The Courier

Dear Parents

Everyone in school has been enjoying the warm and sunny weather of the last week and hoping that it just might last into the half term break. Whisper it quietly, but the forecast is quite encouraging, and I know many of you are looking forward to getting away someone nice.

In school this week, the children have taken advantage of the sunshine, with lots of activities taking place outside, not least our outdoor learning sessions and also preparations for upcoming sports days. The Upper School version of this takes place over at Princethorpe College on the second day back after our return from the half term holiday, of which there are further details elsewhere in this newsletter. Reception and Years 1 and 2 have to wait a little longer for theirs, until 19 and 20 June respectively.

We enjoyed two really interesting assemblies this week, which very much fell into the ‘good citizen’ part of our School Promise. Pawprints Dog Trust charity came to see us on Tuesday accompanied by a very well-behaved dog, which the children immediately fell in love with. It was interesting to learn about the work of the charity and also for the children to be given some really good advice on how to safely interact with dogs, their own or those that they might meet. On Wednesday we had a visit from Mrs Melia to update us on our Bwengu Malawi Project, where we presented her with a cheque for an amazing £2011, following the fundraising efforts of last term.

Bwengu Projects is a charity we have had a long-standing relationship with, other charities are chosen on a termly basis after a discussion and vote by the school children's council. Generally, we try to support one local charity each year, one national charity and one international one. Many thanks to all Crescent families for your generous donations to all of these school supported charities.

With the lovely weather on the horizon, I intend to spend quite a bit of my half term getting my cycle legs back as I am planning a long-distance route around Scotland in the summer. I am planning on camping as I go, which creates some logistical challenges, so I might need to test some of these out.

Whatever you have planned for the break, I hope it goes smoothly and I look forward to seeing you and the children back in school on Monday 5 June.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Crescent School, along with the other schools of the Princethorpe Foundation, is a Nut Aware School. Whilst we cannot guarantee that children won’t come into contact with nuts or products with nut traces, we endeavour to reduce this risk as far as we can.

The aim of this strategy is to reduce the risk to those who may suffer an anaphylactic reaction if exposed to nuts to which they are sensitive. There are currently children in school with a known nut allergy. Exposure to nuts for these children could result in serious consequences.

Our 'Nut-Aware’ approach, means that any food items with nuts listed as an ingredient should not be brought into school. This includes the following:

• Packs of nuts
• Peanut butter/Nutella sandwiches
• Fruit and cereal bars that contain nuts
• Chocolate bars or sweets that contain nuts
• Sesame seed rolls (children allergic to nuts may also have a severe reaction to sesame)
• Cakes made with nuts and marzipan

No nuts are used in any of the food prepared on site at our school.  Our suppliers provide us with nut-free products. However, we cannot guarantee freedom from nut traces.

We are excitedly looking ahead to the upcoming 75th Anniversary FOC Fête on Saturday 10 June. Alongside current families, we will be welcoming old Crescentians to this event. As such there will be unfamiliar faces around school. For safeguarding reasons, please could I respectfully request that all children are supervised closely by parents and are not allowed unaccompanied into school.

With thanks for your understanding of this.

We have three young people who we are welcoming into the school to work voluntarily with the children during this term. Firstly, there is Theo Nelson who will be working on Wednesdays and Thursdays to assist the teaching of games. Theo is an ex-Princethorpian who is on summer leave from his university course and has a background in sports that will be really helpful in the games department. 

After the half term break, we have Izzy Wright coming into work with all ages of children. Izzy is currently a pupil at Princethorpe College, in fact she is the head pupil, and in the future she is looking to develop a career as a teacher. 

The third student is Storm Cross, who is undertaking four days of observation of a primary school setting as part of her teacher training programme at Birmingham City University. This will be in the third week of next half term and Storm will spend time across the pre-prep and upper school.

I know that the children enjoy having young people such as these coming in to help them in their studies and we welcome them to the school. 

As with all volunteers and employees, the school closely follows correct safeguarding and recruitment requirements before any contact with the children is allowed.

As the Forest School lead at Crescent School, I am passionate about the benefits of making time in your day to spend in the natural environment. Spending time in nature is especially important for children, helping them to cultivate a love and appreciation of our wild world. There’s lots of other benefits too, as not only can a connection with nature help improve physical and mental wellbeing, time spent outdoors can also help children concentrate more in lessons!

So, this year I have signed us up for the Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild Campaign. Can you do one wild thing every day throughout the month of June?

I will have a poster up at the pupil entrance so that the children can write on what they have done at home, and we will also be doing ‘wild’ activities in Forest School. Here are some ideas to get you started:

30 Days Wild

I can’t wait to hear from the children what they have been up to!

Photo proofs have been sent home with children to order online at www.pics4schools.com by 9 June 2023 to ensure free delivery to school.  

All details can be found on the proof card with your unique security code and the photographer's number should you have any queries. 

Crescent School

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

Lunch Menu 5 June 

Crescent School

Below is a link to view the Trinty Term Calendar.  

The Music Lesson timetable for week commencing 5 June can be viewed below:

Music Lessons - 5 June 2023

Please note, due to Y3-6 Sports Day on Tuesday 6 June some of the lessons have moved to different days of the week.  

Lessons may not be able to be rearranged if children do not have their instruments in school.

On Wednesday 24 May local Rugby resident Sam Melia, from Bwengu Projects Malawi, visited the Crescent School to receive a cheque for £2,011.  The cheque was presented by Year 4 pupils, Nora and Akaal, in assembly in front of the whole school.

The Crescent School has been supporting the work of Bwengu Projects for over fifteen years now. In fact, the school was one of the charity’s first supporters back in 2007 when they donated books for use in school libraries. Each year the Year 4 children at the Crescent School study Africa and in particular Malawi and the work that Bwengu Projects does. Studying the challenges the people in Malawi face, helps the children to appreciate the similarities and differences in our societies.

At the end of their topic the children organise fundraising activities that the whole school participates in. Last year, for the first time, Crescent School successfully supported a whole project, raising £1,110 to enable the completion of a Nursery and Orphan Feeding Centre in Mleghu in Malawi. However, this year, the children have really surpassed themselves raising almost double that total, a whopping £2,011, which will be used to fund the much-needed refurbishment of Namatubi School in Chitipa, in the most northern part of Malawi

The Year 4s raised money in a number of enterprising ways including, a non uniform day and lots of guessing games. Their most successful fundraiser though was a sponsored silence, a challenge that their teachers very much enjoyed!

Bryony Forth, Deputy Head, commented,

“Supporting the Bwengu Project is always a highlight of my teaching year, something which I personally am very proud to be part of. The children always enjoy studying Bwengu and comparing 'A Village Less Economically Developed than Rugby' in their Geography lessons. Over the years, we must have raised over £15,000  for the charity, and helped pay for renovating schools, building a Women's Development Centre, providing sewing machines, classroom furniture, a teacher's salary and nearly 60,000 meals for orphans.

“The children worked incredibly hard this year organising lots of events. They have smashed their fundraising target, having raised a great total of £2,011. The money will be used to repair the buildings at Namatubi School including eight classrooms that are used by 857 5-14-year-olds who attend the school.”

Samantha Melia was overwhelmed, and commented,

“This is really wonderful. There are so many different people in need across the world and we are so grateful that every year the pupils at the Crescent help unlock the opportunity of education for the children of Malawi.”

Reception teacher, Mrs Pullen, has welcomed parents into school this week to share the children's learning journeys this past year. Our youngest pupils greeted their visitors excitedly and took great delight in proudly talking their parents through their journals.

The Learning Journals are a very special record of the children’s experiences, development and learning journey during their first year at Crescent School. Nurturing a love of learning is one of Crescent’s goals, and seeing the children talk with passion and enthusiasm about all that they’ve learned filled their teacher with pride.

They have all come such a long way since they started Reception back in September, thank you for helping us celebrate all their wonderful accomplishments.

Monday 5 June to Friday 9 June 2023

During the week commencing Monday 5 June parents are invited to come in to school from 8.15am to 8.40am to watch and support their child in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 while they quiz on their reading books.

The quiz platform is not available at home so this is a super opportunity for parents to share the experience.

Half-term is a great time for your child to finish reading a book and that will give you an extra excuse to see your child at work.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Tuesday 6 June 2023 - 09.30am to 12.30pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Years 3-6 on Tuesday 6 June at Princethorpe College. 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 full tracksuits are to be worn. Please ensure that your child(ren) comes to school with the following:

• sun cream, applied before school 
• 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.

Parents are invited to come and support, please book your tickets via the link below by Friday 26 May so we are able to advise Princethorpe of numbers attending and car parking.  Please bring a chair or a blanket to sit on.

Years 3 - 6 Sports Day Tickets

Wednesday 7 June - 6.30pm to 8.30pm

Princethorpe College's annual Summer Open Evening will take place on Wednesday 7 June from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. This is a perfect opportunity for prospective families looking for a place in September 2024 and beyond to visit the school, for children to take part in departmental activities and for parents to meet and chat to members of staff and pupils.

The Headmaster will also address visitors during the evening. Light refreshments will be available.

Please click here to book your place. 

Monday 19 June 2023 - 2.00pm to 3.30pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Years 1 and 2 on Monday 19 June. This is being held within the school day so normal drop off and collection times from school apply.

Please ensure that your child(ren) come to school with the following:

• sun cream, applied before school and put in their bag
• a Crescent 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.

Tuesday 20 June 2023 - 9.15am to 10.15am

We are proud to present a Year 3 and 4 drama production on 20 June at 9.15am.

Terrific Topics revisits the fantastic work the children have done in class and brings it to life. Let them take you back in time to Ancient Egypt, The Indus Valley, WW2 and bring you forward to a geographical piece about rainforests. The children have devised parts of this production themselves, adding soundscapes, presenting, freezeframes and even writing their own poems.

Year 3 and 4 will share with you what they have learned in drama over the last year as well as imparting their knowledge about moments in history. Refreshments will be served in the Library from 8.45am.

Tickets can be booked below, 3 per child:

Year 3 and 4 Terrific Topics

Tuesday 20 June 2023 at 7.00pm

A story about love, magic and betrayal.

Year 6 are excited to share with you their version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Betrayed by his brother Antonio, Prospero and his daughter Miranda end up on a desert island. Formerly the Duke of Milan, Prospero, a magician, causes a tempest to shipwreck his enemies and exact his revenge. Rehearsals have been great fun and this promises to be a fantastic performance.

The playground will be open for parking and refreshments will be served from 6.30pm.

Tickets can be booked here, 4 per child:

The Tempest Tickets

Tuesday 20 June 2023 - 2.15pm to 3.15pm

We are all very much looking forward to our Sports Day for Reception on Tuesday 20 June. This is being held within the school day so normal drop off and collection times from school apply.

Please ensure that your child(ren) come to school with the following:

• sun cream, applied before school and put in their bag
• a Crescent 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.

Parents are invited to come and support, please book your tickets by Friday 9 June via the link below: 

Reception Sports Day Tickets 

In our Good News Assembly this morning we awarded School Promise certificates to recognise the children’s excellent behaviour as Good Friends, Good Learners or Good Citizens. 

Well done to:

RP

• Harriet – Good Citizen for taking responsibility to keep the classroom and school tidy
• Florence – Good Friend for always being kind, gentle and caring

1S

• Sophie L - Good Learner for being enthusiastic about her learning, always looking to challenge herself and making fantastic progress in English and Maths
• Charlotte - Good Friend for being kind and gentle and always looking out for others

1Q

• Ava - Good Learner for always having a positive attitude and being super resilient socially and academically
• Oore - Good Friend for being very caring towards others

2E

• Dudley - Good Learner for working hard and making super progress as a result
• Joshua - Good Learner for pushing himself to achieve at the highest level in all that he does

2W

• Lily - Good friend for her calm and thoughtful approach to everyone
• Eve - Good Learner for pushing herself to be the best she can be in key areas of learning

3S

• Ella - Good Citizen for her sunny and positive outlook in all aspects of school life and being friends with all
• Thomas – Good Learner for progressing in all of his learning so well this year, particularly his maths

4C

• Nora - Good Friend for taking care of her friends at Rock UK and in school
• Sophie - Good Learner for her motivation and positive attitude during lessons

5F

• Sam O - Good Citizen for being responsible and helpful to staff at Frank Chapman Centre
• Albert - Good Citizen for being responsible and helpful to staff at Frank Chapman Centre
• Edward F - Good Friend for being supportive of others at Frank Chapman Centre

This has been an amazing week for learners who have earned their full Junior da Vinci student status, through hard work and dedication.

• Roisin, Sam B, Edward G-H, Alex G, Timi, Shiv and Alex T in 5F all gain theirs in PE & Games.
• Roisin, Maxi, Lewis, Zac, Sophia, Aryaan, Akaal, MingYi and Samuel in 4C also earn theirs in PE & Games.
• Everly in 3S, Isabella, Sophia and Joshua in 2E achieve theirs in English, as does Niamh in 1Q.

Congratulations to you all! 

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

Well done to Zac (4C) who has read 500,000 words.

Keep on reading. 

Top Word Wizards and Quizzers this week are:

Top Quizzers are:

• 3S  Albert
• 4C  Shaylan
• 5F  No quizzers

Word Wizards are:

• 3S Theo
• 4C Sophia
• 5F Edward F

6W are away on Residential.

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

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.

Everly and Theo have shown pride in the presentation of all of their learning tasks and have been awarded a Pen Licence and their first handwriting pen.

Well done!

Thank you to Charlotte, Jed, Jonelle, Sophie, Hannah and Reegan for their good conduct, good manners and respect for others during lunchtimes.

The lunchtime supervisors decided that you are this half term's recipients of Top Table invitations.

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

• Alice
• Daniel
• Jack
• Lucas
• Mikael
• Siara
• Sofia
• Sophia
• Sophie
• Tara

Well done to this week's Artists of the week:

Artists

• Esme (6W)
• Lara (6W)
• Olivia (6W)
• Zara (6W)
• Alex T (5F)
• Edward F (5F)
• Maggie (5F)
• Timi (5F)

Crescent School

Garage and Gigs are the most important games to show your progress.

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

• Eve 2W has completed 72% and then 100% of the course

Results for Battle 20 -27 April 2023. 1Q, 1E , 2Q, 2W, 3S against each other - average score per class member.

• 1st 2W 115
• 2nd 2E 26
• 3rd 1Q 23

Most valuable players in the whole competition: 

• 1st Eve 2W
• 2nd Alice 2W
• 3rd David 2E 

Well done, 2W! 🏆 

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

• Eve - Headliner!

• Annalise - Unsigned Act!
• Alex - Support Act!

No Battle over Half Term, but get that garage and gig time in to reach JdV levels.

TT Rock stars will block 2x,5x,10x,11x on jamming if you are efficient at them, so you cannot pick easy ones just to score more points in the completion! 

Please note only the children should play on their account or it influences the level appropriate to them.

In Maths we have been revising doubling, halving and sharing. We have enjoyed lots of practical activities to reinforce our learning in real life experiences. We have revised telling the time to the hour, matching analogue and digital times. We have also introduced half past.

In our personal, social and emotional development, we have explored what makes us feel angry and how we show anger. We talked about ways to deal with angry feelings and had fun making angry faces!

• Identify simple punctuation in stories – full stops, capital letters, question marks, speech marks
• Encourage the children to write simple sentences independently – children can write words as they sound using their phonic knowledge
• Practise writing capital letters and corresponding lower-case letters
• Practise simple addition and subtraction money problems. (to 20p)
• Play board games to practise counting on
• Practise sharing equally – make connections with doubling and halving
• Practise telling the time that includes o’clock and half past

A big thank you to the FoC and all the parents that supported our Bake Sale last month. The children have been thrilled with their new tech toys, craft sets and our newest member of the class, Tabby the cat! 

In English this week, we have been working on expanded noun phrases, to uplevel our sentences. In RE this half term, we have been studying many Saints. This week we looked at St. Joseph. We had a look into his life and picked out some key facts. In Art this week, we created Lilypad's which we all really enjoyed. We did so by layering coloured tissue paper on to card, to form our water and create our pond plant.  

We’ve been looking into the beautiful landscapes by the impressionist painter Claude Monet. One of our projects developed our collaging skills to create his famous lillypads which made for a striking display! 

Mrs Johnson’s super scientists explored the properties of water today. In their lunchtime club, the Year 1s carefully arranged a handful of skittles on a paper plate. They poured a small amount of water over the skittles and watched what happened. They were fascinated by the patterns that appeared as the colour coating of the skittles dissolved and spread through the water. A gentle tap of the plate and the colours began to mix creating even more patterns and surprise surprise the underneath of the sweet was now white. Next week the youngsters will be making rainbows – what a lot of super science fun.

Year 2 have been inspecting the growth of their potatoes today and the pupils were very excited to see that lots of root tubers had grown.  

Classes 2E and 2W have had fun creating their own seaside collage. They first had to look closely at the overall shape of the seascape then they experimented with different colours and materials to produce exciting textured pictures.

In Design & Technology, Year 2 are designing and creating moving vehicles. The pupils have started to make a chassis, axles and wheels for unique designs.  

It’s the turn of 2E to experience Forest School. We had a great time exploring together in our outdoor learning environment. In our first session we had the opportunity to make some bees using sticks, pinecones, tissue paper and wool. We learnt to tie knots and help each other to succeed when we found the craft tricky. Some of the children constructed a wonderful den, using the tree trunks and branches, they even secured the tarpaulin to make it water proof (although we didn’t test this)!! Others challenged themselves to climb and explore the area. 

The second week Mrs Dowling encouraged us to look for our names in nature. We surprised ourselves by finding the letters of our names hidden in trees, fence posts and flowers. We always look forward to Forest School it’s a fabulous part of our Tuesday, thank you Mrs Dowling.

In Outdoor Learning this week, members of 2W were challenged to find as many colours in the school grounds as possible and attach a sample to their palette. They found natural and manmade colours that covered the rainbow. Everyone found over ten different colours, some over thirty. It's an easy activity to do on a walk over half term, all you need is a piece of cardboard and some double-sided tape. 

Class 2W have been composing rhythms on percussion instruments and playing them to each other. They then combined some of the rhythms to make a longer piece.

The first home cricket game on our new wicket was the U9 girls who took on King Henry VIII in a pairs cricket match. Crescent won the toss and selected to field first before heading to in to bat chasing 72 runs. All of the girls worked hard managing to add 52 runs to their total. They listened well to advice being coached throughout the game and worked well as a team.  A great experience for all. Well done to all involved.  

Fantastic day of quality cricket at Crackley Hall's Hardball 5/5 game. 

Crescent played Old Vicarage, Edenhurst Prep and Crackley Hall to finish 5th overall on the day. The team had a tentative start against OVS but soon warmed up to the quick pace required from the day and took some great boundary hits against some very speedy bowlers from Edenhurst to put a total of 38 runs on the board. Some solid bowling and excellent fielding saw Crescent take 3 wickets, Timi bowled, Edward bowled and caught and a great catch from Sam in the deep field. Unfortunately,  it was not enough to keep a strong Edenhurst side at bay. 

The final game against Crackley Hall was a tense and exciting game coming down to the final over. Crescent needed to score 9 runs and Sam and Alex T held their nerve well to score 14 and win the game. As well as the games there was time to hone their skills in the nets with Mr Walters from Princethorpe, develop their fielding skills with Mrs Vaughan and their catching skills with Mr Duigan. A great day, all of the team worked hard, showing great teamwork and learning from the experience.  

Mrs McCollin and Mrs Calder 

What fantastic team spirit we had for the swimming gala last night. It was great to see all pupils perform fantastically. The event started with the medley relays for each team before heading on to individual races for backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. The penultimate event was the freestyle relay before finishing with the excitement of the canon relay involving two boys and two girls from each age group. Crescent's Boys team finished 2nd overall and the Girls 3rd.  

Dear Parents 

By now you should have received your Classlist invite to the annual Friends of Crescent Summer Fête. This year we are excited to be hosting it on Saturday 10 June from 12pm -2.30pm to coincide with the School's 75th anniversary celebrations. 

As the event is on a Saturday we have designed it to suit the whole family, so in addition to the usual stalls and inflatables there will be a licensed bar, hot food and ice creams. 

Entry is free of charge, but if the children would like to play the games on the stalls they will require a game card which is £5. Cards with five stamps or more can be handed in to receive a prize. Game cards are available through Classlist. If you are not on Classlist please use the following link https://app.classlist.com/events/#/events/view/986071211

Raffle tickets can be purchased either through Classlist or on the day itself. 

As always we would love your support to help make the event a success so if you can spare 30-45 minutes to help run a stall at the event we would be eternally grateful! We would also appreciate any raffle and tombola donations that you are able to make. Please drop these off either at reception or at the pupil entrance during drop-off until Monday 5 June.

Finally, this year the profits of our teddy bear stall will go to Pawprints Dog Rescue - which the school is supporting this term. If you have any teddies that are in need of a new home please drop them into school! 

Many thanks

It's that time again - and with the fête happening so soon after half term we need donations now! Please drop them in to the office or the side door at drop-off. We are looking for:

Please see below for useful school contact information:

• My School Portal: MSP Login
• SOCS: SOCS Login

Click here to view the term dates for 2022/23 and 2023/24.

The Foundation term dates for 2024-25 can be viewed below:

Princethorpe Foundation Term Dates 2024-25 

Crescent School

The Foundation has the following vacancies:

Princethorpe College

• Teacher of RE
• Commercial Manager
• Pastoral Support Manager
• Pupil Hub Manager
• Administrator/Reeptionist
• Rugby Coach
• Graduate Teaching Assistant

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.

The following items are stocked in the School Office and can be added to your account:

• Winter hats
• Scarves
• Gloves
• Ties
• Swimming hats
• Sports socks
• Hair bands
• Hair scrunchies
• Hair clips
• Sun hats
• Music group badges - Choir, Orchestra, String, Brass and Wind

Please do contact admin@crescentschool.co.uk in if you need any of the above items.

Crescent School Office