Headmaster's Message

Headmaster's Message

Dear Parents

This week we have seen two Nativity plays from our younger children that brought great pleasure to a great many mums, dads, grandmas, grandads, staff and fellow children. They are such a traditional part of the Christmas landscape and I suspect we all have stories of our own plays when we were in school (I remember making an excellent tree one year, although I can’t remember what crucial role this played in the narrative). They serve as an important marker both in the passing of the school year and for the individual children as they progress through the year groups. Judging by the smiles on the faces of the parents as they left the school on Monday and Thursday, I am confident that we can put this one down in the ‘job done’ category.

We have also had three trips out this week, with Reception visiting the McCready theatre, which was enormously exciting for them, and the older children off to Harry Potter World for an educational visit that supports their learning in their English lessons. Year 1 and 2 were also out today at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. All of these trips were notable for the excellent behaviour of our children, who showed true Crescent manners and consideration for the general public, which is something that is a source of great pride to the staff that accompany them.

Next Tuesday sees the final big Christmas event of the season with our first carol service over at Princethorpe College. This looks like being a wonderful end to the calendar year in a fitting setting. An added bonus for us all will be that the parking should be a good deal easier than last year! I very much hope to see many of you there.

This weekend will see the tree finally go up in the Thackway household. It would help me at this point if my children could decide what they actually wanted for Christmas. With not many shopping days still to go, we need to make some progress.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Year 6 Secondary School Exam Success

Our Year 6 pupils have had lots of good news this term concerning their applications to secondary schools. In the local authority grammar school exam 70% of our children achieved the likely required score for entry next September. Of course, they won’t know for sure until they get their offers in March but that is an excellent outcome and everyone here is delighted for them.

The other big entrance exam for our children this term has been for the Foundation's senior school, Princethorpe College. Again, we have had great success and are delighted with the offers the children have received. In particular, we have been blown away by the number of scholarship offers achieved this year. 12 children in the year group have received a scholarship offer of some kind and we are currently trawling the records to see if this has ever been surpassed.

Three further children have received scholarship offers from other local independent schools.

Congratulations to all the children for their achievements - we are really proud of them all.

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Reports

Dear Parents

Today parents of children in Reception, Years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 will receive their child’s report for the term. If your child is in Year 5, you will receive a report at the February half term.

A great deal of thought and hard work goes into the production of these reports and they are carefully designed to provide you with the information you need regarding your son or daughter's progress during the term. We have intentionally kept the written prose format to ensure that each report is unique and tailored to the individual.

Please do share the contents of these reports with your children and use them to agree on achievable targets for them to aim towards next term. We will be going through a similar process here in school, in line with our focus this year on the use of targeted feedback to improve learning outcomes.

Electronic copies of the reports are available on My School Portal. Please do take the time to familiarise yourself with accessing these reports online by following the link. The next set of reports, for Year 5 in February and for the rest of the school at the end of the academic year, will again be sent home in hardcopy version and also viewable on My School Portal.

Please do note that from the beginning of next academic year, 2020-2021, we will be moving away entirely from paper copies to electronic versions only. Of course, we will still be able to provide hardcopies on request to those people who require them.

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

 

Absence Requests For Holiday During Term Time Reminder

Parents are discouraged from taking pupils out of school during term-time because of the impact it has on their learning. Should this be unavoidable, permission should always be sought in advance from myself.  I am able to pre-authorise absences on certain grounds such as religious observances and special family occasions.

Please ensure you submit any absence requests in good time, through either My School Portal or via the office email admin@crescentschool.co.uk.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster