The Courier

Dear Parents

Next week will see two important dates in the school calendar. Firstly, on Wednesday 24 June it is our annual move-up session. With the risk assessment for group bubbling in place, teachers will not be able to physically enter the teaching spaces to meet the children and of course many children remain at home. Instead, these important sessions will take place on Teams and the children will have done some preparation work beforehand to think about their hopes and aspirations for the year ahead.  Children will receive their invitations to these meetings via Seesaw.

I wrote to you back in March with the new form allocations for next year. I suspect now might be a good time to remind you of that information:

The second important date next week is the Welcome Evening on Thursday 25 June. As you will no doubt have expected, this will also be a virtual event this year, with a general meeting on Teams at 7.00pm followed by a session with your child’s form teachers at 7.30pm. We will also welcome two new teachers to the school in September, Mark Adkins as Head of Digital Learning and Helen Plenderleith who will teach Art to the older children from Year 3 to 6. Both of these teachers will introduce themselves to you as well as sending short video messages to the classes they will be teaching next year to be viewed during the move-up sessions.

We announced earlier in the week that we will be welcoming back the children from all the other year groups before the end of the school year. I do understand that not everyone will feel it is right for their son or daughter at this stage, but we are delighted that we can offer them the opportunity after so many days of working at home. Having seen how the other children have embraced the return to school and quickly accepted the special measures we have in place, I have every confidence that he children who do come in will have a positive experience.

Of course, I would urge you to share with them that things will not be ‘normal’ and there will be procedures in place for visiting the washroom and lining up after break, as well as coming into school and the regular hand washing. I know that many of them will be excited to return and if we get the balance right between providing positive social interaction and rigorous health and safety measures, then I'm sure the end of term will be a happy one for all.

Please do check elsewhere in the Courier for an update on all of our end of term events.

In the meantime, I wish everyone a peaceful and enjoyable weekend with their families. 

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

On Tuesday, Crescent hosted its first ever Virtual Open Evening using technology to welcome prospective parents and pupils into school.

The Open Event comprised of a short pre-recorded video, including a tour of the school, interviews with our Year 6 pupils and the chance to view our new Crescent promotional film. Whilst the Live Q&A explored the education the school provides, how Crescent supports its pupils to achieve great things and the school’s admissions process.

Huge thanks to all the pupils and staff who took part.

If you know anyone who missed the Open Evening event and is interested in applying to the school please ask them to contact our friendly Registrar, Helen Morley, who will be happy to share links to recordings of the event.   

Crescent will have two Reception classes for September 2020 entry and there is still time for parents to apply. There is limited availability in other years.

For more information on admissions and the links to the videos please email admissions@crescentschool.co.uk or call 01788 523851 and speak to our Registrar, Helen Morley.

The latest edition of The Minnacle and The Pinnacle have just been published, showcasing pupils' exceptional work. The special COVID-19 versions celebrate the wide variety of wonderful remote learning that, during the lockdown, pupils have participated in and produced.

The Minnacle focuses on the junior schools featuring both Crackley Hall School and the Crescent School. The Pinnacle celebrates the work of pupils at the Foundation's senior school Princethorpe College.

You can view an electronic version of The Pinnacle here and The Minnacle here.

Why not enjoy a few minutes browsing through the inspirational work our children do.

Please note a slight change to the published calendar. Due to the various adjustments made because of our current circumstances and Trinity term being extended to 3 July, 'End of Year' Reports for Reception to Year 4 will be published on My School Portal on Tuesday 30 June 2020. Previously issued Year 5 reports will also be available on MSP from that date too. 

Thank you for your understanding.

Normally we would be busy making plans for our extensive co-curricular timetable ready for you to sign up for the Michaelmas Term.  However, as I am sure you can fully appreciate this is hard to plan at this time.  We would love to offer some co-curricular next term, it may well be limited to in house staff and during the day. As soon as we are able to make plans we will let you know, although this may well be during the summer holidays.

We really value our co-curricular provision and want it to return to full strength as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding with this.

Please can any reading books, from all year groups, be returned to school before the end of term when your child comes into school. There will be a box for the returns in each classroom. These will then be left to 'quarantine' before we can sort them ready for the next term.

If your child is not returning to school at any point, books can be left in a box on the front doorstep of the school.

Please do continue with your reading though, enjoy the books on your shelves, hopefully libraries will open soon or even treat yourself to a new book or two.

Thank you for your support on this, as without the books being returned we can not be ready to help your child to learn and make further progress in their reading.

Please can any school sport/team kits be returned to school via the box outside the Main School entrance.

Thank you

Thank you to the Friends of Crescent for making it Jaffa Cake Thursday for the children and staff in school. Your generous gift of Jaffa Cake Mini Rolls certainly raised our spirits on an awfully wet socially distant school day!

Crescent School

All Year 6 are to bring in their PE T-Shirt on Monday 22 June, this needs to be very clearly named and then placed in the box placed in each form room.  Any home-learners who would like their T-shirt in to be signed please leave it by the front door and alert the attention of the front office. We will get these safely signed during the week and returned to you by the end of term.

Hattie Sarkies completed the Centurion One Community 10k challenge over half term. Jessica Sarkies completed the challenge as well by running an incredible half marathon over the week and her big sister, Liv, ran an astonishing 50km!

The parents joined in too with Sarah running a half marathon, Amy running 50 miles and Jon an incredible 100 miles! New to running, Kate Mercer, Michael’s Mum, took on the challenge of running a half marathon over the week and completely smashed it by running a total of 26k, enjoying every minute of it!

Good work all!

Crescent School

Pupils, parents, staff and friends of the Foundation are cordially invited to view Princethorpe College's 2020 Summer Art, Photography And Design Show which this year, for the first time, is taking place virtually.

Featuring work from A-level Fine Art, Photography, Product Design and Textiles students alongside GCSE Fine Art, Resistant Materials, Electronics and Textiles pupils, and work from the College's Art Club the show was a wonderful celebration of our pupils’ wide-ranging creative talents.

Those who know the College will be familiar with its formidable reputation for quality Art and Design. The walls of the College are adorned with exceptional examples and the work included in this year’s virtual show is no exception, with striking portraiture and photography sitting alongside talented and technically complex product design. The diverse range of mediums and themes are sure to impress.

The show has been put together as a short video which features images of all this year’s examination work and includes introductions from the creative teaching staff including Head of Art and Photography, Paul Hubball, Head of Design and Technology, Paul Scopes, Art Teacher, Sue Harris and Textiles Teacher, Miranda Porter.

Our congratulations go to all our pupils for producing such a display of creative talent. Thanks go to the Art Department and to the Design and Technology Department for all their support and inspiration to pupils this and every year and for their help in putting together such an outstanding show.

Click here to view the 2020 Summer Art, Photography And Design Show. We hope you enjoy it!

This week I thought I would share some ideas for keeping children amused on those long car journeys! If you are out and about for any length of time, the following activities may keep them amused!

Car Journeys

We receive First News in school every week for the children to peruse. As they are currently unable to deliver printed copies, they are sharing the newspaper as a PDF: 

First News.pdf 

I hope you are all enjoying this great newspaper, even as an adult, I enjoy reading it.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

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

A reminder for Year 5 Parents.

You will need to register interest in your child taking the 11+ in September by 29 June 2020, please do not worry as this does not commit you in anyway:

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grammar-schools-11-test/register-11-test/1

Hopefully you found the consultation meetings with Ms Forth and Mrs Webb useful. If you have any further questions please do contact us. 

Children can win a £10 National Book Token for themselves and each of their classmates – and surprise them all when schools reopen! 
 
While children are at home, encourage them to create a National Book Token design for our competition. Whether it's the school crest doodled in ink, a pencil drawing of the entire class, or something completely different, the competition organisers will choose one child's design to put on a National Book Tokens gift card every week for seven weeks. 
 
When schools open up again, the young designer and their classmates will each receive a £10 National Book Token – emblazoned with the winning artwork – to inspire them to choose their next favourite book from their local bookshop.

Please follow this link to enter, the closing date is Sunday 28 June 2020:

Book Token Competition

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

In this events section, I have listed a brief outline of how we intend to run the end of term events. We will be providing full details in due course, but you might like to make a date in the diary in advance. Of course, everything is subject to government guidance relating to safe distancing and we will update you with any changes to our plans as required.

Wednesday 24 June 2020 

This is an opportunity for the children to meet with their teacher for next year. We will run these sessions during the day on 24 June, using Teams meetings. Children will be invited to join their meeting with a link sent by Seesaw. They will have the usual opportunities to share their hopes and fears for the year ahead and do some bonding activities with their new form teacher.

This is also the day when our Year 6 children who are moving to Princethorpe College will have their move up session. I know that Princethorpe have a number of exciting opportunities planned, full details will be with you shortly. Other destination schools may also be planning similar sessions, we will let you know as soon as we have any more details.

Thursday 25 June 2020 - 7.00pm

This year’s Welcome Evening will take place in two consecutive Teams meetings.

The first will be a general meeting for all parents at 7.00pm. This is an opportunity to hear from Mr Thackway about the highlights of the year gone by and some plans for 2020-21.

This will be followed by a second meeting with your form teacher, who will run through with you a series of key points and information to prepare you for the start of the Michaelmas term.

Parents will receive an email on Thursday morning with links to join both of the meetings.

Friday 3 July 2020 - 2.30pm

We have some exciting news about this year’s Leavers’ Service!

We have agreed to team up with Chugg Productions to produce a special Leavers’ Souvenir Video that will be sent out free of charge to all Year 6 children and families. The video will include a ‘Crescent Memory’ from each of our leavers, a professionally recorded video of the Leavers’ Service, a picture slideshow of the children’s time in school and a musical performance as well. We are very grateful to the Friends of Crescent, who have agreed to fund the costs of this unique memento for the children at such an unusual time.

The Leavers’ Service itself will take place on the school playground, weather permitting. This location will allow for appropriate distancing and enable all the children who are able to attend to be present. All children will be invited to attend in person, although we will not be able to accommodate parents due to the current restrictions. Prizes will be awarded, speeches made and Leavers’ gifts presented. In the event of wet weather, the service will be filmed from the school library with prizes awarded in classrooms with filming in place.

Well done to the following pupils who have been awarded certificates this week:

• 5 Million
  Matthew T

• 2 Million
  Orla

• 1 Million
  Sophie M
  Noah

• 500k
  ​Kai 

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:

• George C
• Harry B
• Katherine
• Matthew
• Zara E

Children who have read the most books this week:

• Chloe B
• Drew
• Harry B
• Orla
• Matthew

Keep up the excellent reading work.

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

Well done to you all.

Weekly battle 11 June - 18 June results:

Boys are the winners with Aryan in 4M and Sahana in 5F for contributing the most points to their teams. 

In the Class 2W and 1E 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:

• 3S - Mya - Gigger!

• 6W - Chloe - Rock Star!

I have also set up a 'Battle' for Thursday 18 June - 25 June 'Girls Vs Boys' for the whole school. 

There is also Class 3S V 6Y 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!

Another week gone! Time is flying by and soon it will be the end of term and our days will change once again.

The structure of Seesaw and maintaining a timetable has been good for so many reasons so it's a good time to think how you might fill your days during the holidays if we are unable to get away as much as we'd like. Keeping busy helps us have a purpose to our day but space and time allows our brains and bodies to relax and recover from what has been a very weird term!  So a balance is needed. Perhaps you could set yourself a target like being able to ride your bike without stabilisers, roller skate around the park without falling over, or growing some strawberries to enjoy with some cream?  Whatever you choose to do, do it because it makes you happy and makes you feel positive. Your wellbeing is important and I encourage you to make preparations so the change of pace in the summer is welcome.

Here’s my CLANG of the week...

Have a good week!

Dear Parents

Many children from Reception, Year 1 and 6 have been back in school now for three weeks along with their teachers and support staff.  Initially it was clear to see nerves and understandable anxiety as to how it would be back in school.  This was quickly replaced by joy at seeing friends, staff and the children in our care.  Parents have commented to us on the impact of this simple socialisation on their children and staff have felt it keenly too.  Children who have been at home continue to thrive in their teams meetings as they too see and engage in excited chatter with their teachers and friends.

We hope and believe that the opportunity to allow children from Year 2, 3, 4 and 5 to spend time in school during the next 2 weeks will hugely support their wellbeing, giving them a refamiliarisation with the routines of school and of course time with their friends and school adults.

I'm sure that many of you will hear about the great days they have had and that, alongside the academic progress they have made during this period of lockdown, these pastoral times in school and on teams will sustain them through the summer break and fill their eagerness for a happy and settled return to school in September.

With all best wishes

Please find below a link to the Digital PArenting magazine aimed at providing expert digital advice for parents and children in developing the life skills and knowledge needed to navigate the online world safely and confidently. 

Digital Parenting Magazine.pdf 

Good Citizen is of course a significant strand of the Crescent school promise so please keep sending to me, by email (awebb@crescentschool.co.uk), any examples of your children going above and beyond in this aspect during this lockdown period, so that we can include them in a section celebrating this in the Courier each Friday.

In these times when we have spent more time together the kind and helpful nature of Akaal has really shone. He does the usual helping around the house and helping with chores but he has been an exceptional big brother to his little sister, Keevie. He helps her put her shoes on, helps her take her helmet on and off, tries to teach her to read and helps her with letters and numbers, he takes her to the bathroom and he's been so encouraging and supportive.

Well done Akaal we are proud of you.

Good Citizen Maryn has been doing the shopping and delivering it safely for her aunt who is ill at the moment.

How kind and caring Maryn.

Rory and his Mum found a Baby Jackdaw alone in the road, they took it to the Vets who arranged for it to be taken to a Sanctuary.

Well done Rory!

I have just received the IAPS Swimming results which we attended earlier this year. I am so pleased yet so disappointed that 'The Nationals' won't go ahead. These are our best results ever! And certainly worth celebrating.

• Sienna 9th in U11 breaststroke (and would have been through to The National Finals in London)
• Marco 17th in U11 butterfly (and would have been through to The National Finals in London)
• U11 Boys' Medley Relay Team 20th (and would have been through to The National Finals in London)

Other notable performances:

• Ewan 26th in U11 backstroke 
• Sam 27th in U11 breaststroke

Over 150 schools took part in the competition this year. Huge congratulations to all the children who took part.

I am particularly pleased about the relay results because we have only ever qualified in the small school section before, and been pleased to be one of the quickest small schools. The open relays are always a completely different league and I never thought we would be able to compete with them.

Crescent School’s pupils have been enthusiastically taking part in the CSW School Games Virtual Challenge. Organised by Think Active, the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire School Games Virtual Challenge is an exciting programme of sporting competition running throughout the summer term.

Last week was Week 4 of the challenge and tested pupils’ Dance Skills especially their determination, passion and self-belief. As well as taking part in the challenges the children could also submit their own dance video for the chance to be selected for the celebration compilation video.

Think Active have released a montage of some of the participants - did they choose anyone from Crescent? Why don't you have a look here: https://t.co/BmkZZ73GyR

Across the region 1,577 children took part in this week's competiton from a total of 135 schools and we were delighted to find out that Crescent was again the top participating primary school in the Eastern Warwickshire area.

It is wonderful to see the children participating so enthusiastically in the Virtual School Games, a huge well done to everyone.

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. 

Please find below the term dates for 2021-22:

Michaelmas Term
Term starts Wednesday 1 September 2021
Half Term Saturday 16 October to Sunday 31 October 2021
Term ends Tuesday 14 December 2021

Please see below for useful school contact information:

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

2019/20

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

This week in home learning the children were asked to create a flower collage as part of our ‘Growing and Changing’ topic. They were encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and use whatever they wanted. The finished results are beautiful and show some amazing creativity.

Our focus this week has been on getting creative, having fun and continuing to build those friendship bonds as a class by playing lots of whole class games.

In English, we practised our storytelling skills by sitting on the field in a large circle and playing the ‘build a story’ game where the children go round the circle, only saying one word at a time to add to and build a story. It is lots of fun, results in outrageously silly stories but really does make children realise a story can go in any direction and helps break their moulds of what a story should be.It’s a fun game to play as a family going on walks as well.

In art, we have been looking at weather and this week we covered the sun. The children created some wonderful sunset paintings learning how to mix colours and use light, directional strokes to blend to create an effect.  

Class 2W have been learning how Sikhs believe the earth and universe was created. They then considered what they know and think already from stories they have heard in the Bible or facts they have heard elsewhere, and started to share what they believe so far...

Class 3S have been making 3D flowers this week and have used all sorts of different resources they could find at home. Bella has even been teaching her little sister how to make them.

As part of our PSHE curriculum we have been raising awareness of Fairtrade and why it is important to consider the farmers and their working conditions when we buy our everyday items from the supermarket.  We followed the cocoa bean through to chocolate bar and then completed activities across English, Maths and PSHE in a cross curricular day. 

Class 3S pupils have shown off their creative spirit and talents yet again by designing their own super flower.  They needed to explain why their flower was so special and what made it better than other flowers,  thinking about what the different parts of the flower do, how flowers are pollinated and how the seeds are dispersed.  Some absolutely exceptional work yet again, great job Class 3S.   

How cute and amazing are these! As part of our Animal Shape Poetry learning, the children used their own descriptions and also some of the poems we have been exploring to create these animal calligrams using www.wordart.com. Hours of fun and I think they have designed some fantastic work!

Class 4M were set the task to design a bird feeder in art this week. They were all very good indeed. These five children  decided to actually make their designs and use them. I was very impressed indeed how the finished products looked so much like their designs. Very well done Faris, Stephanie, Ro, Aryan and Sachin.

The geography topic continues as Class 4M recommend simple ways of avoiding the use of single use plastic therefore removing the need to recycle. These are all ideas we could use in our everyday buying.

I attach some work from Class 5F. This is a task where I asked Class 5F to be fashion advisers and find outrageous outfits and comment on them. Some of them have worked incredibly hard, looking or drawing outfits and making pertinent comments, all in French of course. Its a very different approach to practising the rules for adjectives in French but the children really enjoyed it.

Mme Tatton
MFL Teacher

Class 5F have been practising their culinary skills this week by making foods which were popular in the Sixties. Some laid on whole meals for their families to enjoy! I'm sure you'll agree that they look delicious! 

Now that they are skilled at giving directions in French, Year 6 have turned their hands at designing their own towns and villages. Our budding town planners are only on their first drafts and the standard of designing, drawing and labelling is already amazing!

Year 6 have had great fun this week designing and modifying paper aeroplanes. The weather was perfect for us to get outside on Monday for our test flights. The weather wasn't so favourable on Thursday but we made use of the empty corridor - it's amazing how far some of them flew.... we've got budding aircraft designers at Crescent!

In Key School this week, as well as our home learning lessons we have been doing activities to do with books and reading. We have done word-searches, bookmarks and pictures.