The Courier

I would remind parents to ensure that children do not come into school wearing jewellery.  Necklaces, rings and earrings can easily be broken or lost and are potentially hazardous when taking part in physical activities or experiments.

Thank you for you cooperation with this health and safety matter.

Please click on the link below to view the weekly calendar.  This details all the co-curricular clubs running and any changes.  It also contains fixtures and additional information.

Weekly Calendar - 290118.pdf

Crescent School

Our catering team, Olive Catering Services, are looking at ways in which our children can be more aware of and engage with different fruit and vegetables. Over the spring and summer terms, they will be exploring food engagement initiatives which will be broken down into two categories:

Food Engagement

Class V were very pleased to welcome members of the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service to the Crescent on Wednesday 24 January for a Junior Fire Safety Champion talk.  

Jo, Paul, Alex and Stefan, who are all active firefighters in the Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, led an hour’s informative and fun fire safety session for Class V to train them up to be Junior Fire Safety Champions. The children built on their knowledge from the fire service’s first visit in Class I and explored different fire hazards within the home, looking at ways they could ensure both they, and their families, remained safe in the event of a fire.

The talk concluded with a Q&A session where the children asked some thought-provoking questions such as ‘what would the firefighters do if they were in a burning building that was near collapse and they knew someone was trapped?’ and a much pondered question of ‘are there ever fires at fire stations?’ to which the children were surprised to hear, there are!

Kitted out with a Junior Fire Safety Champion booklet, the children (with help from parents/carers) can perform their own fire safety checks at home. Once the fire safety checklist is complete, Class V can return their forms to receive their official Junior Fire Safety Champion certificates!

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service have also put together some songs to help Junior Fire Safety Champions keep safe from fire – these can be accessed on YouTube here: Songs for Junior Fire Safety Champions - Warwickshire

A big thank you once again to Jo, Paul, Alex and Stefan for their time.

This year 13 Crescent children have been chosen to have their art work displayed in the Exhibition of Young Local Artists at Warwick School.

Children from Class I drew Autumn leaves then added detail and colour:

• Chloe Brosnan
• Freddie Spicer
• Grace Crowfoot
• Grace Mercer
• Jasper Evans
• Nicholas Pollard

Children from Class II drew and painted sunflowers, inspired by Van Gogh:

• Rosina Watson
• Stephanie Bolton

Children from Class VI used different types of pencils and graphite sticks to draw black and white landscapes:

• Alex Reynolds
• Amelie Edge
• Georgia Dowling
• Roman Thearia
• Thomas Brinklow

Congratulations to all!

Monday 5 February 2018

We will be holding our first ‘Mastery Day’ on Monday 5 February. One of our school targets in the classroom this year is to provide opportunities to demonstrate mastery. All pupils will take part in this theme day in mixed age groups and be presented with tasks, puzzles, projects and conundrums all connected to the theme of ‘Party!’. Children will work together to reach conclusions, answers and solutions through using the skills they have learned so far.

We hope it will be a most enjoyable day for children and a fascinating day for staff to watch the pupils shine and rise to the challenges planned.

We look forward to sharing the results of our day, soon.

Ms Forth
Deputy Head Teacher
Head of Curriculum

Monday 12 to Thursday 15 February 2018

Please look out for the invitation to our curriculum workshops; this time it is the turn of Mathematics.  They will run from 9.05am - 10.05am from Monday 12 to Thursday 15 February. Different classes will be invited in on different days, as stated in the letter.

Our focus for these workshops is ‘Mastery’.  Our whole school target this year is to provide opportunities for children to demonstrate ‘Mastery’.  In mathematics, this manifests itself through investigation work, puzzles, problems, application and pattern identification. It also includes the ability to explain strategies, solutions and answers.

Please come and join us for this valuable opportunity with your child to see techniques and expectations demonstrated in class, with a few ideas of how support could be consistent at home.

Return the slip on the invitation to your child’s Form Tutor; places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. We look forward to sharing our classrooms with you.

Monday 12 to Friday 16 February 2018

We want to invite you in to school to work with and support your child through quizzing on Accelerated Reading, Spellzone and Abacus.

You are welcome to join your child in the computing room and experience their opportunities on our learning platforms on any day of the week of Monday 12 to Friday 16 February from 8.15am - 8.35am.

A member of staff will be present to welcome you and show the support we offer your child.

There is no need to make an appointment, just drop in, even if it is for a few minutes. 

I am pleased to announce some new Junior da Vinci students.  These children have received a mastery, practice and creativity sticker in one subject over the year so far.

Well done to:

Class I

• Eric Hutchinson - Art
• Freddie Spicer - Maths

Class II

• Dorrit Davies - English
• Rosina Watson -English

Class III

• Alyssa Barnett - Maths

Class V

• Mehul Patel - English
• Anton Tran - Maths

Class VI

• Samuel Lau - English
• Connor Smith - Art and Design

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

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

A number bonds challenge certificate has, this week, been awarded to Bryson Taylor-Jackson.

Congratulations!

Mr Webb
Class II Teacher and Assistant Head
Head of Pre-Prep

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

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

Fantastic congratulations to Marco and Jamie who were selected to represent the Midlands at the ISA National Swimming finals in London on Sunday 21st January.  The event was held at the Olympic Pool in London and was attended by over 1500 in spectators and 400 swimmers.

Both boys competed extremely well, putting in fantastic legs for the 200m freestyle relay teams. Marco's Year 4 team finished a very comfortable 1st place and Jamie swam his socks off to bring his Year 5 team from 3rd to first on his leg. Unfortunately the excitement of the day and the nerves of the venue got the better of other swimmers in their teams and both teams were disqualified for faulty change overs by other swimmers.

A superb experience for the boys and lessons learnt for future events.  Everyone at Crescent is very proud of you and your achievements.

This Saturday, it was the turn of the Under 9s to play in a tournament.  Their previous outing did not show their full capability as they struggled against Solihull.

The first match set the tone as the boys passed the ball around with vision and confidence and won comfortably 2-0. They then played Beeston Hockey Club which they knew would be a challenge as Beeston are one of the top teams in the country. However, the boys looked more than comfortable in a 0-0 draw and had more of the attacking play.

Josh Gorbutt came out of goal as other teams did not have goalkeepers and he was yet to touch the ball!  He joined a defensive three alongside Joshua Olner and Marco Rodriguez Hernandez, between them, they were a rock in front of the D.

Marco passed out of defensive superbly to set up attacks and the attacking four of Matthew Thomas, George Bell, Isaac Nelson and Archie Dowling were a handful.  Dowling got his positioning right and scored the winner against Belper Hockey Club - another big club - before bagging a hat-trick against Foremarke 'B'. 

Crescent knew that the last two matches would be tough as they had to play Solihull and Foremarke 'A'.  George Bell made better decisions on the right which caused problems for the defenders and Isaac Nelson cut in from the left to support Dowling up front.  Thomas was great going forward and backwards and controlled the play from the middle.  Against Solihull, Crescent thought they had scored but the goal was ruled out for an earlier foul and then a ball across the face of the goal couldn’t be touched in. 0-0 v Solihull.

The boys looked a little tired against Foremarke and the hosts took advantage by creating some great goalscoring chances. Last gasp defending and the odd bit of luck kept Foremarke out.  With seconds remaining, Dowling, who had been quiet in this match, was in the right place at the right time to give Crescent the win.

There were matches still remaining so everyone was trying to work out whether Crescent could win overall and what results were needed.  In the end, it was an amazing finish as Solihull had exactly the same points, goal difference, goals scored and goals conceded as Crescent.  It was decided that the win should be shared rather than penalty shuffles. 

Well done boys!

It was not long before Crescent were able to put in practice what they had learned from the Saturday tournament.  The response was very pleasing. Matthew Thomas and Dylan Hopkins defended with maturity in the first half and let nothing past.  Oliver Bell, who had performed consistently well on Saturday, did so again.  Fin Calder was much more of a threat up front and he hit some early shots that troubled the goalkeeper.  It was Calder who gave the visitors the lead from a short corner.

Warwick equalised shortly after following some good build up play.  Late on in the first half, a couple of one-twos between Calder and O. Bell culminated in a shot form Calder.  George Bell was on the back post to make sure that it went in. 2-1.  That is how the game finished as the second half ebbed and flowed but stayed as it was.

Crescent have got some national tournaments coming up so this was a good opportunity to try out and find out things in a warm up tournament.

Crescent started brightly, drawing with a strong Foremarke Hall team.  It was a fair result on the balance of play.  After that, Crescent struggled defensively and were hesitant in front of goal.  Against Bedford, they showed more signs of what they are capable of and came away with a 1-0 win.

The lessons learned from the tournament were that Chris Gibson is an ever improving goalkeeper as he made lots of top quality saves; Dylan Hopkins looked comfortable in his first 'A' team match; the children need to be more confident in their shooting and more competitive in their tackling.

The children were updated in assembly about choosing a name for our Guide Dog puppy.  We have asked them to fill in a slip with their name and class and to choose a suitable name for our puppy.  The name should not be similar to a command (e.g. Faye would not be suitable as it's too close to stay).  Preferably it should be two syllables long and a universal name so it can be either a boy or girl dog name.

The slips and box to enter will be on the FoC table along with stickers for every entry submitted.  The closing date for this will be Friday 9 February.

The top three names will be chosen to submit with our entry.

Friday 9 February 2018 - 5.00pm to 6.30pm

We will be holding our first Movie Night of 2018 in aid of our "Name a Puppy" charity.  All the proceeds from this evening will go towards this and hopefully we will reach and exceed our total of £1500 required. 

We have opted for a doggy-themed movie and have chosen to show Beethoven.  This will be on Friday 9 February in the school hall from 5.00pm and should finish at 6.30pm. Please drop children off via the front entrance and pick them up via the usual side entrance.

It's only £5 per child and £3 for Reception children as they need to be accompanied by an adult and this includes the movie plus snacks and a drink. 

Please put your child(s) name down on the list on the FoC noticeboard and you can either pay on the night or put £5 in an envelope marked "Movie Night" with your child's name on it into the green FoC box. 

If you would like your child to go into after-school until the movie night starts please put their name down on the after-school sheet and tick for your child to receive tea and we'll make sure that all children receive their tea before the movie starts.

16 February 2018 - 3.45pm - 4.15pm

Come along and purchase cakes and sweets all in aid of Year 3.

This year we will be getting your child to decorate a heart shaped porcelain dish which will come gift wrapped with a hand made tag and include some love hearts for £5. 

Look out for a form which will be circulated next week if you would like your child(ren) to participate in this activity.

Please click below to view the lunch menu for week commencing 29 January.  This is in a new format to provide more information regarding the choice of food on offer each day.

Lunch Menu - 290118

Crescent School Office

The Foundation is offering an exciting opportunity for an experienced Grounds person to develop their career further in grounds keeping and to build on their existing leadership skills.

As the Assistant Grounds Manager, you will be joining a busy, close-knit Grounds Team where you will play a key role in managing the grounds of the three schools within the Foundation.

The successful candidate will be NVQ Level 3 Sports Turf Maintenance qualified or equivalent and will offer significant grounds maintenance experience. The ability to remain calm in a busy and demanding environment, excellent communication skills, strong leadership skills and a flexible attitude to working hours are all essential. An interest in conservation and wildlife will be advantageous.

This is a varied and 'hands-on', predominately outdoors role working 37.5 hours a week, on a 7 days' contract and requires the post holder to be open to change and adapt to changing priorities.

The initial working pattern will be Monday to Friday 8.00am - 4.30pm plus a Saturday rota for sports and events.  This is a Foundation wide role, based at Princethorpe College with duties at The Crescent and Crackley Hall Schools.

This is an excellent opportunity to join the fast growing Foundation that values its staff and offers a rewarding benefits package including discounted places for staff, a pension scheme, child care vouchers and a cycle to work scheme.

Application: To apply for this vacancy applicants must submit a Princethorpe College application form, together with a CV and covering letter detailing your personal qualities, experience and how you meet the person specification for the role. Applicants must ensure the application form is fully completed, including a detailed career history with specific dates.

Closing date: Monday 5 February 2018, at 9.00am and interviews are likely to be held on Thursday 8 February at Princethorpe.

Further details and an application form are available from the College website www.princethorpe.co.uk/employment-opportunities.

We seek to appoint a well-qualified, dynamic and lively graduate to teach Business Studies and/or Economics to GCSE and A-level, working in a flourishing and successful department.  Starting in September 2018, or sooner depending on the successful candidate's availability, the role will be offered on a full-time or significant part-time basis. 

Enthusiasm to become involved with the extra-curricular life of the school is essential.  Candidates should be able to demonstrate success in the classroom and be effective team players.

This is an excellent opportunity to join the fast growing Foundation that values its staff and offers a rewarding benefits package including discounted places for staff, a pension scheme, child care vouchers and a cycle to work scheme.

Application: To apply for this vacancy applicants must submit a Princethorpe College application form, together with a CV and covering letter detailing your personal qualities, experience and how you meet the person specification for the role. Applicants must ensure the application form is fully completed, including a detailed career history with specific dates.

Closing date: Monday 29 January 2018, at 9.00am, although candidates are advised to apply immediately. Interviews are likely to be held on Friday 2 February at Princethorpe.

Further details and an application form are available from the College website: www.princethorpe.co.uk/employment-opportunities