The Courier

Crescent School is celebrating after Year 6 pupil, Olivia, won a Gold Medal in the 80m sprint at the Independent School Association’s National Track and Field Athletics Championships.

The school was delighted to have two athletes qualify for the National Finals and on Wednesday 19 June, Olivia and Year 5, George, travelled to Birmingham to take part in the flagship event at the Alexander Stadium.

In a very close race, Olivia just edged ahead on the line to win her sprint in a super time of 11.32 seconds.

Fellow competitor, George, competed in two events the Long Jump and the 600m.  George jumped a new personal best of 3.85m to finish just outside the medals in fourth place in the Long Jump, whilst in the 600m he finished in 6th place with a time of 1.57.58.

Head of Girls Games at Crescent School, Rachel McCollin, was delighted with the children’s performance saying, “We always tell the children to believe in themselves and push beyond their own boundaries, and they certainly did that.  It was such a fantastic day, a well-run event and the children were simply incredible. We are delighted for Olivia and George – a gold medal and a personal best, a super result.”

Class VI brought the classic tale of the ugly duckling to life this week in their final end-of-year school production. Since it first hatched in 1993, Stiles & Drewe’s musical has charmed audiences with its heart-warming story, sparkling wit and memorable score.

It tells the story of Ugly, a cygnet who is mistaken as an ugly duckling. Teased by both his siblings and the barnyard animals, Ugly sets out on an adventure of self-discovery. On his journey, he meets a whole flock of colourful characters, including a sly tomcat and a company of military geese.

The children had worked incredibly hard with Drama teacher, Kim Thompson, to prepare this special performance and the talented cast rose admirably to the challenge.

Ms Thompson said, “Honk! is a popular, family-friendly show and was the ideal platform for our young actors to showcase their singing, acting and dancing talent. With its bouncing score and universal story, the play captured the hearts of all who saw it.”

Performed for the first time in the Clarkson Theatre over at Princethorpe College, the lighting and sound gave an extra special professional dimension to the performance.

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.

Thankfully, the rain finally stopped and the clouds cleared so that Sports Day could take place on Monday 17 June.  This year for the first time, the school travelled to the Foundation’s senior school, Princethorpe College, to make use of their excellent sporting facilities. Sports Day is a big event for the Crescent School and race after race, event after event our outstanding young athletes, leapt, threw and ran to make this year’s Sports Day another super, smashing success.

The Pre-Prep children enjoyed all the usual traditional sports day races including sprints, egg and spoon, skipping and the ever-popular obstacle race. Then after a break to refuel, they finished their competition with the relay shuttle race.

The Prep children took part in sprints, a middle distance 800m race, the Long Jump and High Jump, a Throwing Challenge and the Relay Race.  All of the events were hotly contested and as always there were new school records set. They included:

• Girls Year 5/6 Long Jump - Amelie – 3.2m – St David's House
• Boys Year 5/6 Long Jump - Kyle – 4.1m - St David's House

Two girls in Year 3, Stephanie and Abigail (both from St Andrew's House) also equalled the standing record for High Jump, jumping 0.97m.

At the Crescent, Sports Day isn’t just about the competition, it is all about the participation. On the day every child ran in a sprint and every child took part in an individual event 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.

At the end of a very busy morning, Mr Thackway was delighted to announce the House results and present the trophies. 

• Years 1 and 2 Overall - St Andrew's House
• Years 3 and 4 Overall - St George's House
• Years 5 and 6 Overall - St David's House

A big thank you to all of the staff involved in organising and running the event both from the Crescent and the Princethorpe Foundation.  It was another super Sports Day.

The U9 and U11 Girls teams travelled to Stafford Prep yesterday, Thursday 20 June, to take part in the annual ISA Midlands Rounders Tournament.

The U9 Girls finished in third place winning the Bronze Medal and the U11 Girls finished fifth.

We had an excellent day of Rounders - well played to all.  Watch out for a full report in next week's edition of the Courier.

You may have noticed that Caitlyn in Class VI this week has been sporting a smart new hair style. The reason for her hair cut is that she has recently had her long locks cut and donated to the Little Princess Trust. This is a wonderful charity who use real hair to make wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

We are all very proud of Caitlyn, who sets an example to us all.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Over the summer break, there will be further exciting improvements to the Crescent School site.

In the holidays, the IT suite will be gutted and a new ceiling, lighting and flooring installed.  The room will be redesigned and have new furniture.  A new teaching space will be created that includes an interactive teaching wall.

Down the far end of the school, the Reception and Year 1 classrooms will also be completely refurbished with new ceiling, new lights, new carpets and a fresh coat of paint.  It will provide an exciting and stimulating environment for our youngest learners.

A three-phase development of the main corridor, affectionately known as the 'green mile', will commence starting with the top section (from the Library down to the first set of Fire Doors).  Again a new ceiling will be installed, with new lights, new flooring, built in display units and the walls repainted.

The work is all part of the Princethorpe Foundation’s long term estates development plan which includes significant investment in the Crescent School facilities.

Comments Joe Thackway, Headmaster, “It will be all systems go all summer, so pupils, staff and parents can expect great things on their return in September.”

As Mr Thackway mentions in his Headmaster's message pupils in the first sitting have been trialling the use of trays at lunchtime this week.  They have all adapted admirably! 

Please do email your feedback to admin@crescentschool.co.uk

Crescent School

In assembly this morning the children enjoyed a demonstration of the guitar, both pop and melodic, from Wil Russell. Wil is an ex-Princethorpe pupil who now works as a guitar tutor.

Anyone who is interested  in their child (Classes III - VI) taking up guitar lessons with Mr Russell from September should contact Mrs Barnes juliebarnes@crescentschool.co.uk to express their interest.

Places will be limited by a number of factors, so please do get your interest in early if you would like to take this offer up.

The final day for quizzing will be Friday 28 June so that I can collate all the data. Remember you can keep reading over the holidays but I would advise that the children only quiz on their final read of the holidays as it is not a memory test. The main thing is that the children enjoy reading.

It has been a great year for reading and the children are still enjoying books.

Please can all school reading books for Classes III - VI be back in school by Wednesday 3 July.  Over the summer we like to do an audit, checking that we have a good range across the year groups.  Please check under beds, on shelves and in bags and send them into your form tutor.

Thank you for all your continued support with reading out of school, keep it up over the summer, it can be a good time to visit your local library and bookshops.