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

It has been lovely to see the Children back in school this week looking smart in their summer uniform and their sports kits. As Mr Thackway has said in his article, the children deserve great credit for the way they have come back and thrown themselves into their work, many of them as if they had never been away.

The Supporting Your Child section provides information, for each Class, on areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

This week's cover photo is Sophia from Class 2W with her winning handprint picture from the ISA ABC Handprint competition. 

Click here to email the Courier.

Preview

Headmaster's Message

Headmaster's Message

Dear Parents

We normally come back to blazing sunshine in September, but this year the weather has been more variable. Dodging the showers has been an additional challenge amongst the new routines that we have been establishing during the week. All the teachers have new duty rotas to keep to and new timings for the lessons as well. They have had to keep a close eye on all the details to make sure they have arrived in the lessons on time. I am delighted to report, they have. As for the children, things have been much easier as they have remained in their classes for the most part, with the teachers coming to them and the lessons have gone on more or less as normal.

I shared the good news with the children this morning in assembly (live via Teams) that all of the classes have now settled into their new rooms and their new teachers. I was able to share with them on the screen lots of smiling faces and hardworking children as evidence. The children deserve great credit for the way they have come back and thrown themselves into their work, many of them as if they had never been away.

We all hope that this positive start that and the willingness to adapt that has been shown will continue on over the coming weeks. It is so important for the children to get into a settled routine and rhythm that allows them to focus on their learning in what is such an important term in the school year. Many thanks to you all for your support of the school’s safety measures. With mutual understanding and patience I am more than confident we can make this term a great success.

One of our main school targets this year is to ask the children to self-regulate. The idea is that the pupils take more responsibility for their work and by doing so raise the level of their own expectation. Of course, the teacher is there to provide guidance and targeted feedback that allows the pupils to progress, but ultimately, we want the children to establish their own self-regulation routines. Checking for errors and taking pride over the finished piece of work are qualities that will enhance the work of all the children across the school. Please do support this message at home with your children, particularly when you are supporting them with their homework.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best wishes

Joe Thackway
Headmaster
 

Weekly Information

Weekly Calendar

The weekly calendar can be viewed by clicking on the link below.  It details all the clubs, events, fixtures and additional information for the week. 

Weekly Calendar 7 September 2020 

All the co-curricular clubs can be viewed on SOCS, where you can find details of all the dates the clubs are running.  

SOCS Co-Curricular

Crescent School

News

School Promise Rule Of The Week

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.

This week’s promise is an excellent one to start the year with and is in the category of Good Friends:

‘We are kind to each other’ 

Mr Webb
Head of Pastoral Care

Summer Music Examination Success

During the school summer holidays, Crescent received the results of the summer Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examinations. Director of Music, Julie Barnes was delighted that the children achieved a 100% pass rate. She said, “It was a big achievement for the children just to be able to take their exams, after the disruption and upheaval to normal lessons. The pupils were amazing and adapted well to a new way of learning. Their success in their music examinations was a testament to their hard work.”

21 children sat the exams, from Grade 1 up to Grade 5, on the Flute, Piano, Trombone, Cello, Recorder, Cornet, Horn and in Singing. Three children were awarded a Distinction and 10 received a Merit.

Mrs Barnes continued, “Thank you for all the support parents gave at home allowing children to have lessons online and in keeping them practising.”

A huge well done to all the children involved!

Faris Akbik B Flat Cornet Grade 3 Merit
Stephanie Bolton Flute Grade 1 Distinction
Sam Bierton B Flat Cornet Grade 1 Merit
Charlotte Corbin Trombone Grade 4 Merit
George Crowfoot Piano Grade 1 Pass
Grace Crowfoot Singing Grade 2 Pass
Zahra Nadeem Violin Grade 1 Distinction
Keshav Gupta Trumpet Grade 3 Pass
Katherine Lee Descant Recorder Grade 3 Merit
Orla Melges Cello Grade 2 Merit
Tumi Oredope Singing Grade 5 Pass
Chloe Sarkies Horn Grade 3 Pass
Chloe Sarkies Piano Grade 2 Merit
Hattie Sarkies Flute Grade 1 Distinction
Rohan Somerset Trumpet Grade 2 Pass
Freya Somerset Singing Grade 3 Pass
Alexander Thomas B Flat Cornet Grade 1 Merit
Alexander Thomas Piano Grade 1 Merit
Caspar Webb Trombone Grade 2 Pass

 

ISA Arts ABC Handprint Competition - Sophia Is a Winner

Congratulations to Sophia in Class 2W who came third in the ISA Handprint National Competition for her P is for Peacock entry.

We are very proud of you Sophia, her winning entry is this week's cover photo.

 
Joe Thackway
Headmaster
View Gallery

The Capper Family's Good Deed

We received a lovely email this week from Mrs Capper regarding a good deed that Annalise, Roisin & Finn did this summer:

"They decided to make up children’s activity packs for children less fortunate than them. We contacted the local foodbank in Rugby who loved the idea and said that they would distribute to families on their list with young children.

We set up a Just Giving page and set a target of £150 (the amount needed to ensure all families on the Rugby Foodbank list would receive a pack). We smashed the target within a few hours of going live, so we contacted the Coventry foodbank to see if they wanted to be included in the initiative, which they did.

We researched different toys / activities to include in the packs and Annalise worked out the costs. Overall we raised over £500 and the children prepared over 100 packs for distribution. Thank you to everyone that supported our initiative. For those children that have spent months at home with little or nothing to play with, this meant a lot!"

What a wonderful story! The children have done such a good deed in lots of their own time, which shows real commitment.

Mr Thackway
Headmaster

T Targets Information

Many of you may have noticed that there are T-Targets in your child's exercise books and on 'How to support your child'.

These were developed with the children and all the staff so all knew what was expected in their school work and not just in English. This will be used in our marking at age appropriate levels from 1S upwards. These targets also fit in well with one of our whole school targets:

  • To embed pupil self-regulation to achieve high performance 

As parents it would be great if you could support us with these in their homework.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Scholastic Book Club

Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running! Go to http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/the-crescent to browse the latest books and order online. For every £1 you spend on this month’s Book Club, our school will earn 20p in Scholastic Rewards.

Please place your order online by 2 October 2020.

Thank you for your support with this.

 

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Accelerated Reading For Year 3 Reminder

I know that you will be keen to start Accelerated Reading, we are also keen to keep making good progress and build a love of reading. As soon as we can, there will be an assessment to get children started on Accelerated Reading and then they will be guided to specific levels of books, in the meantime they can read a book of their choice and their enjoyment level.

All quizzing is to now be done at home as there will be no Accelerated Reading quiz time before school due to us not being able to mix year groups. This will be available between 7.00am and 7.00pm everyday even on weekends, the children can then feedback in their English lessons to their teacher and be rewarded as before.

All reading will be monitored closely by Mrs Dowling and Mrs Yates.  We know that reading is a foundation to so much learning, children's reading will be listened to in school safely but no volunteer readers will be able to support reading, for the time being. Please support your child's reading at home too, listening to them read regularly.

Please use this link when the children have been taught how to quiz and save it:

Accelerated Reading Year 3

Children will receive their login details which will be given to them in the first few weeks of term and a letter to guide you will be sent out when children are ready to quiz at home. They can read books from our library and classroom but they will be put into quarantine for 3 days before being returned to the shelf for other children to borrow safely. 

You are all invited to an information session about our online platforms on Tuesday 15 September, details will be sent out shortly, this will enable you to understand and help your child in their learning.

Thank you for your support with reading.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head
 
Mrs Yates
Year 3 Form Tutor

Accelerated Reading For Years 4-6 Reminder

I know how keen you will all be to get back to Accelerated Reading. We really want to re-establish good routines and continue progress with our reading provision. We also want to make sure this is all done safely for all involved.

All quizzing is to now be done at home as there will be no Accelerated Reading quiz time before school, due to not being able to mix year groups. This will be available 7:00am to 7.00pm everyday even on weekends, children can then feedback in their English lessons to their teacher and be rewarded as before.

All reading will be monitored closely as before by TAs and teachers.  We know that reading is a foundation to so much learning, children's reading will be listened to in school safely but no volunteer readers will be able to support reading, for the time being. Please support your child's reading at home too, listening to them read regularly, even the Year 6 children appreciate it.

Please use this link and save it:

Accelerated Reading Years 4-6

Children will receive their login details which will be given to them in the first few days of term. They can continue to read books from our library but they will be put into quarantine for 3 days before being returned to the shelf. 

Any questions please get in touch with your form tutor.

Thank you for your support with reading.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Reading In Pre-Prep Reminder

We are all keen to establish good reading routines as we return to school, as we value reading highly at Crescent. We are also aware of keeping everyone safe, so we wanted to share some protocols we are putting in place:

  • Children will be given a book to read and a reading record in their folder during the first week of term. As you know, parents and staff work together listening to children read at home everyday and in school everyday, communicating through the reading record - this communication is really valuable.
  • All reading at school will be done at a safe distance, we will use gloves to handle books and write in their reading record book. When a book is returned, completed to school, we will quarantine it for 3 days before we return it to the shelf or share with another child.
  • They will have access to Reading Bugs (an online platform) to supplement their reading, details about this will be shared by form teachers and there is an information session for parents about learning platforms that children have access to on Monday 14 September.  Details of this will be sent out shortly.

Thank you for your support with reading.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head
 
Mr Webb
Head of Pre-Prep

School Crossing Patrol Update

Warwickshire County Council have advised the following update regarding the Crossing Patrol:

I wanted to update you on the current situation regarding the School Crossing Patrol that many of your pupils use.

​As you will appreciate there are a number of factors we need to consider in terms of site health and safety and how this is impacted by Covid19 guidance. We are ​therefore currently undergoing a reinstatement ​ and risk assessment process to support the School Crossing Patrols returning to their duties. ​Due to the unique circumstances each site will be assessed individually. Until we have fully evaluated the impact​s and put in place any required mitigation the Patrol will not be able to return to duties.  

We are collaborating with Public Health and Health and Safety in conjunction with the latest government guidance. A pilot site will be use​d to assess the above and design guidance to use and reinstate Patrols as soon as possible.  

​We will, of course, keep updated as this work progresses.

If you have any questions then please contact:

Vicky Oates 
Road Safety Team Leader 
Warwickshire County Council 
Direct Number -   01926 412 404
Mobile Number - 07818 522 296 

Warwickshire County Council

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

The School Shop will not open to parents at the end of the school day for the time being. If you need to contact the School shop please email in the first instance to uniform@princethorpe.co.uk.

When ordered items are ready for collection, they will be sent to Crescent School.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

 

 

 

 

Events

Learning Platforms Information Session For Pre-Prep

Monday 14 September 2020 - 7.00pm

We are very much looking forward to sharing with you the online learning resources that are accessible to you at home to work on alongside your child and to support their learning further.

This will be run as a Teams meeting on Monday 14 September at 7.00pm. The link will be sent through to you prior to the event. Any questions can be written through the session chat and we will endeavour to deal with them then or they can be sent to your child's form tutor. If you are unable to make the time of the meeting, we will be recording it and will send it along with any resources to all parents in Reception, 1S and 2W.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head 
 
Mr Webb
Head of Pre-Prep

 

Learning Platforms Information Session For Class 3Y Parents And New Parents To Upper School

Tuesday 15 September 2020 - 7.00pm

We are very much looking forward to sharing with you the online learning resources that are accessible to you at home to work on alongside your child and to support their learning further.

This will be run as a Teams meeting on Tuesday 15 September at 7.00pm. The link will be sent through to you prior to the event. Any questions can be written through the session chat and we will endeavour to deal with them then or they can be sent to your child's form tutor.

If you are unable to make the time of the meeting, we will be recording it and will send it along with any resources to all parents in Classes 3Y, 4M, 5F and 6W.

Within this meeting we will be looking at Spellzone, Abacus, Accelerated Reading and Timetable Rockstars

Mrs Yates - Class 3Y Form Teacher
Mrs Webb - Assistant Head
Ms Forth - Deputy Head

 

Princethorpe College Taster Experience For Crescent School Pupils

On Saturday 19 September from 2.30pm to 4.30pm Princethorpe College will be hosting a dedicated Crescent School Year 6 Taster Experience.

The children will remain in their class bubbles over the course of the morning, receive a welcome from Mr Hester, the Headmaster and have the chance to experience two taster lessons.

Social distancing and government guidelines will be followed throughout the morning.

We would encourage all Crescent School Year 6 pupils to join us on this occasion as due to COVID restrictions other opportunities to visit will unfortunately be extremely limited. Please click here to complete the online booking by Friday 11 September. A follow up confirmation email will be sent week commencing 14 September with details of the arrangements for the afternoon.

A Revised Admissions and Entrance Examinations Booklet which outlines the admissions process for September 2021 entry will soon be available. Please note that Entrance Exams have been moved to Saturday 23 January 2021. Candidates need to be registered for the exams by Friday 4 December at the latest. Parents of children with a SEND should register as soon as possible so that a meeting with the SEND Co-ordinator at Princethorpe can be arranged well before the exams take place.

In the meantime, if you have any questions relating to the admissions process please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Contact the Admissions Team on 01926 634201 or email admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

Awards

Times Table Rockstars

Weekly battle 3 July  - 28 August results:

Boys Girls
9,243 points 12,409 points

Girls are the winners! Charlie in 4M and Esme in 4M contributing the most points to their teams. 

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

I can see plenty playing multiplayer games- but you need to play the singles to get a status.

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

  • Class 4M: Charlie - Rock Legend!
  • Class 5F: Eva - Headliner and Chloe S - Support Act!
  • Class 6W: Isla  - Rock Legend!

I have also set up a 'Battle' Monday 31 August - Thursday 10 September, 'Girls Vs Boys' for the whole school. 

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

We have been surrounded by news over recent weeks about the full return to school and I'm sure that there were anxious teachers, parents and children all around the country on Monday evening.  Here at Crescent we have tried to be very mindful of these and put into place not just significant Covid safety measures but also ways in which the children will return to warmth, familiarity, routines and high quality care and learning. 

We were delighted about the positivity children brought with them on Tuesday, the pleasure at being back at their school and the speed with which they have resumed friendships and learning behaviours. We know we have a long way to go and that none of us can take anything for granted, but we are proud of all children from new Reception to Year 6 for the start they have made.

With all best wishes

Mr Webb
Crescent Safeguarding Lead
Head of Pastoral Care

Around The Classes

Headmaster's Walk Around

Mr Thackway walked around the School on Thursday to see the children in their classes and took some photos. 

We hope you enjoy looking at the photos.

Crescent School

View Gallery

Children Enjoy Lunchtimes Back At School

Children have embraced the changes to the lunchtime sittings this week and enjoyed a lovely menu on their return to school.  

Crescent School

View Gallery

Welcome to Year 1!

It has been a week of getting to know new routines and explore new resources in a new learning environment. Our children have reintegrated well and have enjoyed being back with their friends, whilst understanding the need to wash our hands so often!

Mrs Stapleton
Class 1 Form Teacher
View Gallery

Co-Curricular Year 1 Enjoy Forest School

I had my first ever Forest School Club today with Year 1.

The damp weather did not stop us, and we brought the forest into the classroom as it was too wet and muddy to go outside.

We discussed sticks, using our senses to describe them. Some were rough and others smooth, some were long and others short, some were thick and others were thin, and Lilah’s stick smelled like chocolate!

We drew pictures of the trees the sticks had come from.

Madame Tatton
MFL Teacher
View Gallery

Class 5F Science

Class 5F had an outside Science lesson identifying plants and flowers.  Mrs Robinson assisted by using a plant identifying app which helped the children in their identification!

What fun in the sunshine!

Mrs Byrne
Science Teacher
View Gallery

FoC Events

Preloved Uniform Sale

We will be holding a second hand uniform sale after school outside on the front grass next Tuesday 8 September until 4.30pm.

There will be lots of space so social distancing will be easy to achieve.

Zara Corbin
FoC Chair

 

FoC

Welcome From The Friends Of Crescent (FOC)

Hello to all existing parents and welcome to all the new parents,

Usually I would be talking to you all about all our plans for this academic year, however, you just need to bear with us whilst we scope out what we are able to do under this new world that we live in. I'm sure we will still be able to do some form of school fundraising albeit in a new format. We will be working on this over the next couple of weeks with the committee and I promise to update you as soon as possible. 

In the meantime we are asking you to consider a one off donation, of typically £10/£20 to enable the committee to deliver to and for the children up to the end of 2020. Please use the usual Friends of Crescent Bank Account details (sort code 309717 Account number 01174774).

This money will allow us to continue to fund activities for our children like last year where we purchased equipment for "The Wren Nest" wellbeing room, play equipment for the EYFS outdoor learning area, filmed both the Selfish Ladybird and the Year 6 Leavers' assembly, as parents were unable to attend these events, and provided cakes and ice creams for all the children who returned to school. We also purchased the customary Leavers' hoodies for all of Year 6.

The meeting on Monday 7 September will no longer go ahead in School, however, we are hoping to hold our first Virtual FoC Meeting on either Monday 14 or 21 September and I'll send out further log in details ASAP. 

If you haven't joined our facebook page, please click on the link below: 

Friend of Crescent Facebook Page

Take care everyone and we'll get our thinking caps on to come up with new fundraising ideas that keep us all safe.
 
Zara Corbin
FoC Chair

 

Housekeeping

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 2020-21

Please find below term dates for 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 31 May 2021 (no school)
Half Term Saturday 29 May to Sunday 6 June 2021
Term ends Tuesday 6 July 2021

Revised Term Dates For 2021-22

Please find below the term dates for 2021-22:

Michaelmas Term
Term starts Monday 6 September 2021
Half Term Saturday 16 October to Sunday 31 October 2021
Term ends Tuesday 14 December 2021

Lent Term
Term starts Wednesday 5 January 2022
Half Term Saturday 19 February to Sunday 27 February 2022
Term ends Tuesday 5 April 2022

Trinity Term
Term starts Monday 25 April 2022
May Bank Holiday Monday 2 May 2022 (no school)
Half Term Saturday 28 May to Sunday 5 June 2022
Term ends Wednesday 6 July 2022

Anti-Fraud

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 in the Information Booklet 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



 

Top Tips For Navigating The Courier Reminder

To help families new to the school, and as a reminder for all, we thought we would share some tips for navigating The Courier on your phone.

Each weekly edition of The Courier will have a general overview message followed by an index list of the news and information, split into categories, as clickable title links.

Top Tip - Save the link below into your bookmarks so you can view the Courier in your browser whenever is convenient each week:

The Courier

Here are some more tips for navigating The Courier on your phone:

  • Click the title link of the article or event you are interested in (this will open the newsletter in your browser with the article you have selected)
  • From here you can scroll through all the articles in this category
  • To get back to the top of a category quickly, use the green arrow in the bottom right of your browser. Click this and you will jump to the top of the page, the category index
  • The category index will list all the articles in that category that week
  • Select ‘Newsletter Index’, to return you to the main newsletter index listing all the categories and articles
  • To move between different editions of The Courier use the green button with three white lines at the top of the newsletter. Click this and you can choose which weekly edition of The Courier you would like to browse.
View Gallery

Supporting Your Child

Class 1S - How To Support Your Child At Home

Please click on the link below which provides information regarding areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

Class 1S How to Support Your Child - Michaelmas 2020

Mrs Stapleton
Class 1S Teacher

Class 3Y - How To Support Your Child At Home

Please click on the link below which provides information regarding areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

Class 3Y How to Support Your Child - Michaelmas 2020 

Mrs Yates
Class 3Y Teacher

Classes 4M - How To Support Your Child At Home

Please click on the link below which provides information regarding areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

Class 4M How to Support Your Child - Michaelmas 2020 

Mrs Monteith 
Class 4M Teacher

Class 5F - How To Support Your Child At Home

Please click on the link below which provides information regarding areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

Class 5F How to Support Your Child - Michaelmas 2020

Ms Forth 
Class 5F Teacher

Class 6W - How To Support Your Child At Home

Please click on the link below which provides information regarding areas of the curriculum where you may be able to help your child at home.

Class 6W How to Support Your Child - Michaelmas 2020 

Mrs Webb 
Class 6W Form Teacher