The Courier

Crescent’s Year 6 were simply magnificent this week when they performed Shakespeare’s classic, The Tempest. In their final end-of-school production, they superbly portrayed the comedic story of revenge, magic, love and forgiveness. Their rendition just wowed their parents and teachers.

On the big night pupils were nervous but excited having really enjoyed their dress rehearsal in front of the school earlier in the week.

The children had worked incredibly hard with Drama teacher, Lizzie Bowdige, and Director of Music, Julie Barnes, to prepare the special performance and the talented cast rose admirably to the challenge.

It was clear the audience really enjoyed the show, their thunderous applause a testament to yet another super example of the school’s broad provision for the arts.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway said, "Huge congratulations to all the cast for learning their lines so well and delivering them with meaning, expression and great timing, what a multi-talented group of young people they all are."

Many thanks to all the staff and parents who helped with the production.

Crescent School gathered at the end of break this morning for the official opening of the Cosy Corner. The Cosy Corner has been in use for several weeks now and pupils are loving using the new area and its equipment. It provides a quiet space where pupils can be calm together, enjoy relaxing or reading or just take time out from the hustle and bustle of the main playground.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway, began by thanking those who had contributed to the new area. They included Year 6, Charlie, who had raised an amazing £500 by running a mile a day for 26.2 days (the equivalent of a marathon) to fund the soft play equipment. He thanked the Friends of Crescent who had provided the wall mounted Play Panels in the Cosy Corner and the Wellbeing team for all their help in developing the area. Year 5 pupil Maggie, who had won the competition to name the quiet area, with her super suggestion the ‘Cosy Corner’, then cut the ribbon to declare the Cosy Corner officially open.

The school was delighted to welcome Mrs Millward and Mrs Cooper as special guests for the official opening. They are pictured here with Maggie and Crescent’s Wellbeing team at the entrance to the Cosy Corner.

Mr Thackway, said, “The children are really enjoying the Cosy Corner, it is already a popular playground spot. Our dedicated quiet area will allow pupils to socialise, build friendships, relax, read or simply have time to think. I know the Cosy Corner will benefit the children for years to come.”

What a fantastic afternoon we had for Pre-Prep Sports Day. The children really enjoyed sprinting, jumping and throwing their way through all the fun. Their challenges included sprint races, egg and spoon, field events, javelin, the bean bag throw, the speed jump and standing jump and of course as a finale the shuttle relay race. Each event enabled them to compete to earn points for their house and everyone tried their hardest to do their very best.

Head of Sport, Mrs McCollin, said, “Our races and challenges allowed everyone to enjoy having a go in a supportive and encouraging environment. It was wonderful to see the children having so much fun.”

After all the points had been totted up, the results were announced. In first place came Blue House with 66 points, just behind were the Reds with 63 points and in third place were Yellow House with 62 points.

A huge well done to all the children and thank you to Year 6 pupils, the KS1 and Sports staff for organising the event and especially to Mrs Olner who had a great time commentating.

Crescent School's Summer Concert took place on Thursday 22 June. It was well attended with the school hall packed with parents and family members eager to enjoy the end of term celebration of fine music and song.

This year the Rock Ensemble opened the show, a new co-curricular group for the school, they confidently performed a medley of famous rock riffs and followed that up with an instrumental version of Wonderwall. Then came the first of many instrumental solos with Ava playing Train Ride beautifully on the piano. Next Orchestra came on stage, they performed two pieces; everyone enjoyed the theme from James Bond and was most impressed with their super rendition of the Themes from Jupiter from The Planets suite.

Next up was Ellie who played her Grade 3 exam piece, T-Rex Hungry wonderfully on the piano. That was followed by Brass Group with the lively toe-tapping Honk. Wacky Music performed an animated and energetic Samba, then Zahra wowed us all with her complex Grade 5 piece Cossack Dance.  Remi provided a moment of calm reflection with his sensitive performance of 'Twilight' from the Grade 3 piano syllabus.

The Flute Group performed a piece written especially or them, Summer Symphony, and then Sam completed the solo performances playing March on cornet.

The concert concluded with a rousing performance by the Choir. Pupils sang five pieces starting with Hip Hip Hooray, followed by We’re So Proud Of Our School, then two Disney songs combined, A Great Big Change and finishing with One Little Voice.

It was another fabulous afternoon of music and song. Our enormous thanks and congratulations go to all Crescent School's accomplished performers who took to the stage in front of their proud parents, and of course to all their teachers and Director of Music, Julie Barnes who have helped them achieve so much.

As part of the Big Battery Hunt I submitted the following stories to their website:

Hattie is our May winner as she brought into school over 3,000 batteries. Hattie had help from her Dad, and his work colleagues who had collected them and then delivered the enormous tray of batteries for recycling to school. It took two adults to lift the weight! Hattie is a Year 5 pupil who is very aware of the environment and how she and her generation have a responsibility to protect and care for our planet. It took our Green Team a lot of time to count all the batteries. Well done Hattie, Dad and work colleagues!

Edward and Max took up the Big Battery Hunt Challenge and approached their local village to help them. They asked their local community members for batteries that needed recycling, collected them and brough them into school. They collected a huge number of batteries that went into the overall count for school. This was a great approach to raising the awareness of why it is so important to recycle batteries in their community.  Edward and Henry are Big Battery Hunt recycling superstars, and it is great to see our pupils taking this challenge seriously. A big thank you to Edward and Max!      

Niamh is a Year 1 pupil who collected huge amounts of batteries at home, from friends and family and from her Mum and Dad’s work organisations. Niamh is a real wildlife and environmentally conscious pupil, and she was really pleased to help the school with this green project. It is never too young to start to take action and realise how we can all take small steps that this will help our animals and their habitats on this planet in the long-term. Niamh – you should be very proud of you Big Battery Hunt achievement. I believe there are more batteries to come in June too!

Big Battery Hunt Stories

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the musical talents of our younger children today in our Pre-Prep Summer Concert.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 took turns to perform for their parents and families, enthusiastically singing their songs superbly. There was even an amazing set by Mini Brass our very youngest brass players, who blew their very hardest to entertain everyone.

It was so rewarding to see them all enjoying themselves so much. Well done everyone, you were incredible!

Please can all school books be returned to school by Monday 3 July, please check under beds, on bookcases and in bags as it does make a difference to our school stocks.

It is a nice idea to use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books to enjoy together over the holidays.

Thank you.

The final day for quizzing will be Monday 3 July, as we need a couple of days to analyse the data to help ensure progression and set up for the next academic year.

Children cannot quiz in the holidays but please do not let this deter you from reading, as reading for pleasure is very important and one of our English aims.

Please use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books.