The Courier

Dear Parents 

The two highlights of the week gone by have to be the excellent Sports Day on Monday and the Year 6 play on Wednesday evening. Both of these events took place over at Princethorpe College for the first time. Whenever you change the venue for an event like this it throws up some new challenges and we have learnt a lot that will enable us to finesse and improve these for next year. I have had a great deal of positive parental feedback for both and that is always great to hear. Quite a few parents mentioned that being able to get close to the events at Sports Day was a real benefit and having the reserve date in the calendar helped some of you plan in advance, despite the vagaries of a British summer. With a shorter summer term this year, we have tried to manage the diary so that everything isn’t concertinaed into the last two weeks of term and I hope we are all now feeling the benefit of that planning.

The play on Wednesday was a real delight. When you see the children perform on stage you start to see them in a different light and you can almost begin to imagine them in years to come. The whole process of preparations, rehearsals and performance have really brought the class together and given them a sense of shared mission that is great to see. Many thanks as ever to Miss Thompson and her team for getting it right on the night – it was very well received by everyone there and I can’t wait to see how the children respond when they see the performance to the school on the final day of term.

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we have been trialling the use of trays at lunchtimes during the week. We have certainly found that they speed up the sittings which allows for more outdoor play for the children and more time to get the hall ready for afternoon lessons. The trays are easier for the younger children to handle as well, so we will have a go next week with trays for the Pre-Prep and crockery for Year 3 to 6. The older children will be able to take their lunch and pudding at the same time and this will mean we achieve the quicker service without using trays. Going forward, this could mean we have the opportunity to look at the timings of lunch and possibly bring in extra reading time as a cool down period between lunch break and afternoon lessons, which is tremendously beneficial.

Having said all of that, it genuinely is a trial and I would like to hear feedback from all quarters before we make a decision on whether to bring these in from the beginning of next term. We will be talking to staff, caterers and children but please do feel free to air your thoughts on this issue. Rather than email me directly, please send your comments to admin@crescentschool.co.uk and we can collate them there before looking at the overall pros and cons.   

On a personal note, I am off to Bath tomorrow to have a look at the university open day with my daughter and then watching my youngest son play cricket on Sunday. Whatever you are up to, have a great weekend everyone.

I am delighted to announce that from the beginning of next academic year we will have a different look to the SLT here at Crescent.

Mr Webb will remain as Head of Pre-Prep and also take on a whole school role as Head of Pastoral Care. This fits in well with his safeguarding lead duties and gives us an extra layer in the pastoral care system that is at the heart of all great schools.

We also welcome Mrs Stapleton onto the team as Head of Wellbeing. This is an exciting new role that we are introducing to promote the emotional wellbeing of both children and staff. Mrs Stapleton has plenty of fresh ideas on how we can develop this in the school and will dovetail into the work that Mr Webb will be doing on the pastoral side. Her first job will be to see the school through the Carnegie Wellbeing Award that we have embarked on this year.

I am also delighted to announce that from September Mrs Webb will take on the title of Assistant Head with responsibility for health and safety on school trips and for planning school events.

Ms Forth of course remains as Deputy Head and Head of Curriculum, and we will continue to draw on the expertise of Mrs Morley, who runs our admissions and marketing.

Parents will have the chance to meet and hear a bit more on this at next week’s Welcome Evening on Thursday 27 June at 7.00pm in the school hall.

I hope to see many of you there.

For a two or three week period this year we will be focusing on one of the sayings in the School Promise. We will talk about this in assembly and in form period. It would be great if you could discuss this with your children at home and support the messages we are emphasising in school.

From now until the end of term we will be looking at a very important idea from the Good Citizens section of the Promise:

"We keep our school tidy and take pride in our clothes and our uniform."

Joe Thackway
Headmaster