The Courier

I am writing to let you know that, after 16 years of outstanding service, our Foundation Bursar, Eddie Tolcher, will be stepping down from his full-time role at the end of the calendar year.

Eddie - a former Crescent pupil and an Old Princethorpian - has been a tremendous servant, playing a leading role in the development and success of the Foundation. Eddie arrived shortly before me and together we led on the mergers of Crackley Hall and Abbotsford in 2010 and Crescent School into the Foundation in 2016 – both of which significantly strengthened all our schools. He has also overseen a major programme of campus development across all three schools, most recently with the new Science Centre at the College. Eddie has been tireless in supporting the Heads to deliver the very best possible schools and I would like to publicly thank him for all he has done.

In light of Eddie’s forthcoming retirement, we have reconfigured our organisational design in line with our commitment to continue to deliver our key strategic pillar of “Operational and Financial Efficiency and Excellence” and so will be looking to appoint a new Head of Business Services by the end of the year. We have already started the recruitment process for the pivotal role and further details can be found here on our Website. If you know any exceptional people who this may be of interest to, please do let them know – the deadline for applications is Monday 13 May.

Eddie will be continuing his role as Clerk to the Trustees, and I will continue to work with him on special projects so we are delighted that we will be retaining his knowledge and wisdom in the years ahead.

E D Hester

Dear Parents and Friends of the School

We have a rather nice bank holiday to look forward to this weekend, which also marks the halfway point of the half term. I was able to start my assembly today with some pictures of the children enjoying some warm sunny weather earlier in the week. It made for a rather lovely scene on the playground and in the Cosy Corner unlike the steady drizzle of today. Let's hope we get a little bit of that weather over the weekend. I haven't even thought about getting my barbecue out yet this year but who knows maybe that's not too far away.

On the theme of sunny weather, we started the week with a very informative assembly led by the Year 6 children about how to stay safe in the sun. The message was slip-slap-slop-slide-shade and we finished with a rather catchy tune to help everybody remember these important messages. As you may know, we are a sun safe school, and this is all part of educating the children about these healthy messages.

The personal highlight of the week for me was the inter-house geography final on Monday morning, where the Year 6 children took part in a locations quiz competing as part of their house team. I probably say this every year, but this genuinely was an outstanding competition and the children amazed me and the audience with their knowledge and expertise. At one point I was worried that they wouldn’t answer any questions wrongly and we might end up with a three-way tie, but Yellow House pulled away in the final round and congratulations to them, this year's winners.

The book fair this week has been a big success with children and families, and it is lovely to support a local business, this time in the form of Hunt’s Bookshop in Rugby. Everything has been very well organised and many thanks to the Friends of Crescent who have helped out.

Just on the theme of the Friends, I would make a quiet reminder to anybody who is interested in taking over as chair next year to get in contact. It might be you think you can help in some way, but you’re not exactly sure what it entails. Whatever your level of interest please don't hesitate to drop me a quick line. We are open to any ideas, parents could work together as co-chairs or you might only want to commit for one year, we are really happy to be flexible.

The weekend ahead for me is a relatively quiet one, other than the 10K run that I am taking part in along with lots of other Crescent folk on Sunday morning. We are raising money for the Children's Hospital and for Barnaby and many thanks to those who have contributed so generously to this. Good luck if you're taking part and, whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope it is a restful one for you and the family.

If you require your children to have tea in After School please ensure they are booked in by 10am so the kitchen staff can prepare tea. 

Please ensure both gates are fully closed after you enter/leave and ensure other parents are not let through the main gate as all parents need to be announced and identified.

We are all looking forward to a chance to celebrate Barnaby Williams’ amazing young life in our inaugural Barnaby Bear Football Tournament on Saturday 8 June.

To help us with our preparations, please let us know whether your child will be able to come along and play or spectate. It is open to all children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 and everyone is welcome. The likely start time will be 9:30am and we should be all finished by lunchtime. Full timings will be announced later once we know the details of the format. To some extent this will depend on the number of children wanting to take part.

There will be two mini-tournaments, one for the U9s and one for the U11s, with little trophies on offer for the winning teams and a sporty version of Barnaby Bear to be won by the overall winners. The children will take part in House teams, and there may be more than one team per House.

Please complete the form below if your child is able to take part in the tournament. If any parents would like to be involved in the morning, either refereeing, serving refreshments or coaching one of the teams, please let us know in the form below.

Barnaby Bear Football Tournament

MySchoolPortal

Crescent School

The Hunt’s Bookshop Book Fair has been in school this week, causing much excitement for us all. The trolleys of brightly coloured jackets and bold titles catching the interest and imagination of all who walked past.

Hunt’s Bookshop is a local Rugby, family run, independent book shop and we were delighted to partner with them, to host the book fair. In fact, Hunt’s Bookshop even has an Old Crescentian amongst them, as Dominic is a former pupil of the school.

The book fair was very popular, as there really is nothing like the sight, feel and smell of a new book. Every class had the chance to visit the fair with their teacher during their lessons. They were able explore the selection of books on offer and no one had a problem finding one they wanted to buy. There was a choice of books for girls and boys of all ages and reading levels. The fair was open before and after school, and parents and pupils flocked to the Library to browse the trollies and purchase books.

Thank you to everybody who supported the fair, and especially to the FOC who helped to run it. All your sales have provided the school with the opportunity to purchase some lovely new books for our school library.

Crescent School’s annual House Geography competition took place on Monday 29 April and it was a hotly contested affair. Pupils in Year 6 have been working hard in their lessons, learning the mountains, seas, rivers, countries and capitals of the world. They have participated in regular quizzes to test their knowledge with the highest scorers earning themselves the right to represent their House in the final.

In front of an audience of parents and the Upper School, teams of four pupils took on eight rounds of challenging questions. It proved a closely fought competition with the three Houses neck and neck throughout and hardly a mark dropped between them all. Their geography knowledge was just incredible.

This year it was St David’s House (Maisie [Captain], Timi, Emily and Grace) that just pipped St George’s (Roisin [Captain], Shayla, Alex and Alice) and St Andrew’s (James [Captain], Harriet, Maggie and Shiv) in the final round. The yellows were delighted to be crowned champions, reclaiming the trophy their House last won in 2021. However, all the teams should be proud of what was an outstanding performance.

Many congratulations to all, it was a super event, and the best of luck to Year 5 when your turn comes around next year!

Year 6 led a Sun Safety Assembly on Monday for all the children in school. They had all dressed up to be sun safe and reminded everyone why the sun is our friend but also why we need to treat it with respect. They shared the six Sun S’s: Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide and Slurp!

The assembly ended with the Slip, Slop, Slap Song, which the whole school enjoyed singing together. You can hear a clip on our school facebook page here.

As part of our new Commercial Enterprises activity, we hope very soon to be able to let parents know full details about the Summer Holiday Camps we will be offering this summer at Princethorpe.

The camps will be run in partnership with an experienced Ofsted registered external provider, who will offer an exciting sports and multi-activity programme for children aged 5 to 16. The camps will be open to Foundation and non-Foundation children from Monday to Friday for the majority of the summer holidays.

The Crackley Hall holiday club will continue to run as normal.

We will communicate with families as soon as more information is available.

Saturday 11 May - 9.30am to 12.00pm

We have a very limited number of places available for Year 5 Crescent pupils at Princethorpe’s Say Hello To Hockey Event on Saturday 11 May, these can be booked by clicking here and will be available on a first come, first served basis.

A morning of free hockey training on our astroturf, you'll learn new skills, make friends and have fun. Aimed at girls and boys, the morning will finish with a mini tournament, beginners most welcome!

Monday 13 May - 7.00pm to 7.45pm

Parents at all our Foundation schools (excluding Little Crackers) and those with children joining us in September 2024, are invited to an Online Parents’ Forum on Monday 13 May.

We have had a number of queries from parents about the current political climate and potential changes which may affect the independent schools’ sector in the future, and what our plans are in the light of any changes.

This event will specifically cover potential changes, some of which have been highlighted and discussed in the media, including the possible introduction of VAT on school fees.

To access this event on Monday 13 May, please click on this link.

During the live online forum there will be the opportunity to raise questions, but if you would like to submit any queries in advance, please do so by using this short form.

Tuesday 14 May 2024 - 2.45pm to 3.30pm

I am pleased to announce our Year 4 production this year will be Jack And The Beanstalk.

Refreshments will be served in the Library from 2.30pm.

There are four tickets available per family of pupils in Year 4 to book:

Jack and the Beanstalk

Kind regards

Tuesday 14 May - 5.00pm to 7.00pm

Please share news of our Open Evening for prospective pupils.

Prospective pupils and their parents are warmly invited to Crescent School's Open Evening on Tuesday 14 May 2023 - 5.00pm to 7.00pm.

Come and find out why Crescent School has been judged Excellent in all areas by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. It's a great opportunity for prospective families to get a feel for the school and to meet, Mr Thackway, Headmaster.

We are already taking registrations for places in Reception and Year 3 starting in September 2025. 

To book your place please click here. 

For more information or to talk to our Admissions Team, please contact our Registrar Mrs Becky Witcomb on 01788 523851 or by email admissions@crescentschool.co.uk.

Wednesday 15 May 2024 - 9.00am to 10.00am

The Celebration Breakfast for 6W is on Wednesday 15 May. We will be eating around 9am, so the children in 6W will only require a light breakfast at home (and no snack required) so they can fully enjoy all the treats that our wonderful Olive staff will be laying out for us.

Friday 17 May 2024 - 3.45pm to 4.15pm

On Friday 17 May, after school, we will have our Open Corridors event where we will share with you all the great work that we have been doing in school.

Please collect your child before entering through the front door where you will be welcomed in to look at all the great work in school from 3.45pm. Entry and exit will only be through the front doors. Last entry is at 3.55pm. On this day, Years 5 and 6 will be dismissed through the pupil door. 

If your child is in a Co-Curricular club then they will be expected to attend unless you arrange otherwise. They are unable to attend both.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Tuesday 21 May

Pupils in Year 4 will be travelling over to Princethorpe on Tuesday 21 May for a special joint Eco-Explorers Workshop with fellow Foundation prep school Crackley Hall School. 

Building on the Foundation’s Environmental Sustainability Plan the event is aimed at giving the children an appreciation and understanding of the College’s beautiful grounds and its diverse eco-system.

There will be a range of activities for them to participate in including pond dipping, mini beast hunting and orienteering.

The event will be hosted by the Princethorpe Science and Games Departments with support from the Marketing and Admissions team.

An Evolve consent form with more details will be sent to parents next week.

Tuesday 21 May 2024 - 9.00am to 9.30am or Wednesday 22 May 2024 - 2.45pm to 3.15pm

This is an opportunity to share your child's learning journey through Reception. 

One parent is able to attend either of the sessions below. Entry will be via the After School entrance by the side of school where parents normally collect Reception children.

Wednesday 5 June - 6.30pm to 8.30pm

Princethorpe College invites prospective families to the College's annual Summer Open Evening which will take place on Wednesday 5 June from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. This is a perfect opportunity for families looking for a secondary school place in September 2025 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, Grove du Toit, will also address visitors during the evening. Light refreshments will be available.

Please click here to book your place. 

Dear Year 5 Parents

As you will no doubt be aware, the local authority 11+ exams for entry into Year 7 in 2025 are scheduled to take place in September 2024, most likely on the second weekend of September. Registration for the exam will open on 7 May 2024.

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 Thursday 29 August and Friday 30 August 2024. 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, Ms Clark 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 Saturday 9 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 3 May 2024.

Brain Training 2024

Best wishes 

There have been lots of Junior da Vinci awards this week.

• Theo Mc and Esme in 4C, Siara in 2W and Ava in 2E achieve theirs in Englsh
• Roisin in 6W gains hers in Geography and Science & DT
• Maggie and Oliver in 6W achieve theirs in Science & DT, along with Evie in 1Q
• Shayla in 6W and Roisin in 5F gain theirs in Art
• Oore and Jed in 2E achieve theirs in Maths
• Alice and Alex G in 6W gain theirs in Geography
• Emily and Maggie in 6W achieve theirs in History

Congratulations to you all on your hard work. 

Mrs Symons
JdV Lead

Congratulations to Mithun for reaching 500,000 words.

Great reading.

This week's Word Wizards and Top Quizzers are:

Word Wizards, achieving the highest word count from successfully quizzing this week, are:

• 3LS  Joshua
• 3SS  Alice
• 4C    Albert
• 5F    Nora
• 6W   Sofie

Top Quizzers who have quizzed on the most books successfully or made a noticeable improvement in quizzing scores this week are:

• 3LS  David
• 3SS  Lily
• 4C   Alfie
• 5F    Edward W
• 6W   Oliver

Mrs Nelson
Teaching Assistant

Reading certificates have, this week, been awarded to:

• Ayven
• Ire
• Olivia-Rose
• Xander

Well done to you all.

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.

• Hannah 2E has completed 72% of the course
• Isabel 2E has completed 24% of the course
• Finn 3SS has completed 48% of the course

Results For Battle 25 April to 2 May - Year 1-6 are (average score per class member):

• 1st 4C 124
• 2nd 1Q 114
• 3rd 3SS 103

Most valuable players in the whole competition:

• 1st Alfie 4C
• 2nd Roisin 5F
• 3rd Jahnavi 3LS

Well done, 4C! 🏆

Most improved speedsters in the studio are:

3SS

• Finn - Headliner!

4C

• Aria - Support Act!

5F

• Nora - Rock Star!
• Toni - Rock Legend!

Battle between all Year 1-2 from 2-9 May 2024.

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

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

This week's Artist of the Week are:

• Maisie 6W - A carefully composed landscape painting with lovely detail

• Shayla - Excellent detail and lovely depth to this landscape painting

• Albert 6W - Carefully painted landscape picture, taking inspiration from other artists

• Uma and Orlaith 3LS  - A fun and beautifully made collage picture

• Roisin 5F - Excellent sensitive sketches of a bluebell flower

• Henry 5F - Effective use of tone to add contrast

• Harry 5F - A beautifully detailed sketch of a bluebell

• Patrick 5F - Lovely detail and tone

• Jonelle 2E - Lovely mix of colours

• Lota 2E - A colourful watercolour sketch.

Well done to you all.

Year 4 Pupils are all Scientists of the Week! Their listening skills were excellent, their identification and classification practical work was exemplary and their enthusiasm during the day was superb. 

When back in the classroom, Kian and Mithun created a detailed Classification Key for which they received a Junior da Vinci practice.   

Some of the things the children have been learning...

Little Red Riding Hood and The Gingerbread Man have been our focus texts. We have joined in with repeated refrains and written personal responses to the stories. We have talked about alternative characters and story endings.

We have had fun exploring halves in maths. We have looked at halves of numbers to 10 (linking to doubles) and halves of common shapes. We have introduced sharing and used key vocabulary such as amount, same, equal, half and fair.

In PSED we have talking about the qualities of a good friend and treating others as we would like to be treated.

Some of the things the children will be learning in the weeks to come...

The next traditional tales we will be using is The Three Little Pigs. We will be exploring story settings and the use of speech bubbles.

We will be revisiting time in Maths. We’ll be practising the months of the year and using clocks to read and show o’clock and half past times.

We will be moving on to capital letters in handwriting.

In phonics we have been revising digraphs & trigraphs;

oo          ar           or            ur           ow             oi            ear

How to help your child at home...

• Share different versions of traditional tales - ask the children to try and read a page or two and identify familiar words
• Encourage children to use expression when reading aloud
• Continue to practise writing using cursive letters - make the purpose of writing as much fun as possible (e.g.  a message in a birthday card) Make connections between capital and lower case letters
• Practice simple addition and subtraction problems using real life scenarios
• Practice doubling and halving numbers
• Practically explore sharing with a teddy bears picnic
• Talk about the materials that are used in our homes and their properties - are they natural or human-made?

What’s going on in the coming weeks/ notices/ information

• Please make sure all items coming into school are clearly named including sunhats
• Remember to sign children’s reading records each evening
• Now the children are enjoying snack outdoors at playtime, please consider their snack size as they have limited time

Class 1Q have been learning their numbers in Spanish. They have been counting them aloud, writing them and singing along to the karaoke song from Language Angels. They have also been learning how to say how old they are in Spanish.

Class 2E and 2W wanted to show you their wonderful watercolour paintings. They tried hard to look carefully at the different shapes of the landscape pictures before adding a range of different colours.

Year 2 pupils have been learning about living things and their habitats. This week, the children enjoyed identifying and naming minibeasts that they found in a micro habitat - the new bug hotel designed and constructed by STEM Club. It was great to see that many of the minibeasts had 'checked in' and were enjoying their new safe haven. 

Children in 2W loved reading bird poems and suggesting descriptive verbs to describe how they move.  We then wrote our own "If I were a bird I would……." Poems.  These were full of fabulous gliding, soaring, swooping images on the first day of May!

During our Forest School time this week Mrs Dowling set the challenge of making a mud sculpture. Some children got to work quickly getting some fresh mud and making the beginnings of a sculpture. They mixed and squeezed the mud into lots of shapes. They also added leaves and cones for effect. We chatted about how the mud on our hands made us feel. We all enjoyed the experience. 

Mrs Dowling told the children that playing in the mud helps their brains grow, it also helps them to feel good feelings. Mrs Olner asked the children to describe the feelings too. It was messy but we all really enjoyed our time in the outdoors again this week.

The Green Team have focused on three main areas this academic year: bio-diversity, waste and water. Lots of pupils and staff across the school have helped and worked on different sustainability actions.

Click here to view the ones that been completed so far. The challenge now for the Green Team is to measure the impact that each project has had within the school environment

We are proud to present the latest edition of the award-winning Crescent school podcast for your viewing pleasure, brought to you by the very hard-working Year 6 Podcasting Team! In this exciting episode: an interview with Mrs Dewes, we discuss favourite films and residential trips, a quick-fire geography quiz, Mr Adkins being silly, and a great insight into coding! If you have any feedback, ideas or general comments, please get in touch with us!

The Crescent School Podcast!

Mr Adkins and the Year 6 Podcasters

• Bowler of the game - Maisie
• Batter of the game - Sofie

• Batter of the game - Leela
• Bowler of the game - Nora

Lots of positives and some areas to develop prior to the next match, but pleased to take the win by 8 runs and 1 wicket.

Coach's player – Thomas

The Year 6 VIP area worked out well again (which is funded separately by the Year 6 parents) so we are hoping this can become a tradition. It's a lovely way to engage the Year 6 pupils who suddenly look so grown up!

Click here to view the term dates for 2023/24, 2024/25

Click here to view 2025/26.

Crescent School

Please see below for useful school contact information:

We regularly recruit for a variety of roles, please do share news of the vacancies with interested friends and family. Current vacancies include:

The Princethorpe Foundation

• Head of Business Services
• Events Co-ordinator

Princethorpe College

• Head of Psychology and Sociology
• Assistant Registrar
• Science Technician
• Minibus Driver

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.