The Courier

Congratulations to Crescent pupils, George Crowfoot, Emme Edge and Izzy Slaytor, whose entries have been recognised in this year’s Rupert Brooke Literary competition.

Established in 1987 to commemorate the birth of poet Rupert Brooke, the award is an annual creative writing competition organised by Rugby School open to school pupils local to the Rugby area.

Sarah Webb, Assistant Head, commented, “Year 5 and Year 6 pupils enjoyed crafting creative stories on the subject of the Body for the Rupert Brooke Literary Award. They put a lot of time and effort in, to showcase their best English skills, and it is lovely to see that their hard work has been recognised.”

George Crowfoot has been awarded 3rd place.

Emme Edge and Izzy Slaytor have both had their entries awarded a Highly Commended.

Alix Scott-Martin from Rugby School said, “Thank you for submitting such strong entries for this year's Rupert Brooke Literary Prize. These students should feel particularly proud of themselves as we received over 200 entries.”

Crescent School congratulates them, well done, we are delighted with your literary success.

Parents of 5F should have received an invitation to choose an appointment time for a tranistion meeting. These are for parents with Ms Forth as Form Tutor and supported by Mrs Webb as Head of Y6 Transition.

This is a chance to review your son or daughter's attainment up to this point and have a realistic discussion regarding plans for secondary school destinations and the process you now need to enter.

The 15 minute meetings will be run on Teams this time and a link will be sent to you beforehand enabling parents to join from different places which could be more convenient.

The dates and times for these appointments are:

• Monday 15 June 14:30 -18:00 or
• Wednesday 17 June 14:00 - 17:30

Please sign up by Thursday 11 June and we look forward to seeing you.

Ms Forth
Deputy Head/5F Form Tutor

A reminder for Year 5 Parents.

You will need to register interest in your child taking the 11+ in September by 29 June 2020, please do not worry as this does not commit you in anyway:

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grammar-schools-11-test/register-11-test/1

Shortly after half term you will be invited for an extended consultation meeting with Ms Forth and Mrs Webb. This will focus on your child's attainment up to this point and a realistic discussion on entrance tests and secondary school destinations.

The dates for these meetings are the afternoons of Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June. They follow the Year 5 report that will be published Friday 12 June 2020.

Certain year groups have returned to school this week, but we have been determined to continue to prioritise teaching and supporting for those children who haven't and continue with home learning. 

It has been a particular highlight of my week to see and hear at first hand the enthusiasm, communication and continued hard work of Year 2 children on our Teams meetings. 

Similarly I had a wonderful time on 'Wellbeing Wednesday' chattering away to children and parents of Reception children continuing to learn from home. 

You are all doing fabulously.

Year 6 were jumping for joy yesterday, not only were they back in school and able to be with their friends (socially distant of course) but they also received a very special present – their Leavers Hoodies. They enthusiastically tried them on in the sunshine and they all looked very smart.

Now a tradition for many schools, we know that the hoodies will always be a tangible memory of their time at Crescent School and their fellow pupils. They provide a sense of belonging and of community and in the long distant future we hope they will prompt wonderful memories of their school days.

Huge thanks to the Friends of Crescent for this wonderful and generous gift.

Next week Year 6 will be having a Shakespeare week, this will be an exciting week to explore the life, times and works of the Bard.

Each teacher who normally has a lesson with Year 6 will be setting a lesson or a series of lessons on Seesaw for all the children to access in school or at home.

Year 6 have studied Shakespeare as part of their English in Year 5 so this will be an opportunity to extend their learning further.

We look forward to sharing their work in the Courier and hopefully create a special page for the Circular.

It is usually this time of Year we are naming our Head Boy and Girl and all the roles and responsibility that Year 6 enjoy.

As you can imagine this is harder to coordinate with Year 5 being home-schooled, for this reason we are putting plans in place for the application process to be early next term, if we are back in school.

We value the work our Year 6 do within the school community and cannot wait to appoint as soon as possible.

Hello Crescent Families

I am writing on behalf of Bilton Coronavirus Support Group (BCSG). It is a support group, run by volunteers, which has been established locally. Volunteers have come together to help the Bilton community during the COVID-19 crisis by shopping for people and collecting prescriptions. 

A Facebook page was initially established just before lockdown and leaflets were put through resident’s doors, offering a point of contact for people who are shielding/isolating and may need help. I would like to let families know that our support group, run by volunteers, is on hand to help people locally.

So much has changed in the last two months. As well as the Facebook page we now have a website and also an answering telephone service where people can log requests. Things are beginning to ease but there is fear of a second wave.

A new leaflet has been produced and are starting to be distributed. We’d like to take this opportunity to let residents know that help is still available and how they can request support, if and when they may need it. You can view this leaflet below and information regarding how people can seek help:

COVID 19 A5 leaflet

Ask for assistance

We are also in the process of setting up a hardship fund, for those people/families in Bilton who may find themselves in financial difficulty due to the Covid situation. Small one-off discretionary grants will hopefully be available soon. If anyone would like further information regarding this, please let me know.

We have also been redistributing unwanted food parcels given by the council to people on the vulnerable/shielding list. We have been donating non-perishable food to the Foodbank but often we collect perishable items e.g. bread, fruit and veg. If you know of any families who would welcome a food donation, we can’t promise what it is, please get in touch.  

Finally, as a parent myself, I’d like to say a huge thank you for everything you and the rest of the staff are doing to keep our children going.

If there is any further information you require, please don’t hesitate contacting me.

Kindest regards 

This week I have attached some useful strategies for spellings.

Tips on Spelling

We receive First News in school every week for the children to peruse. As they are currently unable to deliver printed copies, they are sharing the newspaper as a PDF: 

29 May - 4 June 2020

I hope you are all enjoying this great newspaper, even as an adult, I enjoy reading it.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Attention 5F! If you still want to enter your piece into the competition, please send a clear image of it to me at bforth@crescentschool.co.uk by 12 June, so I can get them sent off for the extended 19 June deadline. You cannot send it in yourself, it has to come from school.

If you want to remind yourself of the competition, here is a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjqqQ-lGMY

If you want to remind yourself of the instructions, prizes and rules click on this link.

https://www.stepintothenhs.nhs.uk/primary-schools/KS2-competition

Class 5F were working on this before lock down, but it is open to anyone of primary school age. If you children from other classes would like to enter then please do. No pressure, but we won the Midlands Region with Fifi and Daniel's wonderful entry last year!

Ms Forth
Deputy Head

Children can win a £10 National Book Token for themselves and each of their classmates – and surprise them all when schools reopen! 
 
While children are at home, encourage them to create a National Book Token design for our competition. Whether it's the school crest doodled in ink, a pencil drawing of the entire class, or something completely different, the competition organisers will choose one child's design to put on a National Book Tokens gift card every week for seven weeks. 
 
When schools open up again, the young designer and their classmates will each receive a £10 National Book Token – emblazoned with the winning artwork – to inspire them to choose their next favourite book from their local bookshop.

Please follow this link to enter:

Book Token Competition

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

We've been putting together another couple of videos in the last week or so and hopefully the results will be worth the delay (for which, apologies). This time we're making one of our all-time favourite recipes, Blackberry Bakewells.

We've separated the recipe into two videos (one making pastry from scratch, one rolling the pastry and making the Bakewells) because flour is still in short supply so ready-made pastry is probably the most accessible route to making the dish.

The link to the latest video is here:

Bayleaf Cookery Videos

We’re also doing short daily cookery themed challenges and other bits and pieces on our Facebook page:

Bayleaf Cookery School

Stay safe, have a lovely weekend and we will let you know when the next video is available.

Bayleaf Cookery School

Please find below the links to all the 'virtual' assemblies that have been sent to Pupils during Home Learning.

 Crescent School