The Courier

This morning saw our hall full with food and produce as we celebrated Harvest Festival. Corinne Mason returned from the Rugby Foodbank with, what she called, 'a grateful heart' to receive all of the donations we have collected over the last few weeks.

Our celebration was a variety of song, drama and prayer to highlight all that we have to be thankful for and to think of ways we can share what we are lucky to have.

A BIG thank you to all our Crescent families that have contributed to such a worthy cause.

The School Council met this week and talked about out charity choices for the year. They were tasked with going back to their classes and encouraging their classmates to vote for a charity of their choice. Lots of fantastic charities were mentioned, and it was very difficult to choose.

We can announce that this term’s charity will be the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance. They fly two regional air ambulances across several counties, covering an area of 3850 square miles. They do a fantastic job at responding to trauma and medical emergencies and we hope you will agree that this is a very worthy charity for us to support.

Next Friday 19 October there is a non-uniform day, and we ask that the children bring in £1 and also wear something yellow to acknowledge the colour associated with this charity.

Photo proof packs were sent home this week. In order to attain a speedy delivery of the photographs Mr Lloyd (the Photographer) has asked if you can do the following:

• Complete the information on the envelope with the proof cards.
• If paying by cheque, please write your child's proof card photo security number and photograph type on the back of the cheque.
• Place the correct amount of money in the envelopes along with the proof card(s) if you are paying by cash.

The deadline for return of proof cards to school is Wednesday 17 October, in order to receive free delivery.

Orders can be placed online, however, a postal cost will be incurred and it is at the sole discretion of the printers, not the photographer.

Please do contact Mr Lloyd if you have any queries, his email address is on the proof.

Crescent School

Your child will be bringing home with them a folder of work that you may wish them to do over half term to keep their brains working before other exams. We do not require these back to mark, the mark schemes are included.

There is one compulsory piece to do, please read Clockwork by Phillip Pullman, which will be sent home.

Winter uniform is to be worn after the half term break.

The School shop, based at Princethorpe College, will be closed during the half term break and will reopen on Monday 5 November.

An email was sent to parents on Wednesday 10 October containing information for ordering winter uniform.  Any orders submitted before 1.00pm on Monday 15 October will be delivered to Crescent School before the end of term next Friday.

Cressie is the Guide Dog sponsored by the school.

Sadly Cressie's original puppy walker was unable to continue caring for her but she has now found a new puppy walker to continue with her training towards becoming a Guide Dog.

As you can see from the photos Cressie has plenty of friends to play with in her new home.

Here are the details for a fantastic poetry competition. You can write your own poem or continue the one provided (click here).

The competition is open from Tuesday 9 October 2018 until Friday 21 December 2018.

There are two age categories:

• One for pupils in Key Stage 1 and one for those in Key Stage 2
• Two language categories in English and Welsh

Individual or group entries are allowed for Key Stage 1, only individual entries for Key Stage 2.

Poems should be no more than 20 lines or 150 words and be on the theme of diversity. Pupils can continue the Beautifully different, Wonderfully the same by Joseph Coelho or start a new poem. Poems can be of any structure and don’t have to rhyme.

Judging criteria

The judges will be looking for the following:

• Vocabulary that is relevant to the theme of diversity
• An appropriate tone
• Poetry – figurative speech and devices to build a picture in the reader’s mind in a creative and effective way. For example, alliteration, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, symbolism.
• Elements of poetry – words chosen for effect, a sense of structure, clever use of rhythm, purposeful use of rhyme, (although not all poems have to rhyme).
• Effect – does the poem celebrate diversity? Do you understand what is important about diversity having read this?
• Originality – does this entry stand out from the rest? Is it original and unique?
• Appeal – will it appeal to other primary-age pupils?

Prizes

There will be a top national prize and 10 regional prizes for each category (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2). There will also be prizes for the best entries in Welsh at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

Prizes for national winners:

• A Premier League Trophy visit to your school
• A visit to your school by a children’s author or poet to lead a poetry workshop
• Winning poems read aloud by one of our star judges

Prizes for regional winners and national winners:

• Poems published in an official Premier League Writing Stars book with bespoke illustrations
• An invitation to a national celebration event and the chance to meet other poets and special guests
• A framed version of the winning poems
• Poetry book bags for all winners’ schools

There will also be some brilliant bags full to the brim with poetry books up for grabs for the first 1000 schools who submit entries!

Please can all entries be emailed or given to Ms Lowe by 15 December 2018. All details can be found buy the pupil entrance.

I would like to remind parents that Crescent School, along with the other schools of the Princethorpe Foundation, aims to be a nut-free zone. Whilst we cannot guarantee that children won’t come into contact with nuts or products with nut traces whilst at school we endeavour to reduce this risk as far as we can.

The aim of this strategy is to reduce the risk to those children and adults who may suffer an anaphylactic reaction if exposed to nuts to which they are sensitive. The school aims to protect children who have allergies to nuts yet also help them, as they grow up, to take responsibility as to what foods they can eat and to be aware of where they may be put at risk.

Our 'Nut-Free Zone' means that the following items should not be brought into school:

• Packs of nuts
• Peanut butter sandwiches
• Fruit and cereal bars that contain nuts
• Chocolate bars or sweets that contain nuts
• Sesame seed rolls (children allergic to nuts may also have a severe reaction to sesame)
• Cakes made with nuts

No nuts are used in any of the food prepared on site at our school.  Our suppliers provide us with nut-free products. However, we cannot guarantee freedom from nut traces.

It is worth noting that there are currently children in school with a known nut allergy.  Exposure to nuts for these children could result in serious consequences. I know that you, like me, would do anything reasonably possible to prevent this from happening.

We ask all parents to support us in this policy by providing nut-free mid-morning snacks and not using nuts in cakes provided for bake sales or fund raising events.