The Courier

In line with most schools around the country, Crescent will be having our first emergency drill this term where the children are required to remain inside the building.  The children will stay in their rooms and doors, windows and blinds will be closed.  The idea is to prepare ourselves for a different style of threat, that the normal evacuation procedure would not cover.

I will be telling the children about this in assembly next week.  They will have a chance to discuss and practise in form periods before the actual drill, which will take place later in the term.

Every effort will be made to make sure that instructions are straightforward and do not alarm the children.  We will simply tell them that is a different type of drill because there might be times when we all need to stay in our classrooms to be safe.

Dear Parents

I have received some complaints and concerns from local residents regarding parents parking and driving in and around the school.  These have included blocking the entrance to the retirement home as well as fast driving and poor parking on Bawnmore Court and Dalkeith Avenue.

I fully appreciate the difficulties that parents have parking and dropping off for school, and also the time pressure you may be under.

However, please remember that we must be considerate of our neighbours, in the same way we would hope visitors to our own home streets would be.  The safety of the children must also be a paramount concern and I would urge everyone to drive and park with this in mind on all occasions around the school site.

We would very much appreciate volunteers coming into to help listen to our children read.  An hour a week really does help the children within a class to make progress.  You will have to have a DBS check and will work with a class that is different to your own child.

If this is something you feel you can do please email me on slowe@crescentschool.co.uk

Thank you

Throughout December Crescent School families were invited to contribute a gift of non-perishable food in a Reverse Advent Calendar collection for Rugby Food Bank.  The response was overwhelming and after the school term finished on Wednesday 20 December 12 boxes of donations were delivered to the Food Bank where they were very gratefully received.

Most people are lucky enough to be able to enjoy preparing for Christmas but for some families there is just not enough money to go round.  Food bank use is on the rise in the UK and the extra financial pressures in December always lead to a spike in demand just before Christmas.  The Reverse Advent Calendar initiative is a great idea, an example of how communities can take action to stop their neighbours going hungry, one that recognises that the spirit of Christmas is to give.  It is a philosophy very much in line with the Crescent School motto, ‘To give is to receive’.

Teaching Assistant, Mrs Debbie Olner, who organised the school’s Reverse Advert Calendar, said, “A huge thank you to everyone who bought something in to donate to Rugby Food Bank.  Crescent families were incredibly generous and we were astounded by the quantity of items received.  Every day we would empty the donations box and every day parents would fill it up again.  The Reverse Advent Calendar is such a simple concept and Crescent families embraced it for a very worthy cause.”

We have received the following message from Rugby Food Bank:

Thanks for the tremendous support from the school.  I am delighted to let you know that Crescent School donated an amazing 145.4kg at Christmas along with 112.3kg at Harvest Festival.

Well done to everyone and please pass on our thanks to all the parents, children and staff.

Kind regards
Diana Mansell

Our thanks go to Mrs Olner for organising the Reverse Advent Calendar and to pupils, Isaac and Euan Nelson and Josh Olner, who helped Mrs Olner and Mrs Stapleton deliver all the donations.

A damp January morning might not be everyone’s choice of day to take a trip to the seaside, but on Wednesday 10 January Crescent’s Class I did just that, sauntering through holidays past and present, with a little help from the Freshwater Theatre Company.  

The class has been studying seaside holidays using the topic to develop their knowledge of the past and to appreciate the differences in the present.  Freshwater Theatre came into school to bring their studies to life as part of a dedicated history day.  They ran a drama workshop giving the children a memorable and engaging trip through seaside holidays from 1910 through to the modern day. The children explored how holidays and pastimes have changed over the past century in a lively session packed full of holiday fun.

The drama activity was enjoyed by Class I and Class II (Class II explored the seaside last year and the workshop offered them an enjoyable refresher).

The workshop looked at the differences in countries visited, transport, clothing, entertainment, food eaten, sun protection, how memories were recorded and changes in attitudes.

During the day the children also explored seaside music, created sand art projects, studied and sorted seaside pictures and wrote comparative articles.

The special day was finished off with a very enjoyable traditional Punch and Judy show and an ice cream.  

Class I teacher, Mrs Emery, said, “The children really enjoyed the day, they had a lot of fun while learning lots about seaside holidays.  They developed their historical skills, their knowledge of the changes that have happened during the last century and they were all able to share lots of new information they had learned from the day.”

It clearly was a super salty, splashy, sandy, seaside History day.

The Foundation's senior school Princethorpe College celebrated its 50th Anniversary last academic year 2016-2017.  

To celebrate the year The Foundation has produced a 60-page souvenir review of all the activities and events that took place. An electronic version is available to view on the College website here.

Any Old Princethorpians or Crescent parents who would like to receive a printed hard copy of the review should contact the School Office or email goldenjubilee@princethorpe.co.uk with your name and address.

If you love Harry Potter and drawing then this is the competition for you! 

You can draw your own Fantastic Beast, upload it (see link below) or post it by the Saturday 10 February and then you may win tickets to the Warner Brother Studios.  There are entry forms on the competition board by the pupil entrance.

Harry Potter

Every year many of our children enter, as yet we haven't had any winners, but this year it may be you...

Please take a look at the link and then just have a go.  Please let me know if any of you have entered and I am happy to support in any way I can.

500 Words Competition

Wednesday 17 January 2018 - 10.00am to 3.00pm

The Crescent School is opening its doors for an Open Day on Wednesday 17 January from 10.00am to 3.00pm.

This is an opportunity to meet the Crescent's new headmaster, Joe Thackway, see its new facilities, look around the school and to meet staff and pupils on a normal working day. Prospective grown ups, and little visitors, are most welcome and no need to book.

We currently have a small number of places available in Reception to Year 4 and are accepting registrations for admission to Reception and Year 3 in September 2018. Interest in our Reception Class for September 2018 is high and the deadline for registrations is Monday 5 February 2018.

If you can't make the Open Day but would like to visit the school, please call our Registrar, Mrs Helen Morley on 01788 521595 and come on a day to suit you, we welcome visitors on most days.

For more information visit http://www.crescentschool.co.uk/

The following children have been awarded Accelerated Reader Awards this week:

The following children have received Junior da Vinci Awards this week:

As you will know from this term’s co-curricular lists there is an option of a number bonds challenge on Wednesday lunchtimes from 12.20pm until 12.50pm (to allow access from the correct lunch sitting for all).

This is a drop in session, no need to formally sign up, whereby any Year 1 or 2 child can choose to come along to my classroom and be tested on their knowledge of number bonds to 10, 20 or 100.  Mrs Emery and myself will remind the children of the option each week.

There will be graded certificates awarded according to whether children can recite them, answer questions on them or apply them in different contexts. 

Children are not expected to attend every week – just when they next feel ready to be tested on the next bond up or the next layer of challenge. This will all be done in a relaxed way which will enable children to practise, at home, and then demonstrate, in school, their understanding of a key mathematical learning strand for their age.

Crescent took all of their Year 5 and 6 boys to The Croft Prep School - a new school on the fixture calendar but it was nice to see an old face in Mr Ferris, formerly of Crackley Hall.

The 'A' team showed their usual energetic approach to the game from the off.  Early on, Matthew Browne stole the ball on the half way line and broke on the defence.  His square pass into the area fell to the feet of Ethan Capelett, who fired into the goal, via the goalkeeper.  Crescent then defended well with Daniel Pinks always looking comfortable, Oliver Bell and Dylan Hopkins working hard to close down in the wide areas and Kyle Kerfoot-Bale looking completely at ease in his first match for the U11 'A' team. 

However, a poorly defended corner allowed The Croft to equalise before some over expansive passing in dangerous areas led to the hosts taking the lead. Crescent took some time to regain their composure and Fin Calder tried to hold the ball up front to allow the visitors to create some pressure. Towards the end of the half, Crescent won a corner.  Browne’s cross caused some strife and was turned into the net by an unfortunate defender.  That concluded the scoring. 

In the second half, The Croft were reduced to long range shots which Chris Gibson dealt with comfortably and Connor Smith added to the defensive strength.  Following good work from Capelett, he attempted to return the favour for Browne as he rolled him in.  Browne looked certain to score but a good save by the goalkeeper kept the scores level.

The 'B' team showed more energy in their match, helped by the new signing of Eddie Arkesden who worked really hard.  The Croft had the better of the play but goalkeepers Samuel Lan and Roman Thearia and defenders Jamie Capelett and Vignesh Sadasivan scrambled well to shut them out.  Crescent grew into the game and Thomas Brinklow scored what proved to be the winning goal.

The 'C' team came up against a strong opponent and weren’t able to keep the goals out in the same way that the 'A' and 'B' team could.  Anand Desai and Sam Watson worked hard and Rayan Usman tackled well.  However, it finished 8-0 to The Croft. One can learn a lot from a strong opponent, though and hopefully the boys are stronger for it.

Well done everyone

We have now raised £1,448 towards our target of £1,500 which allows us to Name a Guide Dog Puppy!

Thank you to everyone who generously donated money at the School Carol Concert and Christmas Jumper Day.

Our final fundraiser for this will be our Dog themed Movie Night on Friday 9 February.  I'll update on the film after our FoC meeting but it'll be a Universal film of a doggy kind!

Zara Corbin

We hope everyone who purchased a DVD of the Nativity performances enjoyed them.

Please if you still owe money for these would you return it as soon as possible either via the FOC post box or the school office.

Below are details of the events being held this term:

Welcome back to the Lent Term. I hope you have had a lovely Christmas break and are looking forward to a happy and healthy 2018.  Thank you so much for the John Lewis vouchers and the lovely gifts – so kind and really appreciated.

Over the course of this half term I will be sending home different information about the curriculum requirements for Year 1 and how you can support your child at home. 

For spelling, there are two strands to building core skills:

1) Learning key phonics / spelling patterns to build children’s independent ability to sound out and spell unknown words.

2) Learning and building a bank of key words that are most frequently used in writing.

This Half-Term:
One of the Year 1 spelling objectives is to be able to correctly write all of the number names from zero to twenty and this half term we will focus on zero to ten. We have been working on this in class so some children may already know them, others may need to practise certain ones that they find tricky.

We will have a number names spelling test at the end of this half term so if you could support your children in practising these over the next six weeks, that would be a great help.  Once your child is secure in these, try testing them out of number order so their knowledge is secure as individual words not just as part of a number string.

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.

Support Child - Class I Lent Term 2018.pdf

Mrs Emery
Class I Teacher

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.

Support Child - Class II Lent Term 2018.pdf

Mr Webb
Class II Teacher

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.

Suport Child - Class III Lent term 2018.pdf

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.

Support Child - Class IV Lent Term 2018.pdf

Mrs Monteith and Mrs Yates
Class IV(M) and IV(Y)

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.

Support Child - Class V Lent Term 2018.pdf

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.

Support Child - Class VI Lent Term 2018.pdf