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

• Harvest

  Wed 21 Oct 2020
  Thank you to our families for their generosity in Harvest donations. Despite the weather, short notice and a global pandemic, Greswold was proud to offer 2 whole tables full of donations to Helping Hands. There are orange food collection bins outside the Renewal Centre on Lode Lane, Solihull, B91 2JR for all those who would like to contribute in the future. While our Harvest donations were being collected, our children enjoyed watching our own recorded Harvest Festival with every class or year group contributing poems, songs, dances, artwork or research - all recorded in advance by our staff team. 

  

• Uniform Update

  Thu 15 Oct 2020

  After careful consideration, in light of the current COVID-19 situation, the decision has been made to temporarily amend Greswold’s uniform policy in order to better suit the needs of the exceptional circumstances that we presently find ourselves in.

   

  With the winter weather drawing in, one of our fundamental priorities at Greswold is safeguarding the comfort, health and wellbeing of all of our pupils, which includes ensuring that all pupils feel that they are appropriately dressed to suit the colder climate as they continue to spend more time outdoors.

   

  Consequently, the decision has been made that when pupils return after half term, the following winter uniform will apply to all Greswold pupils, regardless of gender:

   

  • Plain grey trousers or royal blue knee-length skirt or pinafore dress
  • White long-sleeve shirt or blouse
  • School tie
  • Royal blue pullover (not the sweatshirt) or cardigan – with the school crest or plain.
  • Grey or white socks, or royal blue or white tights
  • Black sensible shoes (trainers not permitted)
  • A warm, waterproof hooded coat

   

  Please note that on PE days, it will still be the requirement to send children in outdoor PE kit. Please consult our website for further guidance on this.

   

  As ever, Greswold will still maintain its high expectations of presentation to link with our value of belonging; therefore, I do ask for your support in ensuring that pupils attend school looking smart and demonstrating pride in their uniform.

   

  A full parent consultation on uniform will still be carried out in 2021, when the uniform policy is due for a scheduled review, where feedback about our policy will be welcomed.

   

• Tennis Lesson Opportunity

  Mon 12 Oct 2020
  One of the most disappointing aspects of the current situation has been school not being able to offer our usual range of extra-curricular clubs.  With this in mind, we've been made aware of a tennis opportunity at a local club which we'd like to pass onto our school community.  Thank you.   

  

• Information on Remote Learning Policy and potential 'bubble' closure procedures

  Mon 05 Oct 2020

  All school staff have been working both tirelessly and diligently during these challenging times to ensure the safety of all pupils and our whole school community.  Despite this, it is prudent to plan for scenarios in which pupils, classes or indeed year groups might have to work from home if the need arose.  Therefore, we have published a Remote Learning Policy available in the policies section of 'About Us' on our website. 

   

  School would like to assure all families that a decision to close a bubble, class or year group would not be made lightly, and would only take place with direction from Public Health England. 

   

  The policy itself sets out Greswold's response during such an occasion and contains detailed information on available provision during a pupil's time away from school.  

   

  Although the approaches set out in the policy are similar to those used during the previous national lockdown, there are a couple of notable additions.  Recorded demonstrations relating directly to the weekly plans, along with the opportunity to participate in live sessions with class teachers, will be used to enhance the home learning experience even further. 

   

  School are aware that during the previous lockdown, there was an increasing demand for live conferencing amongst families.  However Greswold took the decision to not introduce these immediately until we were fully satisfied all appropriate safeguarding measures were in place by the various platform providers, especially with regards to Data Protection.   

   

  The service we have chosen to use for live sessions is Microsoft Teams with instructions on how to access these being available on each year group's website page when the need arises.  It does state in the policy that any families who aren't able to access any of the activities because of issues relating to the type of device they own should contact the school office so that we can provide further assistance.  

   

  Thank you for your continued co-operation and keep safe.  

• DfE guidance in different languages

  Mon 21 Sep 2020

  The Department of Education have translated their guidance regarding Covid 19 for parents into a range of languages. Click on the links below to access the guidance:

  Arabic Bengali Chinese – traditional Chinese – simplified French Gujarati Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romany Somali

• Letter 14.09.2020 Masks and drop off/collection

  Mon 14 Sep 2020

  Dear Greswold families, 

   

  In light of the new local restrictions affecting Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull released on Friday, school feel they have an obligation to reinforce the new restrictions in order to protect all of our families and the community as a whole.  Therefore, we are expecting that from Tuesday, all children will be collected by their own parent/carer or registered childminder.  However, we recognise that at Greswold, a number of our children are brought to school by grandparents.  As a school, we will be happy for grandparents to continue dropping off and picking up from Greswold if:  

  1. They live in the same house as the child OR  
  2. They live alone and are linked as a support bubble OR 
  3. They are taking the child to a public place or dropping at the door of the child’s home (not going into the house or garden)   

   

  Greswold have also continued to review pick up and drop off times and want to thank parents again for working with us and following our Parent Protocol. Some parents have suggested that we enforce the wearing of masks on site. In light of the need for everyone to keep Solihull safe, even outside at our busiest times of the school day, I request face coverings are worn at drop off and pick up by anyone over 12 years old (unless medically exempt) when on our school site. This will come into effect from 7.45am on Tuesday 15^th September.   

  Wearing a mask on site should be seen as an additional precaution, not a replacement for social distancing or leaving school promptly. All adults and children should still remain 2m apart whenever possible.   

  Thank you for your understanding and co-operation. 

• Winter health video

  Sun 13 Sep 2020

  The Solihull School Nursing Team have produced a video with some key messages about how to stay well this winter. We think this is particularly important this year and at this time as we see an increase in COVID-19 cases.

  Watch the video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/y_2IBwox8hE

• Welcome presentations

  Thu 10 Sep 2020
  We couldn't hold our traditional 'meet the teacher' evenings this year so each year group has instead prepared a presentation containing some important information. Mrs Scott, Mr Hornsey, Mrs Glover, Mrs Jellicoe and Mrs Hall have also created a presentation with some messages for the whole school. You can watch the videos on our website here: https://greswold-primary-school.primarysite.media/playlist/parent-information-presentations-september-2020 .

• Message from Solihull MBC

  Thu 10 Sep 2020
  

• Our first week back

  Fri 04 Sep 2020

  So our first week of this new academic year has now finished. There has been a lovely buzz around the school, with children seeing their class mates again getting to know their new teachers. We've introduced new routines to get used to and the children have been brilliant at adapting to them. Over the coming months, our values will be more important than ever. The focus this half term is the first letter of BRICKS - belonging. We want our pupils to know they are each an important part of our school community and for them to help make everyone feel welcome.

   

  Today Mrs Scott led our first well done assembly using Teams video, with the classes joining the assembly from their rooms. A star pupil was chosen by each class teacher and the chosen children was celebrated by Mrs Scott and their class. Well done to children chosen to be the first star pupils of the year.

   

  Finally, a great big thank you to our pupils and parents for all their support this week. It is great to be back in school again.