Issue 39 | Autumn 2026 Showcasing exceptional work by pupils at Crescent School
Read on for inspiring examples of work from Crescent School. It has been another incredibly busy and successful period at Crescent School, with pupils excelling across a wide range of areas. In sport, we are delighted to celebrate outstanding achievements. Our U11 and U10 Girls’ and Boys’ football teams have all been crowned District and Regional Champions, while our U10 Rugby team secured the title of Regional Champion. Adding to this success, the U10s also achieved Regional Champion status in Contact Rugby - an exceptional accomplishment.
Beyond the sports field, pupils have embraced a wide range of enriching opportunities. Our COP Week, led by the enthusiastic Green Team, was a fantastic success, raising awareness and encouraging sustainability across the school. Outdoor Learning continues to flourish, providing pupils with valuable hands-on experiences that enhance their development.
This issue’s front cover is by Catherine, Year 5. A detailed textile illustration of her favourite space.
Finley
Welcome
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…to Issue 39 of the Minnacle
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Finley makes excellent contributions to our PSED lessons and he uses his knowledge of the world to make thoughtful connections in his learning. Finley enjoyed preparing a fresh fruit salad in our Healthy Choices lesson. He talked confidently about the different fruits and how eating them regularly can help us to keep our bodies healthy.
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In the performing arts, our LAMDA showcases offered a wonderful opportunity for pupils to demonstrate their confidence and creativity, supported by a strong set of LAMDA examination results. Academically, pupils represented the school in the Princethorpe Maths competition with great enthusiasm and skill. We have also continued to strengthen our support for pupils through the development of Learning Mentor partnerships, alongside ongoing work on our Learner Profile, helping to nurture well-rounded, confident individuals. Overall, it has been a year full of achievement, opportunity and growth, and we look forward to building on this success in the months ahead.
Bryony Forth Deputy Head (Academic)
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In one of their Forest School sessions this term the Reception children focussed on their listening skills. As part of our topic, ‘Growing and Changing,’ Bea sorted images into two groups – living and non-living. She shared some characteristics of all living things, that they breathe, grow and need food. Fabulous knowledge Bea, marked with a well deserved Mini da Vinci award.
They each crafted their own ‘listening stick’ out of clay and other natural materials to help them concentrate on hearing the world around them. Listening is a crucial life skill which boosts observational skills, environmental awareness, sensory processing, enhances social skills and language development. All the children did a fabulous job especially Emilia who described her creation fabulously.
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Eris was awarded a Junior da Vinci in Art.
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Throughout the year, Eris has enjoyed creating many wonderful pieces of art, inspired by the different modern and contemporary artists that we have studied, such as Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Emily Powell.
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The children in Year 2 have been studying the topic of rooms in the house.
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After looking at household hazards we moved on to road safety and discussed lots of important considerations when we are crossing the road such as blind corners, parked cars and quiet electric cars. We then looked at ways to support safe crossing such as zebra crossings, traffic lights, lollipop people and our ‘stop, look, listen, think’ strategy. Clementine received a Junior da Vinci Creativity for a fabulous road safety poster demonstrating all her knowledge.
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Erica really mastered the creation of a pictogram. She first used data collected from the class about birthdays to complete the first pictogram. Each circle was worth two people. Then she managed to interpret the data about school lunches accurately, to create another accurate pictogram. She thought hard about how to present it clearly and accurately.
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In these two amazing examples, Harry and Austin have programmed the different characters in their ‘shark attack’ style games to respond to the player’s controls, as well as to each other. Both boys have also used variables in their games to add and control a score, showing a fantastic deeper understanding of programming and how it can be used!
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Year 3 have been continuing to develop their amazing coding skills, in this particular unit exploring how events and actions are used in computer games to make the game respond based on what the player does!
Y2 Clementine
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In PSHE, we have been looking at different places that accidents could happen and ways that we can keep ourselves safe.
They were given a word order activity in which they had to use a word bank to translate sentences into Spanish. Sanvika managed to complete the activity without a single mistake, and she was awarded a Junior da Vinci Mastery.
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Our Year 4 historians demonstrated exceptional Creativity, Practice and Mastery skills throughout our Romans topic. Their detailed and carefully crafted models reflected deep understanding and strong independent research skills combined with real creative flare.
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Scan the QR code to see the children going into battle!
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During Trinity Term, Year 4 made an excellent start to the summer sports programme, showing great progress in tennis as they developed their agility, skills, and reactions. Six pupils went on to represent the school at the ISA Tennis Tournament at Leamington Tennis Club, competing in a series of singles matches in a fast-paced and enjoyable day of competition. Congratulations to Isabella, Iris, Harry, Alex, Vihaan (4S) and Lara (4M) for their fantastic effort and performances, earning Mastery Junior da Vincis. Pictured are Crescent’s U9 and U11 Tennis Teams.
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They explored Anansi and the Impossible Quest, focusing on detailed settings and character descriptions before producing a retelling. Ashleen worked exceptionally well, demonstrating enthusiasm and care throughout. She confidently used expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and other key Year 4 grammar features, showing a strong understanding of the skills taught. She also used vivid, engaging language to create an imaginative retelling. Her creativity and dedication are highly commendable, earning her a Junior da Vinci badge for Creativity—an achievement she should feel very proud of.
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Earlier this term, Year 4 studied African Tales, using them as inspiration for their writing.
Ria was awarded a full Junior da Vinci’s for her four-week homework project exploring how members of different faiths worship.
Alice has demonstrated all these qualities and, alongside her successful ABRSM exam result this year, has participated in numerous rehearsals and concerts, showing continued dedication and commitment to her musical development.
Her research covered sacred places as well as how people worship with their families at home. Her project showed such depth and understanding that she was recognised with a full da Vinci award.
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A successful musician is defined by a blend of consistent hard work, unwavering persistence, and true musicianship.
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Geography lessons in 5T have been varied and fun throughout the year.
shows excellent understanding of perspective and creative use of different painting effects to show depth and contrast.
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Esme’s beautiful landscape painting
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The children have loved learning about the whole range, from coastal erosion through to climate maps. The work you see here was a collaborative research project on the geography of a European country, which provided an opportunity for creativity and excellent presentation skills.
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Aria is a four times Junior da Vinci student in Mathematics.
She loves to learn and try new skills, but Aria’s strength is that she feels confident to seek her own challenges and set her own questions. She is an exceptionally, creative mathematician who can identify, explain and draw conclusion from the data she gathers.
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The theme for British Science Week 2026 was Curiosity: what's your question? The Princethorpe STEAM Ambassadors led an explosive assembly and then challenged pupils in workshops to use their curiosity to investigate Oobleck which doesn’t behave as expected. Pupils found out that it can be both a liquid and a solid when force is applied.
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Crescent School’s Green Team have had a busy time driving forward lots of sustainability initiatives to keep educating pupils and stakeholders on the importance of protecting our planet.
In Science at Crescent, pupils love asking questions and exploring answers through different scientific enquiries.
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The team of fifteen have been visionary in their ideas, worked relentlessly to reuse and recycle items in school, led assemblies, reduced single use plastics, participated in a fun and educational COP week and masterminded a community produce swap as their legacies. These pupils have a real heart for their planet and its resources and because of their work in continuing Crescent’s commitment to conserve resources for future generations they are all full Junior da Vinci students.
A fantastic day out was enjoyed by our talented musicians at Uppingham School when they took part in an exciting Orchestral Day. The session was led by musicians from Uppingham and centred around the theme Sonic Supernova. Pupils rehearsed both in small groups and as part of a mass orchestra, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to make music together. Pupils performed a wonderful selection of pieces, including The Planets by Holst, Fanfare for the Common Man by Copland, Mission: Impossible, and Fly Me to the Moon.
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Around 200 pupils were involved, and the incredible sound created by the combined orchestra was truly uplifting.
Huge congratulations to Ella, Everly and Charlotte who all passed their Grade 5 Singing examinations during the Lent Term. They performed with confidence, demonstrating sensitive attention to detail and musical phrasing, while showcasing an impressive stylistic awareness. A great deal of hard work and dedication went into preparing for the exams, and they should all be incredibly proud of their achievements.