The Courier

Dear Parents

This will be our last full version of the Courier for the term. There is, as usual, lots of school news in here to read about and many achievements to savour. I hope you continue to find this an enjoyable, end of the week treat in your inbox.

It has been a busy week in school as we head towards the end of what has been a very different term. We began the week with our intruder alarm drill, which went very smoothly. The children all behaved beautifully and there was certainly no panic, everyone remained calm and sensible, just like it says in the Promise. On Wednesday, we had three excellent candidates for our Science and DT teaching position and we expect to be in a position to announce the new appointment in the very near future. We finished the week with some wonderful musical performances in our assembly, with Alex from Year 2 on the trumpet and Alex from Year 3 on the piano, as well as the Year 6 readings for Easter Week. Today we have also had playleader training for Year 6 St David’s children.

A particular treat this week was seeing the children out for their Games and PE lessons on the field in the spring sunshine. The return to school has done wonders not only for renewing the children’s academic focus, but also for everyone’s wellbeing and physical fitness. Long may it continue.

With the Easter Service to come next week, the full range of school activities are very much on the go. On that note, we wish all of those preparing for their ABRSM music exams next week the very best of luck

We will be back with a mini-Courier on Tuesday but, in the meantime, I wish you all a restful weekend.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs Louise Symons as our new Year 1 teacher for September 2021.

By way of background, Mrs Symons is a fully qualified teacher with 15 years’ experience in local primary schools, including five years as a Deputy Head at Cawston Grange and another four as Headteacher at Northlands Primary School in Rugby.

We are really pleased to have such a high calibre addition to our team and we wish Mrs Symons all the best in her new role.

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 - 29 March 2021 

Please note all co-curricular clubs have finished for the term.  After School is still running and can be booked through My School Portal.

Crescent School

Co-curricular will continue in the same format next half-term, we will keep reviewing it in line with government guidelines. An email has been sent out with sign up details for the first half of Trinity Term, it would be great to see every child involved in at least one activity.

In the brief time we have been in school we have run a successful programme of activities through our co-curricular programme. A big thank you to the staff who run these activities and a thank you to the children who show dedication and interest in things outside the classroom. It is great to see their enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Our wonderful Mrs Webb celebrated a very special '0' birthday this week and Class 6W were on hand to make it a day for her to remember.

We decorated our classroom with beautiful balloons and banners, sang Happy Birthday in assembly and finished off our day with a wonderful party in the hall, playing party games, dancing and enjoying our fill of her wonderful birthday cake.

We have always welcomed parents and families into school to share our performances, events and information sessions. This past year has taught us to involve you in many other ways through Teams meetings, recordings and online events. As teachers we have learnt many new skills and we have been kept on our toes.

We recognise the benefit to the children and parents about feeling involved through sharing what we do in school with people at home. To show these performances, assemblies, services etc we have bought some better recording equipment, so the quality can be improved for you.

Mr Adkins had been putting it to use recording 6W for their part in the Easter Service. We look forward to many other recordings by other year groups, but most of all we cannot wait to welcome you back into school again.

Year 5 and 6 have both received a class reader to enjoy over the Easter holidays, either Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo or 18th Emergency by Betsy Byars.  If they have already read this book then please encourage them to read another book by the same author.

I am happy for pupils to share the book with you, listen to it or read it themselves. They will all need to have completed reading their book by the start of the Trinity term so that we can work from it together.

In this morning's assembly, Mr Thackway was able to share our thanks and appreciation to our School Council that has been the student voice over the past 18 months:

• Class 1S - Esme and Theo
• Class 2W - Samuel and Zac
• Class 3Y - Emily and Timi
• Class 4M - Bella and Charlie
• Class 5F - Aryaan and Charlotte

After supporting the FoC in fundraising activities and raising an amazing amount for Hope4, it is time to nominate a new Council for the coming months. The children really appreciate the chance to discuss ideas and find ways to make our School a safe and happy place to be in and we are excited to welcome the new cohort, voted in by their peers, after the Easter break.

Well done to all.

We still have a significant shortfall of school reading books not returned since the last lockdown.  Please could you all have a check at home for any school reading books which haven't been returned. 

Children can either bring them into school and deposit them in a quarantine box in their classroom or they can be left in the box outside the main school entrance.  

With many thanks as always.

This term has been a great term for reading, as usual there will be no quizzing over the Easter holidays.

Please do keep reading though, try different genres and enjoying sharing books.

Tuesday 30 March 2021

As is tradition, we will be holding our Easter Service on the last day of Lent Term.

Class 5F will share the Easter story with you through poetry, readings, prayer and music, supported by members of Class 6W and Choir.

It will be a recorded online event as public performance guidelines are still in place regarding audiences in school. Pupils and parents will be able to watch the service thorough the link sent out 30 March 2021.

Tickets are now on sale for Princethorpe College’s fabulous virtual production of the 1970s rock opera hit, Jesus Christ Superstar.

It promises to be a highly entertaining show, featuring a number of classic rock musical numbers including Gethsemane, I Don’t Know How To Love Him, Everything’s Alright and of course the powerful anthem Superstar. 

The virtual production will be streamed over the Easter period from Thursday 1 to Thursday 8 April 2021. Tickets cost £15 per family and you are able to stream the show as often as you like during that week. Due to the strict copyright laws, it will then be taken down never to be seen again.

Tickets are available through the booking system here: bit.ly/JCSbkgs please select any date and time.

Please purchase your tickets by 9.00am on Monday 29 March. The streaming links will be sent out on Wednesday 31 March.

We are pleased to award the following children with Junior da Vinci awards:

• Charlotte C for English
• Alyssa for History 
• Amy, Jay and Isaac for Science and DT.
• Alice R for Literacy

Congratulations to you all.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

This week congratulations go to:

2,000,000 words:

• Orla (6W)

1,000,000 words:

• Alex (3Y)

500,000 words:

• Bryson

Keep up the good reading!

Top Quizzers this week are:

• 3Y  Shiv
• 4M Yash
• 5F  Evie
• 6W Orla

Word Wizards this week are:

• 3Y  Shayla
• 4M Mya
• 5F  Stephanie
• 6W Amelia

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.

Roisin, Shayla and Timi have shown pride in the presentation of all of their learning tasks and have been awarded a Pen Licence and their first handwriting pen.

Their pens and licences were presented to them in Mr Thackway's assembly this morning.

Well done!

Weekly Class battle 19 - 25 March 2021

The following children will receive a JdV for maths practice:

• Ollie 6W - L100+
• Emme 6W - L100+
• Joshua 6W - Top level 420

Well done Class 4M - good to see 6W on the platform:

• 1st place - Class 4M with  11,183 points
• 2nd place - Class 3Y with    8,536 points
• 3rd place - Class 6W with    4,765 points

The players contributing the most points to their class were:

• 1st - Bryson (4M)
• 2nd - Shiv (3Y)
• 3rd - Timi (3Y)

This week's Playground Conduct award is presented to Lilah  for using her initiative and picking up rubbish in the playground, helping the environment and keeping the school playground clean.

Lunchtime Supervisors

Class 1S has been designing, making, and evaluating hand puppets this week. They all decided what character they wanted to make and set about drawing and labelling their puppet thinking about what colours they wanted to use. Sewing came next, followed by decorating where features and extras were cut out and stuck on.

Finally, the puppets were played with and evaluated and some even joined forces with a friend to create a mini play.

Today in Computing Class, 2W got to show off their cross-curricular Science, Maths and ICT skills on a data handling minibeast hunt!

We firstly used tally charts and our investigation skills to collect our own data on the numbers of minibeasts that could be found in forest school area, then headed straight to the ICT suite to turn our findings data into fantastic pictograms.

Some of us even managed to display our collected data in bar charts and pie charts too!

Class 2W have finished the term on a high in French! Today they performed their role-play at the vegetable stall.

Madame Tatton was the shop-keeper and the children were the customers.  All spoke with a lovely French accent and used the key phrases practised in class, such as “je voudrais” “s’il vous plait” and “merci”.

Well done children!

This week in Craft Club the children were issued with a challenge to make a maze that fits a pompom, contained inside a paper plate, that works completely, and doesn’t break when playing with it. The children had to use quite a few skills to get this design to work including thinking about the design process, such as the selection of the right materials for the task, making sure the design was precise and testing to make sure it worked properly. They had some failures along the way and had to re-think their designs/making, but each one of them finished with a working maze!

I was really impressed with this and hope that all the children will enjoy playing with their mazes at home and maybe challenging the rest of their family! If anyone wants to have a go at this activity at home then all you need is a paper plate and some imagination. Please send me a picture if you have a go!

Tying in with their English work on story structure and story writing, Class 3Y used the Puppet Pals animation app to create some amazing fairy tale inspired animated plays! They worked on planning stories with very clear beginnings, build-ups, problems, resolutions and endings, then used their animation skills to record them on the iPads, with true comic effect!

The Puppet Pals HD app is free to download, so if you are looking for a fun way to practice story telling and your digital skills at home, it comes thoroughly recommended!

Class 4M have enjoyed exchanging letters with a primary school in Northern France, practising their written French and receiving hand-written letters from their French penpals. 4M children were delighted to open Christmas cards this week – yes, CHRISTMAS cards! The Christmas cards arrived during the Chritsmas holidays and the lockdown means that they remained in school until now!

Class 5F has been learning all about forces and using Newton meters to measure force.  They used different coloured force meters to measure different size forces and then investigated which surfaces cause more friction than others.

Members of Class 5F learned to play "Yesterday" by the Beatles in their extra-curricular Orchestra group. In the group were 4 trombones, 4 cornets/trumpets, 3 flutes, 2 clarinets and a violin.

In only three weeks they were able to play to a high enough standard to record their work. Do listen via the link below and enjoy what they have achieved in such a short time. 

Class 5F Orchestra

There was a tint of sadness in our Year 5 French lesson today as it is our last lesson before we switch to Spanish in the Summer term.

Children made the most of the session as we wrote a final letter to our French penpals in Northern France. So whilst it is “adieu” to French, the children and I are very much looking forward to learning Spanish, as last year’s lockdown took away this opportunity.

Today, children in Year 6 learnt about French traditions for Easter. Whilst there were some common themes with the English celebrations (such as chocolate and eggs as a sign of new life), children were surprised to see that there is no Easter bunny in France; instead, the bells from French churches grow wings, fly to the Vatican to be blessed by the Pope and drop chocolate treats on their way back to France!

The children designed some Easter cards to reflect what they now know about “les fêtes de Pâques”!

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 are honest and tell the truth’

Mr Webb
Assistant Head

The FoC are inviting children to create an Easter Bonnet to bring into school on Monday 29 March. All designs welcome (an FoC child has already declared plans to use a viking helmet as a basis for theirs!).

Everyone who enters will receive a prize and there will be house points on offer. All being well the school is also hoping to do a parade for the children to share their creations.

FoC is asking for a £2 donation per entry to be paid on the day or preferably transferred electronically.

FoC Committee

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. 

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

Friends of Crescent Facebook Group

We're hoping to announce some exciting initiatives shortly so please join to avoid missing out! 

Nick Brosnan
Friends Of Crescent - Chair  

We will happily accept any of the following Crescent pre-loved uniform:

• School Blazers
• School Coats
• School Cardigans and Jumpers
• School Dresses (winter and summer) and Skirts
• School T-Shirts/Polo Shirts/PE Shorts/Skorts
• School Boaters
• School Bags
• School Tracksuits

Please do not include anything not on the list above e.g trousers, shirts etc. 

Uniform should be put into carrier bags and left by the box outside the main school entrance.  It will then be removed and kept in quarantine ready to be used when safe to do so.

Preloaded uniform enquiries can be made by emailing Vicky on the link below:

Preloved Uniform

Please click on the link below to view the lunch menu for next week: 

Lunch Menu - 29 March 2021 

Children are able to have either of the main options.

Olive Catering

Please see below for useful school contact information:

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

• IT Infrastructure and Network Manager
• IT Engineer

Full details and information on how to apply are available on the Foundation website here:

www.princethorpe.co.uk/join-us

Should you know anyone who might be interested in these posts, please do share this information with them.

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

Please remember that St Mark's Church have confirmed that parents can use their car park for drop off and collection from school.  It is a large car park and there is a short cut from Church Walk which brings you out onto Bawnmore Court beside the school.

A short walk and a breath of fresh air is excellent at helping children get ready for their morning's learning. 

Crescent School

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. You can protect yourselves by only making payments to us in line with our normal, published methods. Any email offering a large discount on fees for the coming academic year if paid immediately is fraudulent.

There has been no change to the bank details of 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.

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 10 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.