The Courier

Dear Parents 

The two highlights of the week gone by have to be the excellent Sports Day on Monday and the Year 6 play on Wednesday evening. Both of these events took place over at Princethorpe College for the first time. Whenever you change the venue for an event like this it throws up some new challenges and we have learnt a lot that will enable us to finesse and improve these for next year. I have had a great deal of positive parental feedback for both and that is always great to hear. Quite a few parents mentioned that being able to get close to the events at Sports Day was a real benefit and having the reserve date in the calendar helped some of you plan in advance, despite the vagaries of a British summer. With a shorter summer term this year, we have tried to manage the diary so that everything isn’t concertinaed into the last two weeks of term and I hope we are all now feeling the benefit of that planning.

The play on Wednesday was a real delight. When you see the children perform on stage you start to see them in a different light and you can almost begin to imagine them in years to come. The whole process of preparations, rehearsals and performance have really brought the class together and given them a sense of shared mission that is great to see. Many thanks as ever to Miss Thompson and her team for getting it right on the night – it was very well received by everyone there and I can’t wait to see how the children respond when they see the performance to the school on the final day of term.

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we have been trialling the use of trays at lunchtimes during the week. We have certainly found that they speed up the sittings which allows for more outdoor play for the children and more time to get the hall ready for afternoon lessons. The trays are easier for the younger children to handle as well, so we will have a go next week with trays for the Pre-Prep and crockery for Year 3 to 6. The older children will be able to take their lunch and pudding at the same time and this will mean we achieve the quicker service without using trays. Going forward, this could mean we have the opportunity to look at the timings of lunch and possibly bring in extra reading time as a cool down period between lunch break and afternoon lessons, which is tremendously beneficial.

Having said all of that, it genuinely is a trial and I would like to hear feedback from all quarters before we make a decision on whether to bring these in from the beginning of next term. We will be talking to staff, caterers and children but please do feel free to air your thoughts on this issue. Rather than email me directly, please send your comments to admin@crescentschool.co.uk and we can collate them there before looking at the overall pros and cons.   

On a personal note, I am off to Bath tomorrow to have a look at the university open day with my daughter and then watching my youngest son play cricket on Sunday. Whatever you are up to, have a great weekend everyone.

I am delighted to announce that from the beginning of next academic year we will have a different look to the SLT here at Crescent.

Mr Webb will remain as Head of Pre-Prep and also take on a whole school role as Head of Pastoral Care. This fits in well with his safeguarding lead duties and gives us an extra layer in the pastoral care system that is at the heart of all great schools.

We also welcome Mrs Stapleton onto the team as Head of Wellbeing. This is an exciting new role that we are introducing to promote the emotional wellbeing of both children and staff. Mrs Stapleton has plenty of fresh ideas on how we can develop this in the school and will dovetail into the work that Mr Webb will be doing on the pastoral side. Her first job will be to see the school through the Carnegie Wellbeing Award that we have embarked on this year.

I am also delighted to announce that from September Mrs Webb will take on the title of Assistant Head with responsibility for health and safety on school trips and for planning school events.

Ms Forth of course remains as Deputy Head and Head of Curriculum, and we will continue to draw on the expertise of Mrs Morley, who runs our admissions and marketing.

Parents will have the chance to meet and hear a bit more on this at next week’s Welcome Evening on Thursday 27 June at 7.00pm in the school hall.

I hope to see many of you there.

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

Please click on the link below to view the weekly calendar.  The calendar details all the co-curricular clubs for Trinity term:

Weekly Calendar - 240619 

Please note:

• There is no swimming on Wednesday for Classes III & IV
• Senior Drama Club had finished for the term and there is no Junior Drama Club this week as per the original dates in the letter
• Choir will not be running on Monday due to the Music Exams

Any changes to clubs are also reflected on SOCS Co-Curricular and this will be displayed in your child's calendar.

SOCS Co-Curricular

Crescent School

Crescent School is celebrating after Year 6 pupil, Olivia, won a Gold Medal in the 80m sprint at the Independent School Association’s National Track and Field Athletics Championships.

The school was delighted to have two athletes qualify for the National Finals and on Wednesday 19 June, Olivia and Year 5, George, travelled to Birmingham to take part in the flagship event at the Alexander Stadium.

In a very close race, Olivia just edged ahead on the line to win her sprint in a super time of 11.32 seconds.

Fellow competitor, George, competed in two events the Long Jump and the 600m.  George jumped a new personal best of 3.85m to finish just outside the medals in fourth place in the Long Jump, whilst in the 600m he finished in 6th place with a time of 1.57.58.

Head of Girls Games at Crescent School, Rachel McCollin, was delighted with the children’s performance saying, “We always tell the children to believe in themselves and push beyond their own boundaries, and they certainly did that.  It was such a fantastic day, a well-run event and the children were simply incredible. We are delighted for Olivia and George – a gold medal and a personal best, a super result.”

Class VI brought the classic tale of the ugly duckling to life this week in their final end-of-year school production. Since it first hatched in 1993, Stiles & Drewe’s musical has charmed audiences with its heart-warming story, sparkling wit and memorable score.

It tells the story of Ugly, a cygnet who is mistaken as an ugly duckling. Teased by both his siblings and the barnyard animals, Ugly sets out on an adventure of self-discovery. On his journey, he meets a whole flock of colourful characters, including a sly tomcat and a company of military geese.

The children had worked incredibly hard with Drama teacher, Kim Thompson, to prepare this special performance and the talented cast rose admirably to the challenge.

Ms Thompson said, “Honk! is a popular, family-friendly show and was the ideal platform for our young actors to showcase their singing, acting and dancing talent. With its bouncing score and universal story, the play captured the hearts of all who saw it.”

Performed for the first time in the Clarkson Theatre over at Princethorpe College, the lighting and sound gave an extra special professional dimension to the performance.

It was clear the audience really enjoyed the show, their thunderous applause a testament to yet another super example of the school’s broad provision for the arts.

Headmaster, Joe Thackway said, "Huge congratulations to all the cast for learning their lines so well and delivering them with meaning, expression and great timing, what a multi-talented group of young people they all are."

Many thanks to all the staff and parents who helped with the production.

Thankfully, the rain finally stopped and the clouds cleared so that Sports Day could take place on Monday 17 June.  This year for the first time, the school travelled to the Foundation’s senior school, Princethorpe College, to make use of their excellent sporting facilities. Sports Day is a big event for the Crescent School and race after race, event after event our outstanding young athletes, leapt, threw and ran to make this year’s Sports Day another super, smashing success.

The Pre-Prep children enjoyed all the usual traditional sports day races including sprints, egg and spoon, skipping and the ever-popular obstacle race. Then after a break to refuel, they finished their competition with the relay shuttle race.

The Prep children took part in sprints, a middle distance 800m race, the Long Jump and High Jump, a Throwing Challenge and the Relay Race.  All of the events were hotly contested and as always there were new school records set. They included:

• Girls Year 5/6 Long Jump - Amelie – 3.2m – St David's House
• Boys Year 5/6 Long Jump - Kyle – 4.1m - St David's House

Two girls in Year 3, Stephanie and Abigail (both from St Andrew's House) also equalled the standing record for High Jump, jumping 0.97m.

At the Crescent, Sports Day isn’t just about the competition, it is all about the participation. On the day every child ran in a sprint and every child took part in an individual event and, most importantly, every child had fun.  As is always the case the children’s behaviour was impeccable, they offered support and encouragement to each other and congratulated and commiserated with good heart.

At the end of a very busy morning, Mr Thackway was delighted to announce the House results and present the trophies. 

• Years 1 and 2 Overall - St Andrew's House
• Years 3 and 4 Overall - St George's House
• Years 5 and 6 Overall - St David's House

A big thank you to all of the staff involved in organising and running the event both from the Crescent and the Princethorpe Foundation.  It was another super Sports Day.

The U9 and U11 Girls teams travelled to Stafford Prep yesterday, Thursday 20 June, to take part in the annual ISA Midlands Rounders Tournament.

The U9 Girls finished in third place winning the Bronze Medal and the U11 Girls finished fifth.

We had an excellent day of Rounders - well played to all.  Watch out for a full report in next week's edition of the Courier.

You may have noticed that Caitlyn in Class VI this week has been sporting a smart new hair style. The reason for her hair cut is that she has recently had her long locks cut and donated to the Little Princess Trust. This is a wonderful charity who use real hair to make wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment.

We are all very proud of Caitlyn, who sets an example to us all.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Over the summer break, there will be further exciting improvements to the Crescent School site.

In the holidays, the IT suite will be gutted and a new ceiling, lighting and flooring installed.  The room will be redesigned and have new furniture.  A new teaching space will be created that includes an interactive teaching wall.

Down the far end of the school, the Reception and Year 1 classrooms will also be completely refurbished with new ceiling, new lights, new carpets and a fresh coat of paint.  It will provide an exciting and stimulating environment for our youngest learners.

A three-phase development of the main corridor, affectionately known as the 'green mile', will commence starting with the top section (from the Library down to the first set of Fire Doors).  Again a new ceiling will be installed, with new lights, new flooring, built in display units and the walls repainted.

The work is all part of the Princethorpe Foundation’s long term estates development plan which includes significant investment in the Crescent School facilities.

Comments Joe Thackway, Headmaster, “It will be all systems go all summer, so pupils, staff and parents can expect great things on their return in September.”

As Mr Thackway mentions in his Headmaster's message pupils in the first sitting have been trialling the use of trays at lunchtime this week.  They have all adapted admirably! 

Please do email your feedback to admin@crescentschool.co.uk

Crescent School

In assembly this morning the children enjoyed a demonstration of the guitar, both pop and melodic, from Wil Russell. Wil is an ex-Princethorpe pupil who now works as a guitar tutor.

Anyone who is interested  in their child (Classes III - VI) taking up guitar lessons with Mr Russell from September should contact Mrs Barnes juliebarnes@crescentschool.co.uk to express their interest.

Places will be limited by a number of factors, so please do get your interest in early if you would like to take this offer up.

The final day for quizzing will be Friday 28 June so that I can collate all the data. Remember you can keep reading over the holidays but I would advise that the children only quiz on their final read of the holidays as it is not a memory test. The main thing is that the children enjoy reading.

It has been a great year for reading and the children are still enjoying books.

Please can all school reading books for Classes III - VI be back in school by Wednesday 3 July.  Over the summer we like to do an audit, checking that we have a good range across the year groups.  Please check under beds, on shelves and in bags and send them into your form tutor.

Thank you for all your continued support with reading out of school, keep it up over the summer, it can be a good time to visit your local library and bookshops.

Monday 24 June 2019 2.00pm - 3.30pm

Crescent Reception and Pathfinders Nursery Pre-School, welcome you to their afternoon of athleticism on the School Field.

Please confirm attendance via the link in the message that was sent out.

Crescent School

Thursday 27 June from 3.00pm

Our ‘Open Book’ afternoon is on Thursday 27 June for Years 1-6.  This is a chance for you to share all of your child’s books with them at their desk and see what they have enjoyed this year in the classrooms. The front door will be open at 3.00pm and you will be told which classroom your child will be in at that time of the day. Due to space we can only accommodate one adult per child.

Please note this is not a Parent Teacher consultation, but a lovely opportunity for you and your child to share their work.

You will be able to take many, but not all of the books home afterwards. If you have more than one child, split the time between the classrooms, taking the first child with you to the next! 

I do hope you can join us, please let us know by Tuesday 25 June via the message that was sent out.

Parents who are unable to attend and would like a copy of the powerpoint should please contact their child's form teacher and a copy will be sent out.

Thursday 27 June 2019 - 7.00pm - 8.15pm

As we come to the end of the academic year you will have noted in the calendar that this year’s Welcome Evening is planned for Thursday 27 June. All parents of children who are attending the school next year are invited to this important information sharing evening.

I will start things off with a talk in the main hall about our plans for next year outlining some key areas for development in the year ahead.  Parents will then have the chance to meet their child’s form teacher and see the room where they will be based.

The school playground will be open for parking from 6.45pm, please enter the school hall via the Pathfinders entrance.

Please confirm attendance via the link in the message that was sent out.

I look forward to seeing you on the evening.

Tuesday 2 July 2019 - 10.30am

The re-scheduled whole School photo will now take place on Tuesday 2 July at 1030am.  We hope the sun will be shining!  Summer uniform with Blazers to be worn please.

Crescent School

A great week for the Junior da Vinci students, these children have achieved practice, creativity and mastery in these subjects:

• Rory  in Computing
• Arabella D in Art and Design
• Cara in Art and Design
• Shayla in English
• Finlay for PE and Games
• Harriett  for Art and Design

A brilliant achievement by them all.

This week we have a double millionaire, well done to Caspar Webb, a huge achievement for Year 3.

Congratulations!

• Lewis
• Oliver W

Congratulations to Stephanie who achieved her Diamond Challenge Certificate for Times Tables.

The times table challenge is a drop in session in the Library with myself on a Wednesday morning for Classes II - VI.

As part of their learning in science, Class I children literally examined two contrasting fish this week.  We recognised similarities and difference between a lemon sole and a sea bream and were able to name key body parts and how they differ from those of other animals.

During the wet weather last week, Class III took the opportunity to get creative and learn how pneumatics work by making moving monsters. Every crafting possibility was out, imagination was on over drive and they are looking forward to their monster parade around the classes next week.

In PSHE this week we have been looking at the journey of a cocoa bean and the production of chocolate in Africa. The children were surprised at some of the conditions cocoa farmers have to work in and were very thankful to Fairtrade in supporting them with fairer working conditions. When thinking about consumers and what to produce we (obviously) had to try both milk and white chocolate before deciding which one we were willing to pay for. This would give the farmers a better idea of preference and therefore profit. A really interesting and thought provoking lesson.

Dorrit became a Junior da Vinci student for her insightful leaflet.

Well done!

After a lovely morning on the sports field at Princethorpe, Class IV tested out their verbal reasoning skills playing games in the thinking skills lesson. A fun and entertaining way to use a lot of the skills they’ve been practising this year. 

A group of children from Class VI visited VY last week to discuss life in the last year at Crescent. They were able to answer lots of questions from the slightly apprehensive Class VY. I was very impressed by the maturity and detail with which the questions were answered and I know that they alleviated a lot of the children's concerns. 

Class VI have been using their last few maths lessons at Crescent to explore number, pattern and methods through a range of investigations. This one involved 0-10 dot dominos to form a squared formation where each side added up to the same total. Apparently there is a solution where every domino can be used! We did not have time to get there, but Olivia M and Bexie were the closest making 9 whole sets, Theo and Jayden found the smallest total of 2 and Mehul and Anand found the largest at 27.

Looking forward to September we have the following events planned so please put these in your diaries now. I will provide further details on them all before the end of term.

• FOC Meeting - Monday 9 September
• Class VI Market Day (part 1) - Friday 20 September
• Macmillion Coffee Morning - Friday 27 September
• FOC AGM Meeting - Monday 7 October
• Class V Market Day - Friday 11 October
• Parents Quiz Night - Friday 11 October

Friday 28 June 2019

Just to make everyone aware we have had to cancel this event due to low numbers, however, for all of us signed up who have babysitters at the ready we will be meeting in the Bacco Lounge from 8pm. So please come along and join us if you can. 

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

Crescent Menu - 24 June 2019 

Crescent School Office

Please see below for useful school contact information:

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

2018/19

Trinity Term
Term ends Wednesday 3 July 2019

2019/20

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

• After School Manager (Crescent School)
• Gardener/Groundsman
• Teaching Assistant

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