The Chronicle

Dear Parents

I would like to start this week’s Chronicle by thanking all the staff at Crackley Hall, the teachers, teaching assistants, the school office, Estates team, peri staff and catering team.  With a number of colleagues succumbing to the virus, on rotation, the last two weeks have seen our staff embracing more tasks and duties to ensure that the school can run as efficiently as possible without any detrimental effect to the timetable whilst experiencing significant staff absence. I hope that you will agree that we have managed to keep the school running as close to optimum as possible.  Please do forgive any slight oversights or delays.  It is a testament to the family and team spirit at Crackley Hall which, I hope you agree, the children also exhibit.

It has been an exceptional week for our sports teams, beginning with our Under 11 hockey team travelling to the national ISA tournament at the Lee Valley Stadium in London.  Some of our players have had very little experience at this level but were outstanding.   We were kept regularly updated with progress by Mrs Vaughan and the tension was mounting at school when we heard that the team had reached the semi-finals, only to be knocked out on penalties.

The U11 netball team participated in the ISA Midlands competition this week and travelled to Malvern College/St Edward’s. This was another fantastic sporting performance, with the team finishing in 3rd place and qualifying for the national competition later this year.  Our outstanding Cross-country team excelled at the ISA Midlands competition on Wednesday, with eight of our team qualifying for the nationals.  Further information on placings will be shared when team results are published.  A tremendous achievement from all our sporting participants this week.  My thanks to Mrs Vaughan, Mrs Horan, Mrs Roberts, Mr Vaughan and Mr Kefalas for helping the children achieve these results and being involved on the day.

The whole school have participated in Number Day today which has been superbly organised by Mrs van Zyl.  Not only has this been an opportunity to explore maths in a fun and challenging way, but we have also been able to raise money for the NSPCC.  As soon as a final total has been calculated, we will let you know.  Thank you to everyone who took part and to Mrs van Zyl for proving that mathematics is everywhere and can be fun for all.

Father Kevin has visited school this afternoon when he led Mass for Junior 5.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend but I am very grateful to Father Kevin, Mrs Jackson Mayne, Mrs Olden, Mrs McAloon and Mrs Simmonds for ensuring that this event could take place this afternoon. 

I am grateful to Mr Cottrill, who kindly hosted Celebration Assembly this morning.  It was super to see all our talented musicians, hear the sports reports in addition to our stars of the week and awards outside of school.  Congratulations to the stars of the week: Isla, Basile, Alexander, Hugo, Rory, Eloise, Jacob, Mahnoor, Evie, Beatrice, Ralph, Amelia, Olivia and Isabella.   Well done to everyone involved in today’s assembly!

Next week will be Mental Health Week in school and I know that staff have activities for the children to be involved with across the school.  There are other dates for your diary before half term, including the PTA book sale which will take place on Monday 14 February, our Jubilee tree planting will also take place on this day which I very much look forward.  Reception classes will be visiting Attwell Farm park on 15 February and Junior 1 will attend the Transport Museum in Coventry on 16 February; I am sure these will be enjoyed by both classes.  Holiday club will be operating during half term providing there is significant need from our families.  Please look out for the booking link and activity list which will be sent on Monday.

Finally, a big thank you to Mr Cottrill and all the staff for their extra efforts this week, in my absence.

I wish you and your families a relaxing weekend.

God bless,

Mr Duigan

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

More details will be sent out in the next few days with the link to book onto the club and activity information will be published next week.

Thank you 

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Congratulations to them all!

Princethorpe College Headmaster, Ed Hester, is to take on a new dedicated role as Head of the Princethorpe Foundation. Mr Hester has been Headmaster at the College since 2009, with the dual role of Senior Foundation Head.

This forward-thinking decision by the governing body comes after a review of the overall management and leadership of the Foundation, which comprises senior school, Princethorpe College, prep schools, Crackley Hall and Crescent School and Little Crackers Nursery.

Separating the two roles will mean that Mr Hester will move away from the day-to-day running of the senior school and be able to dedicate more time to the strategic direction of the Foundation as a whole. He will work in partnership with the Board of Trustees, the Senior Management Teams and staff across all the Foundation schools to develop an ambitious vision and strategy for the next exciting stage in the Foundation’s evolution.

Comments, Liz Griffin, Chair of Trustees, “The Foundation has evolved significantly over the last ten years. As a result of mergers and the popularity of our schools we have grown from 800 pupils to over 1,400 today and we have over 250 members of staff, what’s more our schools are operating in a complex and ever-changing political, legal and economic climate. We are ambitious for the Foundation and the creation of this new dedicated role will ensure that we continue to develop and flourish.

She continues, “Ed, with his proven leadership and strategic skills, is uniquely placed to fulfil this role. He has done an outstanding job as Headmaster of Princethorpe College, and I am delighted he is taking on the new role. We understand how important it will be to find the right person to take over from him as Head of Princethorpe College and the recruitment process is already underway, with a view to having his successor in post within the next twelve months. Of course, Ed will continue to have a very keen interest in life at Princethorpe and be on hand to ensure a smooth transition and successful handover to the new Head, who will be supported by Princethorpe’s excellent Senior Leadership Team.”

Consultants, RSAcademics, are assisting the Foundation with the search for and appointment of the new Head of Princethorpe College.

On Wednesday 2 February we took a team of Crackley’s fleetest cross-country runners to the ISA Midlands Qualifier at Bedstone College. Eight pupils finished in the top 10 for their race and qualified for the Nationals.

The course at Bedstone is notoriously challenging, taking real grit and determination to complete. It involves mud and stream crossings, along with other varied terrain that challenges the balance and stamina of the competitors. For many of the children, it was their first real exposure to any type of cross-country running. There were areas of the course that had mole hills, potholes and tree debris, making significant trip hazards. Several of the children went down but got straight back up and completed the course in true gutsy Crackley style!

It is also worth noting that some of the U12 boys had competed for a full day at the National Hockey just the day before.

Commenting on the day, PE Teacher, Kat Vaughan, said, “As always, the children were exceptionally well behaved, a real credit to the school, and a pleasure to take to the competition. They were nervous but excited and ran courageously to achieve a superb set of results.”

In total, eight out of the 20 runners we took qualified for the Nationals a super result. We are still waiting for confirmation on the team placings, but the individual results are as follows:

U10 Girls:
Elora Hughes - 19th
Adreena Greevy - 21st
Alexa Bickerton - 39th
Elsie Ascroft - 40th
Darcey Wilcox-Smith - 41st

U10 Boys:
Patrick Fuchss - 7th (National Qualifier)
Isaac Fox - 9th (National Qualifier)
Tommy Marshall - 30th
Harry Bosworth - 47th
Arthur Cowell - 57th

U12 Girls:
Elle Weir - 3rd (National Qualifier)
Issey Cleary - 4th (National Qualifier)
Agnes Crinion - 33rd
Matilda Clarke - 45th
Elsie Glover - 60th

U12 Boys:
Sid Penn - 1st (National Qualifier)
George Moreton - 2nd (National Qualifier)
Leonardo Pavli - 3rd (National Qualifier)
Dexter Robinson - 7th (National Qualifier)
Olly Moore - 27th

The ISA U11 Boys Hockey Tournament took place at the Lee Valley National Hockey Stadium in the Olympic Park on Tuesday 1 February. Taking part were 18 teams from across the country all excited to be competing again. Crackley Hall’s team of nine boys had an early 6am start and arrived just in time for a brief warm-up before embarking on their first group game. These boys haven’t played a hockey match since Junior 3, so were a little nervous! Despite this, they played well, finding their feet quickly. In the first game, they had all the pressure, but the opposition scored a very good goal on the one break they had, resulting in a 0-1 loss.  

The boys kept their heads high and found the goal in the second game, playing well as a unit and winning 2-1. With an outstanding goal by George Moreton as he dived to the floor for a deflection and a second goal from a clinical finish by Olly Moore. In the third game, the boys faced Langley (a specialist hockey school). It is safe to say that Langley’s skills were more at the level of youth/senior hockey, with reverse stick shots to the top corners of the goal in each of their games. They were the dominant team of the tournament. Our boys were really gritty in defence and conceded only two deflected goals, not allowing any direct shots at goal in the D. They were unlucky to score themselves on a couple of occasions. Result 0-2 loss. The last game of the pool had to be won if the team wanted to finish second in the pool and make the Plate finals in the afternoon. The boys had what was probably their best game of the tournament, winning by a decisive 2-0.

So, the boys moved onto the Plate semi-final knock-out competition and faced Alleyn Court Prep. The Crackley boys were clearly the better team in this battle and were unlucky not to score a handful of goals. They won the semi-final 1-0. They then moved onto the final where they faced St Anselm’s School and were treated to the most fantastic opportunity. They were allowed to run out of the tunnel onto the pitch with music playing, just like at real Internationals! What a great experience for them.

The final was a really close fought game, with opportunities for each team. Neither could find the goal and the score was 0-0 after 12 well-fought minutes. They then went on to 5-minutes Golden Goal. Again, the boys fought hard, and the score remained 0-0. That left penalty shuffles (which is essentially where the attacker taking the penalty has 8 seconds to run from the halfway line to the D and take the keeper on 1-on-1 to score a goal). Three very brave and nervous boys stepped up (Sidney Penn, George Moreton and Olly Moore). Again the teams were so evenly matched. With the scores 1-1, then 2-2, then Crackley’s next effort was saved. Marley Hardwick then saved St Anselm’s first attempt but couldn’t get back to his feet quickly enough to stop the rebound. Some devastated boys stood there, supporting each other for a few minutes but they quickly regathered and stood proudly to collect their silver medals.

A really huge well done to them all, we are incredibly proud of this team.

Playing in the squad were: Olly Moore, George Moreton ©, Sid Penn, George Knott, Dillon Horan, Marley Hardwick, Harry Faulconbridge, George Wilcox, Jack Phillips-Gore.

Olly Moore was our player of the tournament and Sid Penn and George Knott were the most improved player. Most outstanding in goal was George Moreton and top goal scorer was Olly Moore.

Watch the boys running out on to the field here.

On Tuesday 1 February, Mrs Roberts and Mr Kefalas took the Under 11A Netball squad to the ISA Netball Tournament at St Edward’s Prep School, Cheltenham. It was a big event with 24 teams from across the Midlands region taking part.

This was the girls first competitive experience playing High 5 Netball, (10 minute matches with no Wing Attack or Wing Defence and the Goal Shooter and Goal Keeper allowed on two thirds of the court). The girls took all the new rules in their stride and their positivity and keenness to do their best was admirable.

Playing in Group B, the team were unbeaten in their first six matches, and only conceded one goal, winning 2-0, 4-0, 5-0, 4-0, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. They finished top of their Group and qualified for the playoffs. They then played the winner of Group A, Mylnhurst Prep, in a tight game narrowly losing 5-3. Mylnhurst Prep went on to win the Tournament while Crackley Hall faced Malvern St James, and our resilient girls played brilliantly to win 3-1. This meant that Crackley Hall finished third overall out of 24 teams.

Playing for Crackley Hall were Lily, Olivia, Issey, Jasmine, Merryn, Elle and Isabella. All the girls represented their school well and played amazingly as a team. We are so proud of them all and wish them well when they compete in the Nationals in March.                                                                 

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

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

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Holmes class is Grace

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

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

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

Mathlete of the week for Mrs Lammas group is Amalia

Well done all!

Love Productions are looking for young budding bakers between 9-12 years old.

Filming will take place from July 2022, but applications close on Sunday 13 March 2022.

Interested bakers can apply online at - www.applyforjuniorbakeoff.co.uk

Please can parents check if they have any children's plastic bowls, plates, cups and cutlery that they no longer need as they would be gratefully received at Forest School for when the children cook outside.

Thank you 

Why not get involved with this competition to create a picture book for World Book Day!

The ReadingZone Picture Book Competition 2022, in partnership with World Book Day, is challenging those aged four to 18 years to make their own picture book. You can work on your own, or with partners or in a group to create a picture book.

Judging the entries will be acclaimed author and illustrator Sarah McIntyre (Grumpycorn, The New Neighbours and Pugs of the Frozen North).

The competition closes on Friday 22 April 2022, and the winners will be announced in June. Prizes include £100 of books for each winner's school or library, plus a free online author event for the overall winner.

Mini Grey provides tips and guidance in the resources, below, to help children to get started with their picture book projects.

External Link www.readingzone.com/creative-projects/how-to-make-a-picture-book/

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

In French this week the children have been learning how to give opinions on different sports in French. The children interviewed each other to find out which sports they liked and didn’t like. They correctly guessed that the most popular sport in France was ‘le foot’! They discovered that handball is a popular game in French schools and Basque Pelota, which is played in the Basque country is one of the fastest sports in the world.  Allez Junior 6!

During music in J5W this week, we explored two of the famous songs from Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story. Setting the scene, we were treated to a rendition of the yearning ballad, Somewhere, sung beautifully by one of Crackley’s singing teachers, Shoshanna Stokes.  This was followed by pupils looking at how energy was created in the catchy and striking Mambo! The agitation felt between the rival gangs was explored by using syncopation across a wide range of percussion instruments, culminating in a lively Latin American dance routine fit for any musical theatre show!

This week, Junior 4 have excelled with their improving knowledge of Anglo-Saxons and it was an absolute delight seeing them design and draw accurate Anglo-Saxon villages. Science was all about chocolate on Monday and the children had loads of fun, conducting an extremely important investigation! On Friday, the children dressed up in their maths themed outfits and enthusiastically took part in Number Day – Waggles the Dog was proud! J4S had a maths relay, eagerly trying to find as many mathematical pairs as they could. Well done Junior 4, for another magnificent week. 

This week Junior 3 have been thinking about nappies and money! Our Maths topic for the next couple of weeks is thinking about the cost of everyday items, which notes and coins we might use when paying for them and how we can begin to think about giving change. The children enjoyed working out their answers using our replica money and have been problem-solving their way through a weekly shop. In English, our focus is on ’Kenning’ poems….ask the children and see if they can remember how to write one!  We are really enjoying our science topic ‘The Nappy Challenge’ and have been planning and conducting some super investigations; including which nappy is the most absorbent and which ones are the most-stretchy. We all know how to plan a fair test and we spent a long time discussing the variables that might affect our investigations. We can confidently conclude that ‘Pampers’ are the most absorbent nappy that we tested, ten times more absorbent than ‘Huggies Swimmers’! This led on to an interesting conversation about why you wouldn’t want a swim nappy to absorb water.

Firstly, a big thank you to the parents for sending in such an amazing range of breads from around the world. We had great fun smelling, tasting and discussing where they came from and why they were so different. Maths and Science went hand in hand this week and we transferred information about our favourite breads into tally charts and pictograms. We also had fun learning more about Chinese culture and their special Chinese New Year celebrations. We re-enacted the story of the Chinese Zodiac – it was tricky remembering the order that the animals crossed the river! Number Day saw us link Maths, Art and our topic on China! The children drew a symmetrical image of a tiger using pastels which were very impressive.  We also drew Jonny from Sing in drawing club!

Science this week saw us looking at the dangers of cold weather. We all designed a ‘Danger’ sign using the warning colours of red, yellow and black, just like the colours that animals in nature use. We then looked at how snowflakes are made and learnt that every snowflake is different. Using paper and scissors we all had a go at creating our own snowflakes and displayed them on our classroom window. In English, while continuing to look at Mrs Armitage on Wheels, we looked at some onomatopoeia words that helped bring the story to life. We then used them and our own ideas to add more detail to the story. We finished the week with Number Day and had lots of fun playing number games and dressing up as numbers or wearing numbers.

This week Reception have been learning all about Chinese New Year! We have been reading the Chinese zodiac story about the animal race and writing about the animals. We have also been using the VR Headsets to look at how people in China celebrate the New Year and we have made lots of crafts including Chinese dragons and lanterns.

Please find information below:

Childrens Liturgy

Activity Sheet

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

Weekly Mission

Thank you to Junior 5 for leading a beautiful Mass this afternoon. It was lovely to hear the pupils reading with reverence and a treat to have Chamber Choir singing Here Is Bread at Communion. It is always a special time when we can come together and think of the people in our community who we would like to pray for.

Junior 3 pupils this week have been exploring the Psalms in the Old Testament. Using their creative skills they were able to work in groups to perform the psalms and bring them alive.

One World Week

Look out for notices about ‘One World Week’ – a time where all the pupils have the opportunity to find out about different faiths and places of worship.  Thank you to the PTA who have agreed to fund Bhangra and Bollywood dance and storytelling workshops with Sohan Kailey.

Written by Georgie S and Amalia L:

On Wednesday, the Under 10 girls played two football matches against Repton Prep. On pitch 1, we all played amazingly, especially considering that most of us had never played before. Penny and Sofi were particularly impressive in goal, saving many shots. Overall it was a superb team performance and we ended up winning 6-2.

In the other match, everyone really enjoyed themselves and were so happy to have the chance to play football for the first time. Eventually we won 5-1, showing off great determination and some silky skills.

Due to the high number of pupils being absent and with the 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 we have been exploring the Chinese culture as we celebrated the Lunar New Year.  The children liked finding out which animals they had been born as, and we realised we have a nursery full of little piglets and puppies! This year is the year of the tiger, so there has been plenty of prowling and growling in different areas of nursery, from our youngest children making stripy tiger faces, to our older children counting tigers and matching numerals in the maths area. If you get chance, you may spot some of the fun we had on the school Facebook site, our Great Wall of China was a worthy structure to behold! We would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year, filled with the luck that tigers are supposed to bring.  

Newsletter

We are looking for new volunteers! Whether it is for occasional help like running stalls at the Summer Fair or to be part of the organising committee, we welcome all!

Please send an email to cardtara@gmail.com

Thank you to all whom ordered Jubilee trees for the school. They will hopefully be delivered next week.

Massive plea for any books you may want to donate please for the upcoming book sale on the Monday 14 February. We need about 500 more books and have only received one bag of books this week.

Thank you all for anything you may be able to donate. 

The PTA second hand uniform shop 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 in 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.

Tuesday 8 February - 9.00am

We wil be holding monthly coffee mornings as part of our recruitment effort. Please come along if you can make it and bring any friends who may be interested in a non formal meet up or would like to help with a single event.

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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Jellycat Dog - lost around the grass-crete area near the school earlier this week

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

• Head - Princethorpe College
• Finance Assistant - Princethorpe College
• Gardener/Groundsman - Princethorpe College