The Courier

A couple of weeks ago, the children in Years 2 to 6 took part in the fantastic Bebras Computing Challenge, a global competition with thousands of children taking part from over 50 different countries. The challenge gives learners a taste of the key principles behind computational thinking and logic by engaging them in fun problem-solving activities and puzzles. This week we received the results back, and I am delighted to share with you just how well our pupils did! Over 75% of our pupils scored above the national average (and international!) score, more than ever of them finishing in the top 10%, a superb achievement I’m sure you will agree. Two pupils in Year 5 even scored full marks, making them not only 'best in school' but also joint 1st place in the entire country! Once again Crescent pupils proving that we are a little school with some very big ambitions.

Everyone who competed will receive a certificate, some a Merit or Distinction (top 10%).

Huge congratulations to everyone who took part, particularly to our top performers in each category:

Kits (Yr 2 & 3) - just under 10,000 competitiors

• 1st place – Walter, Zoe, Penelope, Catherine (joint 211th out of over 10,000 in the country!)
• 5th place - Eve S (267 nationally - top 2%)
• 6th - Alice, Uma (313 nationally - top 3%)

Distinctions (top 10%) - Ria, Oliver, Elin, Elliott, Max G-H, Zachary, Evie M, Hazel, Florence, Nishaan, Keevie, Jonny, Marcie

Castors (Yr 4 & 5) – over 20,000 competitors

• 1st place - Alex W, Sam Y (joint 1st in the whole country!)
• 3rd place - Aryaan, Matthew, Ella, Patrick (761 nationally - top 3%)

Distinctions (top 10%) - Kian, Zac, Aria, Amber, Harry, Taran, Nora, Ming-Yi

Juniors (Yr 6 & 7) – over 117,000 competitors

• 1st place - Alex T (top 5%)
• 2nd place - Hattie (top 6%)
• 3rd place - Shayla (top 8%)

Distinctions (top 10%) - Remi, Alice, Grace

Huge congratulations to Thomas B, Zac J and Sophie G who swam superbly at the National ISA Swimming Finals at the London Aquatics Centre on Friday 1 December.

Year 4, Thomas went all out and came home with a Gold medal after helping his team finish in first place in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay. Year 5, Zac did nearly as well with his team finishing in second place for a Silver medal in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay. Zac also finished 4th in the individual 50m Backstroke. Then Year 5 Sophie gave her best to finish in 5th place in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay and 6th in the individual 50m Freestyle.

Together the swimmers’ super performances helped the Midlands team finish in third place overall at the national event.

Head of PE and Games, Rachel McCollin, was delighted and said, "Our swimmers have traditionally done well in the ISA Swimming Championships, and they have had another successful outing this year. Well done to everyone who competed in both the Nationals and in the qualifying regional competitions."

On Monday 4 December pupils from Years 3 and 4 took to the stage to show off their fabulous performance skills. The pupils have been preparing for their upcoming LAMDA exams and the LAMDA Showcase was a super opportunity for the children to execute their much practised and perfected poems.

In their Drama lessons, pupils have been building confidence, developing character, learning how to project and developing the use of gestures, emphasis and emotion to enhance their performances. They all relished performing to an audience, rising to the occasion with aplomb and the watching parents were all impressed by the children's ability and confidence.

Drama teacher, Ms Bowdige was extremely proud of everyone who took part and would like to thank all the children, staff and parents for their hard work and dedication.

Well done to everyone and good luck in your LAMDA exams!

Crescent School was delighted to welcome Major Catherine Rand from the Salvation Army into school this morning to collect toys and gift donations for the Salvation Army’s Christmas Present Appeal.

Major Catherine spoke to the children in assembly, thanking them and their parents for the donations and explaining about the work of the Salvation Army and of their annual present appeal. She also treated the children to a fabulous rendition of Jingle Bells on her Flugelhorn and everyone joined in happily singing along.

Many thanks to our wonderful Friends of Crescent for coordinating the collection, and to all of our Crescent parents, pupils and staff for their donations to the appeal. The gifts were laid out in assembly for all the children to see.

Well done everyone, a great example of being a Good Citizen. The Christmas spirit is alive and well in our Crescent community!

This year’s Nativity took place on Wednesday 6 December and starred Reception and Year 1 who together performed The Twinkly Nativity.

The simple musical told the traditional nativity story of the journey to Bethlehem, the search for a room at the inn, the birth of baby Jesus and the visits of the shepherds and wise men. The two classes transformed into the nativity cast with a multitude of angels, shepherds, kings and innkeepers who together with Mary, Joseph and the donkey and animals created a marvellous spectacle.

The simple story was told beautifully with each child carefully enunciating their individual lines. Together our most junior children sang delightfully crowd-pleasing tunes such as We’re Hitting The Road, Twinkle Twinkle Follow the Star and Come As Your Are.

Head of Pre Prep, Alan Webb, commented, "It went very, very well. We are so proud of all our children, they performed brilliantly.”

It was a wonderful start to the exciting final few weeks of term.

The Green Team and I were delighted to hear that Parker in Reception took the bus rather than the car home from school as part of the Cut Your Carbon challenge. 

Then Green Team member, Catherine in 3SS, and her family, travelled by train when they went to visit their cousins. 

They were both great examples of how to Cut Your Carbon. Well done to Parker and Catherine.

We held our annual House Christmas Trees competition this week. The theme this year was a sustainable Christmas, and the House teams exceeded all our expectations with their creativity.

St David’s decorated the tree in reception, and it was a sight to behold with golden tinsel, hand cut stars and surrounded by yellow ‘present’ books. St Andrew’s tree was in the link to the Horton Centre and it was covered in beautiful individually hand-tied decorations. St George’s had the tree down in the Mortimer Suite and they surpassed themselves decorating their tree with rosettes of red hand prints topped with the Red House mascot. All of the trees were stunning.

On Wednesday, Mr Thackway visited the three trees and was very impressed. He announced the winners in assembly today. Many congratulations to Red House, they took the title for the second year on the trot. To be honest though – we think they are all smashing. Well done everyone, the countdown to Christmas has begun!

In assembly today, Isabella and Lottie told us all about the Sinterklaas celebrations that are happening in Belgium and Netherlands. It was fascinating to hear all about them and we hope you both had a lovely celebration.