The Courier

Dear Parents

We have had a taste of winter this week that has made my early morning vigils on the gate rather more bracing than usual but, as I go to press, we seem to have avoided the worst stuff, at least for now. It is really noticeable at this time of year how rapidly the day lengths increase and whilst we have plenty of winter left it is now 40 days since the shortest day of the year back in December. Already there are some lovely displays of snowdrops out in the local countryside. I am planning a family walk for this Sunday and it promises to be a cold and clear day, perhaps with a scattering of snow, which will be ideal.

This week we have enjoyed a new addition to the calendar, with the LAMDA showcase presentations to parents on Thursday and Friday. It is so important that children get the opportunity to speak and read in public as they grow up. Little but often is normally the best combination and events like these are really helpful in building confidence and belief. As children grow older, life skills like these can open up a range of opportunities. Well done to those who took part and I am confident that by doing this they will have an excellent chance of performing even better in their LAMDA exams next Tuesday.

Unfortunately, we have had more fixture cancellations this week, some of which will mean we will get some congestion as we try to rearrange them. This definitely applies next Wednesday, when the rearranged IAPS hockey will now take place on the same day as the ISA cross country. With all of the preparation and high hopes of the children going into these events, we really don’t want to cancel and with a little creativity we have managed to find a way to staff and transport both these teams so we wish them well next week.

With Easter this year falling three weeks later than in 2018, this is a longer than usual spring term and some of the children and staff have been struggling with the usual spectrum of seasonal coughs and colds. With two weeks to go before half term, my best advice to the children is to try and pace yourselves and make sure you are getting the rest and down time that you need.

Have a great weekend.

Joe Thackway

For a two or three week period this year we will be focusing on one of the sayings in the new 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.

This week’s promise is in the category of Good Friends. In our Promise Assembly the children learnt about the life of St Kevin of Glendalough and his love of animals. The story of St Kevin and the blackbird was a lovely example of the qualities of gentleness that we are promoting.

‘We are gentle and caring’

Please click on the link below to view the weekly calendar.  This details all the co-curricular clubs running, fixtures and additional information.

Please note, Construction Club, Junior Drama Club and Rugby Club are not running next week.

Weekly Calendar - 040219

Crescent School

Congratulations to the following children in pre-prep who were awarded certificates in Assembly this morning, for swimming distances ranging 25m - 400m in their school swimming lessons.  

• Alex M
• Alex T
• Ava
• Bella
• Chloe
• Ellie
• Freddie
• Grace C
• Grace M
• Harry
• Mya
• Nicholas
• Olivia C
• Olivia M
• Tegan
• Timi
• Yash
• Zara

Well done to you all!

On Thursday 31 Janury, the parents and friends of Classes VF, VY and VI were treated to a wonderful hour's entertainment of poetry performances. From the 'Spangled Pandemonium' to 'Chicken Pox' the children relished in performing to an audience, who were so impressed by the children's ability and confidence. 

The showcase was a super opportunity for the children to execute their much practised and perfected poems, ahead of their examinations next week. This evening it is the turn of Class III and IV to perform to their audience, which I'm sure will be excellent too.

We would like to thank Miss Thompson for all her efforts in preparing the children so well and for affording them the benefit of her talent and experience.

Good luck to all the children taking their LAMDA exams next week.

The following children received Certificates of Excellence from the Playground Supervisors in Assembly this morning:

• Shaylan for always being kind and helping others
• Alex for being creative with the bricks

Well done to you.

Wednesday 6 February 2019 - 4.00pm to 4.30pm

Parents are invited to join us for an information session where the Pre-Prep staff will guide you through how they teach children to read in school: explaining the different strategies, sharing good practice and suggesting some ideas to be used at home

This will be held in the Hall from 4.00pm for 30 minutes on Wednesday 6 February 2019. We can accommodate your children in After School but would appreciate it if this is used if you can find no alternatives as I am sure you can imagine this could have a strain our staffing.  This must be booked in advance to ensure correct staffing ratios.

Please confirm your attendance through the Evolve message sent out.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Thursday 7 February - Saturday 9 February 
Clarkson Theatre, Princethorpe College

It's funny how love can grow!

Princethorpe College is gearing up for this year’s musical theatre production, Little Shop of Horrors.

Skid Row florist’s clerk Seymour Krelborn is too shy to declare his love for his co-worker Audrey – until a mysterious exotic plant brings him unexpected fame and fortune. There’s just one problem: the plant has ambitions of its own, and it thrives on only one food – human blood.

Awesome props, a tender love story and a fabulous sixties-style score all combine to make this deliciously campy sci-fi spoof a “monster” hit. 

Tickets for the production are priced at £5.00 (adult) and £3.00 (U18) and can be booked here. Please note there are limited seats and tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Gil Cowlishaw
Director of Music

Another great week for Junior da Vinci awards: 

• Jess and Keshav are Junior da Vinci students in English
• Maya is a Junior da Vinci student in geography
• Bexie and Vignesh are Junior da Vinci students in Science, this is their second da Vinci student status
• Damilola has now become a Junior da Vinci student in two subjects, English and Computing

Keep up the good work everybody.

Ms Lowe
Senior Teacher

We have two more millionaires this week. Well done to Isla and Anand, it is lovely to see such keen readers.

• Darius
• Lewis
• Patrick
• Shayla

In Class I we have begun to work with clay in our art lessons. Our learning objective was to create a tile with either curved or straight edges.

We used our learning in maths to recognise 3D shapes as our clay started out as a sphere shape and after rolling it and using a tappy stick it turned into a cuboid.

We finished our lesson by putting our own unique design on our tiles.

Mrs Byrne
Art Teacher

Class I have been learning how to use time connectives (first, next, then, finally etc) to order instructions. The children had to write instructions to tell someone how to make a jam sandwich and there's no better way to learn than to make your own. Lots of fun was had making our sandwiches, writing instructions and most of all... eating our jam sandwiches! 

Class II children quickly tuned their minds back into thinking mathematically this week with a game of number bingo! Using their mental agility to answer clues in order to cross off their own pre-selected numbers and be the first to gleefully shout out "BINGO"!

What do you do in games when the playground is too icy to go outside? Just Dance in the Hall! Class II had a fantastic time building gross motor skills, co-ordination, fitness and dance skills while having a large dose of fun. 

Continuing our learning on Jewish practices and celebrations we are moving towards celebrating Passover. In preparation, we had a very energetic lesson dramatising the story of Moses and in small groups sequencing the events to help us understand the bigger picture better.

Mrs Stapleton
Class III Form Tutor
Head of RE
Head of PSHE

Following on from our learning on algorithms, Class III have been enjoying coding on Code.org and Tynker.

Some of us have become very confident and challenged themselves and have been awarded Junior da Vincis in Mastery.

Fantastic work Caspar, James, Kai and Stephanie!

We have been revising our knowledge of fractions this week and have made good progress in working out equivalent fractions. Class III worked well in pairs to spot different ways in identifying fractions. 

Mrs Stapleton
Class III Form Tutor
Head of RE
Head of PSHE

Both Year 5 classes have been practising their culinary skills in DT this week, concentrating on cutting, slicing, snipping and grating, all in preparation for designing and making their own salads.

In art lessons this week both Classes VF and VY have completed their abstract musical instruments in the style of Braque.

They are currently on display on the top shelves in the library where they look absolutely stunning.

This week Classes VF and VY have been enjoying the practical aspects of maths. They have used matchsticks to create different types of triangles, appreciating the variety in the length of the sides and angles. Much excitement came from weighing rice, using different scales to read grams and kilograms. We raided Mrs Byrne's collection of measuring cylinders to make different capacities of water and we have begun to compare measurements and convert between different units too. 

Of course, cooking and baking is a great way to hone these skills and fits in nicely with this half term's DT topic. It's also the perfect family activity for a cold and snowy weekend and the Year 5 teachers are always happy to sample any 'maths cooking'!

Year 5 were excited to welcome Chris back from Rugby Youth for Christ for their RE lesson this week. Chris and I have been working together to ensure there is consistency in their learning and he enhanced our key question of 'What would Jesus do?' with some fun and insight into what the bible teaches.

Mrs Stapleton
Class III Form Tutor
Head of RE
Head of PSHE

Children from Classes III to VI are enjoying their Friday lunchtimes playing a variety of games and enjoying each other's company.

We are always on the look out for more games to add to our collection. If you haven't managed to find quite enough space for all of those Christmas presents yet and would like to pass on some of your family games then we'd love to have them. 

Please send any games, lego or puzzles into the School office.

Mrs Yates
Class VY Teacher

Friday 8 February 2019 - 5.00pm to 6.30pm

The movie for this event will be Hotel Transylvania 3. The movie will cost £5 per child (£3 for all Reception children as they have to be accompanied by a parent or carer) and this will include the movie plus a drink and snacks.

If you would like your child to attend this please put their name down in the book on the FoC table and include your phone number, child's name and year.

The movie will start at 5.00pm so please drop your child off at the front entrance then. The movie will finish around 6.30pm and we will dismiss all the children from the usual side entrance. You can either pay on the evening or place the money inside an envelope clearly marked with your child's name and movie night. You can pay by cash or cheque (payable to Friends of Crescent).

If you would like your child to go into after school before the movie please place their name down on the usual after school sheet and request tea (if you would like them to eat before the movie) and we will ensure that they eat tea prior to the film starting.

Friday 15 February 2019 - 3.45pm to 4.45pm

Please come along and purchase cakes and sweets from Class III. All money raised will go towards crafts, games and toys for their class.

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

Lunch Menu - 4 February 2019 

Crescent School Office

Please see attachments below for information regarding school holiday clubs that are running over the February Half Term. 

The clubs are provided by external providers and not the Crescent School.

Bikeability

Early Years Cycle Training

Harris Sport Centre

Onside Coaching

Wasps Rugby Camp

Please find a link below to the current vacancies available across the Foundation:

• Second in Mathematics – Princethorpe College
• Examinations and Assessment Administrator – Princethorpe College
• Electrician – Princethorpe College

Full details of the roles and how to apply are available via the following link https://www.princethorpe.co.uk/employment-opportunities

Please see below for useful school contact information:

Please find below term dates for this academic year and next:

2018/19

Lent Term
Term starts Monday 7 January 2019
Half Term Saturday 16 February to Sunday 24 February 2019
Term ends Wednesday 10 April 2019

2019/20

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

• Winter hats
• Scarfs
• 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 pop in if you need any of the above items.

Crescent School Office