The Courier

Crescent's girls travelled to Crackley Hall today to take part in their girls’ football festival. The tournament involved 13 teams from 11 schools with nearly a hundred girls taking part who were all delighted to put on their boots and head out to the fields to show off their footballing prowess.

As well as playing 12 mini matches, the teams also had the chance to take part in two training sessions courtesy of local football team Kenilworth Wardens and Elite Skills Arena who were delighted to come along and coach the girls.

Princethorpe College pupils also supported the event with PE BTEC Sport and Academy players refereeing games and coaching the girls. 

It was super to see everyone getting fully involved and giving it their all. 

Today we held intermediate review meetings for this year’s 'Learning Mentor' scheme. The children met with staff to review the academic targets they had set for themselves at the beginning of the year. They have been regularly reviewing their progress against their targets in their classes, but this was a more formal opportunity to reflect on their progress, self-assess where they are now and for some to set new targets for the end of the year.

The 'Learning Mentor' initiative gives responsibility for their learning to the children from Year 1 up to Year 6. Staff do not tell pupils if they feel they have achieved their targets, instead they guide pupils through their books, feedback, comments and last reports.

Empowering the children to own their learning and encouraging them to take responsibility for striving to achieve their own set goals, is just one of a number of strategies we pursue here at Crescent to facilitate children’s progress.

The sessions were very positive and we look forward to the final reviews at the end of the school year.

It’s been ‘Quiz With Your Child Week’ here at Crescent and pupils have welcomed their parents into school to join them in quizzing on their reading books.

Crescent’s approach to reading and literacy is supported by Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader system. Assistant Head, Sarah Webb, explains, “Children in Years 3 to 6 take a quiz after reading each book that tests their understanding. The approach promotes reading for pleasure whilst ensuring the children read appropriately challenging books. It totals up the books and words read, and we find the competitive element has a positive impact on children’s motivation to read.”

Pupils can quiz daily on the computers before school. We like to get parents involved too and hope you have enjoyed the opportunity to share in your children’s learning experience.

Studies show that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance. Crescent’s structured approach to reading facilitates children’s progress and as they move through the school, reading abilities develop well beyond national age expectations.

So far this year eight children have already read more than a million words and impressively, Year 5, Alex T has read two million words and, Year 6, Poppy has now read more than three million words – and that is what we call reading for pleasure!

It was St David’s Day on Wednesday and here at the Crescent School pupils in St David’s House wore yellow in honour of the patron saint of Wales. We had yellow socks, yellow shirts, yellow hair ribbons and even yellow bow ties. Mrs Tucker and Mrs Robinson even got in on the act wearing wonderful Welsh daffodil hats!

We wished all those celebrating a very ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus’, Happy St David’s Day!

On Tuesday 28 February, Year 5 visited Mary Arden’s Farm in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. In their English lessons, Year 5 are studying Shakespeare and a trip to Mary Arden’s Farm provided an amazing, atmospheric setting against which to bring his glorious texts alive.

In a workshop, pupils explored the major themes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a fun and interactive way, with the session culminating in a performance using the original text, interspersed with actions and music. It was wonderful for the children to be immersed in the social and historical context of the play and the writer.

There was even an extra treat, as during the day pupils also had time to visit some of the many animals that live on the farm.

The day was a fantastic experience for all, that really helped to bring Shakespeare’s language to life and the children came away enthused and excited and having learned lots of new facts about both the Tudor times and William Shakespeare!

The latest issue of The Minnacle has just been published, showcasing our pupils' excellent work. The Minnacle celebrates our pupils at their best and the Spring 2023 edition includes plenty of examples of their outstanding efforts. From amazing Paul Klee inspired Art in Year 1, through super story telling from Year 3, brilliant biography grammar in Year 4 to perfect puppetry in Year 6 and much, much more.

The next copy of The Pinnacle is available now too, with equally impressive work by pupils at the Foundation's senior school, Princethorpe College. It's wonderful to see and celebrate their talents!

Printed copies have been sent home with pupils for you to enjoy, or you can read a copy of The Minnacle and The Pinnacle on our school website here.

All children will have received a golden ticket, this is from Hunts bookshop which is situated on the High Street in Rugby. Please take this ticket along to receive £1 off a book of your choice.

Keep reading.