The Courier

Dear Parents

Our non-uniform day today has been a great way to finish a successful half term in school. The children have enjoyed a colourful day in school with some additional fund-raising activities that you can read about elsewhere in the Courier.

We started the day today with a bumper addition of our Good News assembly. This included a flute performance from a Year 6 pupil which added a delightful musical element. I was also pleased to announce our first School Promise award winners of the year, as well as those good citizens who made it to our lunchtime ‘top table’ to celebrate their exemplary behaviour during mealtimes.

There has been so much to celebrate this half term as we have managed to maintain a community feeling in the school whilst keeping to all the additional safety measures we have had to adopt. I think I can speak for all of the staff here to say how delighted we have been to see the children back and happy in their school and getting on with their friendships and their learning. Many thanks to you at home as well for supporting what we are doing by checking for symptoms, getting tests when they are needed and wearing your masks on the school grounds.

We enjoyed a wonderful harvest service on Thursday, relayed to all of the classrooms via their interactive screens. Harvest is always a good time to remember those less fortunate than ourselves and this years charity is especially meaningful for our children as it is both a local good cause and it supports homeless people as we head towards the longer nights and colder weather of winter. I hope you will also enjoy watching the children's efforts in the service and the Vimeo format will enable you to share this with your broader family.

I do hope you enjoy the half term break. A two week break can seem like a bit of a luxury, but we find it really pays dividends in what is the longest term of the year It allows the children to perform at their best for longer and make that vital progress that we all love to see. We do look forward to seeing the children return healthy, refreshed and ready to learn in November.

With my best wishes.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

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 - 2 November 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

Today we have had a non uniform day to raise money for the charity Hope4. Everybody wore an item of red, yellow or blue clothing, reflecting the charity's colours, and some children even managed to wear all three.

The School Council representatives organised small games and challenges which pupils played, in their yeargroups in privilege time.

We will let you all know the total raised in the next edition of the Courier and thank you, as always, for all your support. Anything that we can raise for this amazing charity will be greatly received. 

Please click through the gallery of photos.

Many thanks to those parents who responded to our survey regarding the information evenings. It was pleasing to hear that they were well received and proved useful to parents. Although we only had 22 respondents, there was a clear preference for later meetings and for the option of watching a recorded event at the convenience of the viewer. These findings will help us prepare for similar events in the future. 

One parent enquired about the destinations meeting for Year 4 and 5 parents and I can confirm that we will be running this meeting in the Spring Term, with full details to come in advance. 

A similar survey will be sent out after half term for Parent Consultation apointments to garner thoughts on the recent format.

Our Tree of Thankfulness is blooming! Thanks to the generous donations for the Rugby Foodbank and Hope4, our tree is looking fantastic and is a wonderful visual reminder of how important it is to share what we have with others.

By now, you will have received the link to the Harvest Service and, I'm sure you will agree, the children have really engaged with the messages of hope, of sharing and of helping others less fortunate than ourselves.

Class 5F have been given a book this week to read over half-term.  The book is called Goth Girl And The Ghost Of A Mouse by Chris Riddell.

Please feel free to share this book as a family, listen to it on an audiobook or discuss it with your child if they are reading it independently. It will need to be completed by the time we return to school as we with be doing some work on it on our return. 

On 11 November, we as a school will be remembering those who gave their lives for their country. We will gather at a safe social distance outside on the playground to hear prayers and readings and show respect through a minute's silence. All children will need their coat that day. We are intending to record this and share it with parents so that you as a family can share this time at home too.

In addition to this we know the children like to be involved in the Poppy Appeal.  To keep everyone involved safe at this time we are allocating a day when the children can choose and donate for an item from the British Legion. Each form teacher will be involved in supporting this.

• Monday 2 November: RP and 3Y
• Tuesday 3 November: RE and 5F
• Wednesday 4 November: 1S and 4M
• Thursday 5 November: 2W and 6W

Classes will need to bring in their money on their allocated day. Please look at the selection (on the attached picture) to help you with your children's choices. There will also be the normal poppies to purchase.

The latest edition of The Circular, Crescent School’s review of the year for pupils, parents and staff, has just been published and families should have received a printed hard copy last week.

The magazine includes stories and photos from across the school year, giving a wonderful insight into the life of the school and the learning that takes place, day in day out, here at the Crescent.  It is a fabulous memento and we hope you all enjoy reading it. 

An electronic copy of the magazine is also available on the school website here if you would like to share the Circular with family and friends.

Monday 9 November to Saturday 14 November 2020

This exciting competition is coming up soon - so get practising for your chance to win prizes in this national event!

Stay Calm and Keep Rocking!

In our Good News Assembly thismorning we awarded School Promise certificates to recognise the children’s excellent behaviour as Good Friends, Good Learners or Good Citizens. 

Congratulations go to:

• Hermione
• Max G-H
• Penelope 
• Uma

• Lilah
• Theo Mc

• Maya
• Edward W

• Maggie
• Oliver

• Annalise 
• Saira

• Aryan
• Liana
• James A

• Amber B
• Eve

Keep up the good work.

It is always an exciting time for the children when they gain their pen licence, enabling them to make the move from writing in pencil to pen.

For this rite of passage, the children have to show that they can write neatly and consistently in cursive, joined handwriting in all of their work, not just handwriting tasks.

Alice, Alex T, Grace and Maisie have shown pride in the presentation of all of their learning tasks and have been awarded a Pen Licence and their first handwriting pen.

As you can see from the photos the children were very pleased and so were their classmates - what lovely behaviour.

Well done!

Unfortunately we cannot celebrate Top Table at the moment in the usual style.  However, we can reward those children who have shown excellent conduct at lunchtimes this half term with a fabulous goody bag.

The lunchtime supervisors have chosen the following children:

• RE - Jonny
• RP - Anaya
• 1S - Esme
• 2W - Sophie
• 3Y - Edward G-H
• 4M - Chloe B
• 5F - Harriet
• 6W - Jack

Well done to all of you.

The Junior da Vinci awards are beginning to build up now, congratulations to Isla and Hattie for earning a JdV badge in Maths.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Ellie has read 500,000 words and has been awarded her badge as a reward for her super effort.

Pre-Prep reading certificates have, this week, been presented to:

• Barnaby
• Matthew 
• Nimeeta
• Theo Mc

Well done to you all.

Weekly battle 9 - 15 October:

• Boys scored 4,569 points
• Girls scored 2,242 points

Boys are the winners again!

Most Valuable players contributing the most points to their teams are:

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 must tackle the single player game in the 'Studio', multi-player does not count for these. These also earn more coins than the multiplayer games too. 

Plenty of action so last week's most improved speedsters in each class are:

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

Please note only the children should play on their account or it influences the level appropriate to them.

Stay Calm and Keep Rocking!

To finish off our Computing unit about the use of IT all around us and in the wider world, today we took part in a special QR Code Treasure Hunt! We used our iPads to scan QR codes hidden all around the playground, which opened up secret video questions that we had to answer!

Following on from the interest they showed in the life of Mary Seacole, Class 2W children have been exploring their feelings and opinions on fairness and equality.  This week they listened to various fair and unfair statements which they then had to decide to stand in the agree, disagree or not sure zone.  Their justifications and reasoning was fascinating and it all helped with building their foundations as good future citizens.

Class 3Y has been learning about light in their science lessons. They know the sun is bad for their eyes and that they need protection. In class they carried out experiments to decide which material was most suitable for sunglasses. They then designed and made their own pair and tried them out on their way home on Wednesday.

We have been delighted with how well Year 3 have settled into life in Upper School. They have enjoyed their English and Maths lessons and worked really hard on their organisational skills. They are all becoming increasingly independent.

The overwhelming success however has been the enthusiasm with which the children have approached reading. It was wonderful to hear during Parents' Consultations how much the children are enjoying reading at home too. We hope that they all have a well-deserved rest over half term and I'm sure there will plenty of reading taking place too.       

Class 5F have created amazing projects for their history homework this half term. From death masks to hieroglyphics, sarcophagus to pyramids and make up to mummification; the standard of work produced has been fantastic.

It's always interesting to see how the children interpret the task and the real beauty of these self-directed projects is that it allows the children to follow their own interests within a topic. I'm sure you'll agree, the final pieces are fantastic.

In Craft Club this week we have been we having been creating another STEM craft. We used lollipop sticks, elastic bands and spoons to create our own catapults. Then of course we had to try them out and experiment!

• Can we make the same missile fly further or higher? 
• What happens if we use different missiles? 

Over the course of the school year we will, in turn, focus on one of the elements of the School Promise. We will talk about it in assembly and in form period. It would be great if you could discuss it with your children at home and support the messages we are emphasising in school.

This week we continue with the category of Good Citizens.

‘We try to keep safe and be responsible’

As it is half-term next week I thought it might be useful to give you a couple of fun iPad-based computing ideas that could create a lovely learning project for you and your child to have a go at. The first is more suitable for Pre-Prep, the latter for KS2, although both will help to hone those creative computing skills, show off that artistic side and are a nice way to spend a wet afternoon stuck indoors!

If you have any questions at all, or want other suggestions or tips for more specific apps, please just drop me an email markadkins@crescentschool.co.uk. It would be wonderful to see any finished projects too!

Happy half-term!

This half term has certainly seen the pupils put through their paces in PE and Games.  There may not have been a fixtures programme against others schools but there has been no lack of competitive spirit, drive and determination to be the best that they can be. 

All pupils from Reception all the way up to Year 6 have been involved in some form of competition, from virtual athletics and agility competitions, inter house hockey and football and the Personal Challenge Curriculum fitness programme, they have all been working hard to refine skills whilst also developing their sporting values. 

I do hope you enjoy reading the separate roundup reports.

As part of their games lessons in school, pupils have been involved in completing a number of different activities involving the fundamental skills of running, jumping and throwing.  As well as working on their athletic abilities pupils have had to brush up on their Maths too by taking measurements, multiplying scores and working out the difference! 

The results have been recorded and will be entered in to virtual competition against other schools in Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull. 

Within fitness lessons pupils have been taking part in an interval circuit training programme to improve their fundamental skills, cardio-vascular fitness and endurance. 

Pupils have set their own targets for areas that they would like to improve on and have been recording their results weekly to be able to see the progress they are making. 

They have now evaluated their results and will be using this to design and create their own training programmes after half term.  It has been great to see the determination and positive attitude pupils have had with this programme, showing particular perseverance when completing their endurance run. 

In lieu of fixtures this half term we have built in some inter-house sport to the programme to allow the pupils to enjoy the competitive element of sport.  All of the matches have been played with fantastic sportsmanship, showing great teamwork, respect and fair play.  All of the competitions have been tightly fought going down to the last minute, and even seconds in some cases, to decide to the winners. 

Yellow played well as a team with George R literally putting his body on the line to win, great defence from Alyssa and Jay who timed every tackle to perfection, fantastic distribution of the ball from Amy and Isaac setting up Emme to score, making it very difficult for Sahana and Asha to defend for Red House.  Some great attacking play from Josh, Eve and Amber but unfortunately they could only convert this into one goal, the game ended 5-1 to Yellow. 

The second game was very evenly matched with George C, Hattie and Amelia putting up a strong attack for the Blues against Yellow House.  Solid Blue defence from Bella, Eden and Isla blocked out all attacking play from the Yellow’s but unfortunately, they were unable to convert any chances in to goals either, finishing a very exciting game with a 0-0 score line. 

The final match was all to play for, for Blue House and they gave it their all against the Reds, who were showing a much more united front passing the ball more and building up their chances.  Blue House maintained their rhythm from the previous game and saw them convert four chances in to goals before a fantastic run up the wing from Josh scored a cracking goal for Red House, but unfortunately it was too little too late for the Red team and they finished with a final score of 4-1 to the Blue House.  With both Blue and Yellow house having 1 win and 1 draw each it came down to goals scored with Yellow House just pipping the Blues.     

In lieu of fixtures this half term we have built in some inter-house sport to the programme to allow the pupils to enjoy the competitive element of sport.  All of the matches have been played with fantastic sportsmanship, showing great teamwork, respect and fair play.  All of the competitions have been tightly fought going down to the last minute, and even seconds in some cases to decide the winners. 

Year 6
The Year 6’s House football tournament was an absolute thriller, from first kick to the last. It kicked off with a very close match between Reds and Blues, not really reflected by the final score line. Blues opened the scoring with some excellent interplay between Hattie and Amelia, leading to a fine finish from George C, who struck again to make it 2-0 at the half. The Reds then rallied superbly, Josh dragging one goal back and Eve coming incredibly close on several occasions. Despite the valiant comeback, the Blues proved too strong however, scoring a further 3 late goals, the game finishing 5-1.

Some superb goalkeeping and defending from Eden and Bella then prevented the Yellows from pulling further ahead, before George C equalised for his team again. It then remained 2-2 into the dying seconds, only moments from penalties when George C provided an inch-perfect cross to Amelia, who calmly found the back of the net to see Blues win 3-2 and lift the overall trophy!

Thursday 1 - Saturday 31 October 2020

Hopefully you are underway with your Active October challenges, but if not please don't worry here are the details again. We are going to challenge everyone in the Crescent family to get active this October. Each child will be able to set their own challenge according to their age, ability and time available e.g. I’m going to walk 5000 steps every day in October, or I'm going to cycle/scoot/walk around Draycote, and gain sponsorship from friends and family for this.

The money raised will then go towards:

• The school charity for this term, which is the Hope4 Project, a homeless charity in Rugby. They are planning to use this money on a project in their building likely to be updating the heating system.

• Equipment for the Crescent school classes e.g. games, stationery and items chosen by the children to be used in privilege time.

We would love to see pictures of the children working on and completing their challenges so please send in your pictures and we can put these into the courier. 

Click here to download the sponsorship form.

We have also produced a video for all the children at school that was shown in assembly last week. Once again thank you to everyone who sent in videos and to Mr Adkins for pulling this together for us. 

Click here to watch the video

Monday 9 November 2020 - 8.00pm

This will take place via Zoom. Log on details will be sent out nearer to the event. 

Anyone is welcome to join us at this meeting as we discuss the new events calendar for this academic year in light of the new Covid restrictions.

Friday 13 November 2020 at 6.00pm

We will be looking to hold virtual bingo for all pupils. Further details on this will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.

Wow - we are so impressed that so many of you are keeping active in Ocotober:

• Sophia in Reception is keeping up with her commitment to do 20 daily laps around the garden 

Children in Class 4M have been busy:

• Chloe and Ava who cycled around Draycote on Sunday 
• Charlie and  Bella ran 5k mud run round their fields on Saturday 9 OCtober.  This was a brilliant achievement especially  in the wind and rain.
• Poppy also cycled round Draycote.

We are planning some exciting events in the run up to Christmas that all children can take part in at school plus some events for parents. Further details on these will be sent out after our next FoC meeting.

Inez (Alex and Lucas' Mum) has kindly pulled together some information to inform parents what the FoC does and what the FoC has purchased from money raised. 

Please click on the photo to see the FoC Fast Facts!

Thank you Inez.

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. 

Thank you to everyone who took part last Friday and to Ms Forth for pulling it altogether.

Well done to our winners Chris and Liv and to Alison Watson and Sarah Wo for coming second and third respectively.

They all received bottles of Prosecco for their great efforts. 

Please click on the link below to view the lunch menu after half term: 

Lunch Menu - 2 November 2020

Crescent School Office

Please ensure that you wait with your child(ren) at drop off until the school's opening at 8.15am.  It is only at this time that school becomes responsible for all children's safe care. Before this time it is a parental duty.

Please note, however, that all children can be brought to the front door at any time from 7.45am - 8.15am where they will be welcomed and looked after by our Early Bird staff as appropriate for their age. This does not need to be booked in advance.

Also please let the school office and/or your child's form teacher know if someone else will be collecting your child at the end of the day. We cannot release pupils without this information.

Many thanks

Please find below term dates for 2020/21:

Please see below for useful school contact information:

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

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

In line with other local schools and Warwickshire County Council’s message below, please wear face coverings on school grounds (if you are able) when dropping off and collecting children. 

Please remember there is plenty of space around school to socially distance.

Many thanks for you for your co-operation.

Public Health England have produced a letter for schools to distribute to parents which explains when a person requires a coronavirus test and what the symptoms of coronavirus are. They have asked us to share and circulate this letter amongst parents at the school.

The intention of the letter is to help prevent children being taken out of school unnecessarily and answer some of the questions parents may have around testing.

You can view the letter here.

Children or adults with symptoms must not enter school. Parents must check for symptoms each day before bringing their child into school.

The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:

• a high temperature – please, if you have not already done so, source a thermometer to check temperatures at home
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Any children or adult who develops symptoms will need to leave the building as soon as possible and be tested for Covid-19.

Details on testing can be obtained at www gov uk/get-coronavirus-test or call the Test and Trace Helpdesk on 119.

Hand held thermometers will be used to check the temperature of any individual feeling unwell. Children who develop symptoms during the school day will be taken to the Meeting Room and their parents called to come and collect the child, as well as any siblings of the child.

Other members of the household should self-isolate for 14 days from when the symptomatic person first had symptoms, or until a negative test result is returned.

In the event of a positive test result the full protocols of test and trace will be followed www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-test-and-trace-how-it-works#

Children returning from restricted areas outside UK must self-isolate as advised by the government guidance before returning to school.