Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• A very positive Open Morning with glowing feedback from families

  Thu 17 Nov 2022

  Wednesday marked Greswold's first Open Morning of the year, a chance for prospective parents and families to visit school, speak with staff and pupils, and see the EYFS department at first hand, enabling them to make the all important decision about where to send their children to start their education career.

   

  In total, 29 families visited, with year 6 tour guides once again doing a fabulous job in escorting the families and sharing their vast knowledge of the school and their experiences.  Of the 29 families, 24 gave feedback at the end of their visit with some wonderful results and comments:

   

  Using a scale of 1 (poor) - 5 (excellent), 100% of the families rated the tours guides being helpful and informative with a 5 indicating excellent. 

   

  100% of families gave a score of 5 again for having all of their questions answered and 100% also gave a 5 for staff being so welcoming and supportive. 

   

  Finally, 100% of the families gave a score of 5 for their overall impression of the school!  

   

  Some of the additional comments included:

  'The tour guides were brilliant!'

  'The staff and students were so friendly!  The children look so happy here.'

  'Very knowledgeable guides, lovely atmosphere and friendly teachers' 

  'Well organised and informative'

  'Staff and children were enthusiastic, passionate and knowledgeable'

  'I was really impressed with our tour guides who were a credit to your school'

  'I was impressed with the tour guides who were very confident.  The SENCo answered all my questions.  Felt very welcome'

  'It has been a very positive experience all round' 

   

  Thank you to everyone involved and especially to our fabulous year 6 tour guides! 

   

  

• Even more sporting success....

  Wed 16 Nov 2022

  Rowing and football were the sporting competitions on the agenda this week and the success just keeps on coming! First up were the year 6 rowing team who, after practising on a daily basis with Mr Isles, achieved the best finish of any Greswold rowing team in recent history.  The team managed to secure 3rd place on Monday in the South Solihull Schools' Rowing competition for this year, a magnificent achievement.

   

  This was followed by Tuesday's 3rd league match of the season for the boys' school football team against Shirley Heath at Old Silhillians, a school which had beaten Greswold twice last year.  However, this year the players acquitted themselves fantastically well and ended up winning 5-2, a cracking performance which maintains the team's 100% record so far this year, with the next round of games against Dorridge and Balsall Common fast approaching on the 1st December.  Well done to everyone involved, and especially to Mr Isles who led the successful teams at both events.     

  

• Information Writing from Year 4

  Fri 11 Nov 2022

  Year 4 pupils were tasked with writing an information text about skyscrapers. Some children shared their writing with Mrs Scott who was impressed with how they used facts in engaging and informative ways. Here are a few examples from Chaffinches. Mrs Scott wonders if you may learn something new.

  

• Greswold remembers...

  Fri 11 Nov 2022

  Like many others schools, Greswold took part in a short Remembrance service this morning.  All week, children have been learning, thinking and talking about Remembrance Day in whole school, key stage and class assemblies, which culminated in this morning's silence, reading and prayer.  Mrs Scott, along with two year 6 pupils, will represent Greswold on Sunday at the Remembrance service at the war memorial outside St Alphege Church and will lay a wreath. 

   

  Every year, a silence is held throughout the country at 11 o'clock on the morning of the 11th November and these words are heard:

   

  They Shall not grow old

  As we who are left grow old

  Age shall not weary them

  Nor the years condemn.

  At the going down of the sun and in the morning

  We shall remember them.  

   

  Dear God,

  We shall remember those who have lived and died in the service of others.  We pray for all who suffer through wars and are in need.  We ask for your help and blessing to do good in the world and to live in peace and harmony with one another and with you.

  Amen

  

• The Living Streets' Travel Tracker returns to Greswold!

  Thu 10 Nov 2022

  In March this year, Greswold launched the very successful Active Travel Campaign, a three month event which aimed to promote the benefits of travelling to and from school in an active manner.  The event utilised a special website which helped to track children's progress.  Some children who earned a WOW badge from doing this still wear them with pride today!  

   

  Therefore, we have decided to relaunch the Travel Tracker so that children and their families can start logging their methods of travel again.  However, this time children can earn a WOW badge each month by simply travelling actively to and from school just once a week!

   

  Our year 6 team of Junior Travel Ambassadors will assist Mr Hornsey in monitoring the Travel Tracker and giving out WOW badges to pupils when they have earned them.  What's more is that this year's history-themed badges are all completely new and the children will have plenty of time to earn them, as we plan on continuing the Travel Tracker for the rest of the school year! 

   

  Admittedly, Greswold does use the Travel Tracker differently to other schools, in the way journeys are recorded.  We give out password details to parents so they can log journeys from devices at home.  It saves time and gives a sense of ownership and responsibility to the children.  However, if for some reason, children need to do this at school, the JTA's will be available during the week to do this for them, if needed.  Instructions on how to log journeys are located in the photo gallery below.  

   

  For your information, Park & Stride refers to those vehicle users who park at venues associated with school, including The Hub on Hermitage Road and St Helen's Church.  Those vehicle users who park between 5 and 10minute walk away can also consider using this option if they feel their child has walked a reasonable distance from the car to school.  The start date for logging journeys on the Travel Tracker is Monday 14th November.  You can scroll back and fill in days you've missed from this date but you won't be able to log travel on days before this date. 

   

  Good luck everyone! 

   

   

   

  

• A plea from school!

  Fri 04 Nov 2022

  Dear Parents and Carers,

   

  To help us retain Greswold's positive relationship with our local residents, could vehicle users please park respectfully around Ferndown Road, Buryfield Road and Links Drive? 

   

  We are currently receiving complaints regarding incidents (similar to the photos below) where parents are blocking part of a house's drive, making it very difficult for residents to access their own homes!  Also, this sort of behaviour isn't in keeping with our Greswold values, especially the value of Respect, which we promote right across our school community. 

   

  Please respect the local residents, and if you are finding it difficult in parking around school, Park and Stride venues are in operation which you can find out about on our Sustainable Travel page.

   

  Thank you 

  

• A typical Greswold theme - children striving for similar success but in lots of different ways!

  Fri 04 Nov 2022

  This morning's Star Pupil assembly really showcased how special and unique our children are, here at Greswold.  The BRICKS theme this week of celebrating similarities and differences was clearly evidenced through the assortment of different ways Greswold children had been both thoughtful and successful this week.

   

  Sarah, in Nightingales, had previously written a letter to her majesty the Queen, when she was in year 3, about her motivation to conserve the rainforests, inspired by the topic she was learning about in school at the time.  This week, she received a response, a lovely letter from the Prince and Princess of Wales who sent their warmest wishes and best thanks for her letter, which you can read below.  Well done Sarah, what a lovely thing to do and something special to keep forever! 

   

  We also heard about successes this week in football for the year 6 boys and everyone congratulated the Junior Travel Ambassadors (who received their badges) for taking on such an important role.

   

  The reasons given for the why each pupil received a certificate were unique in themselves, heart warming and inspiring for everyone to hear.   

  

• A perfect start to the new football season...

  Thu 03 Nov 2022

  Families and supporters in attendance  were treated to a perfect performance from the boys' school football team who began their large schools' football league season this evening at West Warwickshire Sports' Centre. 

   

  Unfortunately, their second game against Sharman's Cross was forfeited by the opposition meaning the team had already accrued a 3-0 win without even kicking a ball!  Could they now make it two wins out of two in their first game against Olton Primary?  The answer was most definitely yes! 

   

  Sporting their new Greswold football kits, courtesy of our wonderful PTA, the players performed wonderfully well and were a credit to their teachers, their families and the whole school community.  The final result was 5-0 to Greswold, a perfect platform from which to continue next week with tough games against Dorridge and Balsall Common. 

   

  A special mention should also to go to the other year 5 and 6 boys who, in yesterday's lunchtime football club, helped to prepare the team for their first game with a really competitive training session.  All in all, a real whole school team performance!  Well done everyone.  

  

• Onsite Parent Consultations accompanied by the Greswold Book Fair make a successful comeback!

  Wed 02 Nov 2022

  The last week of term marked the reintroduction of our onsite Parent Consultation evenings.  School would like to thank our families for participating in such an important, purposeful and community event.  It's been a long while since parents were able to explore the interior of the school and though there was a fair degree of directions and tours being given, a large number of parents expressed how much they'd enjoyed being part of it.  The fabulous writing of the children were on display throughout the school and this was noticed and positively commented on by many parents as they walked round.  

   

  On another positive note, the Book Fair which took place in the library on both evenings was a massive success with over £1800 worth of books being purchased.  This means school will receive £1000 worth of books from the publishing company which is a huge bonus and something which could only be achieved through the generosity of our school community, due in part, we're sure, to our children having very positive meetings!  Thank you to everyone involved, especially Miss McCauslin for organising the Book Fair.