The Courier

Dear Parents

The return of the cold weather this week has made for some beautiful sunrises as I have driven into work. The pale blue and orange colours have really lifted the spirits on these cold mornings. I have also been watching the moon gradually waning day by day and counting down to the new moon which will be on Sunday.

That will be of special significance this month of course because it will mark Chinese New Year. We mentioned this celebration in our assembly this morning and we will be telling the story of the Jade Emperor and the Great Race in more detail on Tuesday. Happy new year to all of you who are celebrating this weekend.

We started this week with a bit of fun, as we re-enacted the very first Founder’s Day of Crescent School back in 1949. I hope you enjoy watching the Vimeo film of the event that you can access from the Courier. This was then backed up with our 1948 theme day in lessons today, which I know the children have enjoyed.

As you probably know, it is our 75th anniversary this year, hence the special celebrations we are putting on. We also hoping to keep the idea of a Founder’s Day celebration on an annual basis, as it is always interesting to look back at the history of the school and build that sense of togetherness, both for us as a group, and to strengthen that bond with our forerunners. 

Elsewhere, despite the cold weather we have managed to continue with all of our usual events and activities. We had Year 1 enjoying a visit from the Warwickshire Fire Brigade earlier in the week, and all of our fixtures (9 matches played across the different sports) and cross-country running have gone ahead as planned. With the temperatures set to rise a little over the weekend, I hope you're able to relax at home and enjoy some quality time with your families.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Everyone here at Crescent School would like to wish you all a happy Chinese New Year. The big day is on Sunday this year and I know many of our families will be celebrating at home. On the gate in the morning, I have really enjoyed hearing from some of our children about the special stories they tell at this time of year.

As we do with every major world festival, we like to mark this in school in our assemblies and class discussions. It is the year of the Rabbit and the children will be learning all about the story behind the naming of the Chinese years in their assembly on Tuesday.

If you are celebrating over the weekend, "Xīnnián hǎo" (新年好) and we hope you all have a great time.

Weekly Calendar

Please click on the link below to view next week's calendar:

Weekly Calendar - 23 Jan 2023 

Please ensure children have the correct kit for their afterschool clubs. 

Please click below to view the lunch menu for next school week, children are able to have either the Main or Vegetarian option. 

Lunch Menu 23 January 2023 

Crescent School

Please click on the link below to view the Music Lesson timetable for week commencing 16 January 2023.

Lessons may not be able to be rearranged if children do not bring their instruments to school.

Music Lessons - 23 January 23 

The password has been emailed to parents. 

On Monday, Crescent School marked its 75th anniversary with a new celebration in the Crescent school calendar, Founder’s Day.

The day began with a special assembly with the whole school gathering together in the school hall to reflect back to Crescent School’s founding back in 1948. As part of the assembly and to mark the start of the anniversary year, pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 performed a short play reflecting life at the Crescent School back in its early days. The light-hearted sketch highlighting some of the differences between life at the school then and now.

Many thanks to Year 2s, Uma, Rachael and Joshua and Year 6s, Tegan, Sam, Finlay, Chloe, Alex, Grace and Erin and to Mrs Forth and Mrs Webb, who all performed their parts so well.

Across the year, Crescent is looking forward to commemorating its 75th anniversary with plenty of opportunities for the wider Crescent community to get together, to renew and strengthen relationships and revive old memories.

As part of the Crescent School’s 75th anniversary celebrations pupils have explored life in the 1940s across all their curriculum lessons today. The dedicated themed day has seen the whole school enjoying a range of exciting age-appropriate learning.

Whether practising their calligraphy cursive writing, developing their 1940s programming skills, learning about the Windrush generation, or the impact rationing had on baking, exploring 1940s children’s games or the dance styles of the 1940s, the learning activities have all helped pupils to understand what life was like 75 years ago.

Head of History, Mrs Symons, said, “The children have had a fantastic day. It was wonderful to see them enjoying learning about the 1940s and how life was like in the year when the Crescent School opened.”

We will be sharing more details of all the fun today in the Courier next Friday 27 January.

Princethorpe College has a new Headmaster, Mr Grove du Toit, and last week, as he settled into life at Princethorpe College, the Heads of School, Freya and Pratheesh, sat down with him to ask him questions submitted by pupils from across the school. 

The question-and-answer session was recorded and is being shared with Princethorpe's pupils on Teams, to help them all get to know more about their new Headmaster.

This week on the College's social media they have also been sharing his answers, to introduce the wider Princethorpe community to Mr du Toit.

If you would like to see the clips, you can find the full video on their school website here.

Year 6 Red House pupils are up and running with Play Leader activities at lunch time following their training with Mrs McCollin on Friday 13 January.  

Leaders had to learn about the skills and attributes of good leaders, drawing upon knowledge from their own inspirations such as current coaches and teachers.  They then looked at the different methods of communication, and the need to be clear and concise with their instructions, before heading outside for the physical aspects of the course, playing and leading. 

Pupils had the opportunity to lead their peers through a variety of warm up games before planning and adapting their own games and activities to run. 

Poppy, Esme and Bella where the first to put their new skills to the test this Monday lunchtime taking Reception pupils through some old-fashioned traditional games and pre-prep pupils have enjoyed playing with the parachute with Chloe and Poppy later on in the week.  

All leaders were very focused throughout their training, and we are positive they are going to have a great term running their activities with the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils.   
 
Good luck to them all.  

Yesterday Taekwondo Club was practising hard for their next grading. To finish the session off the children demonstrated their breaking skills, a taekwondo technique that involves practitioners kicking a board with their feet. We were all very impressed!

Our co-curricular taekwondo club runs every Thursday after school for Years 4-6. Why not come along and join in the fun. Focus Taekwondo also run Tiny Tigers on a Tuesday and Thursday before school for Years Reception to 3.

If your child is in one of the following groups and you would like to purchase a Music Badge for them to wear on their uniform please complete the form below.

Music Badges Order Form

Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running! To browse the latest books and order online, please click on the link below. For every £1 you spend on this month’s Book Club, our school will earn 20p in Scholastic Rewards.

Book Club

Please place your order online by 1 February 2023.

Tuesday 24 January 2023 - 6.00pm to 7.30pm

I am delighted to invite you to the LAMDA showcase on Tuesday 24 January from 6.00 to 7.00pm.

Children have been asked to arrive at 5.45pm in full school uniform, including blazers and will go into classrooms to prepare and while they get ready, you are invited to have refreshments in the hall.

If you would like your child to attend after school provision, please make sure they are signed up in advance.

I hope you can attend and am looking forward to seeing you there.  Tickets can be booked below, three per family.

LAMDA Showcase Tickets

Friday 3 February 2023 - 3.45pm to 4.15pm

On Friday 3 February, after school, we will have our Open Corridors event where we will share with you all the great work that we have been doing in school.

Please collect your child before entering through the front door where you will be welcomed in to look at all the great work in school from 3.45pm. Entry and exit will only be through the front doors. Last entry is at 3.55pm. On this day Years 5 and 6 will be dismissed through the pupil door. 

If your child is in a Co-curricular club then they will be expected to attend unless you arrange otherwise. Parking will be available on the playground.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Friday 17 February 2023

We will be holding a non-uniform day on Friday 17 February with all proceeds going to this term's chosen charity, Bwengu Projects. 

Please send a £1 donation with your child to be given to their form teacher.

Thank you.

This week the children achieving their full Junior da Vinci awards are all amazing Mathematicians!

They are Felicity in 2W, Sam in 6W and Shayla, Timi and Sam B. In 5F.

Congratulations to you all.

Mrs Symons
Junior da Vinci Lead

This week's reading awards go to Harry (5F) and Zahra (6W) who are both word millionaires.

Well done both!

This week's Accelerated Reader Superstars are:

Top Quizzers are:

• 3S  Evelyn
• 4C  Herbie
• 5F  Harry
• 6W Chloe

Word Wizards are:

• 3S  Lilah
• 4C  Patrick
• 5F  Alex T
• 6W Zahra

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

It is always an exciting time for the children when they gain their pen licence, enabling them to make the move from writing in pencil to pen.

For this rite of passage, the children have to show that they can write neatly and consistently in cursive, joined handwriting in all of their work, not just handwriting tasks.

Esme has shown pride in the presentation of all of her learning tasks and has been awarded a Pen Licence and her first handwriting pen.

Well done!

Each week we have a Scientist and Artist of the Week who is recognised in assembly with their work displayed in the school corridor.

Well done to this week's Scientists and Artists of the Week:

Scientists

• Alice
• Grace
• Maggie

Artists

• Matthew (4C)
• Maximillion (4C)
• Patrick (4C)
• Samuel (4C)
• Zac (4C)
• Oliver (5F)
• Grace M (6W)
• Olivia (6W)

Well done all.

Crescent School

Pre-Prep reading certificates have this week been awarded to:

• Emily
• Evie 
• Henry
• Jack
• Joshua
• Jonelle
• Lucas
• Mikael
• Sarima 
• Summer

Garage and Gigs are the most important games to show your progress.

Pupils who have reached landmark % on automatic training mode in the Garage and Gigs and therefore are awarded JDVs for Maths Practice:

• Alex W 4C completed 24 % of the course.
• Ella 3S completed 24 % of the course.
• Sam B 5F completed 24 % of the course.

Results for Battle 12-19 January 2023. Years 1,3 and 5 against each other - average score per class member.

• 1st 3S 195
• 2nd 1Q 46
• 3rd 5F 28

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Kian 3S
• 2nd Tomisin 3S
• 3rd Alfie 3S

Well done, 3S!

Last week most improved speedsters in the studio are:4C

• Alex B (4C) - Support Act!

Random Battle between Year 1, Year 2 and Year 5 - 19 - 26 January 2023. 

Please do not do jamming and pick easy tables - that does not improve your maths skills and could lead to disqualification from competitions.

Please note only the children should play on their account or it influences the level appropriate to them.

Our in-class igloo has provided great opportunity for imaginative role play. We have looked at videos of arctic animals and talked about how they survive in the extreme cold.

In handwriting we have introduced cursive s and i - beginning to learn about straight letters.

In maths we have learned about ordinal numbers and started to learn about bonds to 10 and beyond. We have been practically investigating to show pairs that total 10.

We have been learning about different weather and linking these to the seasons. We have labelled weather symbols and talked about how we dress appropriately for different weather conditions.

In handwriting we will be introduced to cursive n and m continuing ‘Rupert the white sheep’ straight line letter family.

Our focus texts in literacy will be A Little bit of Winter, and Ridiculous.

We will be writing captions, sentences and completing sequencing activities. We will be learning more about animals that hibernate.

st      nd      mp      nt      nk      ft      sk      lt      lp

• Reinforce digraphs/trigraphs and blends introduced at school.
• Practise cursive letters in name writing – reinforce capital letters at the start of first and last names.
• Practise saying the days of the week and months of the year in order.
• Look for signs of winter and talk about how the seasons change.
• Practise identifying numbers in real life contexts.
• Explore ways to make 10

Some children have asked if they can bring in cuddly penguins and polar bears to display in class. This is a great idea to support our topic work, so feel free to send them in.                

We are currently trying to encourage the Reception children to select one of the main choice options at lunchtime more regularly. This seems to be working positively for many children who are now choosing to have a main choice meal several times a week.

We had a great week in 1Q this week. We are learning about nocturnal animals in English. We used our teamwork skills to find information about different nocturnal animals including bats, badgers, otters and hedgehogs. We then presented our findings from our collaborative learning to the rest of our class.

In Art, we made some bats using our cutting and sticking skills. We also had a very exciting visit from Warwickshire Fire Brigade who gave us lots of safety information including 'Stop, Drop and Roll'.

In Geography, we have been studying the weather and we thoroughly enjoy changing our weather calendar throughout the day. 

As part of our English topic of 'Nocturnal Animals', we have been watching videos, reading information and writing about the amazing creature that is the badger. In Art we used a Pointillism style skill to create texture and patterns on our stripy nosed badger faces before displaying them peeking out amongst the undergrowth like we saw on the film. Watch out for further creative critters as our learning continues ...!

1S and 1Q welcomed Rugby Fire crew into school. We learned about the importance of smoke alarms through an animation featuring Freckle and Dexter and they showed us all how to 'Stop Drop and Roll' if our clothes caught fire. The children were full of questions for the team and were thankful of the goodies to take home so they could share their learning with their families. 

In Science, Year 2 have been learning all about how to care for themselves through exercise, hygiene and eating healthy. This week they have been busy sorting foods into healthy and unhealthy foods using the Eatwell guide. The children have started to plan how they will prepare and cook their own healthy pizza.

Class 2E and 2W have had fun exploring the nature of clay and how it can be used to make sculptures. They have used their hands and simple tools to help them create interesting shapes and textures with the clay.

2W found places on the world map to find the sources of fruit and vegetables that we eat. They then considered how the produce is transported to us.

2W recognised the 'el' spelling in words in a story that we read together . We then categorised how the 'l' sound can be made in four different ways.

In PSHE we have been thinking about things we are good at in our Dreams and Goals topic. We had a range of different ideas from swimming to football, maths to lego, drawing and creating to being a good friend and helping our parents at home.

It was lovely that every child felt the confidence of feeling successful at some thing. We then thought about what the steps to success are - what skills have been put in place, what characteristics do we have that have enabled us to be successful. Suggestions include practise, listening, using our imagination, trying again, listening to advice, learning from mistakes, thinking of others before ourselves and having the interest and motivation to want to improve.

A really interesting session where the children realised no-one is just good at something - there are steps that they have put in to achieve that succes. Having designed our success bookmarks, the photo shows us all sitting together to discuss our own individual steps to success. 

Dear parents

A significant good citizen strand of our school promise centres on taking care and pride in our clothes and our uniform. On Tuesday this week, I led an assembly which encouraged the children to consider the role of uniform in various aspects of life and the sense of belonging and togetherness it can forge. 

Over upcoming weeks, children will be encouraged to increase their responsibility in ensuring they have correct uniform and in wearing it neatly at all times. Staff will be alert to praise and reward this and to remind children of its importance. 

Please do support these messages at home.

With thanks as always 

Mr Adkins, Miss Clark & Mrs Robinson

Mr Adkins, Miss Clark & Mr Thackway

In both games the score line does not reflect the quality of the game and the time on the ball by Crescent players.  

A great game, with lots of development.  Player of the match - Isabella.  

Friday 10 February 2023

We look forward to welcoming all children to our school disco on Friday 10 February. The event will be run by a professional events company with support from Friends of Crescent volunteers.

The Pre-Prep disco (Reception to Y2) will be 3.45pm to 4.45pm.

The Upper School disco (Y3 to Y6) will be 5pm to 6pm.

Please note, all Reception children must be accompanied by a parent/carer for the entire event. 

Children in Year 1 and Year 2 attending the disco will be taken to the hall by their teacher. They will be given time in class to change clothes.

Drink and a small snack included. There will also be additional games and spot prizes.

Parents are to collect children from the Pupil Side entrance at 4.45pm. If children are signed up to After School they will be escorted there by a teacher.

The school is a mobile free zone. Parents are respectfully asked to keep their phone out of sight and not used at all times.

Friday 17 February 2023 - 3.30pm to 4.45pm

Please come along and support the FoC by buying cakes and sweets, all priced at 50p each. All the money raised at these market day events goes towards privilege time for Year 3.

Friends of Crescent

Please see below for useful school contact information:

• My School Portal: MSP Login
• SOCS: SOCS Login

Click here to view the term dates for 2022/23 and 2023/24.

Crescent School

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

Princethorpe College

• Head of English
• Amissions and Marketing Administrator

Crackley Hall

• Teaching Assistant - KS1

Full details and information on how to apply are available on the Foundation website here:

www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us

Should you know anyone who might be interested in these posts, please do share this information with them.