The Courier

Our marvellous Reception children have been exploring the topic of ‘Growing and Changing’ and have studied the lifecycle of butterflies. Everyone enjoyed the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, had fun learning a super butterfly song and created beautiful butterfly life-cycle art.

The children also visited Stratford Butterfly Farm this week, seeing the most amazing butterflies first-hand and learning more about the life cycle stages of the butterfly.

Today everyone got to hold one of our class butterflies carefully in their hands before we released all our lovely butterflies into the flowers at the front of the school.

So much fun and such lovely learning. Well done Reception you are all now brilliant lepidopterists!

Today saw pupils' final meetings with their Learning Mentors for the academic year. Children proved that they have been working to achieve their targets by showing work in their books, sharing how their learning has been this year and how they have been working on their personal targets that they chose back in September. Please do ask them how their review meeting went.

We have been delighted with how this initiative has engaged the children from Year 1 to Year 6, now in its second year. We will be setting new targets come the Michaelmas Term and building on their progress throughout the year. The mentor meetings have proven to be a powerful way for children to realise where they are at in their attainment and how they can improve by taking ownership of their personal 'next steps'.

Ms Forth
Deputy Head

Crescent’s Year 6 were simply magnificent this week when they performed Shakespeare’s tragedy, the Scottish play, Macbeth. In their final end-of-school production they superbly portrayed the dark story of treachery and corruption. Their rendition which included a modern twist just wowed their parents and teachers.

On the big night pupils were nervous but excited to perform having really enjoyed their dress rehearsal in front of the school earlier in the week.

The children had worked incredibly hard with Drama teacher, Kim Thompson, and Director of Music, Julie Barnes, to prepare the special performance and the talented cast rose admirably to the challenge.

It was clear the audience really enjoyed the show, their thunderous applause a testament to yet another super example of the school’s broad provision for the arts.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway said, "Huge congratulations to all the cast for learning their lines so well and delivering them with meaning, expression and great timing, what a multi-talented group of young people they all are."

Many thanks to all the staff and parents who helped with the production and to our wonderful Year 5 Chorus who accompanied the show.

What a fantastic afternoon for our Pre-Prep Sports Day. The children really enjoyed sprinting, jumping and throwing their way through all the fun. Their challenges included running races, egg and spoon, javelin, the bean bag throw, the jump and of course as a finale the shuttle relay race. Each event enabled them to compete to earn points for their house and everyone tried their hardest to do their very best.

Head of Sport, Mrs McCollin, said, “What a great afternoon of sport. Our races and challenges allowed everyone to enjoy having a go in a supportive and encouraging environment. It was wonderful to see the children having so much fun.”

After all the points had been totted up the results were announced. In first place came Red House with 68 points, just behind were the Yellows with 65 points and in third place were Blue House with 56 points.

A huge well done to all the children and thank you to Princethorpe’s Lower Sixth, the KS1 and Sports staff, who organised the event for everyone.

Last Friday, the whole school enjoyed raising funds for our charity of the term, Birmingham Children's Hospital. The games on the field in the morning were great fun, especially the potato throwing and the children enjoyed receiving their winners' prizes this week in assembly on Tuesday, when they also learnt that the correct answer to 'Guess the name of the pig' was 'Oinky'!

William from the charity attended last Friday's assembly and told us all about the great work it does in supporting children and their families. He explained that they have a real focus currently on using VR to help children through difficult treatments; and that a single headset costs £3,500. So we are delighted to say that we have made a great start towards that total by having raised over £700! 

As it was forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far, we had our move-it laps of the field to first thing in morning and we saw leap frogs, cart wheels and plain old running as fast as you can around the track. All were rewarded by a visit from the Ice Cream courtesy of the FoC which was very much appreciated!

Please can all school books be returned to school by Monday 4 July, please check under beds, on bookcases and in bags as it does make a difference to our school stocks.

Thank you, it is a nice idea to use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books to enjoy together over the holidays.

The final day for quizzing will be Monday 4 July, as we need a couple of days to analyse the data to help ensure progression and set up for the next academic year. Children cannot quiz in the holidays but please do not let this deter you from reading as reading for pleasure is very important and one of our English aims.

Please use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books.