The Courier

Dear Parents

The LAMDA showcase events this week have been a real joy. During the first part of the year, all of the children from Year 3 to 6 develop a wide range of speech and drama skills in their timetabled lesson with Miss Thompson and many of them go on to take the LAMDA exam at the end of February. Performing in public is great preparation for this, as well as making for a most enjoyable hour’s entertainment in its own right. I was delighted with the parent attendance as this provided an excellent audience for the children. Very well done all of the children who took part. I was genuinely impressed with the individuality of the presentations and the confidence the children showed as they delivered them.

During the week commencing Monday 27 January we will be welcoming a film crew to the school from Affixius Films. They will be working with us for three or four days putting together a short video of school life that will then be put up on our website. This will involve a number of children at different times during the week as we want them to reflect the wide range of activities that go on here. It takes some time to put these things together but my intention is to show the finished product to the children in assembly next term and parents will have a chance to see it online and also at the Welcome Evening in June.

Next week also looks like a busy one with two educational trips going out, six teams playing sport fixtures, an all day hockey tournament at Rugby School, finished off with an open day for prospective parents and open corridors on Friday. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy your weekends with your children.

Please click on the link below to view the weekly calendar of clubs, events, fixtures and additional information for the week. 

Weekly Calendar - 20 January 2020 

Please note there is no swimming for Years 5 and 6 on Thursday. 

All the co-curricular clubs can be viewed on SOCS, where you can find details of all the dates the clubs are running.  

SOCS Co-Curricular

Crescent School

A talented young musician from the Crescent School is celebrating after successfully auditioning for the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain.

10-year-old Henry Corbin first picked up the cornet when he was just seven-years-old and has been taking lessons at school ever since. Coached and encouraged by his music teacher, Di Fisher, Henry has made such progression in the intervening three years that he has already achieved Grade 5. Henry auditioned for the prestigious National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain last October and just before Christmas received the wonderful news that he had been selected.

Henry is a talented player, a stalwart of the school orchestra and brass group and always enjoys taking part in the school's regular concerts and musical co-curricular activities. He practises regularly and outside of school also plays for the local Bilton Silver Training Band. In recent years Henry has been called on to play the Last Post at a number of local Remembrance Services.

Crescent School’s Director of Music, Julie Barnes, said “This is a huge achievement for Henry and we are delighted and very proud of him. Only the very talented are selected to play in the National Children’s Brass Band and it is a wonderful opportunity for him.”

As part of the National Children’s Brass Band, Henry will attend an intensive residential course at Repton School in the summer holidays where he will get to play with the very best brass players in the country.

The LAMDA Exam dates have unfortunately had to be rescheduled and they will now take place on:

Classes 5F, 6W and 6Y - Thursday 27 February 2020

Classes 3S and 4M - Friday 28 February 2020

Year 6 Red House pupils are up and running with Play Leader activities at lunch time following their training with myself on Friday 10 January. 

Leaders had to learn about the skills and attributes of good leaders, drawing upon knowledge from their own sporting hero's such as Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool Football Manager, and Michael Jordan, NBA legend, before analysing their own areas of strength and development as a leader. 

We then played a number of different games to develop communication skills and make them aware of how important it is to be clear and concise with their instructions.  The next physical aspect of the course was learning to carry out a risk assessment of the playing area and how to warm up in a safe and fun way.  

Pupils had the opportunity to lead their peers through a variety of warm up games before planning and adapting their own games and activities to run.   All leaders were very focussed throughout their training and we are positive they are going to have a great term running their activities with the Reception, Year 1 and 2 with the first sessions on Monday being a great success.

Great work Red House.

Please can you ensure you have named all of your child's clothing and posessions so that we can return all the items, that end up in the lost property box, to the correct owner.

Thank you.

Saturday 28 March 2020 - Arrive from 6.30pm - Walk from 9.00pm

The Foundation's senior school Princethorpe College is delighted to be hosting a major fundraising event for the charity Myton Hospice on Saturday 28 March 2020.

Glow For Myton - Around The World In 5km is a night walk that will wind its way through the beautiful grounds of the College campus, taking in the sights and sounds of some of the world’s best celebrations along the way. Myton Hospice has been running sponsored night walks for a number of years in city centre locations. The events have proved so popular that the charity started looking for a new venue and Princethorpe College was delighted to step in. Ideally situated midway between the charity’s three hospices in Coventry, Warwick and Rugby, Myton Hospice is hoping to attract hundreds of walkers from across Warwickshire for what it is describing as its biggest and best Glow fundraiser ever.

The 5km walk will begin and end in the Orchard where there will be entertainment and food available both before and after the event. The route will take walkers off around the College grounds. There will be plenty of volunteer marshals to cheer all the walkers on and along the way will be exciting zones showcasing festivals and cultural celebrations from around the world including Oktoberfest, Chinese New Year and the Holi Colour Festival. The event isn’t timed, instead it is all about enjoying the experience and the sights and sounds laid on for the event.

Comments Clare Cropp, Myton’s Community and Events Fundraising Manager, “We are hoping to raise £60,000 from this event and are really looking forward to holding it at Princethorpe. The event is already generating a lot of interest and we’re very grateful to the College for so generously supporting us.”

Glow For Myton - Around The World In 5km is open to all, and pupils and parents are encouraged to sign up for the event at the early bird price of £15 for adults and £10 for children on the charity’s website here.  (Children of all ages are welcome but under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.)

The event is sure to be great fun for a good cause so we are hoping lots of families and friends of the Foundation will want to get involved.

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 we consider the category of Good Citizens. 

'We respect everyone and we are tolerant'

Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running! Go to Scholastic Book Club to browse the latest books and order online. For every £1 you spend on this month’s Book Club, our school will earn 25p in Scholastic Rewards.

Please place your order online by 10 February 2020. 

If you are interested in finding out more about teaching at Princethorpe College why not come along to our A Taste of Teaching at Princethorpe Event on Thursday 23 January 2020 from 4.30pm to 6.00pm.

You’ll get a tour of the College with some of our Sixth Formers, a chance to visit your subject area and meet the Head of Department, followed by a short presentation by the Headmaster and the opportunity to ask questions of our senior team. Light refreshments will be available.

We have recently become a training school through the School Direct Scheme in partnership with the Lion Alliance and we actively encourage applications from those just entering the profession too.

If you would like to attend the Taste of Teaching event please click here to book your place by Monday 20 January 2020.  Further information on the event will be confirmed nearer the date.

Any other questions about recruitment should be directed to recruitment@princethorpe.co.uk or call 01926 634269.

Friday 24 January - 10.00am to 3.00pm

The Crescent School, is opening its doors to prospective parents and children for an Open Day on Friday 24 January from 10.00am to 3.00pm.

This is an opportunity to meet the Crescent's headmaster, Joe Thackway, look around the school and to meet staff and pupils on a normal working day. All are welcome, no need to book.

If you can't make the Open Day but would like to visit the school, please call our Registrar, Mrs Helen Morley on 01788 521595 and come on a day to suit you, we welcome visitors on most days.

For more information visit www.crescentschool.co.uk

Monday 3 February to Monday 10 February 2020 - 9.05am to 10.05am

An invitation to Maths for Parents' Workshops has been sent to you. This is a chance for you to experience learning with your child in class. The focus this time will include Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) methods, open learning investigation and higher order thinking skills. Please join us to learn more about these teaching styles and learning methods, but also support your child in mathematics. Due to space, we can only allow one adult per pupil. If you have siblings you are welcome to attend more than one, avoiding any clashes.

We look forward to seeing you.

Friday 14 February 2020

We will be holding a non-uniform day on Friday 14 February with all proceeds going to this term's chosen charity Bwengu Projects. 

Please send a £1 donation with your child to be given to their teacher in registration.

Thank you

Mrs Monteith and Mrs Stapleton
Class 3S and 4M Form Teachers

Congratulations to Zahra and Zara who have both become JdV students in English this week, a brilliant achievment.

Mrs Webb
Assistant Head

There is a lot to celebrate this week:

• Katherine has read 500,000 words;
• Harry and Rania have read 1 million words 
• Daniel has read 3 million words

Well done to you all - that's a lot of books!

Reading certificates have, this week, been awarded to:

• Aria
• Fred
• Lilah
• Oliver
• Sam O
• Samuel

Well done to you all.

Congratulations to Izzy who received her Gold Challenge Certificate for Times Tables in Assembly this morning.

The times table challenge is a drop in session in the Library with myself on a Wednesday morning for Years 2 - 6.

Well done to Aryaan S and Jay who received Playground Conduct Awards, chosen by the Lunchtime Supervisors, in assembly this morning. 

Lunchtime Supervisors

Mr Webb tried to keep his birthday on Tuesday as low key as possible but the children and parents of Class 2W plotted a birthday surpise for him!  Two cakes were made (by Mrs Fouracre and Edward and Mrs Mercer and James); balloons and banners purchased and a card signed by the class.  The children were besides themselves with excitement and performed a few renditions of Happy Birthday and then finished with a very tasty slice of cake!  

Happy 50th Birthday Mr Webb we hope you had a fantastic day!

Crescent School

Please click on the link below to read all about what the Reception Class have been learning this week.

Reception Round Up - 170120

Our new topic in history introduced the children to seaside holidays in the past. We raised questions such as, what is a penny lick? What is a black box? What would you do in a bathing machine? How did swimming costumes differ 100 years ago? The children sorted a range of pictures very successfully identifying features from the present and past. A great introduction to our new topic.

Class 1E children faced the challenge of using their understanding of electricity to create working circuits from scratch.  As bulbs lit up all around the room, they were very proud of their application and investigative skills.

Class 3S were studying Lowry this week as well as finishing off last week's Seurat work. They were very interested in the differences between the artists and loved trying to create work in the style of each one.

Class 5F were investigating how insulators kept a potato warm. They chose their favourite insulator to cover one of the potatoes and recorded how quickly that one and the control took to cool down. Line graphs will be drawn next lesson to show their findings.

Children in Construction Club have been working in pairs and small groups to build vehicles and buildings. We chose the construction equipment we wanted to use and set to work to create some wonderful models. During the next few weeks we will be making imaginary creatures and robots.

Crescent played some fantastic hockey and showed the high level of play that they had been regularly demonstrating in practices.

Against Foremarke, the boys looked a little tentative and came away with a 0-0 draw. Then they played Radcliffe College where Crescent were more dominant, kept the pressure on their opponents and won 4-0. Goal difference was going to be key in a three team group and, with Foremarke winning only 1-0 against Radcliffe, Crescent made the final triangular playoff.

Despite having lots of great chances, the boys could not break through a stubborn goalkeeper versus Bilton Grange. The hosts then broke clear and, following a goalmouth melee, scored what proved to be the winning goal. In the last match, Crescent overcame Bromsgrove to finish runners-up overall.

Friday 7 February 2019 - 3.45pm to 4.45pm

This bake sale will be held in the library so please come along and support Class 3S by purchasing cakes and goodies after school from 3.30 to 5.00pm.

All money raised will go towards crafts, games and toys for their class.

Friday 14 February 2020 - 4.00pm - 5.30pm

Unfortunately we have had to move the disco back until May so on Friday 14 February we will be holding a movie night. The movie will be Farmegeddon - A Shaun the Sheep Movie which is released on DVD on the Monday before. 

Please note we have changed the timings of this event so the movie will start at approximately 4.00pm and all the children attending will come straight to us after school.  Reception parents will need to attend with their children again like last time, however it will only cost £3 per Reception child. All other children it will be £5 which includes the movie and a snack. 

The movie will end at 5.30pm and children will be dismised form the Pupil Entrance.

If you would like your child to attend please click on the link below:

FoC Movie Night

Below are the details of the FoC Year Group Representatives. These reps will communicate with you on all our events via email, whatsapp or facebook. 

From January 2020 the FoC is no longer be accepting cheques as a form of payment. 

We have purchased a card payment system and will now be accepting bank transfers or cash only.

Many thanks

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

Crescent Menu - 20 January 2020 

Crescent School Office

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

• Teacher of Art
• Teacher of Business Studies
• Teacher of Computer Science
• Teacher of Design Technology
• Teacher of English
• Teacher of Mathematics
• Head of Law
• Groundsman
• Nursery Practitioner

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

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

Please see below for useful school contact information:

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

2019/20

We are excited to introduce to you our Crescent Courier Kids reporters they are Bella, Evie, Harriett, Rohan and Freya.

They will be meeting every Tuesday morning to create a kids section of the Courier.

They have many exciting ideas which they will be sharing in the last edition of the Courier this half-term.