The Courier

Dear Parents

We learned this week that there will be no return to school at least until Monday 8 March at the earliest. Inevitably, this brings a feeling of disappointment as in many ways we feel we can run a safe operation here in the school with all of the risk assessment and all the risk management strategies that we have. However, quite clearly the new variant of the Covid virus brings enormous risks with it and we will reluctantly follow this guidance until it is deemed safe for us to return.

This week we have been putting our minds to what we can do to keep the home learning experience fresh for the children. Many of you will have noticed an increase in the number of live Teams lessons and we hope that this experience will give the children added structure to their day and the chance to enjoy positive social interactions. We are also looking at options of having a second parent pick up for books and resources before the half term break. We will keep you informed of arrangements for this when our plans have got a little further forward.

During my assemblies in the last couple of weeks I have focused on appreciating wildlife and it has been lovely to see so many children responding positively to this. The bird drawing competition produced many beautiful entries and you can see the winners in this edition of the Courier. I really hope that all the other entrants aren't too discouraged by not winning, as there were so many superb drawings and pictures that it was almost impossible to pick the best. You will find a link to my Friday assembly in the newsletter, whilst other assemblies are recorded in Seesaw.

Children in the upper school this week took part in an online BBC lesson all about bird watching and, in particular, this weekend’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. If you would like to get involved, the link to register and take part is here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

I would love to see pictures of your children taking part in the birdwatch, or any pictures of them looking after birds, putting out food or making their own homemade feeders. Please submit any of these that you have to Courier email address and we will put together a Gallery to share next week. My plan is to make a display of all the wonderful drawings alongside the pictures of the children watching and caring for the birds that will greet everyone on their return to school, when it happens.

Have a great weekend everyone, and happy bird watching.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Please note that the school will be closed over the half term break, Monday 15 to Friday 19 February, in line with government guidance. We will re-open to parents of critical workers and vulnerable children on Monday 22 February.

We hope you all enjoyed last weekend's winter snow.

In school on Monday the children attending our Key Worker provision loved getting outside at Break for some fun in the snow and sun. A very welcome opportunity to enjoy some bright light after the dark clouds and rain of recent weeks.

A huge well done to all the children that took part in the Headmaster’s drawing competition. We have really enjoyed seeing all the paintings and drawings coming in.

The pictures featured all sorts of different birds, from Kingfishers to Buzzards to Blue Tits. The children’s attention to detail was remarkable with great observational skills and creativity on show. It was wonderful to see so many of them having a go, believing in themselves and doing their best. They have been an inspiration for us all.

It was a difficult decision choosing the winners but after considering all the entries carefully, the prize for the best bird pictures went to:

Pre-Prep - Nora 
Years 3&4 - Zahra 
Years 5&6 - Hattie 

Congratulations to Nora, Zahra and Hattie and also to everyone who took part in the competition, your pictures really impressed us all.

You can see all the children’s amazing artwork introduced by Mr Thackway in a short video here: https://vimeo.com/505626608/c8df546a40

And if your children enjoyed drawing birds then why not get them involved with the real thing in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. It is taking place this weekend and you can find out more information here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running! Go to: https://schools.scholastic.co.uk/the-crescent/digital-book-club 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 26 February 2021.

Buying additional books for your children will undoubtedly give them more opportunity to read and the commission does make a difference to the books that we have for all children in school.

Please arrange for all orders to be delivered to your home address as we are respectful of the Lockdown rules of only travelling when necessary.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

Assemblies play an important part in school life. They help us to come together as a community and share important messages and celebrate good news. They are also an engaging way to discuss moral and topical issues and promote the ethos of the school promise.

During the lockdown we will publish links to the school assemblies, for you to view at home.

We are so lucky that we can support reading whilst the children are learning from home. Each week the staff in Years 3-6 will monitor who is reading, so we can praise and encourage the children in their reading journey. If you need to check if a book is on the Accelerated Reading system then please use this link, it will also let you search for books at a certain book level.

https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/

As many of you will already know, I love books, I love reading and I love families and children to also find the joy in books too.

Here are some links that you many find useful; Borrowbox is run by the library and allows you to borrow digital books, so please take a look.

https://www.borrowbox.com/

Warwickshire Library

The other one that has come to my attention is the virtual school library. Every week a popular children's author or illustrator will provide you with free books, exclusive videos and their top three recommended reads.

National Academy

Please take the time to lose yourself in a book and please send me pictures of you enjoying a book.

I just wanted to flag up a rather marvellous Maths game on BBC Teach. It is totally free and aimed at KS2 - Year 3 to Year 6. BBC Teach has all sorts of games and clips which I fully endorse for Maths and many other subjects if your child fancies a little extra!

Guardians: Defenders of Mathematica

Best wishes

Monday 8  - Friday 12 February 2021

As I am sure you are aware, with the necessary extra screen time and reliance on technology that Covid-19 has brought upon us, not just for our work but also socialising and keeping in touch with loved ones, that how to keep ourselves safe online has never been a more vital, prevalent topic. 

Tuesday 9 February is UK Safer Internet Day and tying in closely with this at Crescent we will be running Digital Citizenship Week, beginning Monday 8 February. It is a chance for us all to look closely at how we use the internet and the technology in our lives, with a particular focus this year on:

'An Internet We Trust: exploring reliability in the online world.'

The week will be a chance to celebrate the amazing range of information and opportunities online, and its potential to inform, connect and inspire us, whilst also looking at how young people can separate fact from fiction.

We will focus on:

• how we can know what to trust online
• supporting young people to question, challenge and change the online world

It will explore how influence, persuasion and manipulation can appear online and why this may happen. It will also look at the emotional impact navigating a misleading online world can have on young people and why it is important to create a supportive, critical and questioning culture online that encourages debate and discussion.

Once young people feel more comfortable spotting fact from fiction, it is important that we then support them to take the next steps in helping to create an internet full of trustworthy and reliable information. 

If you have any questions or concerns about this at all, please do get in touch.

Tuesday 9 February 2021 - 7pm - TEAMS

Join us for an informative evening discussing what it means to be a Digital Citizen, the importance of this in today's ever-changing technology driven world, what we are doing at Crescent to ensure this and what parents can do at home to help with this.

Congratulations to the following pupils who have achieved awards this week:

Word Millionaires are:

• Grace (5F)
• Rohan (5F)

500k words:

• Edward G-H (3Y)

All badges will be saved and awarded when we return to school.

Top Quizzers this week are:

• 3Y  Edward G-H
• 4M Bella
• 5F  Aryan
• 6W Isaac 

Word Wizards this week are:

• 3Y  Alex G
• 4M Poppy
• 5F  Faris
• 6W Bella

Landmark Levels 

No pupils have reached landmark levels on automatic training mode in the Garage and Gigs this week but there are many pupils just a few levels away!  Keep practising and move up the levels to be awarded JDVs for Maths Practice: 

Weekly battle 22 - 28 January 2021

• Boys scored 9,054 points
• Girls scored 3,365 points

Well done, Boys' Team, again! Good to see some new names competing this week!

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. 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, Stay Home, Save Lives and Rockdown!

Each week I will be sharing chosen resources and activities to support emotional wellbeing during this time of lockdown and home learning. As a source, I will be choosing my favourite finds from the following website:

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/

ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant, but alongside training opportunities for school staff, they also provide resources for families to download to help with managing feelings, emotions and behaviours. As well as their website, you can follow them on social media and subscribe to new resources being created each week.

This week, this GRATITUDE WALK worksheet will help pupils to use their senses to find things they are grateful for. Combine mindfulness with positivity, for example there are signs of spring already – can you find them? You can find the link to print off the worksheet, here:  

https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/gratitude-walk/

I hope you can all get out and enjoy our beautiful, local area on a gratitude walk.

Stay safe and be kind to yourselves and others.

The Courier often, rightly, reflects excellent learning that has taken place during the week but as we proceed through the upcoming weeks of lockdown, we'd love to dedicate a section to small acts of kindness which Crescent children and families have committed to, to simply and safely enhance the lives of someone else.

Please do send examples/pictures to alanwebb@crescentschool.co.uk for inclusion next week and onwards.

With all best wishes.

A key part of Digital Citizen Week will involve an opportunity for pupils in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to experience Natterhub, which will be delivered in Computing lessons in the week before (week commencing Monday 1 Feb).

Natterhub is a completely safe, gated educational platform that has been designed to look and feel just like social media, enabling children to learn the skills they need to stay safe and savvy online and become responsible digital citizens, with a real focus on kindness, respect and friendship.

The gated platform can only be accessed by their fellow classmates and teachers at set times and for set periods and will be closely monitored.

For more information, please take a look at https://natterhub.com/parents and see the parents' guide.

If you have any questions or concerns about this at all, please do get in touch.

Well, it was a very tight competition this week with Red and Yellow drawing on points, scoring 156, with Blue house not far behind with 142.

It was great to see lots of pupils challenging themselves again this week by having multiple attempts to try and get the gold medal, as well as wanting to beat my score, which did not prove too difficult for some! I enjoyed seeing so many families involved too, with younger siblings, grandparents and parents joining in the fun.

This week's challenges are 

• Pre-Prep - Figures of 8 challenge which link to some of the Rhythmic Gymastics skills Year 1 and 2 have been looking at in gymnastics

• Years 3-6 - Catch and Clap which links to the ball-handling skills pupils have looked at in Rugby and Netball and in preparation for striking and fielding activities in the Trinity Term

For an extra bonus point why not get other members of your family involved.

I will add my entry in to this week's competition so you can see if you can beat me.

Remember these challenges can be completed as many times as you would like, however remember to send me your highest score by 6pm Wednesday night.

Have fun.

We'd love to introduce you to the new Friends of Crescent team. Supporting the Committee members we have:

We’d love you to follow the FoC Facebook page where we publish all news and information about our events.

Friends of Crescent Facebook Group

Nick Brosnan
Friends Of Crescent - Chair  

www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofcrescent
www.instragram.com/friendsofcrescent
e: chair@friendsofcrescent.co.uk

Hi I’m Nick Brosnan, Chair of the FoC.

I'm married to Claire and our daughter Chloe is in Year 4 and Oscar is due to start at Crescent in September.

I have been on the FoC committee for 5 years and was Treasurer for two and a half years before becoming Chair.

In my spare time, I enjoy watching the Wasps and I’m the guardian of a Triumph Spitfire.

I’m looking forward to getting more people involved in the great work the FoC team do and hope we raise as much as possible for our school and our Charity partners.

If you fancy helping out and getting involved (doesn’t have to be every meeting or every event) please let us know. 

Please find below term dates for 2020/21 and 2021/22:

In our number work we have been learning about sharing. Our learning was brought to life in our own teddy bears picnic. The children shared items between their cuddly friends learning that each had to have an equal amount. 

You can see our work by scrolling through the Gallery photos.

Last week in our Literacy work we used the story The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark to learn more about owls. We wrote about our favourite part of the story and explored different feelings about the dark. We created owl pictures – some of us followed step by step instructions of how to draw an owl and some of us created owls in our own way. 

Take a look through the photo gallery.

In English, 1S have been using the story of The House That Jack Built to describe settings and characters; and to use 'and' and 'because' to develop their sentences. So, it was natural for us to want to re-create their own houses in our Art lesson this week. Some painted, some used collage techniques, some built Lego and some even used the furniture!

Class 2W are embarking on a cross curricular project, learning about the rainforest in Geography and celebrating the wonderful animals through their artwork.

So far, we have created Zentangle Chameleons, Paper Chain Snakes and Tin Foil Toucans! We hope you enjoy our creations, and we look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks

This week, Class 4M were set a Billionaire Boy 'Dragon's Den' Activity. In the book, Mr Spud made his millions through his own invention, 'Bumfresh', a loo roll that was moist on one side and dry on the other.

This time, it was the turn of 4M to come up with their own 'Billion-pound' ideas for an invention. They certainly rose to the challenge and there were some amazing creations to name a few:

• The Miracle Pen
• The Bunny Assistant
• The Tangle Transformer,
• The Toy Tidy Robot Hoover 
• The Poo Picker 2021

Click through the photo gallery to view their designs.

Well done, 4M!