Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to you all to provide you with some reassurance and updates about our school. Firstly, I would like to reassure you that our staff team is following government guidance and continues to serve Greswold while taking care of themselves and their families. Currently, staff members are well but are genuinely missing the children. I know they join me in saying hello to everyone and remind our children of our BRICKS values which remain so important even in these unprecedented times.

I thank you all for your support in keeping children at home and encouraging them to continue with home learning. To support parents while their children are at home, we will be setting 4 days of home learning activities for the weeks beginning 6th and 13th April. While we do not normally set work at Easter, we feel that continuing to provide learning might help to keep your child engaged and in the routine of learning at home. However, we do realise there may be other pressures placed on families at this time such as illness or the need for parents themselves to work at home. We therefore fully understand if parents feel that a break is needed from work or if they would prefer to take a different approach. Our aim has always been to help and support families and not hinder so please make that decision if necessary.

I would like to remind those families who are eligible for free school meals, not universal infant free school lunches, that a packed sandwich lunch can be collected from school each day after 12pm. If you are eligible and haven’t already told us that you would like to collect a lunch, please contact the school office email 25office@greswold.solihull.sch.uk . Some parents eligible for free school meals have requested a food voucher instead of a packed sandwich lunch. Unfortunately, Solihull Catering is not offering this at the moment but please be assured that I will contact you if their offer changes.

The government guidance remains that those who can stay at home should stay at home. However, we plan to continue to offer care for vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers who are unable to provide alterative safe care between 8.30am and 4pm from Monday 6th to Thursday 9th April and from Tuesday 14th to Friday 17th April. It would be incredibly helpful, from a staffing perspective, to know how many children will be needing care for these dates in advance so please email the office 25office@greswold.solihull.sch.uk by Wednesday 1st April if you require care.

I hope everyone is staying well, keeping safe and taking time to enjoy being with their families.

Yours faithfully,

Karen Scott

Headteacher