The Courier

Last Friday 8 May marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the Second World War in Europe. There were plenty of celebrations to mark this important anniversary, but the Crescent School wanted to commemorate the day in our own special way. So, on Thursday 7 May, pupils spent the day off timetable, taking part in lessons for a themed VE History Day.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway kicked off proceedings with a VE Day Assembly. Mr Thackway talked to the children about the Second World War and VE Day and then he set them a writing challenge.

Throughout the day the children took part in a host of different themed activities they included delights such as: creating invitations to a VE party in 1945, designing, making and labelling in French a VE day picnic, designing and making flags and bunting, decoding and encoding Morse code and then undertaking a spot of code breaking, writing newspaper reports, making air raid shelters, putting together their own evacuee suitcases, performing wartime songs and dances, designing commemorative teacups and even creating war medals.

Across the school everyone participated enthusiastically, and it was wonderful to see all the photos of the super work the children produced. We are sure you all now know a lot more about the Second World War and VE Day.

This morning Mr Thackway announced the winners of his writing competition. He was very impressed by all the entries. Congratulations to Kian, Liana and Eve, you each win a copy of a wonderful, informative book, 'My Secret War Diary' by Marcia Williams.

In the Gallery there are examples of the children's super work.

We hope you all enjoyed our History Day and last weekend's commemorations, and alongside all in our country, we give thanks to all those who gave so much to secure the peace, freedom and prosperity our society enjoys today.

Crescent’s School Promise challenges pupils to be Good Friends, Good Learners and Good Citizens, introduced back in 2018, it was quickly embraced as an important part school life, and over the last two years we have often been impressed by how intrinsic it has become to the way that our pupils behave.

The recent pandemic lockdown has proved to be another opportunity for pupils to live up to the Crescent School Promise. Week in week out we have been hearing stories of our pupils going that extra mile to be Good Friends, Good Learners and Good Citizens.

We especially wanted to highlight the many children who are giving back to their communities. So many are living up to the Good Citizens promise outside of school. Whether creating banners or posters to thank the NHS, giving birthday cards or gifts to their neighbours, sending virtual hugs to distant family and friends, shopping for vulnerable relatives, picking up litter in their communities, painting and hiding ‘Happy Stones’ to cheer up others on their walks, speaking (at a social distance) to neighbours or those they pass on walks, writing letters to residents in care homes, reading to grandparents over Face Time, supporting their families by helping with the household chores or organising fundraising to help others, we have been impressed by them all. There are yet more examples in the Courier today.

We just wanted to say a huge thank you to all our Crescent community for all your many wonderful acts of citizenship. You are an inspiration to us all!

Now that Pre-Prep children are all familiar with Teams we are able to extend a Wellbeing Wednesday drop-in session to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children too.  It's a bit like chatting on the playground - totally optional, one child at a time, not learning based. 

I will be available on Teams on a Wednesday from 14:00 to 14:30.  The link will be provided by Form Tutors on Monday morning.

Whats your Philosophy?

Philosophy covers all sorts of questions and subjects, but when someone says, "My philosophy is..." they most often mean their view of what is important in life, or what a good life is like.

Now both isn't and might be a good time for such questions. It isn't because at such an unusual time, our thinking might be distorted; it might be because we might have more time to think, and fewer distractions.  Some of the questions that might lead up to thinking about what your philosophy is are:

• What makes you happy?
• What do you miss most?
• What do you not miss?
• What are you most grateful for at the moment?
• What do you want to get back to normal?
• What do you not want to get back to normal?
• What have you learned about yourself?
• What are you proud of?
• What do you hope for?
• If you could make one law for the world for when things change, what would it be?
  Some things or characteristics are valuable for what they can do (perhaps money, being good at selling things). Some things or characteristics are valuable just for themselves. What do you think is valuable just for itself?
• What things or characteristics seem less important now than they did?
• What things or characteristics seem more important now than they did?
• Are there things you want that you would rather you didn't want? (Not as in, you get to have them, but as in you don't even want them any more).
• What are the things you would want to want, if you could choose what you wanted?

What is your philosophy?

If you are looking for some times tables practise and have a couple of dice, children may find this activity fun to do:

Dice Game

You could keep a tally of who wins each game and if played regularly, add up the score at the end of the week; the winner receives a treat!        

Please find below the links to all the 'virtual' assemblies that have been sent to Pupils during Home Learning.

Crescent School                    

We thought you would like some book recommendations from the teachers, this week Mrs Monteith is sharing hers, some of you may have read these books or they may be ones you could try.

Mrs Monteith's favourite books:

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I will never forget receiving this for Christmas in 1985. A gift from my parents, it was a sturdy, green hardback edition with the most exquisite glossy pictures by Arthur Rackham. I immediately loved the depiction of the main characters; the shy, good-natured Mole; the sensible, quick-witted Rat; the respected but elusive Badger ; and perhaps my favourite of all, the jovial, good-hearted but conceited Toad. The animals take on such human qualities and are so brilliantly written, that you are at once drawn in to their world, feeling every emotion along with them. 

This is, on the surface, a story of mystery and adventure, of twists and turns, mainly spurred on by the impulsive Toad and his latest fads. But at its heart this is a tale of loyalty and friendship. The settings are so clearly drawn by Grahame; the animals' homes, the Wild Wood and the magnificent and imposing 'Toad Hall'. It is gentle and warm in parts, and fast-paced and exciting in others and I remember it being a real 'page-turner'. It has rightly earned its place in the classics of the 20th century and will continue to bring joy to its readers for years to come, I am sure. It holds a special place for me.

We receive First News in school every week for the children to peruse. Due to this being unable to be delivered they are sharing the newspaper as a PDF: 

8 - 14 May 2020

I hope you are all enjoying this great newspaper, even as an adult, I enjoy reading it.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Children can win a £10 National Book Token for themselves and each of their classmates – and surprise them all when schools reopen! 
 
While children are at home, encourage them to create a National Book Token design for our competition. Whether it's the school crest doodled in ink, a pencil drawing of the entire class, or something completely different, we'll choose one child's design to put on a National Book Tokens gift card every week for seven weeks. 
 
When schools open up again, the young designer and their classmates will each receive a £10 National Book Token – emblazoned with the winning artwork – to inspire them to choose their next favourite book from their local bookshop.

Please follow this link to enter:

Book Token Competition

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

This is the fifth year of Birmingham Museum's popular Inspire Art Competition.

With the current lockdown they want to put some positivity back in our lives and, working online, they are still welcoming submissions. They can’t wait to see what you come up with at this time, including all the different art-forms that are possible even while most of us are staying at home.

This year the competition is called What I Can See, it is designed to help us all think about things in our homes, gardens, skies, views, and even in our imaginations and thoughts. So what might this mean to you?

Your art submission could be a poem, still life response, a painting in the garden, portrait, photo, digital drawing or video, a mud sculpture, a pen drawing … there is no right or wrong. What I Can See is a way of sharing and communicating your ideas and energies to others at a time when it is needed the most.

Click here for further details and do let me know if you submit an entry.

We've just uploaded our latest cook-along video to Youtube and this time it's 'Enchiladas' and they were very delicious indeed!

This and all the other videos are available in the same place as usual, accessible via this link:

Bayleaf Cookery Videos

We’re also doing short daily cookery themed challenges and other bits and pieces on our Facebook page:

Bayleaf Cookery School

Stay safe, have a lovely weekend and we will let you know when the next video is available.

Bayleaf Cookery School

TT Rockstars have got in touch with GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS about how fast some of our times tables rockers are getting. After some conversations they have created a new title - "the highest score achieved on ‘Times Tables Rock Stars in one minute!"

Full details how to enter can be found here.