The Courier

Dear Parents

I was delighted to see so many of you here earlier in the week for our two talks on nurturing wellbeing in the children. Mark Groome was very well received and his message was one that resonated with us all, both as parents and as educators. 

I mentioned to those of you in the audience on Tuesday that the school has recently signed up for the Mental Health Award for Schools which is a well accredited and recognised programme run by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health based at Leeds Beckett University. We go through a process of self-evaluation of our current provision and draw up an action plan for further improvements and initiatives we can put in place. We have a team of five teachers and teaching assistants working on this as we speak.

For clarity, I should make it clear I don’t believe we have a significant problem in this area and the pastoral care the school provides is second to none. However, this strength itself comes from a willingness to improve and innovate that characterises the mind-set of the Crescent staff. With so much being said and written about mental health in the media, we want to be sure we are fully up to date with these new developments but in a way that is appropriate to our needs. At heart, the motivation for all of the staff in this process remains providing excellence for the children in our care and building in them a love of life and learning that will last a lifetime.

Tomorrow sees our annual Open Morning with lots of fun and engaging activities planned. Many thanks to you for all of your support with this, either by coming along yourselves or allowing your children to take part. My experience tends to be that any initial reluctance on the part of the children to come along is soon outweighed by the pleasure of showing people round a school they are rightly proud of.

Best Wishes

Joe Thackway

It was great to have such an excellent turn out for the two presentations on Tuesday this week.

Many parents who attended expressed an interest in having copies of the powerpoints that were used. It may also be that you were unable to attend and would like to get a clear idea of the content that was covered.

If you would like a copy of any of these presentations please let us know and we will provided hard copies. Either send a quick email to admin@crescentschool.co.uk or drop into the office and we can let you have them.

The three presentations were as follows:

• Transition from Crescent to Year 7 (for Year 4 and 5 parents)
• Presentation on Wellbeing – by Mark Groome to all parents
• Presentation on Managing Exam Stress - by Mark Groome to Year 4 and 5 parents

For a two or three week period this year we will be focusing on one of the sayings in the School Promise. We will talk about this in assembly and in form period. It would be great if you could discuss this with your children at home and support the messages we are emphasising in school.

From now until the end of term we will be looking at a very important idea from the Good Citizens section of the Promise:

‘We are honest and tell the truth’

Joe Thackway
Headmaster