parents.

The 2,500-word review, which now appears on the Good Schools Guide’s website and will be included in the next hard copy edition, includes a pen portrait of the Headmaster, plus insights into teaching and learning, sport and the performing arts, co-curricular activities, pastoral care and leavers’ destinations.

Commenting on the school’s approach to teaching and learning, the Guide says:

"Pupils and parents praise their ‘lovely’ teachers for ‘listening’, ‘really fun lessons’, and ‘taking every opportunity to find what they are good at and encouraging them’'.

“Parents say teachers manage work levels so that at any one time, ‘there may be three different levels taught in the same classroom, giving individual attention, focusing on each end of the spectrum’ without, as one noted, ‘losing sight of the middle of the road’. Children who need stretching are given extension work within classroom, in small tutor groups and access a regional gifted and talented programme.”

The very comprehensive review concludes with a Last Word, which sums up the Guide’s findings:

In his address to pupils the headmaster tells them, ‘You are valued, try your best at all times, stay involved, be kind to others and the world. Smile!’ That pretty much sums what we saw at Crackley Hall.

To read the full review click here.  

Comments Rob Duigan, Headmaster, “It was a pleasure to welcome the Good Schools Guide to Crackley Hall.  They spent a typically busy day with us and we feel they have captured the warmth and energy of our whole school community.  We are delighted that they have recognised the all-round excellence of our first-class school, and especially our collective enthusiasm for all aspects of learning and the individual care and attention each and every one of our pupils receives.”

He continued, “As Covid restrictions ease, we are looking forward to welcoming prospective families to the school, so they can find out for themselves what a Crackley education could do for their child.”

Crackley Hall is hosting open events in October and November for September 2022 entry, to find out more visit https://www.crackleyhall.co.uk/visit-crackley or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk.

 

Captains And Stewards Announced For 2021-22

Junior 6 excitedly, and a little nervously, gathered together in the school hall this morning to hear Headmaster, Mr Duigan, reveal the 2021-2022 Student Roles Of Office.

In a special assembly, recorded for parents, the new Captains and Stewards were presented with their badges of office.

Mr Duigan spoke about the importance of the responsibilities and encouraged pupils to rise to the challenge of their new roles.

Crackley Hall School looks forward to working with Junior 6 and has no doubt they will be excellent leaders and role models for the younger pupils at the school.

Congratulations to them all.

Head Girl - Lily Bryson
Head Boy - Aaron Anderson
Deputy Head Girl - Olivia Burley
Deputy Head Boy - George Wilcox
RE Captain - Agnes Crinion
Girls' Games Captain - Elle Weir
Vice - Girls' Games Captain - Issey Cleary
Boys' Games Captain - George Moreton
Vice - Boys' Games Captain - Dexter Robinson
Music Captain - Holly Lloyd-Evans
Performing Arts Captain - Elsie Roots
Library Captain - Stephanie Perkins
House Captain - Jupiter - Dillon Horan
Vice - House Captain - Jupiter - Jasmine Staveley
House Captain - Mars - Harry Gibson
Vice - House Captain - Mars - Oliver Moore
House Captain - Saturn - Summer Fletcher
Vice - House Captain - Saturn - Jack Phillips-Gore
House Captain - Venus - Grace Johnson
Vice - House Captain - Venus - Penelope O'Neill
Student Councillor - Merryn Cleary
Student Councillor - Alfred Cowell
Student Councillor - Alexander Ainsworth
Student Councillor - Elsie Glover
Student Councillor - Harry Faulconbridge

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Crackley’s Climate Heroes Awarded Blue Peter Badges

Last term, Mrs Burley’s English group studied persuasive writing using the BBC’s Blue Peter Climate Heroes initiative to help them develop their English skills.

The children began by writing Climate Hero pledges on the three themes of Power, Plastic and Plants and then put together a short video to inspire their fellow pupils to follow suit.

Mrs Burley was delighted with their work commenting, “My class really embraced this unit of writing and were passionate about keeping to their pledges. It was wonderful to see them using their target causal connectives, adverbials and varied sentences openers in their work.”

The Blue Peter team were also impressed with the children's climate pledges, as just before the Trinity term ended Crackley Hall received a very special delivery of Blue Peter Green Badges and Certificates. It was super recognition for all their hard work.

You can read the children’s pledge below:

Power - switch off all lights when I leave classrooms or the room I am in at home. I will swap half an hour of screen time to play outdoors.

Plastic - swap disposable plastic bottles for reusable bottles and switch from plastic food wrap to a lunchbox or reusable sandwich wrap.

Plants - plant pollinator friendly plants and look after them- planting marigolds, chives, or sunflower seeds can encourage bees and butterflies to thrive. Try to choose a few vegetarian options at school.

It was a fantastic and inspiring project, a huge well done to them all!

Awarded their badge were Charlie, Arisha, Chloe, Penny, Lawson and Isabella O (now in J5L) and Amelia, Evie, Esme, Carter, Jack, Olivia, Seb and Kit (now in J5W).

New Astro Already In Use

We are delighted with part two of the playground makeover project that opened to pupils in school this week. The brand new school astro turf was completed in time for the start of the new Michaelmas term and as you can see in the photos is just amazing. It is a superb sports facility that staff and pupils are making great use.

Special thanks to Crackley Hall's PTA for their hard work and dedication over the past few years in raising the funds to pay for it. We look forward to lots of sports matches, clubs and lessons enjoying this wonderful facility.

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Jack’s Summer Reading Challenge Makes A Difference For The Environment

Super huge congratulations to Junior 6 pupil Jack who completed a sponsored reading challenge over the summer holidays for environmental and wildlife charities. Jack raised an amazing £1,010, more than double his original fundraising target, and was totally overwhelmed by the generosity and support he received.

Jack set himself the challenge to read 10 books over the summer, each at least 250 pages long. They included such delights as David Walliams’ Code Name Bananas, Ben Miller’s The Day I Fell Into A Fairy Tale and Cressida Cowell’s The Wizards Of Once.

Jack explains, “My aim was to read one book a week and I was hoping to raise the funds to plant 500m2 of woodland with sapling trees – helping the environment, local wildlife and with global warming too! Any additional funds I raised would be used to adopt a jaguar as their habitat is under threat mainly because of the rainforest being lost every day.”

Jack showed great commitment to his challenge, updating his Just Giving page after he finished each book with a short book review and also individually thanking the people who supported him along the way. His final fundraising total was incredible.

Jack’s fantastic fundraising is a great example of how we can all make a difference. Well done Jack, Crackley Hall School is very proud of you.

You can find out more about Jack’s reading challenge here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jack-p-g

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Culinary Creations At Crackley's Holiday Club

Children in our Holiday Club took part in lots of fabulous activities this summer including a super creative activity making a culinary display.

The children watched in amazement when Holiday Club chef, ?name, showed them how to create beautiful edible arrangements from fruit and vegetables. Everyone then had a turn at creating their own simple but decorative place setting.

Didn't they all look wonderful?

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Foundation News: Countdown To Princethorpe College Entrance Exams Begins

With just eight weeks to go, the countdown to Princethorpe's Entrance Exams for admission in September 2022 is well underway. This year the exams for Year 7 to 10 entry will take place on Saturday 6 November from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

The deadline for registrations is Friday 1 October. Junior 6 parents wishing their children to sit the Princethorpe entrance exam must complete a registration form and submit it with the accompanying registration fee by this date.

More information on the admissions process can be found in Princethorpe's Admissions Update newsletter here or on the Foundation website here.

A copy of the registration form can be found here.

If you have any queries relating to admissions please speak to the Registrars at Princethorpe College, either by email at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or by calling 01926 634201/262/291.

Families Warwickshire Magazine

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

Magazine

Calendar and Events

Heritage Open Day At Princethorpe College

Sunday 12 September 2021 - 2.00pm to 4.30pm

This September the Foundation's secondary school, Princethorpe College, is once again participating in the Heritage Open Day festival.

Dating from 1832, St Mary's Priory was one of the first Catholic buildings constructed in England after the Reformation and until 1966 it was home to a congregation of Benedictine nuns. The Priory was then purchased by The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who established the school Princethorpe College. Today Princethorpe is a fully co-educational Catholic independent day school.

As part of the Heritage Open Day Festival Princethorpe’s archive team will be conducting free tours of the College on Sunday 12 September from 2.00pm - 4.30pm where they will share the history of the magnificent building and the amazing people that made it the place it is today.

Tours will start on the hour and half-hour, with the final tour starting at 3:30 pm. Areas open include Pugin’s magnificent Chapel, the Cloisters, Nuns’ Cells, Library (formerly a church) and the unique Roundhouse. To help keep everyone safe visitors will need to wear a mask while inside the building, hand sanitise and refrain from touching surfaces.

Admission is free and refreshments are available.

More information is available from https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/princethorpe-college

Crackley Hall And Little Crackers Open Day

Thursday 7 October 2021 - 10.00am to 3.00pm

We are opening our doors for an Open Day on Thursday 7 October 2021 from 10.00am to 3.00pm.

This is an opportunity for prospective families to look around the school and nursery, and to meet staff. The day will be by appointment only in order to keep our pupils, staff and visitors. Please register your interest in attending our Open Day and our Admissions Secretary will be in touch nearer the time. 

To book your place please click here.

We have places available in Nursery and will be recruiting for places in Reception 2022. Please speak to our Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan for availability in other years.

If you can't make the Open Day but would like to look around the school, please call our Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926 514410 or 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

Learning In Action

Junior 6

This week, a very excited Junior 6 have been deciding what areas they would like to help lead in school. The children have completed forms, selecting their four favourite topics from a list of 16, including Art, Computing, Science, Environment, Special Care, Playground and Gardening, to name but a few. Built into their timetable this year is a specific ‘Leadership’ slot, where they will have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and work collaboratively to make positive changes within school, enabling every Junior 6 child the opportunity to lead in an area of interest to them.

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Junior 5

Junior 5 returned to Crackley with an abundance of enthusiasm and energy and were invigorated and ready to learn once again.  We introduced and made all our new pupils feel welcome by playing a range of ice-breaking games.  This really encouraged our collaborative, co-operative and interpersonal skills – one of which is included in the new Crackley Compass which the pupils are all eagerly talking about.

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Junior 4

In History, the children learned about chronology. We went outside and they practised by getting themselves in order of when they were born. They then tried to work out the chronological order of certain historical periods.  All Year 4 have returned to school positive and enthusiastic and all the Junior 4 team have been so impressed! They have written fabulous poems about themselves this week and used a range of powerful adjectives and sentence types to accompany their work.  

All the Junior 4’s have returned to school positive and enthusiastic and all of the Junior 4 team are impressed with them all. The Year 4’s have all written fabulous poems about themselves this week. They used a range of powerful adjectives and sentence types.

 

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Junior 3

Junior 3 have made a wonderful start to the new academic year. We have loved finding out about the new Crackley Compass and Ms Holmes and Mrs Van Zyl have been so impressed with how many stars we have already earned. Between us, we have demonstrated all the attributes of excellent learners and recognised the difference we can make to ourselves and others when we apply them. We have also loved reading the story The Dot about a little girl who does not believe she can draw…yet. This prompted us to think about things that we cannot do yet, to have a growth mindset and always try our best to improve. We even drew our own pictures, starting with just a dot and wrote a 5-finger story to go with them. 

 

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Junior 2

Junior 2 have been getting used to their new classroom and routines. We are very excited about this term’s topic on Castles and have started to explore why castles were built in certain locations and what they would have needed nearby to survive. We explored the school to get to know our way around and to look for different materials and their properties as part of our Science topic. We were lucky enough to walk past the minibus when it was being cleaned and asked them to cool us down with a spray of water. A great start Junior 2!

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Junior 1

What a busy week Junior 1 have had! After welcoming Millie and Poppy to our class we have begun a new routine and are starting lots of different topics in all subject areas. Science has been the most exciting this week as we were looking at our bodies and what is inside them. Everyone had the chance to create a picture to show what our skeletons look like and they are now proudly on display in the classroom. In Geography we used Google Earth to zoom in on our country, then Kenilworth and finally our school to find out where we are in the world. There has been lots of opportunities to be creative and work together developing friendships along the way too, especially while in Forest school.

 

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Reception

What a wonderful week our new Reception classes have had. From an exciting first day at school, arriving resplendent in our smart uniform, to today. All of us have had a week to remember.

We’ve explored our classrooms, been for an adventurous walk in the woodland, pretended to be the Gruffalo, designed robots, read books and so much more.

Mrs Malcolm and Mrs Convey have been so impressed with us and have particularly noticed how kind and caring we all are. Although we’ve had a busy few days, we are all looking forward to lots more fun, friendship and learning next week!  

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Spiritual

RE Workshop

Each week Mrs Jackson-Mayne will lead a ‘Prayer and Meditation’ workshop with a class.

On Wednesday morning, during a PSHCE lesson, pupils in J6H had the time to reflect on the value of prayer, starting with how we begin a conversation with God. They took part in a short meditation - using breathing, silence and prayer to start their morning. Pupils were given cups of all shapes and sizes filled with different amounts - representing the different problems we might experience at different times in our life.  The pupils learned that it is through prayer that we can give up some of our worries and anxieties and experience calm.

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Weekly Mission

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

Weekly Mission

 

Clubs

Lego Club News

Lego Club fans have been busy during the summer holidays inventing new designs ready for a dynamic return to Lego Club next week!  One of the creative inspirations sent in by Arthur and Alfred is a bridge, but not the usual bridge to transport vehicles on.  This bridge is already a famous landmark in their household and they have added unique and timeless classics in true Lego style! The advanced building techniques include steps, which suspend a drawbridge that can be lifted up and down to different levels. This bridge holds cars and has places for people to sit, meet and eat together.  Just what every cleverly designed and fun to build bridge needs!

Little Crackers

Nursery News

Hello and welcome back to familiar faces, and new ones!  We have loved seeing you all this week.  The children have all settled remarkably well and we look forward to a busy and exciting term. We have a new member of staff on the team, welcome to Miss Simona who is our Early Years Assistant working with the Dormice.  One of the jobs we have done this week has been to look at our timetable, and luckily we still have access to our fantastic teachers in school. Mrs Thomas will take us for PE on a Monday afternoon, Mrs Olden will see us for music on a Tuesday morning, and Mrs Clarke will take the Badgers into the woods for Forest School on a Wednesday morning.  Look out for details about Rugbytots, we hope to see them back on a Monday afternoon again very soon. 

Please can I kindly ask that you send in a drawstring bag (we have very little space!) with spare clothes just in case of accidents, and if you could send in a named pair of wellies to keep in nursery then we will be ready for anything! 

We will be encouraging the children to observe the changing seasons during the year; our beautiful big windows provide us with a magical opportunity to watch the woods change, but if you are out and about at the weekends and see something, or do something fabulous, please send in a photo.  We will add them to our Season Spotting Spot, or if it is just something wonderful you’ve been involved in, won, or experienced, it can go on our special Wow! Wall. 

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend.

Newsletter

 

PTA

PTA News

Welcome,

We hope that everyone had a lovely summer holiday and all the children have settled back into school life after what has been a very challenging year for us all.

The PTA have hit the ground running, so please note all the forthcoming dates for your diaries:

PTA Welcome Back Family Event – Friday 17 September

Regrettably, due to COVID we are unable to host this event due to large gatherings outside of school. Please watch this space as we have our thinking caps on and will hosting something virtually very soon.

PTA AGM and Ordinary Meeting

Wednesday 22 September 7.00pm to 9.00pm – To be held via Teams

Sadly, we are still not able to meet face to face and this meeting will be held on Teams. Link will follow nearer the time.

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  ccamilleriwillis@gmail.com

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Non School Uniform Day - Friday 8 October - Hats Off For Mental Health

This year we are supporting a wonderful charity for non-school uniform day, Coventry and Warwickshire Mind , who are raising money during World Mental Health week which falls during the last week of half term. https://cwmind.org.uk/

We are asking children to come into school in non-uniform and to ideally wear a hat too, as part of 'Hats Off For Mental Health.

We are asking for a donation of £1 with a proportion of that going to the local Mind charity

Macmillan Coffee Morning And Drive Through

Friday 24 September from 8.00am

This year Crackley PTA will support Macmillan with a drive-by collection, enabling parents to drop money into the Macmillan pot at the same time as dropping children at school. Unfortunately, there will be no cake sale this year, however children will be able to purchase pre-packaged cakes, in their classrooms, for a snack. Further details to follow from the school office.

WE'RE READY TO GO!

Donations can be made online here too. https://thyg.uk/BUU004324912

PTA Preloved Uniform Shop Is Open For Business!

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.

Housekeeping

Foundation Job Vacancies

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 - Join Us

  • Lunchtime Supervisor - Crescent School
  • Teacher of Modern Foreign Languages - Crackley Hall School and Cescent School
  • Caretaker - Crescent School
  • IT Service Desk Team Leader - Princethorpe College
  • Estates Assistants- Princethorpe College