The Courier

Dear Parents

I do hope you all enjoyed the extra day at home last weekend and your celebrations to mark the coronation, however you chose to do that, went well.

With any luck you have been able to dodge the showers this week and enjoyed an effective and productive week at home and at work. Sporting fixtures have been affected to some extent by the weather, but I am pleased to report that our forest school classes have continued to go on through rain or shine. Fortunately, the athletics team managed to get over to Leicester for the ISA Midlands competition and there is more to read about that elsewhere in this newsletter. We've hardly missed a playtime during the week either, which is always good and makes the day run more smoothly.

I am away from school today on a conference designed around the theme of sustainability in education. We are looking at all aspects of this absolutely key subject area, both in terms of the running of the school operationally and financially, but also the delivery of a fair and open-minded approach to this in our curriculum.

Ultimately, as part of the Princethorpe Foundation, we at Crescent will be putting together a plan for how we can achieve net zero carbon impact and this needs to be a plan that holds some water rather than just easy-to-make promises. Working at the foundation executive level we have already started putting this plan together and you will most certainly be hearing more about it in the near future.

One of the most powerful resources in all of this is of course the children. In my experience, young people have an innate passion for the natural world and are willing to consider all options to protect and conserve biodiversity. We already do a good deal with the children on this theme, ranging from Mrs Johnson's Green Team’s energy saving opportunities, our switch off fortnight hour, battery and mixed recycling service (run by the children) as well as studying environmentally friendly sources of energy production in Geography and Science. There is more we can do in all areas, and we will continue to strive to do so.

I very much hope you enjoy looking through the highlights of the week gone by in today's Courier and wish you all a restful weekend.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Dear Parents

Please make sure that you have the Seesaw 'Family' App (not the classroom app) ready to access photos of the upcoming residentials. If you do not have access to your child's journal, please let me know with the correct email address and I will send you an invite. This must be done BEFORE we leave as wifi coverage is usually not good on residentials.

If you have your account still from home learning then that is still valid and working, no need for another. This will be the only way to see personal updates and photos of your child while we are away and it is a totally secure site. There will of course be leaving and arrival messages available on social media.

This document provides further information.

Many thanks

Dear Parents

Please ensure all items of school uniform are named.  As jumpers/blazers are abandoned in nicer weather children are becoming distressed and learning time is taken up trying to find them again. 

Any item of clothing that isn't labelled will be donated to FoC Pre-Loved clothing sales at the end of term.

For safeguarding reasons it's not possible for parents to come into school to search for these but staff will always do their best to support children in finding them.

Do you know a dapper dog? Is your pooch the scruffiest around? Entries for our dog photography competition - in aid of PawPrints charity - should be printed and handed to Ms Clark by Monday 22 May, alongside a donation of £1 per entry. Winners will be selected by the School Council and announced in assembly in the last week of half term. Please see the poster for the different competition categories.

Good luck!

Thank you to all who completed the co-curricular survey last term. It is a good way for me to start planning next steps in readiness for next term.

This is a brief overview of the findings:

There is high satisfaction in our co-curricular provision as the average score was over 8/10.

Most children attend co-curricular to learn new skills or to explore new interests. This is all very useful to know.

There were a few suggestions for new clubs, some of which are already in place this term like calligraphy and cricket, and I am meeting with our outside providers on their provision for next year which I know will include cheerleading.

We have a high uptake of co-curricular in the school with the average child doing three clubs, there are usually over 40 clubs on offer at the school. More clubs are on offer as the children go through the school as we are aware of the impact of a long day on younger children. Some clubs do not remain the same all year, so different skills can be offered, and other year groups covered and we are sometimes limited by room availability. 

Thank you for your continued support with our co-curricular provision.

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 - 15 May 2023

Crescent School

Below is a link to view the Trinty Term Calendar.  

Click on the link below to view the Music Lesson timetable next week:

 Music Lessons - 15 May 2023

Due to the Residentials all children may not have lessons next week.  There are 30 lessons across the year, averaging at 10 a term so all lessons will be made up across the year.

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

The school took a team of 27 athletes from Years 4 to 6 to Saffron Lane Stadium in Leicester on Wednesday 10 May to compete against schools from across the Midlands in the Regional ISA Athletics.

Many of the children put in fantastic performances and were proud to achieve personal bests and four Crescent School pupils finished in first place and have qualified for the National Championships. (We are waiting to hear if we have any other qualifiers!)

Head of Games, Rachel McCollin praised the outstanding attitude adopted by the Crescent team who as always behaved impeccably despite the mixed weather conditions.

“We had an absolutely fabulous day,” commented Mrs McCollin, “I was very pleased with our results, there were many excellent individual performances that I am hoping will give us a fantastic finish overall. Out of our six teams, three reached the finals of the sprint relay. The children well and truly rose to the challenge of our ‘little school big ambitions’ motto!”

Winning their events and qualifying for the Nationals were:

Maxi E 1st Year 4 Long Jump

Year 4 Boys 1st Year 4 Boys Sprint Relay (Alex B, Maxi E, Zach J and Sam Y)

Other commendable results included:

Ava S 2nd Year 6 Rounders Ball Throw
Charlie M 3rd Year 6 High Jump
Ellie G 4th Year 6 600m
Sofie M 2nd Year 5 150m
Shiv P 4th Year 5 Cricket Ball Throw
Maisie T 6th Year 5 Rounders Ball Throw
Timi L 6th Year 5 60m Sprint
Alex T 8th Year 5 150m
Roisin C 3rd Year 4 60m Sprint
Alex B 5th Year 4 60m Sprint
Zach J (tbc top 8) Year 4 Cricket Ball Throw
Year 5 Girls 6th Sprint Relay
Year 4 Girls 5th Sprint Relay

The ISA National Track and Field Championships take place later this term on Monday 19 June, at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

Fantastic new play panels have been installed in the Cosy Corner in the school playground thanks to sterling fundraising by Crescent’s amazing Friends of Crescent (FoC). The vibrant, interactive, educational panels provide pupils with even more fun, new equipment to play with at break and lunch times.

The panels have proved an instant hit with the children who have been queuing up to have a go at games such as 'pairs', 'rock, paper scissors', and a 'puzzle maze'. The new additions offering sensory development as well as social development opportunities with their hands on activities.

The new playground equipment was fully funded by the FoC through school discos, the parent quiz night and the Christmas bazaar.

FoC Chair, Inez de Koning, and FoC Secretary, Laura O’Connell, met with Headmaster, Joe Thackway, on Wednesday morning to see the new panels in place and just how successful the play panels are proving to be.

Inez de Koning said: “The FoC were delighted to fund the new playground panels and support the school in its project to develop the playground quiet area. It is lovely to see the children engaging with them so well.”

Joe Thackway, Headmaster, added: “Many thanks to the FoC for funding the new panels. They are a great addition to our Cosy Corner and proving popular with all ages.”

Crescent School’s Year 4 took part in a half-day music technology workshop at Princethorpe College on Thursday 11 May. Hosted by Director of Music, Gil Cowlishaw, the session took place in the College’s dedicated Music Technology suite.

The children were introduced to computer music production concepts such as sequencing and arrangement and then encouraged to experiment. Using the technology software Soundtrap, the children enjoyed creating music in a completely new way. Starting with drum machine patterns and loops and adding texture through the addition of bass, keyboard and even vocal lines the children each created their own unique piece.

After a short break and an obligatory Princethorpe cookie, the children moved on to explore the concept of harmony. This time using online song writing software Hookpad, the children built a pattern of major and minor chords and overlaid their own melodies. Finally, the children listened to their music in a variety of music styles including rock, pop, jazz and even reggae.

The Year 4s clearly enjoyed the workshop and exploring music in a new way. Mr Cowlishaw, commented, “We had lots of fun in our music technology taster, the children were all fantastic to work with and created some amazing pieces.”

Archivist, Catherine Lewis, visited Crescent School this week to explore the school’s long history. Crescent is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and will be commemorating its founding on Saturday 10 June with a 75th Anniversary Summer Fete.

Catherine is creating a series of special displays for the fete, that will be on show on the day. The archive room will have plenty of photos for old pupils to help identify, a special memory booth for Old Crescentians to share their own school memories and other fascinating memorabilia to explore. Old Crescentians can find out more about the 75th Anniversary Fete and register to attend here: https://connect.princethorpe.co.uk/event/75th-anniversary-fete

While at Crescent, Catherine spoke to Assistant Head Sarah Webb and took the opportunity to go down into the cellars to see what treasures she could uncover. She was particularly on the lookout for items of history to help her update A History Of Crescent. Produced for the 60th anniversary back in 2006, Catherine will be adding two new chapters to the booklet this year, focusing on 2007 to 2017 and then from 2017 to the present day. She is especially on the lookout for pre 2017 editions of the Circular but would love to hear from anyone who has anecdotes and memories they would be happy to share. Either come along to the fete to talk to her, or email her directly to at catherinelewis@princethorpe.co.uk

We have had some lovely entries for our Sun Safety Poster competition. Thank you.

Just a reminder that the closing date for this competition is 26 May 2023. Details are below:

Wednesday 17 May 2023 - 9.00am to 10.00am

The celebration breakfast for 6W is on Wednesday 17 May. We will be eating around 9am, so the children in 6W will only require a light breakfast at home (and no snack required) so they can fully enjoy all the treats that Mrs Milioplulis will be laying out for us.

Wednesday 24 May 2023 - 9.15am to 9.45am or Thursday 25 May 2023 - 2.45pm to 3.15pm

This is an opportunity to share your child's learning journey through Reception. 

One parent is able to attend either of the sessions below.  Entry will be via the afterschool entrance by the side of school where parents normally collect Reception children.

Friday 26 May 2023

We will be holding a non-uniform day on Friday 26 May with all proceeds going to this term's chosen charity, Pawprints Dog Rescue. 

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

Thank you.

Wednesday 7 June - 6.30pm to 8.30pm

Princethorpe College's annual Summer Open Evening will take place on Wednesday 7 June from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. This is a perfect opportunity for prospective families looking for a place in September 2024 and beyond to visit the school, for children to take part in departmental activities and for parents to meet and chat to members of staff and pupils.

The Headmaster will also address visitors during the evening. Light refreshments will be available.

Please click here to book your place. 

There are plenty of amazing JDV awards this week.

• Sam M, Finlay, Ellie, Tegan and Olivia in 6W all achieve theirs in Science & DT
• Tegan in 6W also achieves a JDV in Geography
• Maisie in 5F achieves hers in History
• Rachael in 2E achieves hers in Art
• Sophie, Siara, Emmy, Olivia-Rose and Hazel in 1S achieve theirs in English
• Sarima, Emily and Emmy again, achieve theirs in Maths
• Freddie in 1S achieves his in Art

Well done to you all. A great achievement.

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

Accelerated Reading awards go to: 

• 500,000 words - Lewis (4C)
• Millionaire – Edward M (4C)

Top Word Wizards and Quizzers this week are:

Top Quizzers are:

• 3S Tomisin
• 4C  Akaal
• 5F  Alex G
• 6W Zahra

Word Wizards are:

• 3S Esme
• 4C Matthew
• 5F James
• 6W Zahra

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

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

• Aydin
• Ben
• Emmy
• Evie
• Feranmi
• Hermione
• Isla
• Lara
• Marcie
• Oliver
• Sarima
• Tilly

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

Results for Battle 20-27 April 2023. 2W, 2E, 3S, 4C against each other - average score per class member.

• 1st  4C 36
• 2nd 3S 31
• 3rd  5F 3

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

Well done, 4C! 🏆

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

Pre-Prep Battle between 1Q, 1S, 2W, 2E and 3S between 11-18 May 

TT Rock stars will block 2x, 5x, 10x, 11x on jamming if you are efficient at them, so you cannot pick easy ones just to score more points in the competition! 

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

Stay Calm and Rock on!!

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

Artists

• Bella (6W)
• Grace M (6W)
• Lara (6W)
• Olivia (6W)

• 6W for their Crescent Bake Off

Crescent School

Some of the things the children have been learning...
In Literacy we have used Goldilocks and the Three Bears as our focus text. We have joined in with repeated refrains and written personal responses to the story. We have explored the use of speech bubbles and considered what Goldilocks might say to apologise to the bears.

We have had fun exploring halves in Maths. We have looked at halves of numbers to 10 (linking to doubles) and halves of common shapes. We have introduced sharing and used key vocabulary such as amount, same, equal, half and fair.

In PSED we have talking about the qualities of a good friend and treating others as we would like to be treated.
 
Our learning in Understanding the World has been all about materials and their properties.

In IT, Mr Adkins has introduced Botley robots to learn about simple coding.

Some of the things the children will be learning in the weeks to come...
The next traditional tales we will be using are The Gingerbread Man and Jack and the Beanstalk. We will be exploring story settings and considering alternative characters and endings.

We will be revisiting time in Maths. We’ll be practising the months of the year and using clocks to read o’clock and half past times.

We will be moving on to capital letters in handwriting and exploring the importance of saying sorry in PSED.

In phonics we have been revising digraphs and trigraphs;

or as in corn      ur as in turn    ow as in how     oi as in boil     ear as in fear

air as in hair         ure as in pure          er as in fern


How to help your child at home...
Share different versions of traditional tales - ask the children to try and read a page or two and identify familiar words.

Encourage children to use expression when reading aloud.

Continue to practise writing using cursive letters - make the purpose of writing as much fun as possible (e.g. a message in a birthday card). Make connections between capital and lower case letters.

Practise simple addition and subtraction problems using real life scenarios.
Practise doubling and halving numbers.
Practically explore sharing with a teddy bears picnic.
Talk about the materials that are used in our homes and their properties - are they natural or human-made?

What’s going on in the coming weeks/ notices/ information...

Please make sure all items coming into school are clearly named including sunhats.
Please ensure the children have spare underwear and socks in their bags.
Remember to sign children’s reading records each evening.

In 1Q this week, we had lots of fun creating mnemonics for the words we each found the most tricky. We then applied these words in our writing piece on 'Our Favourite Toy'.

In Maths we have been looking at doubling and halving numbers as well as recapping money - adding and subtracting coins. 

Not only have we learned about adding the suffixes of -er and -est to make our descriptions more exciting, we have designed our own! The children planned their superhero descriptions and wrote a few sentences about them which are now displayed in our classroom. We also made superhero masks whilst shouting out the focus words of the week - they make a fine team of superheroes, don't they?!

Class 1S have been learning in Science with Mrs Emery about plants and their processes by planting sunflower seeds and they have been so excited in watching them grow! We used the idea of 'growing' in our PSHE lesson where we reflected and celebrated all the things we have learned to do since joining Year 1. From counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to reading longer books with chapters to even highlighting the fact they can now tell the time and even tidy up! 

In history we are continuing our learning about the Moon Landing. We have moved onto looking at Saturn V and have enjoyed a fun lesson where we drew the spacecraft and then carried out our own independent fact finding mission to discover spacecraft facts that were interesting to each of us. We were very excited to understand the meaning of ‘The Eagle has landed’. This open style of learning is a key skill for children to develop to build project research skills in preparation for upper school.

Children in 2W have been experimenting with weighing. They have developed their skills in reading scales on electronic equipment alongside counting plastic gram weights onto balance scales. All children have understood the need for accuracy.

I was very proud this week to welcome the newest members of staff to the Crescent computing team... the Botleys!

The Botleys have arrived!

Due to the fact that a number of our Beebots are reaching retirement age, the Botleys have arrived to help all the children in Pre-Prep with their coding and programming skills. These very clever little robots are fantastic at enabling pupils to practice their coding and programming skills, allowing them to create simple or complex algorithms to make the Botleys dance, or navigate their way through a maze. 

Class 2W had a wonderful time welcoming them to the school on Tuesday afternoon, building some incredible mazes and tracks for them to race around!

Year 2 have been learning the vocabulary for rooms in the house. This week they are practising their language skills with dolls house furniture. They are also discussing the physical differences between houses in the UK and in Spain.

Once again, there has been lots going on in Forest School. It was national hedgehog awareness week, dawn chorus day (Sunday 7 May) and national gardening week. We discussed the things we can do to help hedgehogs and lots of children wanted to make their own hedgehog out of clay. Some children continued to help build the fire circle, making sure there are enough seats (logs) for everyone and that these logs are a safe distance from our hearth. Some whittled more pegs to keep our hearth in place, having used loppers to chop up the hazel sticks. Others planted nasturtium seeds in the sensory garden and took some home to watch them grow.

The den building reached new levels with a two roomed construction, using knot skills and wands were out in force for Harry Potter and his friends. The children always find such imaginative ways to play and learn so new swings and see saws were constructed as well.

Another fabulous week.

Children in Music Fun Club have been learning dance moves to some of their favourite songs. Check out these pictures of them performing Waca Waca. 

Friday 26 May 2023 - 3.30pm to 5.00pm

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 Class 1Q.

It's been another busy time for FoC! Here are some highlights of the past week: 

• The 1S Bake Sale raised £172 which they hope they enjoy spending! Well done to everyone who braved the monsoon! 
• We have now received the BACS transfer from Bag2School which raised a healthy £88. Thanks to all those who contributed 
• During the school Coronation Celebrations last Friday we were delighted to supply every child with an ice cream. It was certainly a good day for sugar! 
• On Wednesday Laura and I were thrilled to officially open the new Playground Panels in the Cosy Corner area of the playground. These were funded by the profits from the quiz, Christmas Bazaar and Discos and wouldn't have been possible without the fantastic support we receive from parents. 

Summer Fete donations needed

It's that time again - and with the fete happening so soon after half term we need to start collecting donations now! Please drop them in to the office or the side door at drop-off. We are looking for:

Please see below for useful school contact information:

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

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

Princethorpe College

• Registrar
• Teacher of Spanish
• Rugby Coach
• Graduate Sports Coach
• Graduate Teaching Assistant

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.

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

Crescent School

The following items are stocked in the School Office and can be added to your account:

• Winter hats
• Scarves
• Gloves
• Ties
• Swimming hats
• Sports socks
• Hair bands
• Hair scrunchies
• Hair clips
• Sun hats
• Music group badges - Choir, Orchestra, String, Brass and Wind

Please do contact admin@crescentschool.co.uk in if you need any of the above items.

Crescent School Office