The Courier

Dear Parents

Welcome to this week’s newsletter.

We have enjoyed a calm and settled week of hard work here at school and there have been some lovely highlights along the way to recognise. Firstly, the parents’ consultation evenings on Monday and Tuesday this week went smoothly and it was good to have some positive feedback from parents regarding the new format. I know from experience that teachers feel very torn on these evenings, in the sense that they would happily talk for ever about the great things each child is achieving in school whilst at the same time having to try to keep to the appointment times. From a parent‘s point of view I know it can be frustrating if you need to wait but, in general, this week I think we got the balance right.

It was pleasing to welcome Kieran McCulloch over from Princethorpe College on Tuesday morning who gave us a thought-provoking assembly on the theme of ‘never giving up’. I know that Kieran is well liked by the children and his assemblies are always well received with plenty of laughter along the way.

Once more, we have enjoyed lots of sport this week with the ISA swimming gala on Tuesday, and girls’ hockey matches on Wednesday. We also had an excellent first AGM of the Friends of Crescent Association, which went well and I believe the new constitution well enable the Association to share its mission statement and vision with all parents. We genuinely appreciate everything the FOC does for the school, and of course tonight is one of the highlights of the year with the parents’ quiz. The Year 1 parents set a very high bar last year, it will be interesting to see if they can live with the pressure of having to maintain their record tonight!

I hope you all have a good weekend and we look forward to the final week of this half of Michaelmas term in excellent spirits.

This academic year is very likely to bring an ISI inspection to Crescent, most probably in the second half of the year. All independent schools are inspected by the ISI both for compliance across a wide range of regulatory requirements as well as for the educational quality of our provision. It is well recognised that ISI inspections are every bit as thorough as Ofsted ones, and arguably even more so in the area of curriculum delivery. As part of our preparations for this likely visit later in the year we are bringing in the services of an expert in the field, Serena Alexander, who will spend the day with us on Wednesday 6 November reviewing various aspects of the teaching and learning in school. Whilst we are always inspection ready here at Crescent, it is helpful to get the views of a visiting expert to help us continue to build on what we have.

There are a number of different elements to the inspection, including interviews with children and trawls through their books and Serena will be setting something similar up for her visit next month. It is possible that your child will be selected for one of these interviews and, if so, please be assured that they will be accompanied by a member of staff and that they are very much child-centred and child-friendly conversations about all aspects of school life.

Another part of the inspection will be a survey of parents’ feelings and attitudes towards the school.  As we have conducted parents’ surveys in the last two years, and are expecting another this year as part of the inspection, we are not planning to have an additional one this term.

If you do have any questions regarding either the review next month or the inspection itself please don’t hesitate to contact me or your form teacher.

Best wishes