The Chronicle

Dear Parents

Some of the children have commented on the pink and orange skies they are witnessing at the beginning and end of the day.  I must say that there have certainly been some beautiful sunrises and sunsets this week.  I am pleased to see that the children are able to appreciate and be grateful for the beauty of the natural world around them.  We will be adding to the native trees planted around school before the end of this half term when the Jubilee trees arrive.  These trees, which have been ordered by our PTA, will be planted in various locations, including in Forest School and our Prayer Garden.  I know that many of our families have also ordered trees to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee and I hope that you will all be ‘pinning’ your tree on the Queen’s Canopy Map.

We have experienced more Covid-related absences this week and whilst there is news of restrictions easing nationwide in the not-too-distant future, we will continue to maintain our current procedures in school until further notice and notify parents should your child be a close contact.  This is in line with our assessment of the current situation at Crackley Hall.  As mentioned in letters to families, we have noticed a pattern of children developing symptoms within 4-7 days after being notified as a close contact. 

On Tuesday this week we hosted our Open Day and invited parents to visit Crackley Hall under Covid safe restrictions.  My thanks to all of those involved including our Admissions and Marketing Team at Crackley Hall and Princethorpe College, our Estates and Catering Team and staff and students who acted as tour guides or assisted with arrangements.

The assembly this morning involved our Junior 3 children and families, and I was delighted to present Stars of the Week to Tianna, Daya, Delihah, Olivia, Nieve, Archie, Grace, Harrison, Elsie, Sukhmani, Eve, Leo, Harry and Stephanie.  Jia was our star of the week in J5L and will be presented with her certificate next week, similar to Leo receiving his this week. There was another wonderful assortment of certificates and awards for achievements outside of school; congratulations to you all.

Joseph in Junior 3 confidently played a delightful piece on the piano, Evie played equally well on her cello and both performances were streamed to all classes to enjoy. I was also able present music certificates to some of our Junior 3 pupils following successful completion of their exams and also thoroughly enjoyed the whole year group playing their piece on their recorders.

Congratulations to Mars on winning the house point competition this week and to everyone who won any house points for their house.  Keep working hard, everyone.

On Wednesday next week, the PTA will be hosting their online meeting at 7.00pm.  If you would like more to join this, please see the information later in this edition. I would certainly encourage as many as possible to join this meeting in the comfort of your own home as it is an insight as to how much our PTA contribute to the school.  Without their help, we would not be able to host many events such as Christmas fayre, Christmas panto, summer fayre, Easter treats and leavers gifts; not to mention the many items they have been able to fund.

Next week should have seen Junior 4, 5 and 6 travel to the NEC to participate in Young Voices but, sadly, this was postponed.  The new date of 20 May has been confirmed and I understand that families have been contacted regarding participation.  I do hope that you are able to attend the new date as it is a very enjoyable and uplifting evening.

The half term, holiday club will be operating each day if sufficient numbers have been booked so please look out for the link sent by the school office.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and restful weekend with your families.

God bless,

Mr Duigan

Holiday club will run from Monday 21 until Friday 25 February 2022.

More details to follow in the next couple of weeks.

Please find attached the termly curriculum sheet for your child's year group:

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Junior 3 and 4 are taking a well deserved bow and round of applause for their fantastic LAMDA examination results. Junior 3 children all passed and 80 % of them achieved the top mark of a distinction! Junior 4 all passed with flying colours; 100% achieved the top two grades of merit or distinction. We are very proud of all their hard work that went into preparation for these exams. The children practised speaking loudly and clearly with good diction and expression. This will stand them in good stead for the future.

Well done, children! 

Friday 4 February – We are celebrating Number Day!

On Friday 4 February, all Crackley pupils will be taking part in a fun day of maths activities, as we engage with maths across the curriculum and take part in Dress up for Digits.  All pupils are requested to think creatively about wearing a costume with a mathematical theme or with numbers, shapes, or patterns on. To help raise money for the NSPCC, we are asking for a suggested donation of £2. Please put the date in your diaries and put your thinking hats on!

More information for Parents

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Burley's class is Eloise

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes class is Theo

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Robert's class is Elora

Mathlete of the week for Mr Stedeford's class is Louis

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

Well done all!

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

This week in Junior 6, we have continued with our novel Oranges in No Man’s Land and have focused on Chapter 2 where Ayesha’s family find a home with other refugees. We have taken this theme and thought about it in more detail, considering what life might have been like as a refugee and trying to understand the concept of migration as a whole. We learnt that there can be push and pull factors that cause people to migrate from the violence of war, destruction and famine on the one hand to the pull of job opportunities, better weather and education on the other. We heard about the real-life experiences of people who have been forced to leave their homes and people who have made the choice to leave because of the attraction of what another place has to offer.

J5W are thrilled, and a little bit scared, to be learning about the Terrible Tudors! This week we have been looking at how clever Henry VIII was by uniting the country after decades of the Wars of the Roses. By marrying Elizabeth of York, Henry, a Lancastrian, merged the two houses into one. We learnt that the famous Tudor Rose symbolised this unity by including the white rose of York with the red rose of Lancaster. We all agreed that it was a very shrewd move on Henry’s part to bring peace to England after years of bloodshed. We can’t wait to learn more about the infamous Henry VIII and his six wives next week – what an interesting character he was!

We have been treated to a major refurbishment of Crackley Hall’s school library and have now acquired some amazing books to add to our already established collection, thanks to a very generous donation from the PTA.

Mrs Steeples, TA and librarian, who organised and renovated the new library, said that when Year 4 sampled the delights of the library, they all absolutely loved it!  Said a delighted Mrs Steeples, “I was blown away by the excitement and enthusiasm of the Year 4 pupils as they enjoyed their first experience in our new library. It was amazing to see how keen the children were to choose their own books and spend time in such a quiet and relaxing environment with blankets and soft cushions to hand.”

All year groups will have a time tabled slot to spend time in the library.  It will also be open during lunchtime for the children to further enjoy this enhancement to their learning. Our sincere thanks go towards the PTA for contributing to the funding of this programme.

Junior 3 have been digging deep this week thinking about synonyms for ‘said’ and reporting clauses. Pupils came up with ‘declared, argued, answered, murmured and bellowed’  to name but a few.

We have enjoyed building speech bubbles and thinking about different conversations our characters from Egyptian Cinderella may have had.

In Art, Junior 3H are beginning to make their Egyptian cartouches in soft clay. The pupils loved learning about how the clay can be manipulated, cut and carved to create symbols and hieroglyphs. Busy, busy, busy!

Junior 2 have continued their journey into China by learning all about the differences and similarities between the capitals of England and China. They also learnt about the landmarks which can be found in and around London and Beijing. The most exciting part of their Geography lesson was when they built their very own Great Wall of China, thinking carefully about how their structure could bend whilst remaining upright. In English, we have continued with our story The Magic Paintbrush by learning how to add ‘er’ and ‘est’ to adjectives, to turn them into superlatives. What wonderful expanded sentences the children have produced! Our Science lessons have led us to begin our focus on food and healthy eating. This week, the children have learnt about the different food groups and what these food groups can do for us and our bodies. They were very surprised to hear that we should all be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day!

A lovely display was finished just in time for our open day this week all about animals found in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some very interesting facts were found out about polar bears.  Did you know that they can run as fast as a horse?! In Art we are developing our colour mixing skills with paint and have created some wonderful birds, painted with on the primary and secondary colours. Mrs Armitage is becoming a firm favourite and we can all now retell the story with actions and use a story map to help us keep track of where we are and what comes next. The VR headsets were a favourite this week. They gave everyone the opportunity to see what a Viking longship looked like, before we started to make a model of one in history.

This week Reception have been continuing with our Amazing Animals topic. We read the story Lost and Found and thought about animals that live in Antarctica. The children loved finding out about the animals who live there and how they survive in the freezing cold! They also thoroughly enjoyed saving the animals from their icy igloos created in our school freezers!

Please find information below:

Childrens Liturgy

Activity Sheet

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

Weekly Mission

The next Mass takes place on Tuesday 25 January in school. It will be celebrated by Father Kevin and led by Junior 6. The theme of the Mass is St Paul’s conversion – pupils will reflect on their own spiritual journey and think of ways they can show respect and understanding to others.

Junior 3 this week have been looking at the different objects used in Mass. They have had the opportunity to hold them and ask questions about when they are used during the Mass. They also had fun playing bingo linked to the objects and the different parts of a Church.

Netball Match Report by Phoebe (J4R)

Last Thursday (13th) the U9A Team palyed Bilton Grange away.  We all played well together and there were lots of great passes in mid-court. Sukhmani and Elora got a lot of interceptions and our shooting was on target.

At half-time it was 2-2 and we pulled together to win 8-4 at full-time.

Player of the match was Phoebe (J4R).                                                                             

Wednesday 19 January

U10 Boys A Football Team Vs Croft

The team gave away an unfortunate penalty early in the game, but went on to truly dominate play; with at least 15 shots on goal. As the game progressed, the boys were just not able to find the back of the net, largely due to an amazing performance from Croft’s keeper (who was awarded Croft’s player-of-the-match). The final score didn’t reflect what was a real treat for the spectators, which ended with that single penalty giving Croft the 1 – 0 win. However, the boys' excellent attitude and sportsmanship earnt the respect of Croft’s coach, who said "What great ambassadors of Crackley Hall" they all were. Crackley player-of-the-match was Alex.

U10 Boys B Team Football Vs Croft

Showing great grit and determination, the boys gave it their all and battled all the way down to the last minute. Their efforts on this occasion didn’t bear fruit, but spectators commented on the boys excellent attitude throughout the game. 4 – 0 to Croft.

U10 Football v Croft by Lucas (J5L) and Jack (J5W)

Ralph barely missed some amazing shots and Charlie pushed up really well. Croft scored 4 goals as our defence slipped mid-match. Sadly we lost 4-0 but we were close because Jack and Jay in defence did some incredible tackles while Lucas and Ralph were in goal. Jack was man of the match.

Thursday 20 January

U8 Boys A Football Team Vs Croft

After a strong start with goals from both sides, Croft edged ahead by converting their opportunities late in the match to take the 5 – 2 win. Worthy mentions for showing real grit and determination go to Malachi and Jacob in defence for getting the ball up-field; giving the boys upfront plenty of chances. Also to Josh, having his first full-game in goal - he had a lot of work to do - showing a great attitude and real promise; with his understanding and positioning continuing to develop.

U8 Boys B Football Team Vs Croft

Mr Kefalas said he was so proud of the positive attitude the boys showed throughout what proved a challenging match. The final score which gave Croft the win, did not reflect on the B teams faces, who came off the pitch showing they had had a very enjoyable afternoon.

Our thanks as always to Croft for being such great hosts.

Due to the high number of pupils absent as a result of Covid in J4 and with restrictions in place to avoid contact with both classes being in the same room, we have decided to halt Lego Club until further notice.  So sorry.  But please do send any snapshots or photos of your Lego creations to me at clarehill@crackleyhall.co.uk and we will include them on the Chronicle!

This week in nursery we welcomed lots of visitors on Open Day and enjoyed the opportunity to share our lovely environment with them, as well as chatting about some of the fabulous activities we get up to! The cold weather has kept us inside a little bit more than normal, cold fingers don’t make us smile, but when we did get out it was lovely to blow the cobwebs away! We focussed on running without bumping into our friends, changing direction and moving in different ways. Music was also a great opportunity to get moving this week and we had a go at becoming puppets – Miss Lisa pretended to hold our strings as we moved in different ways to the piano music. Mrs Olden made us run, jump, dance and then flop down still, just like the puppets in Pinocchio.

See how many ways you can keep moving this weekend, and make sure you keep warm!

Newsletter

On Wednesday, our lovely Stay ‘n’ Play community enjoyed a super session of dance and song with the wonderful Jazz from Move It Shake It. The little ones were delighted to join in with the actions and dance moves to favourite songs and rhymes including Incy Wincey Spider, Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed and Baby Shark.   

Move It Shake It runs a popular extracurricular club at Crackley Hall and organised the special Stay ‘n’ Play session combining music and dance fun to help develop the language and communication skills, listening skills, confidence and co-ordination of our Stay ‘n’ Players.

The visit from Move It Shake It is part of a programme of visiting activities at our friendly Stay 'n' Play toddler group. Next up is Forest School at Crackley Hall School on Wednesday 16 February followed by Easter Crafts on Wednesday 23 March. To find out more about our activities, please visit www.littlecrackers.co.uk/stay-n-play

Don’t forget our Mums and Tots group, Stay ‘n Play, meets every Monday and Wednesday morning at St Francis Of Assisi R C Church in Kenilworth. It’s a great place to meet and make friends and there is always plenty to keep you and your little one busy and entertained.

Whilst we’re unable to do our usual fundraising, we have a brilliant way to raise free donations for the school.  All you have to do is sign up to support us with easyfundraising and then when you do your normal online shopping, go via the easyfundraising website or app and you’ll raise free donations for Crackley Hall.

There are over 4,100 retailers to choose from including Just Eat, eBay, John Lewis & Partners, Amazon and many more. Signing up is quick and easy:

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/crackleyhall/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_content=s-w1

We are happy to announce the PTA second hand uniform shop is back to face to face sales!

It takes place on Fridays between 8.15am and 8.45am (before and during the Celebration Assembly), outside the hall entrance.

We can only accommodate one year group at a time, so please continue to use the uniform@pta.crackleyhall.co.uk email to submit your requests if you haven’t been invited to the assembly for your child’s year group.

We are able to take cards, cash or cheque.

We are also always looking for donations of items your child has outgrown, please drop these in the box labelled ‘PTA uniform’, located on the front porch of the school. We are in dire need of any sports track bottoms at the moment.

As always we thank you for your support and couldn’t run the second hand shop without your generous donations.

PTA Meeting, all welcome - January 26th

Love To Read second hand book sale - February 14th

Easter Activities - April 4th

Jubilee events/Summer Fair - May 21st

Themed Non-Uniform days - April 4th and May 20th (Jubilee theme)

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.

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Rohan (J3V) has lost his orange water bottle

Amalia (J5W) has lost her shin pads that were in a drawstring bag 

We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family.

Further information and application forms on all roles are available on the Foundation's website - www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us

• Gardener/Groundsman - Princethorpe College