The Courier

On Tuesday 20 March the children at Crescent School were delighted to present a cheque for £1,685 to the charity Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Pupils have been busy fundraising for the charity since the beginning of the school year.  They started with a sponsored walk round Draycote Water, with parents, children and staff walking, running, cycling and scooting laps of the reservoir, raising over £750. Next the children had a non-uniform day and a 'Guess how many dog biscuits in the jar?' challenge which took their total to over £1,000.  Collection buckets at school events and a 'doggie' themed movie night helped to complete their fundraising efforts. The huge total of £1,685 allows the children to sponsor a guide dog puppy and to choose its name.

The children warmly welcomed Guide Dog representatives, Heather Gelder and Lyn Knight and their guide dogs, trainee Barny and working dog Slipper into school for a special assembly.

Heather who helps to look after guide dogs in training spoke to the children about the charity and the services and support they provide.  She explained how the dogs were selected and the training process they go through and most excitingly promised to bring in the school's puppy for a visit when it was old enough.

The pupils really enjoyed meeting Barny, who has nearly finished his training to become a guide dog, and Slipper who is already a working dog.

The school's Parents Association, Friends of Crescent who have organised all the fundraising activities were also present and Zara Corbin, Chair of the FOC, presented the cheque to Heather on behalf of the school.

Zara commented, "The children have really engaged with our fundraising for the Guide Dogs this year, they have already been busy making suggestions for the puppy's name; we have had lots of great suggestions, but the most popular choices so far are Crescent and Charlie. We can’t wait to meet the puppy when it is old enough to visit."

The final dress rehearsal for The Bee Musical took place this week in front of a proper audience, as all of the older school children came to watch the run through.

A lot of hard work has gone into the rehearsals, learning the songs, memorising lines, sorting out costumes, scenery and planning the production, and what a bee-autiful spectacle it will be!

With a fabulous script and nine terrific songs to get you buzzing and bee-bopping, you just won’t bee-lieve how good the musical is going to bee!

For a sneak preview have a look at some of the photos from the dress rehearsal in the Gallery.

Crescent School's much anticipated annual Spring Concert took place on Friday 16 March.  The concert was very well attended with the school hall packed with parents and family members eager to be treated to an afternoon of fine music and song. They were not disappointed!

The school orchestra opened the concert performing two pieces confidently, the impact of their recent orchestral workshop clear to see.  The audience very much enjoyed the lively 'Bluesville' by Bruce Fraser and the familiar theme from 'James Bond' by Monty Norman.   Then came the first of the instrumental solos with Vignesh Sadasivan's finger perfect rendition of his latest exam piece 'Song' by Reinecke on piano.  Brass Group were up next with two toe-tapping pieces 'Honk' and 'Oompahpah', both arranged by peripatetic teacher, Di Fisher. Hot on their heels were Mini Brass who captivated us all with their tiny cornets and trombones.  Next in the programme was Harriet Gray with an enthusiastic violin performance of 'Ready Steady Go Now' by Kathy and David Blackwell and then came the Wacky Trumpets with 'We are the Champions' also arranged by Di Fisher.

The audience were impressed by the wonderful Wacky Music who took to the stage with their amazing and colourful instruments, especially the boomwhackers, and noisily played 'Percussion Panache'; the instruments were clearly as much fun to play as they were a surprise to hear!  

The concert continued with Matthew Thomas skilfully playing his trumpet solo, 'Trumpet Tune' by Jeremiah Clarke and then came Class III recorders carefully sounding out 'Dotty Waltz' by Sarah Watts.  The Senior Recorders gave an accomplished performance of the traditional 'Lord of the Dance', and they were followed by Maya Patel playing 'Shhh!' by Mark Cropton beautifully on her clarinet.

The Flute Group delightfully played two pieces by Pascal Proust 'Petit Nuages' and 'Jongleurs' and Georgia Dowling stayed on stage to play a captivating flute solo of the popular song 'Summertime' by Gershwin.

The concert concluded with a super performance by the Choir.  Pupils from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 sang three new pieces. They belted out the challenging 'Still singing' by Partington/McCrorie-Shand, 'The Call' by Regina Spektor and as a stunning finale the ever so catchy 'Rhythm of Life' by Cy Coleman.

Our enormous thanks and congratulations go to all Crescent School's accomplished performers who took to the stage in front of their proud parents, and of course to all their teachers and Director of Music, Julie Barnes who have helped them achieve so much. 

Last Sunday 18 March Head of Girls’ Games, Mrs McCollin, and 18 Crescent pupils and their parents visited the Ricoh Arena to watch Wasps Netball take on Celtic Dragons in their Vitality Super League game.  Wasps won the Vitality Super League title last year and are sitting in second place in the League at this point in the season.

For most of the Crescent girls it was their first chance to watch Super League Netball and they were ‘super’ excited.  When they arrived they were given the opportunity to have a go at different netball training activities including shooting, rebound and reaction time tests.  Then the girls went to watch the teams warm up before the game.  They were surprised to see the teams using some of the same exercises that they use at school including ‘Red Arrows’.

The match-play was mesmorising for the girls, they were rooted to the game, asking questions, as they watched the flow of play, about the rules and tactics that the teams were using.   They really enjoyed the game, fascinated by how fast it was and just how many goals were scored - more goals in that one match than they had scored in an entire season!

Wasps were dominant in the match limiting the Dragons to a record-low tally for the goals scored in a Vitality Netball Super League game this season, winning with an impressive 74-32 score-line.

After the game the pupils went court-side to meet the players, who spent time with the girls signing autographs and posing for photos.

It was a fantastic evening, and a trip that the girls will remember forever! A huge thank you to Wasps Netball for this opportunity.

Rachel McCollin was delighted commenting, “It was wonderful to see the girls so enthused.  I have received several emails from parents thanking me for organising the trip and telling me how inspired the girls are from going to watch our local professional netball team. I’m sure this will translate onto the netball courts in good time.”

It is with great pleasure that we awarded Sophie Causer a Prefect badge in assembly today.

Sophie is a deserving recipient, she has a proactive approach to keeping the school promise and a very positive attitude.

Congratulations Sophie.

Class III have brought their learning to life this week by making their own bread.

The class has been listening to stories from around the world explain how different bread is made and enjoyed and tasted a few samples.  In their lesson the children practised 'accurate measuring' and 'following instructions' as well as demonstrating good 'team work' to make the dough. Each child designed and created their own roll before it was baked by our very own Head Chef, Mrs Slatcher.

Come and see the display on Open Morning for more photos and insights!

A sneak preview of the creativity shown by Class II this term. They have found the Amazon Rainforest a fascinating topic in Geography and look forward to sharing their projects with you at our Open Morning this Saturday!

They have learned about the characteristics and animals which live in the different forest layers and considered the impact deforestation has on the landscape and habitats, their knowledge and empathy has impressed us all and each has been awarded a Junior da Vinci for Mastery or Creativity for their hard work.

Excellent work Year 2!

This term Class III have been exploring the much-loved story 'Fantastic Mr Fox', by Roald Dahl.  To help them understand the cunning creatures, the children have been working on projects to portray what they think Mr Fox's habitat was like.

Some amazing homes have been created with papier-mâché, some even including twinkling lights!

Plenty of Junior da Vinci's were awarded for Mastery and Creativity, for the children's commitment and effort in their project work.

Make sure you have time to come and see them on display at Open Morning.

Crescent School’s Year 4 pupils warmly welcomed Eve Hamuza into school on Wednesday 21 March. Eve, who grew up in Malawi, returned to the school to talk to the children about life in her country and in the village of Bwengu in particular. Her visit was organised by Mrs Bryony Forth to support the classes’ Geography topic this term.

Every year at Crescent School the Year 4s study Bwengu as a less economically developed area, comparing and contrasting it to their local town of Rugby.

Eve’s visit is designed to bring the topic to life. She had a large bag full of models and artefacts for the children to examine and was greeted with much enthusiasm and excitement. She talked animatedly about life in Malawi, explaining to the children about the houses rural people live in, the food they eat and the daily challenges they face. Eve had several different scale models of houses, and an example of rush matting that is used as a bed, but also to carry goods and food around. Also in her bag were bowls, cups and scoops all ingeniously created from local fruits and trees. She had intricately carved mortars and pestles that are commonly used to make flour and her treasure trove included an example of a Malawian drum and a very popular local game played with a board and beans.

It was a very interesting session, the children were fascinated and couldn’t wait to examine Eve’s artefacts. They asked lots of different intelligent questions and were interested to discover the similarities and differences between the two areas.

Thanks go to Eve for coming to talk to the children, it was an engrossing afternoon for all.

Classes IV(M) and IV(Y)'s ambition to raise money for two toilet blocks and twenty secondary school bursaries for the children of Bwengu, Malawi is going very well.

There is still time to enter the competitions for 'guess the name and win the teddy' and also 'guess the number of sweets in the tub', where the winner takes all!

The two Year 4 classes have taken part in a gruelling sponsored silence and now need to collect their donations by the first week after Easter holidays please.

Any entries for the 'Design an Easter Egg' competition need to be in by Monday 26 March.  There will a prize for the best Pre-Prep entry and the best Prep entry. Any materials are allowed for this.

There are two fundraisers in the last few days of term, both on Tuesday 27 March:

• The children are running an Easter Egg Hunt to find and solve clues. If your child wants to take part, bring £1 for a game card, all correct entries go into the prize draw.
• From Tuesday morning please donate any loose change you would like to clear out of pockets and purses for our Penny Path. Depending on the weather, this will hopefully be outside.

All winners from the competitions and draws will be announced at the Easter Service on our final afternoon this term, Wednesday 28 March, all are welcome to attend.

Thank you for all your support, as always.