The Courier

As we approach the end of this academic year in glorious sunshine, we are mindful of our schools’ environmental responsibilities. We are currently compiling a series of metrics which will help us in our planning as we take on the challenge of moving towards 'net zero'.

These include:

• food waste,
• food sourcing,
• packaging,
• recycling,
• biodiversity,
• and our carbon footprint. 

With regards to our carbon footprint, we have been carefully measuring (and reducing) our energy usage – electricity and gas this year – and have plans to reduce this still further.

We now want to calculate our carbon footprint related to travel to and from our schools. To do this we need your help please. I would be extremely grateful if you could fill in this short transport survey by Monday 26 June. It takes just three to four minutes to complete.

I will report back on the results and our wider plans regarding environmental sustainability in September.

Very best wishes for the last few weeks of term.

Ed Hester
Foundation Principal

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

Another week in the sunshine has passed and it has been a week of calm and sensible work in the classrooms as well as lots of opportunities to get outside and enjoy the weather. At the back of your mind at this stage of the year is the potential for another long drought, which is never good for the countryside, but it looks like we might have some rain coming our way over the weekend and into next week.

At first during this hot spell the children were running around as normal and coming in from break time with bright red faces and desperately thirsty. As the week has gone on they have adjusted their play quite sensibly and seem to be coping better and better with the conditions. Well done to them.

Earlier in the week I announced ‘shirt sleeve order’ for the children, which meant they did not have to wear their jackets or jumpers around school and were able to take off their ties. With a slightly cooler forecast for next week, please make sure the children are all wearing full uniform, ties included, on their return on Monday morning. If we need to adjust this during the week, I will let everybody know.

I am particularly looking forward to the drama presentations that are in the diary for Tuesday, with the Year 3 and 4 children going in the morning and the Year 6s performing The Tempest in the evening. These promise to be particularly entertaining events and I know the children are equally excited about them.

Beyond that, we are looking forward towards summer concerts next week as well, and a little further down the line Welcome Evening and move-up days. You will receive separate emails this evening concerning these latter two events, hopefully giving you the detail that you need at this stage in the year.

I hope you all enjoy restful weekends with your families and I look forward to seeing many of you next week at one or other of the parental events.

With my best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Dear Parents

As we come to the end of the academic year you will have noted in the calendar that this year’s Welcome Evening is planned for Thursday 29 June, 7.00pm to 8.15pm. All parents of children who are attending the school next year are warmly invited to this important information evening and opportunity to meet staff and fellow parents.

The evening will last for around an hour and 20 minutes and will be divided into two sections. In one of these, you will spend some time in the hall with me, hearing some general messages about our plans for the year ahead. In the other part of the evening, you will meet your child’s form teacher in their new classroom and hear in more detail about day-to-day provision and arrangements.

Please note children should not accompany parents to this event.

To help things run smoothly, we have arranged the evening to run as follows:

Please confirm your attendance via the link below, before Monday 26 June:

Welcome Evening 

I look forward to seeing you on the evening.

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 19 June 2023

Crescent School

Below is a link to view the Trinty Term Calendar.  

The Music Lesson timetable for week commencing 5 June can be viewed below:

Music Lessons - 19 June 

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

Crescent School is delighted to announce our Head Pupils for the 2023/24 school year. Our congratulations go to Timi and Shayla who have been selected to take on these important roles.

As the most senior pupil positions in the school, Timi and Shayla will be the leaders of our pupil community and will be a key link between the children and staff.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway, said, “We had many excellent applications this year, more than we have ever had before, but Timi and Shayla have led by example throughout their time at Crescent School. I offer my congratulations to them both and look forward to working with them next school year.”

Further responsibilities including the House and Team Captains will be confirmed in due course. All of our Year 6 pupils play an ambassadorial role within the school. Working in three house teams, they undertake a wide range of duties and represent Crescent School superbly at public events.

Today saw pupils' final meetings with their Learning Mentors for the academic year. Children proved that they have been working to achieve their targets by showing work from their books and discussed how they felt their learning has gone this year. Please do ask them how their review meeting went.

We have been delighted with how this initiative has engaged the children from Year 1 to Year 6. The mentor meetings have proven to be a powerful way for children to realise where they are at in their attainment and how they can progress their learning by taking ownership of their personal 'next steps'.

Earlier this week, all three Houses met separately, to consider who might be their House Captains for next year. Children in Year 5 were invited to write letters of application and deliver a speech for the other children to listen to and think about.

The first thing that is worth saying is very well done to all those children who put themselves forward. This takes some real courage and is done in the knowledge that it might end in less than success, which makes it that bit tougher.

The children then voted, and the teachers and TAs also played their part in the final decision. This year we decided to appoint three children in each of the houses, many congratulations and the best of luck to them all.

Red House

• Alice 
• Alex G
• Harry 

Yellow House

• Maisie 
• Sam B
• Grace 

Blue House

• Leela
• Shiv
• Alex T

Vanessa Rooney, Princethorpe's wonderful Registrar for the last seven years, is stepping down from the role with effect from the end of June. She is handing over the reins to Assistant Registrar, Catherine Rogers, who has been appointed following a thorough recruitment process earlier this term.

Grove du Toit, College Headmaster, comments, “Vanessa has done an exceptional job as Registrar at Princethorpe over the last seven years. She has been a welcoming face and voice to so many families, and parents often comment on how well they are looked after by her and the team. We will be sad to see Vanessa go, but Catherine is a worthy successor, having come out top of a strong field of candidates and will I know maintain the high standards and friendly approach we have come to expect from the team.”

He continues, “We thank Vanessa for her tremendous dedication and service to the College and wish her well in her new endeavours.”

The College is now recruiting for an Assistant Registrar to replace Catherine, the deadline for applications is Monday 19 June, click here for more information on the role.

Past and present pupils, parents, staff and trustees came together on Saturday 10 June to mark Crescent School’s 75th anniversary. Out on the school playing fields the Friends of Crescent hosted a traditional summer fete, while inside the school old pupils enjoyed wandering through the classrooms and exploring the archive displays.

The anniversary fete was well attended with pupils and teachers from across the generations, from the sixties through the eighties and on to more recent years, returning to visit their old school. Many were delighted to find old photos of themselves, and fascinating memorabilia retrieved from the archives. Foundation Archivist, Catherine Lewis, was kept busy as old pupils put names to photos and shared memories and even donations for her collection. The oral history booth was popular with all, who were happy to record their memories of life at Crescent School.

The school fields were transformed thanks to plenty of enthusiasm, gazebos and bunting and the British weather blessed us with superb sunshine, allowing all to relax and enjoy themselves and their ice creams.

It was a very special occasion, enjoyed by everyone, that gave many the chance to reconnect and share fond memories.

Our thanks go to all the staff, pupils and parents who contributed to the celebrations and also to all the past pupils and teachers who attended and made the event such a great success. We do hope they enjoyed their walk down memory lane.

We encourage everyone who has a connection to the school, or who would like to share their memories and be kept up to date with news from the school, to register on Princethorpe Connect here https://connect.princethorpe.co.uk/ or to email oldprincethorpians@princethorpe.co.uk.

In March, Mrs Thackway submitted some of the children’s artwork for consideration for the Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show. It was a very competitive competition with over 21,000 submissions and the judges were completely blown away by all the entries. They said they loved every piece of artwork that was submitted and found making the final selection incredibly hard. Unfortunately, none of our children’s work was selected this year but the judges thanked the children for sharing their creativity with them and encouraged them to have another go next year.

In last Friday’s assembly, the children received their certificates from the Royal Academy and shared their wonderful artwork with the rest of the school. We wanted to share their super artwork with you too. Have a look at the gallery to admire their amazing work.

Many congratulations to our Sun Safety Poster competition winners Marcie, Esme, Thomas and Aydin. They are pictured here with their prizes and winning designs in front of our school UV Index.

We had lots of amazing entries to our poster competition; it was good to see that the children understand the importance of being safe in the sun.

As the good weather continues, we remind everyone to continue to Slip, Slop, Slap and Seek, Slide, Slurp!

All the posters will go on display around school to promote Sun Safety here at Crescent School.

Reception Class would be grateful for any of the following items if you are having a sort out.  

• Play dough rolling and cutting equipment
• Magnetic letters and numbers
• Jigsaw puzzles/wooden puzzles
• Small world play sets eg garage, castle
• Sand and water toys

Please drop them into the School Office.

On a Friday morning, before school, Mr Russell meets with his Band Ensemble for a jamming session.  Mr Adkins popped in a few weeks ago to film them.

Our very own School of Rock!

Project Rockband

Enjoy.

Crescent School

Monday 19 June 2023 - 2.00pm to 3.30pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Years 1 and 2 on Monday 19 June. This is being held within the school day so normal drop off and collection times from school apply.

Please ensure that your child(ren) come to school with the following:

• sun cream, applied before school and put in their bag
• a Crescent school sunhat (these can be purchased from the school office)
• a refillable drinks bottle of water (snacks will be provided)

Sports days are always very much anticipated by the children and really enjoyable for all involved.

Tuesday 20 June 2023 - 2.15pm to 3.15pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Reception on Tuesday 20 June. This is being held within the school day so normal drop off and collection times from school apply.

Please ensure that your child(ren) come to school with the following:

• sun cream, applied before school and put in their bag
• a Crescent school sunhat (these can be purchased from the school office)
• a refillable drinks bottle of water (snacks will be provided)

Sports days are always very much anticipated by the children and really enjoyable for all involved.

Tuesday 20 June 2023 - 9.15am to 10.15am

We are proud to present a Year 3 and 4 drama production on Tuesday 20 June at 9.15am.

Terrific Topics revisits the fantastic work the children have done in class and brings it to life. Let them take you back in time to Ancient Egypt, The Indus Valley, WW2 and bring you forward to a geographical piece about rainforests. The children have devised parts of this production themselves, adding soundscapes, presenting, freezeframes and even writing their own poems.

Year 3 and 4 will share with you what they have learned in drama over the last year as well as imparting their knowledge about moments in history. Refreshments will be served in the Library from 8.45am.

Tuesday 20 June 2023 at 7.00pm

A story about love, magic and betrayal.

Year 6 are excited to share with you their version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Betrayed by his brother Antonio, Prospero and his daughter Miranda end up on a desert island. Formerly the Duke of Milan, Prospero, a magician, causes a tempest to shipwreck his enemies and exact his revenge. Rehearsals have been great fun and this promises to be a fantastic performance.

The playground will be open for parking and refreshments will be served from 6.30pm.

Thursday 22 June - 2.30pm to 3.30pm

All the musicians in the Upper School - and there are many of them - have been working hard preparing for our Summer Concert.

Choir, Orchestra, Brass Group, Flute Group, Wacky Music, Band Ensemble and soloists will perform for your delectation and delight. Doors open at 2.15pm with refreshments in the Library.

Booking has now closed, please contact the Mrs Tucker if you have any queries.

Friday 23 June - 2.45pm to 3.30pm

Pre-Prep are starring in their very own Summer Concert on Tuesday 23 June. All classes in the PrePrep and Mini Brass will be very excited to show you what they have been learning in Music. 

Refreshments will be served in the Library from 2.30pm. Booking has now closed, please contact the Mrs Tucker if you have any queries.

Monday 26 June to Friday 30 June 2023

Dear 6W Parents

I am sorry to say that we are approaching the final weeks of your child’s time at Crescent School. This is a time to reflect on how far they have come, celebrate all their achievements and look forward to the next stage of their education.

As part of 6W looking forward and preparing them for their next step, I have prepared a Community Week, a time to learn some life skills, a time to be a good citizen, time to contribute to the lives of others and to make lasting memories.

This week will be running 26 June to 30 June. Please take a look at our plan outlining the activities and any requirements (this is subject to change). All trips are risk assessed and we do our best to ensure the happiness and safety of your children.

Wednesday 28 June 2023

All classes will be spending the morning with their new teachers and will have opportunities to share their hopes and fears for the year ahead while completing some bonding activities with their new form teacher.

The children just need to come to school as normal that day and note uniform requirements as per the table below:

All lessons will return to normal timetable for the afternoon.

This is also the day when our Year 6 children who are moving to Princethorpe College will have their induction day. I know that Princethorpe have a number of exciting things planned to help them feel at home there. Our present Year 6 children who are not going to Princethorpe that day are expected in school and will be our honorary Year 7s for the day.

Thursday 29 June - 3.00pm to 3.30pm

Our ‘Open Book’ afternoon is on Thursday 29 June for Years 1-5.  This is a chance for you to share all of your child’s books with them at their desk and see what they have enjoyed this year in the classrooms. The front door will be open at 3.00pm and you will be told which classroom your child will be in at that time of the day. Due to space we can only accommodate one adult per child. You can of course have a different adult booked with another sibling or split your time between children taking the other children with you.

Please note this is not a Parent Teacher consultation, but a lovely opportunity for you and your child to share their work. You will be able to take many, but not all, of the books home afterwards. 

I do hope you can join us, please book your ticket(s), below by Tuesday 27 June via the link below:

Open Book Afternoon Tickets 

Lots of full JDV students this week:

• Feranmi in 2E who achieves his in mathematics
• Locan in 1Q and Shiv in 5F who gain theirs in English
• Penelope in 2W becomes a double student in English too
• Zac, Nora, Patrick and Alex B in 4C gain theirs in music
• Keevie and Marcie in 1S achieve theirs in PSHE 
• Sarima and Iris also in 1S gain theirs in RE
• Grace in 5F gains her in history

Well done everyone!

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

There has been an influx of awesome quizzing this week. Congratulations go to:

• 500,000 words award to Theo 
• 1,000,000 words to Esme

Keep on reading. 

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.

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

Well done!

Top Word Wizards and Quizzers this week are:

Top Quizzers are:

• 3S  Tomisin
• 4C  Matthew
• 5F  Emily
• 6W Chloe 

Word Wizards are:

• 3S Kian
• 4C Nora
• 5F Remi
• 6W Harry

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

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

No pupils who have reached landmark % on automatic training mode in the Garage and Gigs and therefore are awarded JDVs for Maths Practice this week:

Results for Battle 8-15 June 2023 4C, 5F, 6W against each other- average score per class member.

• 1st 4C
• 2nd 5F
• 3rd 6W

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Sam O 5F
• 2nd MingYi 4C
• 3rd Sophie 4C

Well done, 4C! 🏆

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

New Battle between everyone 15 - 22 June.

Some of the things the children have been learning...
We have started our new topic ‘Growing and Changing’ and used the story of Jasper’s Beanstalk as our focus text. We have talked about our favourite part of the story and thought about what Jasper might find at the top. We have planted beans and talked about what plants need to survive. Some children have predicted that our beans might grow into a beanstalk! I’m not so sure our beans are magic but you never know!                                              

We have created human timelines to show baby, child, adult and elderly stages. We have also leaned about the life cycle of a frog.

In Maths we have been solving problems and writing corresponding number sentences. We have practised counting on when adding and counting back when taking away. We have also revisited counting in 10’s.

In handwriting we are continuing to focus on capital letters.

Some of the things the children will be learning in the weeks to come...
Our next focus texts will be, The Tiny Seed and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We will be sequencing the story and writing simple instructions and lists.

In Maths we will be revisiting money. We will be learning about the value of coins and using coins to show amounts.

In phonics we have been revising digraphs and trigraphs.

How to help your child at home...

• Please encourage the children to play with money – practise naming the coins and show given amounts

• Write a simple set of instructions using language  such as first, next, after, finally

• Share family photos of different generations to prompt talk about how humans grow and change

Class 1Q have started to learn about nature poetry. We studied Nut Tree by Julia Donaldson and made our own interpretations in groups before adding actions and preforming the poem to the rest of the class. We then engaged in peer assessment to highlight the areas which went well in our performances and suggested what could have been even better. We also completed a lesson on adjectives in preparation for writing our own nature poems. We went on a nature walk to find inspiration for our poems which we all really enjoyed!

Since half term, we have been looking at a variety of nature poems and the rhyming words we can read and explore. After our own nature walk around the Jubilee Wood, 1S came up with some amazing adjectives and descriptive phrases. We then tried to make some of them rhyme.  We all contributed to our very own class poem - we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Class 1S had their first attempt at sketching and painting still life this week as we continued our nature learning producing some lovely summer flowers. We learned how to draw petal shapes with brush strokes and how to make effects with the brushes to create these colourful pieces of art.

Class 2E have taken part in a carousel of activities to practise counting in threes and applying it to their three times table. They used counters, numicon, and cutting and sticking the numbers in order to practise counting in threes and then played Ipad games to secure their times tables. A combination of concrete resources and mental maths activities works together to build strong foundations.  

Children in 2W have been eagerly practising their skills ahead of a range of Sports Day events next week.  They are competitive and aiming to win but also understand that improving their own performance, being the best they can be and supporting one another is key.

Our U11s gave a fantastic account of themselves on a very hot and sunny day over at the picturesque Duffield Cricket Club in Derby for the ISA Kwik Cricket Tournament. Although losing the opening game to eventual champions Ranby House, Crescent bounced back superbly to beat Dixie Grammar in their second match, excellent bowling sealing a narrow 5 run victory. This left them 2nd out of four in their group, and into the Trophy stage of the knock-out round.

They continued their superb bowling and fielding with a very convincing 68 run win against St Joseph's, before losing out in the final game to a very strong OVS side. This meant Crescent finished as runners-up in the Trophy, 6th out of 16 teams on the day.

Special mentions for the whole team for battling hard throughout, but particularly to Shiv for his first-rate bowling, and to our player of the tournament Ava, who was outstanding with both bat and ball.

Mr Adkins and Mrs Calder

Despite excellent effort from the entire team and some superb bowling displays, Crescent U11 Boys came off second best away against a well drilled King Henry's side.

Putting Henry's into bat first, Crescent bowled and fielded well as a team, restricting the home side to 237-3. Alex G was the pick of the bowlers, picking up two wickets for just three runs.

In reply however Crescent couldn't find their form with the bat, and a near constant loss of wickets left them well short of the target on 208 runs.

Joint players of the match went to Yash and Sam for their fantastic 25 run batting partnership which nearly saved the game.

Wednesday 21 June 2023 - 3.45pm

The FoC AGM is on 21 June and all are welcome to attend.  This will be held in school and you are able to book free After School care, please let Mrs Tucker know.

Our final event of the year took place on Saturday and what an event it was! The sun shone and the sugar flowed as we hosted many current Crescent pupils, their siblings and quite a few Old Cresentians who showed you're never too old for a bouncy castle! It was also lovely to be joined by some future Crescentians with a few members of the class of 2023 popping in to see their new school. 

The event was testament to the fantastic team we have on Friends of Crescent as all the stops were pulled out to maximise the fun (in as much shade as possible). Huge thanks must go to the teaching and support staff who helped run the stalls and bar and the enthusiastic Year 5 pupils who also gave up their time to help. As always we are eternally grateful to all the help Mrs Webb gives to coordinate these events. 

My final thanks must go to you, the parents and grandparents, for coming along and supporting the Summer Fete. It was lovely to see so many happy faces. We are still waiting on a couple of donations but I'm thrilled to say we have raised over £2,000 before costs - which will still see us with a tidy profit which will be reinvested into school in the new school year.  

Inez
Friends of Crescent 

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

Princethorpe College

• Teacher of RE (Maternity Cover)
• IT Engineer
• Assistant Registrar
• Pastoral Support Manager
• Pupil Hub Manager
• Administrator/Receptionist
• Rugby Coach

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.