The Courier

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

I hope that your half-term breaks were a chance for some relaxation, and we were fortunate to get some quite nice weather along the way. I managed to get a couple days in walking the fells in the Lake District with Mrs Thackway, which was a treat. My youngest son Hugh is currently studying hard for his A level exams so didn’t come with us. I must admit the young folk today take their studying a lot more seriously than we did in our day (or maybe was that just me, I don’t know). 
 
It is always lovely seeing the children return from their holidays refreshed and ready to go, and this week has been no different. Sports Day for the Upper School on Tuesday was a fine occasion, and somehow the fact we managed to tiptoe between the weather forecast and the showers made it even more satisfying. The children were tremendously excited, but channelled that in the right direction with their sporting behaviour and that was particularly pleasing to see. There were a number of very exciting performances and I'm sure you'll be able to read about those further on in today's newsletter. 
 
Like me, you will have been watching and reading a good deal about the D-Day landings in the news over the last few days and we reflected on that crucial historical event in our assembly this morning. As always, we did this in an age-appropriate way but we felt it was important to mark the occasion and help the children develop a growing understanding of what can be a troubled world.  
 
This weekend is an important one in our ongoing commemoration and celebration of the life of Barnaby Williams as well. This afternoon we ran our Concert for Barnaby with lots of children taking part and expressing their happy memories of their time with their friend. Tomorrow morning, we have the first of what I hope will become an annual Barnaby Bear football tournament, and I hope to see many of you there for that. For those brave parents and children taking part in the Wolf Run on Sunday, best of luck and what a great cause you are supporting. 
 
Whatever you have planned for the weekend I hope it goes well and I look forward to catching up with you over the last four weeks of the term.  

With my best wishes.

Parents of 5F pupils will be receiving their end of year report today. It will be available on My School Portal from approximately 4pm. Enjoy reading about the achievements of your children, staff have ensured that these reports are a thorough and accurate reflection of the second part of the year.

Also, a reminder that Destinations Meetings are on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 June, at the times you have all signed up for. As these are online, you will be emailed the relevant data for your child on the day of your meeting. Please keep a look out for your emails and please have the data available to you as we will refer to it.

Ms Forth
Deputy Head

MySchoolPortal

Crescent School

Crescent School held a special celebratory concert for former pupil, Barnaby Williams, this afternoon. Family, friends and the school community gathered in the school hall to commemorate Barnaby, his love of music and of bad jokes.

Pupils from across the school performed tributes to their much-loved friend, a number put together especially by the pupils themselves. The concert was at times joyful, at times poignant, but always uplifting.

Barnaby enjoyed playing the guitar, his rock star spirit shining strong in Rock Band. So, the group happily played two pieces they had worked together on. Flute group, orchestra and choir all performed and there were a number of individual solos. Year 5 were in charge of the laughs, performing skits and jokes to keep everyone smiling and Year 3 sang their hearts out with ‘Reach For The Stars’. There was even a Leicester City FC tribute amongst it all.

The concert finished with a special slideshow of photos that moved many to tears. It was a very special event and fitting tribute to a young man with a big personality who was much loved here at Crescent School.

Crescent School’s Key Stage 2 Sports Day took place on Tuesday 4 June on Princethorpe College’s playing fields. Sports Day is always super fun for everyone at school and race after race, event after event our young athletes didn’t disappoint, as they leapt, threw and sprinted to make this year’s Sports Day another super record-breaking success.

Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6 competed separately in sprints, a middle distance 600m run, the Long Jump, High Jump, a Throwing Challenge and the House Relay Race. All the events were hotly contested and there were some super new school records.

They included:

Year 5/6 Girls 150m - Sofie M 23.17 seconds

Year 3/4 Boys 600m - Kian G 2 minutes 13.45 seconds
(What a great race between Kian and Thomas B - who was the previous record holder from last year's sports day, with both boys beating the previous time.)

Year 5/6 Girls Long Jump - Sofie M 3.67 metres

New events this year saw the following records set:

Year 3/4 Boys 150m - Tomisin L 25.18 seconds

Year 3/4 Girls 150m - Esme F 27.64 seconds

Year 5/6 Boys Howler - Shiv P - 29.90 metres

Year 5/6 Girls Howler - Emily B - 22.90 metres

Year 3/4 Boys Howler - Kian G 21.40 metres

Year 3/4 Girls Howler - Kiki O 12.97 metres

At Crescent, Sports Day isn’t just about the competition, it is also all about the participation. On the day every child took part and, most importantly, every child had fun. As is always the case the children’s behaviour was impeccable, they offered support and encouragement to each other and congratulated and commiserated with good heart. True Olympic spirit on show all round.

At the end of a very busy morning, Mr Thackway was delighted to announce the House results and to present the trophies. It was a very close affair decided only on the last relay races.

Years 3 and 4 Overall - St George’s House
Years 5 and 6 Overall - St Andrew’s House

A big thank you to all of the staff involved in organising and running the event, both from the Crescent and from the Princethorpe Foundation.

We hope you all enjoy the photos.

Over half term, we received news from Bwengu Projects Malawi on how the money raised by Crescent School was being spent.

This year, Year 4 chose to fund raise for the much-needed renovation of Nachimphu Early Learning Centre, in Chitipa, Malawi. The Year 4 children worked incredibly hard organising lots of events and smashed their fundraising target raising a huge total of £2,036.

Work on the classrooms out in Malawi is well underway and the first room to have been completed is the teaching classroom. So far 52 orphans have registered to take part in lessons. Work to renovate a second room is starting shortly.

A really big thank to everyone who supported Year 4’s incredible fundraising efforts this year.

Do you think you have super keyboard skills? Do you think you can type quickly and accurately? If you answered yes then you will be incredibly excited to hear that on Monday 10 June, Mr Adkins will be launching the 2nd ever Princethorpe Foundation Typing Competition! This is a chance for the children to test their typing speed and skills against not just their class mates, but against all the children at Crackley Hall too!

During their computing lesson that week pupils will be carrying out a series of typing challenges, designed to see just how awesome a typist they are. There will be prizes for the fastest typist in each class, in each Year (including Crackley), in each school and of course the big one… the fastest typist in the whole Foundation! As well as this, it will also be an Inter House competition, with big points on offer in the House Cup

If the children want to get themselves ready and fighting fit for the competition, they can head over to typing.com and have a practice on the lessons or the fun games.

Remember usernames are fullnamecrescent (eg. benstokescrescent) and the password is crescent1

If you have any more questions, please just ask Mr Adkins!

Saturday 8 June 2024 - 9.45am - 12.30pm

We are all looking forward to a chance to celebrate Barnaby Williams’ amazing young life in our inaugural Barnaby Bear Football Tournament on Saturday 8 June.

There will be two mini-tournaments, one for the U9s and one for the U11s, with little trophies on offer for the winning teams and a sporty version of Barnaby Bear to be won by the overall winners. The children will take part in House teams, and there may be more than one team per House.

Wednesday 12 June 2024 - 2.15pm to 3.30pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Years 1 and 2 on Wednesday 12 June.

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

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

Parents are invited to come and support.  Booking has now closed, do contact the school office if you have any queries.

Thank you.

We are aware of the upcoming device and online challenges for children and parents during the transition into Year 7 and beyond.  As such we're offering a workshop event for parents to join their Year 6 child in school from 5-6pm on Thursday 13 June.

This will feature likely tricky scenarios which children and parents alike will be future navigating and will promote the opportunity to develop healthy problem solving conversations.  Please complete the event booking link below to indicate your attendance with your child by Sunday 9 June 2024:

Year 6 Parent and Child Online Safety Workshop

Friday 14 June 2024 - 09.00am to 12.00pm

Our Whole School photo will be taken in school on Friday 14 June. Children are to wear summer uniform with blazers please.

Reception children will be having their 'taster swimming session' on Wednesday 19 June. The taster session is to show children the school swimming process, with going on the bus, getting to the swimming pool, navigating the swimming pool and meeting the Rugby School swimming teachers. 

Children will all be put into buoyancy aids to begin with as swimming teachers begin their assessment process for safety at this session. It is a fun taster session and their swimming level assessment will take place in September. 

Please ensure swimming kit is brought in on the morning of their swim, children can wear their own swimming costumes/swim caps for this taster but they will need to have Crescent school swimming kit for September. This can be ordered via the uniform order form.

Wednesday 26 June 2024 - 2.45pm to 3.30pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Reception on Wednesday 26 June.

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

Sports days are always very much anticipated by the children and really enjoyable for all involved.  Please book your tickets by Sunday 9 June:

Reception Class Sports Day

Thursday 27 June - 3.00pm to 3.30pm

Our ‘Open Book’ afternoon is on Thursday 27 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 25 June via the link below:

Open Book Afternoon

Wednesday 3 July 2024 - 2.00pm to 3.45pm

Crescent School would like to invite the parents and families of Class 6W to join us for the Leavers' Service of the Class of 2024 on Wednesday 3 July between 2.00pm and 3.45pm.

You are welcome to join us for light refreshments on the school field at 2.00pm, followed by a service in the school hall which involves the presentation of Leavers' Books and a book from the school.  Alongside this, Year 6 and myself will share memories interspersed with musical interludes from this talented class.

Please indicate how many of your family will be joining us so we can cater accordingly.  There will be up to four tickets available per family:

6W Leavers Service 

We hope you will be able to join us.

Monday 15 July to Friday 23 August, 8.00am to 5.00pm

We are thrilled to team up with Team Super Sports to offer an action-packed summer experience for children aged 5 to 16 years. From Monday 15 July to Friday 23 August, our Holiday Camps will run from 8.00am to 5.00pm.

Children aged 7 to 16 can choose from a variety of sports, including rugby, cricket, football, gymnastics, netball, hockey, and tennis to create their own personalised sports camp! For our younger campers (ages 5 to 7), along with sport we’ve got arts, crafts, and dance activities to keep them engaged and having a blast!

Why Team Super Sports? They’re experts in sport and multi-activity holiday camps, providing top-level coaching for all abilities.

Click here to visit the Team Super Sports website to secure your child’s spot.

Camps are priced at £37 per day, with an extra 10% discount for early bird bookings before Sunday 9 June. Sibling discounts and flexible booking options available!

Sunday 15 September 2024 - 2.00pm to 5.00pm

Princethorpe will be holding its annual Open Afternoon on Sunday 15 September from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. All are welcome to visit the College and for younger visitors, there will be many fun subject related activities organised by the departments.

The Headmaster will address visitors during the afternoon and refreshments will be available. 

Click here to book your place.

Entrance Examinations registration deadline is Friday 27 September 2024. Click here to complete a registration form.

Dear Year 5 Parents

As you will no doubt be aware, the local authority 11+ exams for entry into Year 7 in 2025 are scheduled to take place in September 2024, most likely on the second weekend of the month. Registration for the exam has already opened on the Warwickshire.gov website.

With this in mind, we would like to invite this year’s Year 5 children in for two days of Pre-Season Brain Training Sessions on Thursday 29 August and Friday 30 August 2024. These will run from 9.00am until 12.45pm each day.

The children will spend each morning with their familiar Crescent teachers, including Ms Forth, Mrs Webb, Ms Clark and Mr Adkins, getting them back into gear and ready for their exams. Each day there will be taught sessions focusing on the four strands of the 11+; verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, Maths and English comprehension. Needless to say, these skills will also be useful for their Princethorpe exams on Saturday 9 November, as well as any other independent school exams they may be entered for.

Children will be expected to arrive in school smartly dressed with a mid-morning snack. They do not need to wear school uniform.

These sessions will be in addition to the revision packs that we send home at the end of the Summer Term. I am pleased to say that there will be no charge for attendance.

Please indicate if you would like to sign up by following this link by Friday 3 May 2024.

Brain Training 2024

Best wishes 

Junior da Vinci awards this week go to:

• In 6W Alex G, Grace and Shayla for Science and Maisie for MFL
• In 5F, Edward M, Max T and Harry for Maths and Patrick and Henry for Art
• In 4C Mithun for Science
• In 3SS Elin for Art and Ria, Oliver, Klara, Felicity, Penelope, Alice and Eve for Science
• In 3LS Jahnavi for English and Walter, Zoe, Joshua, Kiki, Florence, Jahnavi, Uma and Feranmi for Science
• In 2W Iris and Isla for Art
• In 2E Juliette is awarded hers in English
• In 1Q Emma and Florence in English and Austin and Ruby in Art

Congratulations to you all on your hard work!

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

Garage and Gigs are the most important games to show your progress. Pupils who have reached landmark % on automatic training mode in the Garage and Gigs and therefore are awarded JDVs for Maths Practice this week.

• Henry 3SS has completed 24% and then 48% of the course
• Tara 1Q has completed 24% of the course
• Esme 4C has completed 48% of the course

Results For Battle 23 May - 6 June 2024 between Years 1-6 are: average score per class member:

• 1st 1Q 275
• 2nd 3SS 171
• 3rd 2E 150

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Florence 1Q
• 2nd Daniel 2E
• 3rd David 3LS

Well done, 1Q! 🏆

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

1Q

• Florence - Support Act!
• Aydin - Wannabe!

3SS

• Max - 3SS Unsigned Act!

3LS

• Zoe - Support Act!
• David - Support Act!

Battle between all Years 1-4 from 6 - 13 June 2024.

TT Rock stars will block 2x, 5x, 10x and 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.

This week's Artists of the Week are:

• Patrick 5F - Beautifully painted flower study

• Henry 5F - Creative use of colour to bring life to his flower study

• Ming Yi 5F - Bold use of colour to represent a pansy flower head

• Florence 3LS - Beautifully presented deer in action

• Elin 3SS - Carefully observed fox study with creative use of background colour

• Dudley 3LS - Carefully presented coloured sketch of a fox

• Max 3SS - Lovely use of colour and texture in his squirrel sketch

• Elliott 3LS - A clear and beautifully presented portrait of a rabbit

• Ben 3SS - An atmospheric representation of an owl in flight

•  Iris and Isla 2W - A fun and carefully collaged seaside picture

Well done to you all.

In Maths we have identified halves of shapes and consolidated odd and even numbers. We have used non-standard measures to investigate and compare height.

In handwriting we are continuing to focus on capital letters.

We will be using the book Jasper’s Beanstalk to help us revise the days of the week. We will be sequencing the story and writing simple instructions.

We will be planting our own beans and seeds and observing their growth.

In phonics we have been revising blends;

st                        nd                      mp                       nt

Verbalise simple instructions using language such as first, next, after, finally.

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

Later this term, we will be visiting Stratford Butterfly Farm. We are looking forward to seeing the changes in the butterfly life cycle first hand.

Our taster swimming session is coming round soon. This is an exciting opportunity for the children as they prepare for Year 1.

Mrs Pullen
Reception Class Teacher

Class 1Q have been learning the vocabulary for pets in Spanish. I was very impressed with how much they could remember after the half-term break. Some of them were able to give detailed sentences with the number of pets they have, their names and their colour. Well done!

Mrs Day
MFL Teacher

In Year 1 this week, we have started a new topic in writing about fairy tales. We enjoyed collaborating to think of all the different fairytales as well as looking at additional fairy tales. Our first fairy tale focus was Cinderella. So far, we have sequenced the story into chronological order as well as putting our drama skills into practice by re-enacting the fairy tale.

In Maths, we have focused on the place value of two-digit numbers this week, consolidating and remembering ways to help us place the numbers on a 100 square using columns and rows.

The rain didn’t stop us from enjoying our indoor picnic on Tuesday!

Miss Quirke
Class 1Q Form Teacher

In English, 2E have been learning about the Japanese poetry style of the Haiku. A haiku is a poem that MUST contain three key features:

1. Be about nature
2. Have three lines
3. Follow a pattern of syllables; 
   • Line 1 = 5 syllables
   • Line 2 = 7 syllables
   • Line 3 = 5 syllables

This was no mean feat, but Class 2E approached the task with positivity and creativity, they produced  some wonderful haikus as you can see.

Mrs Emery
Class 2E Form Teacher

Year 2 have been working together to create collages of the seaside. After using different materials to recreate the seascape, they had fun adding some lovely detail.

Mrs Thackway
Head of Art

Children in 2W have been looking closely at examples of artwork using natural materials. Around our school grounds they collected a variety of objects before working in small teams to create pictures entirely using what they had found. The collaboration and imagination was fantastic to see.

Mr Webb
Class 2W Form Teacher

A fantastic day in the sunshine for the  U9 and U11 Tennis players over at Leamington Squash and Tennis Club on Thursday 6 June. 

The standard of play was absolutely superb and all players produced some fantastic performances with some incredible rallies, strong serves and fabulous speed and agility on court. 

Players were put into pools based on their seed and played a series of matches, the U9s playing mini tennis rules and U11s playing full court, with the top two players from each pool going through to the play offs.

For the U11 Team:

Patrick B won his pool and went on to win his final showing great poise on court.

Alex T also won his pool, after winning all of the games, but narrowly missed out on the gold medal in a nail-biting 10-9 tie break.

For the U9 Team:

Charlotte won her pool, again having won all of her matches, and a well fought match against a strong opponent saw her take the silver medal.

Isabella gained another gold winning all of her poll matches

Kian finished first in his pool but a close well matched game saw him take the silver 

Tomisin finished his 2nd in the seed 1 pool, after 1 loss in the group stages but saw himself against a very tall and strong opponent in the 3/4 play offs. Again it was a very tightly contested game finishing in a score of 10-9 and a 4th place finish.

All of the pupils played fantastically and we are incredibly proud of how they represented the school, showing great sporting values and team work. 

Well done Timi, Alex G, Alex T, Patrick, Sofie, Roisin, Tomisin, Kian, Mithun, Theo, Charlotte, Isabella, Ella and Kiran.  

Mrs McCollin and Mrs Calder

Congratulations to all of the athletes who took part in the Midlands ISA Athletics, we had some outstanding performances and great team work throughout the day. 

The Year 5 Boys team were exceptional - resulting in them gaining the most points of any Year 5 team and earning a trophy.

Year 5: 

• Maxi - Gold in Long Jump 
• Akaal - Silver in the 75m Sprint Final 
• Alex B - Bronze medal in 150m Final
• Zac - 4th place in Cricket Ball Throw 
• Samuel - 6th place in 600m
• Samuel, Maxi, Zac and Alex - winning the 4x100m Relay
• Roisin - also put up a great performance in the Year 5 girls Long Jump for Bronze and a gritty performance in the 600m 

Year 4:

• Ava - put up a medal winning performance in the Long Jump to gain a Gold medal
• Lilah - Bronze medal in Rounders Ball Throw 
• Amber - finished 4th in 600m 
• Tomisin - Bronze Medal in Long Jump 
• Kian - qualified for the 60m Sprint to finish 5th
• Thomas - 6th in 600m 
• Year 4 Boys Relay team - Silver medal - Kian, Tomisin, Theo and Thomas

A special congratulations to Ava, Maxi, Alex, Sam, and Zac who have all been selected to represent the ISA Midlands Area at the National Final at Alexander Stadium on Monday 17 June.

A fantastic all round effort and performance from all pupils involved, you a pleasure to take out and be with for the day.

Mrs McCollin, Mrs Calder and Mrs Dewes. 

U11 Girls Cricket V King Henry's 

Crescent girls put up a solid performance against a strong King Henry's side, however despite some fantastic bowling and fielding the opposition were able to clock up a score of 268-2. The girls showed good determination but after a flurry of wickets were unable to come back.

• Bowler of the game - Maisie 
• Batter of the game - Roisin

Taking place on Friday 21 June the summer fete is fast approaching! As always entry is free but if your child wishes to participate in the games on the stalls they will need a stamp card. Once they have collected six stamps they can get a prize from the prize stall. Stamp cards will be distributed by the teachers on the day of the fete. 

This year we are also honoured to be hosting 'beat the Goalie' in aid of Barnaby Williams. Costing £1 for 3 attempts (payable at the stall) all funds raised will go to the Williams' chosen charity - The Birmingham Children's Hospital. 

Once again we are looking for teddies to re-home on the teddy stall. Funds raised from this stall will go towards school's chosen charity for the summer term - the World Wildlife Fund. 

We'd love your raffle, tombola and teddy donations so please start dropping them in from now. 

Tickets are available now on Classlist:

Summer Fete Tickets

Next Friday (14 June) marks our inaugural FOC breakfast and Preloved sale. Come and join us once you've waved off your children and enjoy breakfast on us.

We will also be selling Preloved uniform so it's a great opportunity to stock up for next year. 

We'd love more to sell so if you are planning on donating any items please drop them in early next week. 

Uniform can be ordered here:

Uniform Order Form

Please note the following items are stocked in the School Office and can be added to your account.  Do pop in to collect any items.

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

Crescent School Office

Click here to view the term dates for 2023/24, 2024/25

Click here to view 2025/26.

Crescent School

Please see below for useful school contact information:

We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family. Current vacancies include:

Crescent School

• 1:1 Learning Support Assistant

Princethorpe College

• Sports Coach - Hockey
• Minibus Driver

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.