Dear Parents and Carers,
Although this week’s Parent/Carer Forum was cancelled, there were several enquiries from parents we would still like to respond to. These are as follows:
Phonics enquiry about spelling ‘Alien’ words – Aliens words (pseudo-words) are made-up, nonsense words used in phonics to test if children can accurately decode (blend) sounds rather than on relying on memory. Examples include steck, quemp, jeb, vop, chirt, and flop.
Be assured that these words don’t form spelling lists for the children to learn. Children are not expected to spell these words, simply to decode them.
EYFS/KS1 Universal meals – At Greswold, unless there’s extenuating/medical circumstances, every child in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are expected to have Universal Free School Meals. This has been the case for at least 10 years now and helps to reassure families and school staff that children are getting a balanced diet whilst at school. Our school meals are provided by Solihull Catering so any enquiries about the menu should be directed to them using the following contact address:
In respect of children being able to access the school menu, especially younger children, each class has a visual presentation of the menu on their whiteboard screen first thing in the morning to help the children make their choice. This is done during registration.
Extra-Curricular clubs and ‘lettings’ – Extra-Curricular clubs are activities which take place directly after the school day finishes led by external providers or school staff. To book a child onto a club, parents can do this through the provider, the school office or the member of staff.
Evening ‘lettings’ are organisations that sub-let our facilities to run an evening club. These usually take place after school clubs and are run by organisers, separate to the school, who provide us with their DBS checks as, on occasion, their club may coincide with a school event, e.g. Parent Consultations.
Holiday club dates – Greswold Greyhounds’ offer non-term time holiday clubs based at school. The dates of these are released to parents in advance and usually take place when the children aren’t in school. However, holiday clubs don’t take place on the final two weeks of the summer holidays, on bank holidays or at other times when there isn’t enough uptake to warrant running a club. It is a business after all. Therefore, this can affect whether certain weeks can take place at all and will be a reason why changes might be made on short notice.