The Courier

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

With just three school days left in the term I hope that your plans for the summer break are coming together nicely. I have a couple of trips planned for the summer, starting with a cycling route to the volcanoes of the Auvergne with the tent on the back of the bike. After that, we have a week in Brittany with two of my three children coming along, so it will be great to get most of the gang back together again. My oldest son James is sailing across the Atlantic on a fruit cargo ship to the Caribbean as part of his Royal Navy training. So not a holiday for James, but it still sounds pretty cool to me.

At this time of year, there is always another big event to attend as a parent and I hope you have all taken the opportunity to come in and feel part of the school community over the last couple of weeks. Highlights this week have included the Reception trip to the Butterfly Farm followed by their Sports Day on Wednesday, as well as move-up morning, open book afternoon and Welcome Evening yesterday. The Year 6 performance of Midsummer Night's Dream on Tuesday was truly dreamlike and an emotional occasion in many ways for parents and staff alike.

There's still plenty to come over the next few days, so keep a sharp eye on the Courier and calendar and I hope that you manage to be in the right place at the right time.

The children in Year 6 have had quite a week of it this week as their Community Week has reached new heights this year. From first aid courses to taking potted plants round to the local retirement homes and hosting picnics with their Reception buddies, they have had something engaging and interesting to look forward to every single day of the week. I do hope they get a chance to say a proper thank you to Mrs Webb for bringing this whole programme together. Being a good citizen is at the very heart of our School Promise and something I hope all children take with them when they leave this place.

I like the look of the weather forecast this weekend, warm but a little fresher than the early part of this week. I hope you get to enjoy it with your family and I look forward to catching up with you before the end of term.

With all best wishes.

Co-Curricular has now come to an end for this term.

Sign up links for next term will be sent out in early August.

We are now on the final few days of Year 6.

Please send a large 'shopper' type bag in on Monday as we start to send all of their books and belongings home.

On Wednesday the children should be wearing their school uniform with blazers (not games kit). They can wear a white T-shirt/sports shirt for the morning over their unifrom that can be signed by their peers and staff. They must ensure they use pens that do not come through onto their uniform (they do need to provide their own) as we like them to look smart for their Leavers' Service in the afternoon.

Dear Parents

Just a little reminder about the pens we expect the children in Upper School to have from this September. Each child will have different preferences, so we are recommending a range of pens for the children to have in school from Year 4. In Year 3 they are awarded a pen licence which comes with its own pen (Berol handwriting pen).

The options we expect to see in school are:

• Parker or Lamy Fountain pen

• Berol Handwriting pen

• Staedtler Handwriting pen

• Uniball Micro Air Rollerball pen

• Uniball Eye Rollerball pen

These are all to be used with blue ink only. Please do not buy pens that have an erasable rubber- making mistakes is very much part of their learning.

Each child is an individual and certain pens will suit your child more than others. We have been specific as we feel this will be of help to you and beneficial to the children and their work. They should not be using biros at all in any of their schoolwork and fine liners are only allowed for additional presentation of work.

Thank you for your support with this. We look forward to seeing all the new pens (named of course) next term.

Best wishes

Please can all school books be returned to school by Monday 1 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 1 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.

Thank you all for the support with reading this year.

Weekly Calendar - 1 July 2024

Music lessons - 1 July 2024

MySchoolPortal

Crescent School

Last week, all of the pupils in KS2 took part in the second ever Princethorpe Foundation Typing Competition, a chance for pupils at both Crescent School and Crackley Hall to test their typing speed and skills against not just their class mates, but against all the children across the whole Foundation!

During their Computing lesson they carried out several ‘5 Minute Typing Challenges’ designed to measure just how much they were able to type in 5 minutes. This tested their typing speed in WPM (words per minute) and also their overall typing accuracy. Certificates and prizes were given out to fastest typists in each class, each year across the schools and to the overall fastest typists in the Princethorpe Foundation family. This year's winners were all from Crescent School, with the overall trophy going to Grace in 6W, who recorded a fantastic 59 wpm, 11 wpm faster than the winning score last year!

Fastest Typist in the Foundation - Year 3

• 1st - Penelope - 20 wpm
• 2nd - Zoe, Charlie - 15 wpm
• 3rd - Ria - 14 wpm

Fastest Typist in the Foundation - Year 4

• 1st - Alfie M - 28 wpm
• 2nd - Theo McB - 27 wpm
• 3rd - Isabella J - 25 wpm

Fastest Typist in the Foundation - Year 5

• 1st - Sophie K - 44 wpm
• 2nd - Matthew L - 37 wpm
• 3rd - MingYi W - 31 wpm

Fastest Typist in the Foundation - Year 6

• 1st - Grace O'C - 59 wpm
• 2nd - James M 56 wpm
• 3rd - Shayla P - 45 wpm

Fastest Typist in the Foundation - Overall

• 1st - Grace - 59 wpm
• 2nd - James - 56 wpm
• 3rd - Shayla - 45 wpm

Well done to everyone who took part, get practising now for next year's competition!

Mr Adkins
Head of Digital Learning

Our new Friends of Crescent Chair is Louisa Hosegood. Louisa was voted in unanimously by the committee at the FoC’s AGM last week. She will take over at the start of next school year.

Louisa knows the Crescent and the FoC well, she has two children in the school, with daughters currently in Year 4 and Year 2, and she has been a part of the wider FoC team for several years.

Huge thanks to the outgoing FoC Chair, Inez de Konig, and FoC Secretary, Laura O’Connell, who have worked tirelessly to support the school over the last two years. Their, and the wider FoC team, efforts, do so much to enhance the children’s experience at school.

Mr Thackway and the staff here at Cresent School very much look forward to working with Louisa and the FoC team next year.

As a follow on to their recent visit from Rugby Police, Year 6 welcomed local magistrates to school on Tuesday 25 June for a workshop on the role of a magistrate and the magistrates’ court. They explained their job and how they became magistrates and then shared how to analyse crimes and consider evidence.

After that, Year 6 held a ‘mock trial’ with pupils playing the roles of defendant, victim, witness, police officer, usher, solicitor and magistrate. The case was one of cyber bullying, a subject relatable for the pupils and their recent learning. Year 6 had to weigh up the evidence and decide if they thought the accused was guilty or not. Once they made their decision, the magistrates also had to decide a sentence.

The workshop was incredibly interesting, and pupils learned a lot about the court process. Thank you so much to the magistrates, Bob Bhabra and Sally Dunn, for taking time out to work with Year 6.

Year 6 enjoyed a sunny picnic out on the school fields with their Reception buddies on Monday, as we come towards the end of the school year. Year 6 have really enjoyed supporting the Reception class as they transitioned into school. It’s been a great way for them to give back to their school community and Reception have benefitted hugely too.

On Wednesday, we had our ‘Move up Morning’ and the children spent time in their new classrooms with their new teachers and teaching assistants. We also welcomed our new Reception children to school so they could meet their teachers and classmates for September. It was lovely to see their faces full of smiles and expectation at the start of their exciting school journey.

'Move up Morning' allows staff to answer questions, allay fears and ease the transition on to the children’s next steps and there is always much excitement for the future bubbling around school.

Those children progressing on to Princethorpe for Year 7, spent the day over there getting to know their new surroundings, while our remaining Year 6s became honorary Year 7s for the morning here at Crescent School.

Monday 1 July 2024 - 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, Rock Band and soloists will perform for your delectation and delight. Doors open at 2.15pm with refreshments in the Library.  The playground will be open for parking from 2.05pm.

Tuesday 2 July 2024 – 9.00am – 9.45am

Pre-Prep are starring in their very own Summer Concert on Tuesday 2 July. All classes in the Pre-Prep 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 8.45am.

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.

We hope you will be able to join us.

A bumper last week for Junior da Vinci awards.

• In 6W awards are as follows, Maisie, Alice, Roisin, Alex G, Alex T, Leela, Grace and Sam in Drama and Remi in Art

• In 4C, Amber, Esme, Kian, Mithun, Evelyn, Aria, Theo Mc, Alfie and Albert in Maths, Aria and Seren in Geography and Albert, Harry and Theo M in Science

• In 3SS, Henry in Maths and Elin, Felicity, Henry, Max, Flora, Evie, Alice and Catherine in Science, Charlie in Music, Klara in Art, Alice & Penelope in Geography, Felicity and Penelope in MFL and Alice in English

• In 3LS Elliott, Sophia, Isabella, Walter, Zoe, Kiki, Jahnavi, Uma and Hermione in Science, Uma in Music, Florence in Art and Jahnavi in MFL

• In 2W, Olivia-Rose in English and Charlotte S in Art

• In 2E, Jonelle in MFL

• In 1Q, Evie for MFL

Congratulations on your hard work.

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

This weeks reading superstar is Everly in 4C who has read 500k words.

These awesome readers need a mention too:

• Word Wizard of the Year, having read a whopping 4.5 million words this year is Matthew in 5F

• Joint Top Quizzers of the Year, who have successfully quizzed on 80 books each are: Alice in 3SS and Aria in 4C.

Congratulations!

This week's Word Wizards and Top Quizzers are:

Word Wizards, achieving the highest word count from successfully quizzing this week, are:

• 3LS  Jahnavi
• 3SS  Elin
• 4C    Lilah
• 5F    Matthew

Top Quizzers who have quizzed on the most books successfully or made a noticeable improvement in quizzing scores this week are:

• 3LS  David
• 3SS  Catherine
• 4C   Everly
• 5F    Edward M

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

Two more Year 3 children have read 100k words and these Word Superstars are Charlie and Flora in 3SS.

Well done.

Reading certificates have, this week, been awarded to:

• Alex K
• Alex S
• Charlotte D
• Charlotte S
• Clementine
• Hazel
• Max
• Sofia

Well done to you all.

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.

• Sarima 2W has completed 24% of the course
• Finn 3SS has completed 100% of the course
• Maya 5F has completed 72% of the course

Results For Battle 13-20 June 2024 between Year 1-6 are: average score per class member

• 1st 1Q 159
• 2nd 2W 56
• 3rd 2E 54

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Marcie 2E
• 2nd Emily 1Q
• 3rd Sahiba 1Q

Well done 1Q! 🏆6 in a row!!!!

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

3SS
Catherine - Headliner!

4C
Harry - Wannabe!

No Battles over the holidays and the rollover to your new classes will start in August. All your speeds and score will be saved - so keep playing over the summer!

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.

The Green Team have worked with passion and dedication this year – they are truly sustainable scientists. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to Go Green and Stay Green!

• Year 2  - Nishan, Niamh, Sarima and Sophie
• Year 3 – Catherine, Flora, Joshua and Uma
• Year 4 – Aria and Isabella
• Year 5 – Toni and Akaal
• Year 6 – Grace and Maisie

This week's Artists of the Week are:

• Beau 3SS - A fun clay maquette of an outdoor sculpture

• Evie 3SS - A carefully modelled clay maquette for an outdoor sculpture

• Sophie L 2W - A colourful and beautifully detailed swimming picture

• Iris 2W - Excellent use of oil pastels and watercolour

• Zoe 3LS - A lovely sculptural idea for the Jubilee Garden

• Kiki 3LS - Excellent water feature sculpture for the Jubilee Garden

• Klara 3SS - A lovely observational sketch of Mr Thackway’s office

• Florence 3LS - A fun sculpture to make Forest School a happy place to be

• Shayla 6W - A clear and bold relief print

• Hattie 6W - Effective mix of colours

• Emily 6W - A fun relief print of a converse trainer

• Remi 6W - Lovely contrast and bold image

• Lily 3SS - A lovely welcoming sculpture for the main entrance to our school

• Catherine 3SS - A friendly fox hiding in the bushes is a great idea for a sculpture.

Well done to you all.

Classes 3SS and 3LS have been creating their clay maquettes. They looked carefully at the shape of their original designs and tried hard to add interesting textures. The results look fantastic!

Mrs Thackway
Head of Art

The children have been working on a ‘Big Book of Fears’ class scrapbook, inspired by Emily Gravett’s book of a similar title. Having recently learnt how to write recounts, they applied their learning to write a short recount of how they each developed a fear that still haunts them today! They wrote about spiders, boats, cockroaches, blood, getting lost and more.   

Ms Clark
Class 4C English Teacher

Class 4C have been offering solutions to reduce plastic use, so there is less need to recycle or reuse or discard. They have produced posters, pamphlets or handy card booklets with tips such as 'use canvas shopping bags', 'don't use a bag for fruit and vegetables', 'use metal straws' and 'use a water bottle of tap water'. Pupils are horrified at the amount of plastic being dumped in landfill and much of it ending up in the sea. Watch the clip that got 4C thinking: How Much Plastic Is In Our Oceans?- Earth Unplugged (youtube.com).

Ms Forth
Class 4C Maths Teacher

Year 5 have been busy over the last week preparing for their debate on traffic management called 'Trouble in the High Street'. They will be presenting their speeches and posters next week to the town council of Crossford, their fictional town, otherwise know as the good burghers of Year 6.

Is the best solution better traffic management or a new pedestrian zone? Only the town council can decide. 

This week in history, Class 5F completed their projects focusing on sources of evidence and their reliability by answering the question 'Were the evacuees in WW2 really happy?'

They had to define the terms 'propaganda' and 'censorship' and relate them to the communications from the British government to the country regarding the safety of evacuees. They did an amazing job.

Class 6W created different block prints of their drawings of trainers. They experimented with different colours to print these fantastic Pop Art style pictures.

Mrs Thackway
Head of Art

As Class 6W come to the end of term, we have been taking time to extend different mathematical skills, particularly in logical thinking and creative geometry. Pupils have drawn parabolas, cuspid circles and pursuit curves where you only draw straight lines, but they create a visual illusion of a curve. In the domino challenge pupils had to fit 0-10 dominos together in squares of four so that the rows and columns were the same total. Our best amount of sets this time was seven!

Ms Forth
Class 6W Maths Teacher

The Green Team have created a Vimeo, to introduce the new school Eco-Code and the affiliated projects. We hope you enjoy it! 

Green Team Eco Code 2024

Crescent U9's cricket team continued the school's truly amazing record at sporting competitions this year with a fantastic performance at the Midlands ISA, bringing back even more medals for Mrs McCollin's already bulging trophy cabinet!

The team began the tournament incredibly strongly, blowing away St Anselm's, OVS 'B' and Dixie in the morning group stages, finishing top of their group with some fantastic team batting, bowling and fielding displays. Crescent then continued this super form into the afternoon with a very hard-fought 5-run semi-final victory over a talented Ranby House side, a combination of big hits and clever batting seeing us home and into the final.

Unfortunately Crescent could not repeat this in the final game against the only other unbeaten team on the day, the OVS 'A' bowling display proving simply too powerful and clinical for our batters. The whole team should be incredibly proud of their performances, their superb improvement and finishing as the 2nd best side in the whole of the Midlands!

Our star bowlers of the day were Tomisin and Isabella who got more accurate and more deadly with every single ball, and our star batter was Thomas for his HUGE sixes!

Mr Adkins and Mrs Calder

The U9 girls enjoyed a home cricket game on Tuesday evening taking on King Henry VIII in a pairs cricket match. Crescent won the toss and selected to field first before heading in to bat. A strong Henry's side saw them add 102 runs in their 10 overs, with a strong opening pair putting 46 runs in the first 2 overs. 

All of the Crescent girls worked hard managing to add 62 runs to their total, with a number of 6s and 4s. The girls listened well to advice being coached throughout the game and worked well as a team, showing great team spirit and development in a lovely game.  

A great experience for all. Well done to all involved, representing the school in true Crescent Spirit. 

Crescent took 22 pupils from Years 4 and 5 to the Rugby Schools' Athletics Championships at The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Track on a very hot and sunny Friday 21 June.

Pupils competed in the High Jump, Long Jump, Throw, 75m Sprint, 600m and team relays.

Together the children brought home 12 medals across a range of all disciplines, a super effort from them all at this always competitive event. 

The children have all worked hard on improving their athletic skills this term and were brilliant in their events.

Rugby and Northampton Athletics Club were extremely impressed with a number of our athletes and have offered some free coaching sessions to; Roisin, Henry,  Zac  in Year 5 and Ava, Amber, Lilah, Thomas, Tomisin and Kian G in Year 4 over the summer holidays. 

A huge well done to everyone who took part, you were a credit to the school. 

Medals

Year 5:

• Roisin - Gold in HJ and 600m 
• Henry -  Gold in HJ 
• Zac - Gold in Howler Throw 

Year 4:

• Ava - Gold in LJ and 75m Sprint 
• Thomas - Gold in 600m and LJ
• Tomisin - Gold in 75m Sprint and Silver in LJ 
• Lilah - Gold in Howler 
• Kian - Silver in Howler 
• Amber  - Silver in 600m 

The Summer Fete was the last event for Laura and I in our capacity as Vice Chair and Chair as we conclude our two year tenure. Laura's daughter now heads off to Secondary school as does my eldest son, however I'll be helping at events as my youngest continues through Crescent. Louisa Hosegood now steps in as Chair while our fabulous treasurer David Thomson continues in his role. 

It really has been a privilege and a joy to be at the helm of FOC for the past two years. We feel extremely lucky to be able to be present at the events and to see the children's faces as they take part. We have some wonderful memories to take with us and some funny ones!

It really does take a village to organise these things though and we couldn't do it without the wonderful parent volunteers who turn up to help in all manner of ways - from pulling out a carrot 90 times at the Christmas Bazaar to towing a trailer onto the field containing the bouncy castles!  We have also been very lucky to have a close working relationship with the school; notably Mr Thackway, Mrs Webb and Ms Forth along with 'the two Claire's' and Mr Knowles from the Support Staff team all of whom are extremely tolerant of our requests and have our gratitude!

Our final plea (we can't go without asking more of you all!) is that if you can ever help at an event please do so. Even if it's for 25 minutes it makes such a difference and it really is fun! 

Have a lovely summer holidays

Inez and Laura

I’m Louisa and I’ve been around at school a couple of years now, my two girls are very happy here and have always enthusiastically joined in FoC events.

The FoC is about three key things for me:

• memory making
• charity
• community

Seeing smiling children and knowing you’re supporting others is a real privilege and I’m looking forward to working with fellow parents and school alike to really make a difference. 

What another fantastic fete we had! It was lovely to see the children enjoying themselves at the stalls and bouncy castles. It was also great to make use of the Traversing Wall (which FOC funded!). 

As a result of Beat the Goalie we were able to donate £93 to Birmingham Children's Hospital, while the Teddy Bear Rehoming Stall raised £86 for the World Wildlife Fund. The other proceeds will be reinvested into something that benefits the pupils in the new school year.  

Huge thanks to everyone who helped make it happen - from the parent volunteers to the teachers and support staff - it really can't take place without you!

On behalf of the FoC Sam O presented Chris, our wonderful School Crossing Patrol with a gift today to say thank you for getting us all safely across the road.

Thank you Chris.

Crescent School

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 and 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:

Princethorpe College

• Sports Coach - Hockey
• Sports Coach - Rugby

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.