Admissions Update

A very warm welcome to our Admissions Update e-newsletter, designed to give you an insight into the Crescent and a feel for the richness of school life here. You will also find lots of practical information that will help you through the admissions process.

The first thing that strikes visitors to our school is the special sense of purpose that there is here, combined with a genuinely caring and nurturing atmosphere. Every child here is unique and everyone has their place in our shared community. 

Our wonderful teaching staff are determined to go the extra mile to help children achieve everything they are capable of. This was noted in our most recent ISI 'outstanding in all areas' inspection, where the parental feedback ‘praised the school’s preparation of former pupils who had successfully and easily transitioned into their new senior school’. You can read the full report in full here.

We live by the School Promise, which asks us all to be Good Friends, Good Learners and Good Citizens in all we do. Our philosophy applies equally inside the classroom, on the sports field and in all of our extra-curricular pursuits as well.

We look forward to welcoming you to our wonderful school in the near future.

Joe Thackway
Headmaster

Congratulations to all our Year 6 pupils who, back in March, had their secondary school places confirmed. Once again pupils have moved on to a range of outstanding local independent and state schools.  

18 of the 24-strong class are now at the Foundation’s senior school, Princethorpe College, while two children chose the local grammar school as their destination. We are especially delighted that seven of our Year 6 pupils last year were awarded scholarships, including all-rounder, art and academic awards.

Sarah Webb, Assistant Head and Year 6 Teacher, said, “Our aim is always to do our best to help our pupils reach the destination secondary school of their choice. Despite the challenges of recent years, the children have enjoyed great success. We are particularly pleased with the range of scholarship offers they have received. It’s an excellent outcome and everyone here is thrilled for them.”

Congratulations to all the children on their achievements – Crescent School is really proud of you all.

Crescent’s Year 6 were simply magnificent when they performed Shakespeare’s classic, The Tempest. In their final end-of-school production, they superbly portrayed the comedic story of revenge, magic, love and forgiveness. Their rendition just wowed their parents and teachers.

On the big night pupils were nervous but excited having really enjoyed their dress rehearsal in front of the school earlier in the week.

The children had worked incredibly hard with Drama teacher, Lizzie Bowdige, and Director of Music, Julie Barnes, to prepare the special performance and the talented cast rose admirably to the challenge.

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.

Crescent School’s annual House Geography quiz took place in April and as always it was a hotly contested affair. Pupils in Year 6 had worked hard all year learning the mountains, seas, rivers, countries and capitals of the world. In their lessons they had participated in regular quizzes to test their knowledge, with the highest scorers earning themselves the right to represent their House in the final.

The quiz took place in the school hall, and there was the added pressure of an audience of pupils from across the school. It was a closely fought competition with the three Houses neck and neck throughout and hardly a mark dropped between them. Their geography knowledge was as always just incredible.

In the end it was St Andrew’s House that just pipped St George’s in the final round. The blues were delighted to be crowned champions, a victory that was all the sweeter as it was the second time the blues have lifted the trophy in a row.

Many congratulations to all who took part; competitors, scorers, and adjudicators, it was a super event, and the best of luck to Year 5 when your turn comes around next year!

The school took a team of 27 athletes from Years 4 to 6 to Saffron Lane Stadium in Leicester in May to compete against schools from across the Midlands in the Regional ISA Athletics.

Many of the children put in fantastic performances and were proud to achieve personal bests and four Crescent School pupils finished in first place and qualified for the National Championships. 

Head of Games, Rachel McCollin praised the outstanding attitude adopted by the Crescent team who as always behaved impeccably despite the mixed weather conditions.

“We had an absolutely fabulous day,” commented Mrs McCollin, “I was very pleased with our results, there were many excellent individual performances. Out of our six teams, three reached the finals of the sprint relay. The children well and truly rose to the challenge of our ‘little school big ambitions’ motto!”

Qualifying for the Nationals at the Alexander Stadium were:

Ava - Year 6 Throw

Maxi E - Year 4 Long Jump

Alex B, Maxi E, Zach J and Sam Y - Year 4 Boys Sprint Relay 

All 90 Crescent pupils who took the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) examinations in the spring passed with the overwhelming majority, 84 pupils, achieving a distinction.

At Crescent School, children from Year 3-6 study for the examinations in their Drama lessons as part of the school’s curriculum. Years 3-4 take the Introductory level, Stages 1 and 2 respectively, while Years 5-6 study the Speaking Verse and Prose Entry Level, Grade 1 and 3 examinations.

At the higher level the children prepare two poems to perform. They are judged on interpretation, technique and knowledge. They have to consider their diction, expression and movement and be able to discuss the mood and meaning of their poems with the examiner.

Drama teacher, Lizzie Bowdige, explains, “What’s particularly brilliant about the LAMDA exams is that they equip the children with communication skills which will serve them throughout life. They also promote an appreciation of literature and poetry and help unlock imagination and creative thinking. They add value to the children’s learning in so many different ways. I really am delighted with these results, and very proud of all the children.”

Congratulations to them all. Pictured are some of the highest scoring pupils with Miss Bowdige.

In 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. The Year 4s raise 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.”

Crescent School's Summer Concert took place on Thursday 22 June. It was well attended with the school hall packed with parents and family members eager to enjoy the end of term celebration of fine music and song.

This year the Rock Ensemble opened the show, a new co-curricular group for the school, they confidently performed a medley of famous rock riffs and followed that up with an instrumental version of Wonderwall. Then came the first of many instrumental solos with Ava playing Train Ride beautifully on the piano. Next Orchestra came on stage, they performed two pieces; everyone enjoyed the theme from James Bond and was most impressed with their super rendition of the Themes from Jupiter from The Planets suite.

Next up was Ellie who played her Grade 3 exam piece, T-Rex Hungry wonderfully on the piano. That was followed by Brass Group with the lively toe-tapping Honk. Wacky Music performed an animated and energetic Samba, then Zahra wowed us all with her complex Grade 5 piece Cossack Dance.  Remi provided a moment of calm reflection with his sensitive performance of Twilight from the Grade 3 piano syllabus.

The Flute Group performed a piece written especially or them, Summer Symphony, and then Sam completed the solo performances playing March on cornet.

The concert concluded with a rousing performance by the Choir. Pupils sang five pieces starting with Hip Hip Hooray, followed by We’re So Proud Of Our School, then two Disney songs combined, A Great Big Change and finishing with One Little Voice.

It was another fabulous afternoon of music and song. Our enormous thanks and congratulations go to all Crescent School's accomplished performers who took to the stage in front of their proud parents, and of course to all their teachers and Director of Music, Julie Barnes who have helped them achieve so much.

Crescent School was delighted with the success of its Learning Mentors initiative that supports the school’s emphasis on empowering the children.

At the beginning of the school year, the children met with their mentors to agree their targets for the year. Staff discussed the children’s work with them, helped the children reflect on their books, feedback and comments and encouraged them to choose and agree the academic targets they wanted to work on. 

Over the course of the year pupils met with their mentors to review their progress, self-assess where they were and if appropriate set new targets for the end of the year.

This powerful initiative gives responsibility for learning to the children, and all pupils from Year 1 up to Year 6 take part. Staff do not tell pupils what targets to choose, they chose themselves. The children are excited by the opportunity, and we know it motivates their learning as they strive to achieve their own set goals. 

Empowering the children to own their learning and encouraging them to take responsibility for striving to achieve, is just one of a number of strategies we pursue here at Crescent to facilitate the children’s progress.

The latest issue of The Minnacle was published at the end of the 2022/2023 school year, showcasing our pupils' excellent work. The Minnacle celebrates our pupils at their best and the Summer 2023 edition includes plenty of examples of their outstanding efforts. From amazing reading and writing in Reception, dazzling drawings in Year 1, creative calligrams in Year 3, spectacular Spanish in Year 4 to fabulous Geography in Year 6 and much, much more.

Why not have a read yourself - you can download a copy from our school website here.

Take a look at The Pinnacle too, it celebrates the work of pupils at our Foundation's senior school, Princethorpe College, you can find a copy on their website here. 

Princethorpe College's new Science Centre was officially handed over to the school on Friday 1 September ready for teaching to commence at the start of the new academic year. The fabulous new teaching and learning facilities include 1,800sqm of floor space with ten state-of-the-art laboratories, dedicated prep rooms, brilliant break out and study spaces, and brand new staff bases.

The building’s location at the top of The Lime Walk places it central to the College’s campus providing a truly inspirational environment that will inspire generations of Princethorpe pupils and staff for years to come.

The 18-month build was completed on time by Trendgrey Construction Limited, who are based in nearby Stockton. Working in partnership with the Foundation they have delivered an exceptional educational facility.

Foundation Bursar, Eddie Tolcher, and Foundation Assistant Head and Project Manager, Alex Darkes, met with Trendgrey MD, Nick Henderson, Trendgrey Site Agent, Kevin Wynne, Trendgrey Quantity Surveyor, John Yates, Tony Pugh, and Elisa Canet, from AT Architects and Steve Joyce, from Ainsleys and Partners, to complete the formalities of the handover.

The official opening of the new building takes place on Friday 22 September.

It’s fantastic that the Foundation’s vision for science has become reality. It is all very exciting for us here at Princethorpe.