The Courier

Dear Parents

The theme of my assembly to the school earlier in the week was ‘how to be good member of the community’. Community Week is now a well-established part of the Year 6 programme and this year they have done some sterling work helping with the Reception children as they went on their very first trip to the swimming pool, as well as cleaning and polishing the brass over at St Marks church and learning some potentially lifesaving skills in their first aid course on Thursday. All of this fits in very well with the good citizens part of the School Promise and will hopefully help the children form a strong idea of the positive role they can play in society at large.

We also had Move-Up Day on Wednesday and this went particularly well this year, with the children very happily going off to their new teachers, spending time with them and sharing some hopes and aspirations for the year ahead. Next year's Reception class came in beautifully and I am pleased to report that we had no tears this year, so we must be doing something right.

Next week much of the focus is on our departing Year 6 class, with end of year celebrations and leavers’ service all ready to go. I suspect this may be the occasion for some tears. They have been a wonderful year group and I look forward to seeing them off in the right way, as well as having a chance to bid farewell to some very loyal families who have been with the school for many years and will leave us this July. There are three in particular, the Boltons, Deerys and Sarkies, where the youngest child will leave us this year, where the families can claim an accumulated time in school for their children of more than 50 years, which is really quite remarkable given the seven (or 9) year time span most children will spend with us.

I hope everyone who came along to yesterday’s Welcome Evening found it a useful and informative event and that you now feel ready for the Crescent year ahead. It was lovely to see so many of you there, as well as to welcome three new members of staff to the school team in Ms Clark, Miss Bowdige and Miss Quirke. We wish them well.

On a personal note, I am preparing for a cycling trip around Belgium with my youngest son in the first week of the school holiday so I will need to do a bit more training this weekend. If anyone knows a cure for saddle sores,  let me know.

Whatever you are doing this weekend I hope you are able to spend some of it relaxing with your children.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Weekly Calendar

Please click on the link below for next week's calendar. 

Calendar 4 July 2022 

After School

MySchoolPortal

Crescent School

Please click on the link below to view the Music Lesson timetable for next week:

Music Lessons 4 July 

There are many scholarships on offer from different schools. Each school will have different ways to apply and they can be worth applying for.

I have had an informative chat with Mrs Rooney at Princethorpe College, who should be your first port of call if you do have queries.

These are the main points to note:

Academic Scholarship: you do not need to apply for these, they are chosen completely from the exam results on the day.

All Rounder Scholarship: you do need to indicate that you wish to apply for this. There is an application form that needs completing. This is awarded to academically strong children who have shown breadth and depth in different areas.

The child will have to write a letter to the head (typed or handwritten); they create a portfolio with references from all activities that are provided by people external to school (The Crescent staff contribute to an extensive reference for each child).

The format of this is down to the individual, it can be in a folder, a wallet or digital etc. The best ones are written by the child, child-centred and show the child’s creativity, spontaneity and individuality. Each one is read and considered and they are returned after the results but it is highly competitive.

Art Scholarship: The child will have to present a portfolio and partake in a separate exam day which involves still life drawing and other opportunities to demonstrate their skills.

Music Scholarship: A standard of Grade 4 ABRSM or equivalent, on woodwind, brass, percussion, piano or voice. Grade 3 on any stringed instrument is required. The child will need to attend the audition.

I recommend that you check all the details for all the scholarships on the Princethorpe website:

https://www.princethorpe.co.uk/scholarships-bursaries

In the week after the exam, some children are asked in for interviews, this does not mean your child has not achieved it though, it is only for some of the highest awards.

Vanessa Rooney, Registrar and Catherine Rogers, Assistant Registrar, would be pleased to talk you through the admissions process and they are in school all summer.

Please contact them on 01926 634201/262 or 07930 601877 respectively, alternatively email them at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk

I hope this has helped.

Today, Friday 1 July, Reception to Year 4 Parents will be able to access your child's Report on 'My School Portal'. 

Staff have spent much time gathering evidence and writing these reports to keep you informed of your child's progress, achievements and wellbeing in school.

We do hope you enjoy reading them and sharing comments.

On Monday 6W can bring in with them an old PE T-shirt, or a T-shirt that they would like their peers to sign as a memory of their time at Crescent.

Once they are in school, they can wear it over their uniform if they wish before school and at breaktime for children to sign. They will need to bring their own pens for people to use and they will need to be aware that pens can sometimes leak through to their uniform and we do want them looking smart on the Tuesday.

We are looking forward to welcoming the families of 6W on Tuesday 5 July.  We have been considering our timings and we would like to start the event a little earlier at 2.00pm for refreshments on the Field, with the Service starting in the hall at 2.30pm.  I hope this does not cause any inconvenience to you but we wanted to make sure we had enough time for all the planned elements.

We are looking forward to welcoming you on Tuesday.

Hunts Book Shop will also be hosting two Summer Reading Trails throughout the school summer holidays – a Paddington Trail for KS1 and a Roald Dahl Trail for KS2. The trails will be free to partake in and will take children and parents around local Rugby businesses solving a sequence of clues. Please go and support them.

Please can all school books be returned to school by Monday 4 July, please check under beds, on bookcases and in bags as it does make a difference to our school stocks.

Thank you, it is a nice idea to use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books to enjoy together over the holidays.

The final day for quizzing will be Monday 4 July, as we need a couple of days to analyse the data to help ensure progression and set up for the next academic year. Children cannot quiz in the holidays but please do not let this deter you from reading as reading, for pleasure is very important and one of our English aims.

Please use your local book shops and your library if you want a good choice of books.

The children in 5F will be receiving their holiday work today, if it was not collected at Welcome Evening on Thursday evening.

All the instructions (and answers) are contained in the pack. I recommend that they have a good break and then start their brains working again in the final two weeks ready to start school. I do not expect the work back.

Monday 4 July 2022 - 2.15pm to 3.15pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Reception on the revised date of Monday 4 July. This is being held within the school day so normal drop off and collection times from school apply.

Please note that all pupils are to wear PE kit to school, blazers are not required but tracksuit tops or hoodies are to be worn. Please ensure that your child(ren) comes to school with the following:

• sun cream 
• a school sunhat (these can be purchased from the school office)
• a refillable drinks bottle of water (snacks will be provided)

Sports days are always very much anticipated by the children and really enjoyable for all involved.

Crescent School would like to invite the parents and families of Class 6W to join us for the Leavers' Service of the Class of 2022 on Tuesday 6 July between 2.00pm and 3.30pm. Please note change of time to that originally advertised.

You are welcome to join us for light refreshments on the school field at 2.00pm, followed by a service in the school hall which involves the presentation of Leavers' Books and a book from the school. Alongside this, Year 6 and Mrs Webb will share memories interspersed with musical interludes from this talented class.

Please indicate how many of your family will be joining us so we can cater accordingly.  There will be up to four tickets available per family:

Year 6 Leavers' Service 

We hope you will be able to join us.

Dear Year 5 Parents

As you will no doubt be aware, the local authority 11+ exams for entry into Year 7 in 2023 are scheduled to take place in September 2022, most likely on the weekend of 10 and 11 September. Registration for the exam is now open with the deadline for applications on 30 June 2022.

You can register for the exam online by following the link below:

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grammar-schools-11-test/register-11-test/1

With this in mind, we would like to invite this year’s Year 5 children in for two days of Pre-Season Brain Training Sessions on Wednesday 31 August and Thursday 1 September 2022. These will run from 9.00am until 12.45pm each day.

The children will spend each morning with their familiar Crescent teachers, including Ms Forth, Mrs Webb and Mr Adkins, getting them back into gear and ready for their exams. Each day there will be taught sessions focusing on the four strands of the 11+; verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, Maths and English comprehension. Needless to say, these skills will also be useful for their Princethorpe exams on 5 November, as well as any other independent school exams they may be entered for.

Children will be expected to arrive in school smartly dressed with a mid-morning snack. They do not need to wear school uniform.

These sessions will be in addition to the revision packs that we send home at the end of the Summer Term. I am pleased to say that there will be no charge for attendance.

Please indicate if you would like to sign up by following this link by Friday 1 July 2022.

Brain Training

Best wishes 

Another amazing week for achieving full Junior Da Vinci student status. Congratulations to the following children.

• Emily and Grace in 4M earn theirs in English
• Bella, Chloe, Ellie, Tegan, Yash and Zahra in 5F, Maisie in 4M earn theirs in Science
• Alex G, Alex T, James, Sam B, Shayla, Timi in 4M and Amber and Aria in 2W earn theirs in Mathematics
• Alex T, Grace, James, Leela, Maggie, Maisie, Shayla, Shiv and Timi in 4M earn theirs in RE
• Sophie and Stephanie in 6W earn theirs in PSHE.
• Alex G, Alex T, Emily and Shiv in 4M and Ellie, Grace C and Sam earn theirs in Games

Congratulations to you all!

Mrs Symons
Junior da Vinci Lead

Pre-Prep reading certificates have this week been awarded to:

• Charlotte
• Hannah
• Harry
• Joshua
• Lily
• Taran

Well done to you all.

Garage and Gigs are the most important games to show your progress. Keep playing over the summer to get JDVs in September.

Pupils who have reached landmark % on automatic training mode in the Garage and Gigs are therefore awarded JDVs for Maths Practice:

Tegan in 5F completed 48%

Results for last week's battle - well done 2W:

• 1st place - Class 2W with 1504 points
• 2nd place - Class 4M with  210 points
• 3rd place - Class 6W with 135 points

 Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Theo Mc 2W
• 2nd Alfie 2W
• 3rd Tomisin 2W

Last week's most improved speedsters in Studio are: 

Stay Calm in the holidays and Rock On!!

There’s been a lot of excitement in Reception during the last couple of weeks. Our recent trip to The Butterfly Farm was enjoyed by all and a lovely way to bring our Growing and Changing topic to a close.  On Wednesday we had ‘Move up Morning’ when the children spent time in their new classrooms with their new teacher and teaching assistant. We had our swimming taster session on Thursday which was wonderful. The children behaved sensibly and had a brilliant time supported by their Year 6 buddies. It’s hard to believe where the year has gone – time flies when you’re having fun!

In phonics we have been revising:

• Phase 4 sounds
• Regular and irregular key words
• Tricky words

Class 2W worked in small teams to create obstacle courses which they then lead their partner through, who was blind folded.  Requiring lots of trust but also clear and concise use of instruction and language. 

Class 3Y were getting in the Wimbledon spirit in tennis this week, learning the key difference between the volley and ground strokes before heading onto some competitive rallies. 

Class 4M have been learning about nutrition and how different breads can provide carbohydrates, proteins, fibre, minerals and vitamins. Over the past two weeks, the children have created and made their own speciality bread. The shapes, designs and finishes all looked amazing. I have heard quite a few tasted delicious too!

Class 6W have enjoyed a week helping other people in our school, our village and our area.

They have taken the Reception children swimming, helped cleaning in St Mark's church, litter picking to and around Draycote Water, listening to Pre-Prep readers and supporting children. 

Class 6W have had a positive impact on our community and we will miss them.

This term in Polish PenPals we have had an opportunity to exchange letters with our friends from the Polish school in Krotoszyn, and while we were waiting for their replies, we have learned a bit about Polish culture, and got to know some Polish words. We have spent time listening to Polish music (mostly Disney, which has confused some of our brains!)

This week we celebrated the last PenPals club by trying some of my favourite Polish snacks and drinks – we had mixed feelings about some of them, but we definitely enjoyed trying them all! 

Bryson would like to share that on Saturday 18 June, he ran the 5k race for life for Cancer Research. It was very wet as it was raining quite heavily, however he pushed on and ran the race in 54 minutes. It was the first time he had ever ran that distance so he was pleased with his time. He enjoyed doing it and is going to sign up for more races for charities. He raised quite a substantial amount for Cancer Research.

Well done Bryson.

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 keep our school tidy and take pride in our clothes and our uniform."

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Crescent won the toss and put BG in to bat first.  Herbie opened the bowling superbly with 1 run scored of his over followed by an excellent over from Akaal gaining 2 wickets. Aryan kept it going with a wicket and Patrick kept the runs low with 12 runs scored off 4 overs.  The bowling was closed by Alex who gained another wicket with BG gaining 46 runs in total.  

Aryan and Akaal opened the batting with some fantastic shots with Akaal hitting a superb 6 and Aryan also finding the boundary. Patrick and Herbie went in next adding a steady count to take Crescent to 30 runs off 4 overs. Henry and Max both found the boundary in their 12 balls taking the total to 44 leaving Roisin and Alex needing 3 runs to win the game. They did not let the pressure get to them and held their heads with both finding the boundary a number of times to add another 22 runs to the total score and winning the match. Crescent 266 for 2 and Bilton Grange 246 for 4. Awesome work by all, a great team effort.  

Mr Adkins & Mrs Dowling

U11 Girls V Bilton Grange 

Crescent went in to bat first with Charlotte and Katherine opening superbly with both batters finding the boundary scoring a fantastic 15 off the first 12 balls.  Chloe and Liana stepped up next, again putting up a great display of batting skills with both batters putting King Henry's fielders under pressure to stop a number of 4s.  Sophia and Rosina were the 3rd pair in hitting well with Sophia finding the boundary for 4 and steady runs due to great communication from Rosina on when to run. Stephanie and Eva closed the batting to a very experienced County bowler, after a early wicket the girls adapted to the speed of the bowling and Eva managed to hit the boundary 3 times 2 x 6s and a 4, with Stephanie defending the wicket superbly to add a further 8 runs.  A great innings by Crescent. 

Katherine opened the bowling for Crescent with a wicket off the first ball Crescent were off to a great start with 2 scored off the first over. Some fantastic fielding was on display with Crescent girls moving in to pick up balls and quickly throw to target. King Henry's girls however batted well defending their wicket excellently against our solid bowling meant we could not get another wicket.  

Final score Crescent 251 for 4 and King Henry's 270 for 1. 

Batter of the Game to Eva and Fielder of the game to Katherine. 

Although the score line did not go in our favour this was the best team performance for Crescent who showcased their skills fantastically. 

Thank you to all of the parents who have donated uniform to pre loved over the last 12 months. We have helped so many parents with topping up their uniform, having spares and replacing lost items. We have also raised a wonderful £670 which will be used towards events hosted by the FoC for the children.

The Preloved clothing is ongoing, and promotes a wonderful recycling nature when uniform is used again and again.

All items of Crescent logo uniform are welcomed apart from grey trousers, grey shorts and white school shirts.

Please can all parents have a look at home and dig deep to see if they have any unused uniform lying around that could be donated. All of the clothes can be left in the box at reception with a label saying 'Vicky Morley' or 'pre-loved donation'.

Thank you again and please keep donating!

Please click below to view the lunch menu for next week, children are able to have either the Main or Vegetarian option. 

Lunch Menu - 4 July 2022 

Crescent School

Please see below for useful school contact information:

Please find link below to view the term dates for 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24:

Term Dates 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

• PA to Deputy Head and Office Manager - Princethorpe College
• Head of Nursery - Little Crackers
• Evening Caretaker - Princethorpe Foundation
• Weekend Painter & Decorator - Princethorpe Foundation

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.

Miss Thompson and Evelyn and Iris met the poet, author and Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. Mr Rosen was taking part in the Festival on the Close at Rugby School, he narrated Peter and the Wolf whilst the Symphony Orchestra played and local drama club children performed with puppets and movement - a thoroughly lovely evening and thankfully the rain held off! Evelyn is a fan of Michael after reading his autobiography and several of his poems at school.

Feranmi’s football team, the Hillmorton Lions, were the runners-up at the SoccerRockz Invitational Tier 1 Tournament in Coventry on Saturday (25 June) in their U7 category.

Feranmi himself also happened to win the 'Man of the Match' award, hence the golden football boot trophy, for his performance overall.  Well done Feranmi!

Contining the football theme, Lewis (3Y) and Tomisin (2W) won the second place final at the Woodford Utd football tournament. Their team Bilton Ajax Falcons U8s won three and lost one game. They won the final on penalties after coming back from 1-0 down with Lewis saving the last penalty to set up the win. Tomisin showed great determination and fearlessness as usual playing up a year against older children, as he has done all season. 

Kian in Year 2 has had a very exciting football journey this year! First he got scouted by Birmingham City FC and since has also been invited to join Aston Villa Academy, Wolves and Leicester City FC. During this time he has played and scored against big club academies including Manchester United and Arsenal.

He was very excited to be welcomed to Aston Villa by Steven Gerrard himself who gave him valuable advice:

1) Listen to your coaches 2) Work as hard as you can 3) Enjoy yourself!

We look forward to hearing how Kian’s football journey progresses!