Welcome to The Courier, Crescent School's electronic newsletter.

This week Year 6 had an inter-house Geography competition which you can read about.  There is an article on the amazing LAMDA results.  Mr Thackway provides details of his VE Day competition. 

Even though it has been a four-day week this week due to VE Bank Holiday Celebrations we have received lots of wonderful Home Learning work for you to see. 

Please do keep sending in the pictures and articles - we love reading them.  

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

Click here to email the Courier.

Preview

Headmaster's Message

Headmaster's Message

Dear Parents

I hope you and your families are well. Many of you will be looking forward to a long weekend with the bank holiday tomorrow, although for many others work will continue, I'm sure. It looks like a weekend of two halves is forecast, with the better weather on Friday and Saturday. I do hope that you get to enjoy at least some of that sunshine.

This week's Courier reflects the many and rapid adaptations we have had to make over the last few weeks to meet the demands of the current crisis. For example, I managed to run the annual inter-house geography final using Teams and, despite some technical hiccups along the way, the winner emerged and there won't be a gap in the honours board, at least for this competition. You can read more about the final elsewhere in the newsletter.

Another calendar event we have worked hard to keep was today's History Day. Our focus has been the home front during the Second World War, in particular the celebrations marking VE Day on the 8 May 1945. All of the children have enjoyed taking part in different focused activities as part of their timetable today, hopefully giving them an insight and appreciation of experiences of living through a time of war when so much was unknown and the fear of catastrophe ever present. Given the deadlines that we work to for the Courier we won't be able to share many details of today with you but please look out for lots of highlights in next week’s edition.

A very welcome taste of normality came with the announcement of our outstanding LAMDA results earlier in the week. I say outstanding, when perhaps astonishing would be better the adjective to use. I have trawled through results of this sort for many years as a prep school teacher, but never have I seen so many distinctions and merits. The children worked so hard preparing for the examinations so it is always great to see them delivering the goods on the day. Enormous credit must go to Miss Thompson, who is such an inspiring and inventive teacher who is able to coax performances from children who might never have believed they were possible.

I do hope you enjoy today's newsletter. Have a great weekend everyone.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

 

VE Day Competition

As part of our History Day to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the children can take part in a competition to win a copy of 'My Secret War Diary' by Marcia Williams. There are three books to win, one for Pre-Prep, one for Year 3 and 4, one for Year 5 and 6. Taking part is entirely optional.

Here is a copy of the build-up given to the children on Seesaw this morning:

"I want you to imagine you are a child back on that day in 1945. There would have been street parties, bunting and flags flying. Everyone would feel happy and relieved.

You need to think how you would have felt after six long years of war. Food was rationed and in short supply, your Dad was away fighting and your town had been bombed. Finally, it was all over and you could look forward to a new and happy life.

On the day of the celebrations, there would have been street parties with tables set out in the road and lovely food being served, jam sandwiches, jelly, squash and things like that".

Instructions on how to enter the competition are below:

Pre-Prep children (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2)
Write a postcard telling me what happened at the street party. You can divide a page in two and draw a picture of the party on one side and a short message on the other side.
 
Upper School children (Year 3, 4, 5 and 6)
1.   Write a poem describing the celebrations and how you felt
or
2.  Write a diary entry, telling me what happened to you on that famous day

You can illustrate your entries with pictures of party food or bunting or people celebrating. Your entries can be typed or handwritten.

Please send you entries to homelearning@crescentschool.co.uk

It is fine to send a picture of your entry, but please make sure it is easy to read. Winners will be announced in the Good News assembly on Friday 15 May and we will also publish the highly commended entries in next week’s Courier.

Good luck!

Joe Thackway

News

Virtual Assembly Links

Please find below the links to all the 'virtual' assemblies that have been sent to Pupils during Home Learning.

Monday 23 March 2020 Assembly 23 March 2020
Friday 27 March 2020 Assembly 27 March 2020
Monday 20 April 2020 Assembly 20 April 2020
Friday 24 April 2020 Assembly 24 April 2020
Monday 27 April 2020 Assembly 27 April 2020
Friday 1 May 2020 Assembly 1 May 2020
Monday 4 May 2020 Assembly 4 May 2020
VE Day Assembly  VE Day Assembly
Thursday 7 May 2020 Assembly 7 May 2020

 

Crescent School                    

 

                    

 

  

 

                    

Reports

Over the course of this term, all parents in school will receive reports on their children’s progress. The first batch of these are for Year 6, which are due to go out at the end of next week. Year 5 will follow soon after half term and then all of the other forms will receive theirs at the end of the school year.

I wrote to you in the autumn term explaining how you can access school reports on My School Portal, with the intention of eventually moving away from hard copies by autumn 2020. There are lots of good reasons for this move, not least that we are able to reduce the use of paper and printing. In addition, they improve the ease of access for parents and electronic storage means you always know where to look if you need to find them.

In the midst of the current restrictions on movement, we have decided that we will bring our timelines forward by one term and that all of this year’s reports will be sent only to My School Portal and we will not be printing out hard copies to send by post.

If for any reason this presents a problem for you in accessing the reports, please do let us know at admin@crescentschool.co.uk and on our return to school we can provide a hard copy, should you need one.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

 

Seesaw - Useful Top Tips

Account settings in the Seesaw Family App
These can be set to reduce the number of notifications.
Click on settings (cog shape) go to account settings and scroll down to the two relevant section.
1. Class notifications - these can all be switched off as a preference.
2. Parent notifications - you can switch all communication off or reduce notifications.
You will of course see all updates when you choose to log in to the website or APP.
 
When a child is recording their voice on work: 
If it is a blank page and just recording speech - use the mic. If it is just the voice and no work to see on the screen at the same time, please use caption instead. This is the quote mark button at the bottom left hand side of the response page.
Using the caption button stops the page being blocked with a big 'play' icon, that may have to be deleted before the screen can be seen or annotated by a teacher.
 
Returning twice.
If your child has returned their work, there is no need to send a further note to say it is done/completed etc. The staff system makes us aware and it doubles the number of posts on an already busy class journal.
Understandably, if you are doing this to reduce or clear the number of notifications, they will disappear when staff have approved them or refresh your page or see point 1 re: account settings.
 
Ms Forth
Deputy Head

Learning Support - 15 Minute Memory Activities

They say that the brain is like one of the muscles in the body - the more you use it, the more developed it will become. Here are five quick and easy activities that will help you to develop your memory skills.

1. The Suitcase Game
This is a round-the-table memory game. In a group, go around in turn and say what you are putting in the suitcase. Each person has to say all the other items as well as their own new one. If you get it wrong, you’re out! To keep things fresh, decide on a theme of the objects – it doesn’t always have to be travel-based.
 
2. The Tray Game
Place 12 items on a tray and ask pupils to look at it for 20 seconds. Cover the tray with a cloth or other barrier and give pupils 30 seconds to write down everything they can remember. For a variation of this game, elect a pupil, or group of pupils, to look away (or leave the room). Remove one or several items from the tray and have them guess what has changed.
 
3. Brain Yoga
Take your left hand, make a fist, and extend your thumb; holding this, do the same with your right, only extend your little pinky. Now change them so it’s left pinky and right thumb. The co-ordination involved will strengthen neural connections, which will help develop the memory!
 
4. The Concentration Game
Get a deck of cards and lay out all 52 cards in four rows of 13 (you can include the jokers in six rows of nine cards each, if you prefer). Players take turns choosing two cards, placing them face up. If they are of the same suit and colour (for example, six of diamonds and six of hearts) that player wins the pair and plays again. If the cards are not of the same suit and colour, the player has to return the cards to the board face down and play passes to the player on the left. The game ends when a player picks the last pair. The winner is the person with the most pairs. Players may end up in a tie for first place, depending on the size of the group.
 
5. Matching Pairs
This is another game that can be played with a deck of cards. Cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up for each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards (you can choose how a ‘match’ is made, whether it be cards of the same suit, or the same number – maybe even incorporate two decks and play for exact matches). If a player succeeds in matching a pair, they have another turn and continue until they fail to match two cards. Flip the cards back over after a turn has ended. The object of the game is to find the most matches in a row – with the ultimate being matching the whole deck – so players must watch carefully as others take a turn.

Have fun!

Mrs Brazier
Learning Support

Teachers' Favourite Books

We thought you would like some book recommendations from the teachers, this week Mrs Barnes is sharing hers, some of you may have read these books or they may be ones you could try.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head 

 

Mrs Barnes' favourite books:

My favourite children's book varied with age. When I was little I enjoyed all the Enid Blyton books, especially The Faraway Tree - I loved the idea of being able to visit new lands, and also the slide to get down the tree. I also loved A.A Milne's poetry books When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six - I could recite 'The King's Breakfast' from memory!

When I was nine or ten I got into the Narnia books and they remain favourites to this day. I loved the fantasy element, the chivalry, the talking animals and, like The Faraway Tree, the idea of travelling to different worlds. The allegorical element of the books was also intriguing. 

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Crescent School Pupils' LAMDA Results Are Outstanding Yet Again

All 83 Crescent pupils who took the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) examinations back in January have passed with the overwhelming majority, 80 pupils, achieving a distinction.

Children from Year 3-6 study for the examinations in their Drama lessons as part of the school’s curriculum. Years 3-4 take the Introductory level, Stages 1 and 2 respectively, while Years 5-6 study the Communications - Speaking Verse and Prose, Entry and Grade 1 examinations.

The children prepare poems to perform. They are judged on interpretation, technique and knowledge. They have to consider their diction, expression and movement and be able to discuss their choices of poems with their examiner.

Drama teacher Kim Thompson explains, “What’s brilliant about the LAMDA exams is that they equip the children with communication skills which will serve them throughout life. They not only promote an appreciation of literature and poetry, but also help unlock their imagination and creative-thinking. This is a superb set of results, some of the best the school has ever seen, I am delighted.”

Congratulations to all of the children,  Crescent School is very proud of you. These results are a reflection of your hard work both in and out of school – clearly all your rehearsing paid off.

Crescent Is Keeping Our Key Worker Children Busy

Crescent School continues to support Key Workers by caring for their children while they undertake their crucial role in Britain's fight against COVID-19.

Our Key Worker children have been very busy in school, taking part in a variety of activities both inside and outside. Of course, the children get to follow their lessons too, joining many of their friends in completing the tasks and challenges set by their teachers.

We thought we would share some photos of what has been happening here this week.

Stay strong everybody, Crescent is missing you all very much.

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An Opportunity To Listen To Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone 

Well known faces from the Wizarding World and beyond have lent their voices and passion for the stories they love by filming themselves reading from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for families to enjoy while they are confined at home. 

Daniel Radcliffe, Stephen Fry, David Beckham, Dakota Fanning, Claudia Kim, Noma Dumezweni, and Eddie Redmayne are amongst the cast of narrators, with more surprises and special appearances to come. Each will be reading different sections of the book, with its themes of family, friendship, courage and overcoming adversity, to families around the world. 

First-up is Daniel Radcliffe, a face instantly synonymous with Harry Potter, reading Chapter One, ‘The Boy Who Lived’. 

Starting 5 May, all seventeen chapters of the book will be released between now and the middle of summer.  Videos will be posted weekly on Harry Potter At Home designed to help bring the magic of Harry Potter to children, parents and carers in lockdown.

An audio-only version will be streamed for free on Spotify and Spotify Kids for children.

To enjoy the latest readings click here:

https://www.jkrowling.com/stars-read-harry-potter-online-for-families-to-enjoy-at-home/

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Mrs Webb's Philosophy Tips

For a bit of light relief take a look at some of the challenges on the Philosophy Man page.  Please let me know what you have enjoyed through Philosophy.

www.thephilosophyman.com/brainsqueezers

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

 

First News

We receive First News in school every week for the children to peruse. Due to this being unable to be delivered they are sharing the newspaper as a PDF. Attached here.

Please enjoy this paper with your children, there are some great stories.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Events

Whole School History Day

Today has been our whole School History Day to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day.  A round up will be published in next week's Courier.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

House Challenge Afternoon

On the afternoon on Friday 22 May we are having a House Challenge event where children will have the opportunity to win points for their houses.

All the details will be released nearer the time but just to give you a heads up we are going set the children an Eco Challenge.

This will involve collecting items from around the house, from the shed, in the garage, in the garden to up-cycle and turning them into something new....so get your thinking caps on!

There will be lots of suggestions for those of you who cannot quite get the creative ideas going.

The timetable will run as normal in the morning. More details to follow.

Mrs Emery, Mrs Pullen and Mrs McCollin
Heads of House Teachers
 

Awards

Virtual Accelerated Reading Board

It great to see so many of you accessing reading from home.  We work out these totals over each week working from Monday to Monday, so there is still time for next week.

Word Wizards of the week:

  • Ellie
  • Jack 
  • Liana 
  • Matthew 

The children who have read the most books this week are:

  • Alyssa 
  • Caitlyn 
  • Grace S
  • Holly 
  • Jack 
  • James 
  • Matthew 
  • Yash 

Keep up the excellent reading work.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Accelerated Reader Certificates

The following children have been awarded (virtually) certificates for Accelerated Reader this week:

3S 4M 5F 6Y

Charlie

Tegan

Aryan

Charlotte

Rohan x 2

 

Amelia

Asha

Hany

Orla

Archie

Holly

 

Well done to you all.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Times Table Rockstars

Weekly battle 30 April - 6 May results:

Boys Girls
3,339 points 3,636 points


Boys are the winners!

Special mention to Aryan in 4M and Sahana 5F again for contributing the most points to their teams. 

In the Class 4M and 5F battle:

Class 4M Class 5F
2,566 points 1,799 points

Class 4M won the battle!

Each class can have the speediest TT Rock Star and that gets you up the status board on the poster. To get on this board you have to tackle the single-player games - Garage, Studio & Soundcheck, multi-player games do not count for these. The single-player games also earn more coins than the multi-player games too.

In the last weeks, most improved speedsters in each class are:

  • 4M - Faris - Rock Star!
  • 6Y - Rania - Support Act!

I have also set up a 'Battle' for Thursday 7 May 'Girls Vs Boys' for the whole school. 

There is also Class 3S V 6W battle too.

Battles add up any points at all as you play! I will let you know who wins next Courier.

Stay Calm and Keep Rocking!

Art Frizzmeister aka Ms Forth
Deputy Head

Wellbeing

Pastoral Message From Mr Webb

Dear Parents and Children

Alongside the huge mix of feelings we're all experiencing at this time, one that I've felt just poking through these last few days is one of hope.  I think this was initially brought about by seeing the people of Spain returning to the outdoors, albeit still restricted, and perhaps thoughts of the hope that must have been felt around this time 75 years ago as six years of war was about to come to an end.

In writing this piece I have looked up the dictionary definition of hope and found that it says - 

"a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen"

As we look to the next Government advice for phase 2 on Sunday, we'll all be feeling a sense of this hope - that perhaps we may be allowed to see family members or friends again with safe distancing, perhaps some will be allowed to return to work and school, maybe we'll have greater flexibility to visit loved places.

Inevitably for many of us this hope will be be mixed with a sense of question and trepidation - are our loved ones going to be safe, will everything worsen again, will we have to return to lockdown?

As teachers and parents, we know that the children will also be feeling these hopes and anxieties.  They'll need all of our guidance and understanding as we begin to navigate our way forwards once more.  I've continued to feel enormous pride in the united way the whole Crescent community has tackled this crisis and I feel full hope and confidence that this will continue to support us as we take our next steps.

With best wishes to you all for a relaxing and hopeful bank holiday weekend.

Mr Webb
Crescent Safeguarding Lead
Head of Pastoral Care

CLANG Of The Week

It’s been lovely to read some of your ‘CLANG of the week’ messages this week and I’m glad we’ve all had a chance to notice things we might not have necessarily done so before because we are being more aware of what is going on around us. Still no update on my veggies as they are still under the soil but I did notice my first sunflower sprouting by our garden fence – well, that’s what I’m hoping it is, and not just a weed!

Here’s my CLANG for this last week:

CONNECT
It was lovely to chat with a few of you on our first Wellbeing Wednesday drop-in session – it was like chatting on the playground and not having to talk about home learning!

LEARN
I’ve been trying some new recipes and I think my Baked Oats with raspberries has been the best so far.

ACTIVE
Walking my dog along the cycle track and still being amazed that there is a field of cows so close to the town centre!

NOTICE
As the lambs are getting bigger with every bike ride we do, the calves are now being born and are so cute.

GIVE
I finally offered to give my boys a long overdue haircut – they are both over 6 feet tall so tricky to reach and they haven’t sat still long enough for me to do it yet!

Have a good week everyone! #stayhomestaysafe  #5waystowellbeing
 
Mrs Stapleton
Head of Wellbeing

School Promise

Good Citizen - Bryson Helps Grandparents

Bryson's grandparents are in the vulnerable category at the moment so unable to go out. Bryson loves to help them by assisting with their grocery shopping.

Lovely to help Bryson.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Good Citizen - Caspar's Virtual Afternoon Tea

Casper sent Mrs Monteith details of what he has been doing to be a Good Citizen, he said:

'One of the things I did was have an afternoon tea with my Nanny on Skype.  She is 65 and we were going to go out for an afternoon tea but cannot at the moment.

We took sandwiches and cakes to her door then had ours at home and spoke to her via Skype.'

How lovely Caspar, we are sure your Nanny loved how kind you are.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head

Good Citizen - Evelyn's Hugs In An Envelope

Evelyn in Reception Class and her sister have been busy over the last week creating 'hugs', she explained:

"We saw this idea of a hug in an envelope and they’ve worked really hard to make 14 life-size 'hugs' for their favourite people they can’t see or hug at the moment

They lay down still on the paper each time to have mummy draw around them, followed by fantastic multicoloured painting, daddy folded them very carefully into large envelopes, we’ve been a long walk up to the post box in the village today and they’re now on their way across the country to brighten up a variety of grandparents’ and friends’ days.  Several of the grandparents' ones have arrived this morning with feedback of making their day so it was worth the effort!"

What a lovely idea and we are sure the people who have received the hugs have loved them.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head

Good Citizens - Fred and Flora's Bouncing Challenge

Fred and Flora's Mummy has shared some fundraising they have been doing:

"They really enjoyed learning about Captain Tom in Mr Thackway's assembly and said they wanted to raise some money for the NHS too.  As we had to do something in the garden, they decided on doing 1000 bounces on the trampoline each (and signed Mummy and Daddy up too!).

So last Saturday we all did our 1000 bounces and we have raised £300. 

Fred and Flora are very proud of themselves!

We are proud of you too!

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Good Citizen - Maximillion Litter Picking

Maximillion has been a good little citizen by picking up litter from the front of his lane with sticks to avoid touching.

Good work Maximillion.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Good Citizen - Rohan In A Box!

Rohan from Class 4M decided to raise some money for NHS charities, his Mum provided us with this message and photo:

"As part of Mr Thackway’s community awareness Ro wanted to raise some money for the NHS charities so he did a sponsored box sit, where he only got out to go the toilet and managed to spend six hours in total and got sponsorship from family and friends.

This may not sound very challenging but for someone like Ro who struggles to sit still, it was quite an achievement!!

We’ve been thinking of inventive ways of helping the community and on Friday having a socially distanced tea party for our elderly neighbours in the communal area outside our house".

Well done Rohan this must have been hard to do! 

Enjoy your socially distanced tea party, we look forward to seeing the photos.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head

Good Citizen - Roisin B Litter Picking

The woods near to Roisin's home are just that little bit cleaner this afternoon after Roisin spent her time being out of the house picking up litter. 

Well done Roisin.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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FoC

FoC - Contact Information

Below are the details of the FoC Year Group Representatives. These reps will communicate with you on all our events via email, WhatsApp or Facebook. 

Year Group 1st Rep 2nd Rep
Reception Vicky Morley Lisa Millward
Year 1 Sanda Mocanu Fatima Masood
Year 2 Inez de Koning Karen Williams
Year 3 Emilie Crowfoot Claire Brosnan
Year 4 Semma King Anita Somerset
Year 5 Kal Mistry Amy Sarkies
Year 6 Emma Wells Victoria Akbik

 

Chairperson Zara Corbin chair@friendsofcrescent.co.uk
Treasurer Nick Brosnan treasurer@friendsofcrescent.co.uk
Secretary Amy Sarkies secretary@friendsofcrescent.co.uk
Pre-Loved Uniform Louise Symons  
Staff Reps Ms Forth and Mrs Webb  
FoC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofcrescent/  
 
Zara Corbin
FoC Chair



Housekeeping

Anti-Fraud – Reminder

Cyber-crime – please be extra vigilant

Parents are asked to be vigilant when reading emails relating to the payment of school fees and any other items to the Foundation.

We continue to receive reports regarding spam emails.  The latest scam offers a large discount on fees for the coming academic year if paid immediately.

This is probably trying to take advantage of the fact that some independent schools have offered discounts for this term and that parents may therefore be more open to such a suggestion. You can always protect yourselves by only making payments to us in line with our normal, published methods.

As advised, there has been no change to the bank details of either Princethorpe College, Crackley Hall or Crescent and there is no intention to make any changes in the foreseeable future. Any electronic notification that appears to be from any of the Foundation schools changing these details may be fraudulent.  Our bank details are available on the Parent Bills, the Online Payment Portal and for Princethorpe in the Information Booklet 2019 – 2020 for each school, and only those details should be used.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or my colleagues in the Bursary if you are have any doubts about the correct details or indeed if anything appears suspicious. 

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar



 

Useful School Contact Information

Please see below for useful school contact information:

Crescent School Office
01788 521595
admin@crescentschool.co.uk
Postal address: Crescent School, Bawnmore Road, Bilton, Rugby CV22 7QH
 
After School Club
01788 523850
 
Bills, Fees and Online Payment
01926 634273
georginamalin@princethorpe.co.uk
 
Registrar
01788 523851
admissions@crescentschool.co.uk
 
School Shop and Uniform
01926 634272
uniform@princethorpe.co.uk
 
Princethorpe College General Office
01926 634200
post@princethorpe.co.uk
 
Pathfinders Nursery
01788 813666
info@pathfindersnursery.co.uk
 
twitter:    @CrescentSchRug
facebook: @cres.school

Term Dates For 2019-20 And 2020-21

Please find below term dates for this academic year and next:

2019/20

Trinity Term 
Term starts Monday 20 April 2020
May Bank Holiday Friday 8 May 2020 (no school)
Half Term Saturday 23 May to Sunday 31 May 2020
End of Term Wednesday 1 July 2020
 
2020/21
 
Michaelmas Term
Term starts Tuesday 1 September 2020
Half Term Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November 2020
Term ends Tuesday 15 December 2020

Lent Term
Term starts Tuesday 5 January 2021
Half Term Saturday 13 February to Sunday 21 February 2021
Term ends Friday 26 March 2021

Trinity Term
Term starts Monday 19 April 2021
May Bank holiday - Monday 30 May 2021 (no school)
Half Term Saturday 29 May to Sunday 6 June 2021
Term ends Tuesday 6 July 2021

Home Learning

Siblings Share Home Learning

Class 1E - Roisin and her younger brother Finn (who is joining Crescent School in September 2020) had a go at making a wind chime using keys. They painted the keys and then threaded the strings.  How creative and colourful!

Class 2W Alex G and Alex T are enjoying sharing their home learning.  Both have been sharing their music lessons with their siblings Lucas (Alex G) and Izzy (Alex T).  Great work boys,what fab big brothers you are.

Alex G also got his Mum and brother Lucas involved in his Olympics PE lesson this week.  They are all lined up and ready to go!

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Reception Are Going On A Bear Hunt

We are reading 'We’re going on a Bear Hunt'  together in French and this week the children made lollipop puppets of the characters and they can now name the characters in French!

Mme Tatton
French Teacher
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Reception - More of the Big Bad Wolf!

This week Reception have been looking at the story of Red Riding Hood. The character of the wolf was the focus of our work in Expressive Art and Design. The children were asked to make a picture, mask or puppet of the wolf. All sorts of wonderful wolf creations were produced and I know lots of fine motor skills have been practised. Take a look at our not so scary Big Bad Wolves.

Mrs Pullen
Reception Class Teacher
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Reception 2020 - Reading Challenge

Last week Mr Webb sent a video message to the Reception Class of 2020 and challenged the children to send in images of themselves engaged in sharing books with family members.

We have had lots of lovely photos sent in:

  • Alice happily sharing her love of books with her brother Max
  • Edward (joining Year 3 in Sept)is reading the Measly Middle Ages to Max
  • Feranmi sharing his love of reading with his younger brother
  • Katie read The Jolly Postman with her daddy 
  • Sophia has been catching up with one of her favourites - Room on the Broom
  • Uma enjoying book time at home this week

I am very impressed with all your reading this week, keep up the good work.

Mr Webb
Head of Pre-Prep
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Reception 2020 - Home Learning

Feranmi is pictured on a ‘spring scavenger hunt’ looking for bugs, birds and different types of flowers and also making cut out emoticon faces. 

This looks great fun Feranmi.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Class 1E Roundup

There have been two highlights for me this week.

The first is how children are adapting to being at home and being creative in the way they approach their learning. In the photos attached, we see Max and Herbie creating their own number lines to practise counting in 2’s and 5’s, Sophie using scrabble pieces to practise spelling words that end in a letter ‘y’ and Zac creating a wonderful Motte and Bailey castle on Minecraft with a full guided tour demonstrating his learning as part of our work in history.

The second element that has blown me away is how much progress every single child has made in English. Starting the year writing maybe one sentence, this weeks’ creative writing about a bumblebee that needed help, shows whole stories, excellent spelling and application of phonics, capital letters, a range of punctuation, small and beautifully formed handwriting and significantly increased independence. I hope Class 1E are as proud of themselves as I am of them.

Mrs Emery
Class 1E Form Teacher
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Class 1E Art

Class 1E children have been making motte and bailey castles over the last two art lessons. They were all brilliant and here are just a few. Some used cardboard, others lego, some chose recycled plastic and two boys even made amazing cakes.

Well done everyone.

Mrs Byrne
Head of Art, Science and DT
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Edward Practices Cricket Ready For September 2020

Edward who will be joining Year 3 in September has been practising his cricket very regularly! He can’t wait to get involved with all the sporting opportunities. 

Great work Edward, Mr Phillips (Head of PE) is very impressed.

Mr Webb
Assistant Head
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Class 3S Celebrate Captain Tom Moore

Last week, Class 3S celebrated the achievement of Captain Tom Moore and thought about how doing something that seems small can actually have a big impact. I hope you enjoy their pictures and Poppy's poem.

Mrs Stapleton
Class 3S Form Teacher
View Gallery

Class 3S Story Writing

Class 3S have been using Story Mountains to plan and structure their story writing this week. They have been writing adventure stories about crossing the road safely.

Mrs Stapleton
Class 3S Form Teacher
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Class 3S Zahra Writes About Captain Tom And Frank Mills

Captain Tom and Frank Mills

On the 6 of April 2020, Thomas Moore, also known as Captain Tom, wanted to raise money for the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic to show his appreciation for all the care he received from the NHS. He hoped to raise £10 per lap and do a total of 100 laps around his back garden to raise a total of £1,000 before his 100th birthday on the 30 April. His effort became so popular that he ended up raising over £32,000,000!

Captain Tom also inspired many others to start their own fund raising. One of them was a six-year-old boy named Frank Mills, who has difficulty walking. He initially wanted to raise £99 to honour Captain Tom’s age, but so many people loved his trememdous effort that Frank was able to raise more than £280,000!

I do not have a lot of money, but I still wanted to do my part in helping them raise it. I donated £25 to Captain Tom’s charity and another £25 to Frank Mill’s charity.

Captain Tom was 99 years old and Frank Mills was only six when they decided to start doing something for our wonderful NHS workers. Their examples teach us that we all can make a difference no matter how old we are or what difficulties we may have. They needed walking frames to walk and may have seemed weak to some people, but that did not scare them from making an effort.

We also must not let our weakness stop us from trying to do good things.

We can also help in lots of other ways. My grandmother, who is 83 years old, lives with us. When my mum was self-isolating in her bedroom, I made sure my grandmother was not feeling very lonely. Then when I was very poorly for almost a month, I had to be very strict to stay far away from her.

Now that I am all better, I am trying to give her lots of hugs and spending time with her to make sure she is not too worried about Covid-19.

Zahra
Class 3S

Class 3S Annalise's Ice Art

Annalise had a go at creating a rainbow on a block of ice and used salt to crystallise the ice.

Beautiful colours Annalise!

Mrs Byrne
Head of Art, DT and Science
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Class 4M Enjoy Their Virtual Classroom

Mrs Monteith has been transported to her virtual classroom on Seesaw this week. There are a few familiar objects, and some of the children's work on the walls. It's not exactly like our real classroom, but there are a few similarities! I'm sure we'll all have some good fun with this classroom over the coming days.

Mrs Monteith
Class 4M Form Tutor

Class 4M - Billionaire Boy Character Raj

Class 4M also did a character description of Raj, the newsagent, who appears in several of David Walliams' books, and as we moved on to looking at Mr Stink, they thought about what his back story could be, and why he ended up living as a tramp.

They've all worked very hard this week and it's great to share some of their work.

Mrs Monteith
Class 4M Form Teacher

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Class 4M Get Inventive!

This week, 4M have continued their study of the David Walliams' fiction. They were asked to design a new invention to solve an everyday problem, just like Mr Spud in Billionaire Boy, who invented the revolutionary new toilet paper, 'Bumfresh.'

The children rose to the challenge and here are the results. I think you'll agree, these certainly would make life a bit easier!

They've all worked very hard this week and it's great to share some of their work.

Mrs Monteith
Class 4M Form Teacher
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Class 5F Art

Class 5F children collected natural materials from their gardens and made creative pieces of art this week. Some were flat while others were 3D but all were eye-catching and fun. 

Mrs Byrne
Head of Art, Science and DT
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Class 5F English

As part of their work on modal verbs, the children have written advice for us all during this lock-down period.  Amy and Asha are sharing their good examples.

Mrs Webb
Class 5F English Teacher
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Year 6 Science

Class 6Y and 6W have been producing powerpoint presentations, leaflets or posters this week in science to teach younger children how to stay fit and healthy. Here are three of our super posters.

Mrs Byrne
Head of Art, Science and DT
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Year 6 Art

Class 6Y and Class 6W have been continuing with their self-books in their art lessons this week. They are creating them as keepsakes to remind them of the wonderful times they've had at Crescent School.

Mrs Byrne
Head of Art, Science and DT
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Year 6 English

This week we have been looking at using adverbials and modal verbs in a story about how to deal with bullies inspired by Betsy Byar's 18th Emergency.

The work I am sharing is from Euan and Henry.

Mrs Webb
Year 6 English Teacher

Year 6 Interhouse Geography Competition

We had the Inter House Geography Final on Tuesday 5 May. We all worked together with the Teams format and it made for an exciting competition. The final scores were as follows:

  • St David's 32
  • St George's 31
  • St Andrew's 26

It was a hard-fought final with amazing geographical knowledge on display from all of the finalists. In fact, very few points were dropped and it wasn't until the final round that the winners emerged. A brilliant performance from all concerned and thanks to everyone for their patience as we mastered the technology.

The finalists were as follows;

 

St David's House:

Sienna 64.5 99.2 Captain
Harry 62.5 96.2  
Keshav 62 95.4  
James  60 92.3  

 

St George's House:

Chloe 63 96.9 Captain
George  62 95.4  
Izzy  60 92.3  
Rania 58.5 90  

 

St Andrew's House:

Marco 60 92,3 Captain
Zebedee 55.5 85.4  
Tom 54.5 83.8  
Issy  52 80  

Well done to everyone involved and to all of Year 6 who worked so hard preparing for the final quiz. Only the top four in each house qualified for the final but lots of pupils scored really well in the qualifying round with an average quiz score of 76%.

Our Champions for 2020 are St David's.

Congratulations to them.

 

Joe Thackway
Headmaster
Year 6 Geography Teacher