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

• Even sweltering weather can't stop Greswold pupils raising money for charity!

  Mon 14 Jul 2025

  Well done to Y3/4 pupils, Cash, Reggie and Cayden for raising over £1,000 for cancer research by finishing 3rd at the pretty Muddy 5K Obstacle Course event at the weekend at Cofton park in Birmingham.

   

  Considering how hot it was, the boys have done tremendously well in selflessly raising money for others.  Everyone at Greswold is very proud of you boys. 

  

• Greswold parent hosting mayor at special art exhibition this Sunday!

  Mon 14 Jul 2025

  Elmdon Heath Community centre hosted a special art exhibition on Sunday called Artogether by Sayantika's Art Studio. 

   

  The event was organised by an artist parent of Greswold, Mrs Banik, who recently visited school to take a workshop with some budding Y6 artists.  

   

  The artwork on show was stunning with the Mayor of Solihull, Annette Mackenzie and Councillor Shehsh Sheshabhattar of Chelmsley Wood very impressed.

  

• Greswold Choir rounds of the year in style!

  Fri 11 Jul 2025

  It's been a privilege to watch our wonderful choir perform at various events and venues this year.  To finish the year in style, they got to perform in a joint choirs concert at the Core Theatre as part of the Solihull Music Vocal Fiesta.  The performance was led by Sandra Horne and was her last event with our choir.   All the children sang very well, and their performance was enjoyed by many of their parents and families in the audience.

   

  For some of the year 6's, it was their last opportunity to perform with Greswold but we hope they continue their love of singing at secondary school.  

   

  Well done children, you've truly been an inspiration to everyone this year. 

   

   

  

• Final PTA Summer Fayre total revealed!

  Fri 11 Jul 2025

  After a wonderful PTA Summer Fayre on Saturday, we can now reveal how much profit was made.  In total £3050 profit was made, a fantastic achievement.  As always, the profits will be added to the current PTA fundraising balance which will be used to purchase curriculum enhancements for all children.  

   

  Thank you again to all the families who attended and thank you to our selfless PTA for making such memorable experiences for the whole school community. 

• Minutes from Parent / Carer Forum on Wednesday 9th July

  Fri 11 Jul 2025

  Parent/Carer Forum minutes

  Wednesday 9^th July 2025

   

  Attendees:

  Mr Hornsey and 5 parents

   

  Agenda

  1. Home Learning
  2. Smartphone Free Childhood (Solihull Schools’ campaign) update
  3. Perceptions of and language associated with Bullying
  4. AOB

   

   

  Home Learning

  • Greswold’s updated Home Learning overview for 2025-26 was shared.  It included information about Reading, Maths, English and a change to topic based homework tasks. There is also a section included about life skills.
  • Mr Hornsey explained that the updated plan had been a work in progress for the last few months and that he had sourced feedback from Secondary Schools and even visited ex-pupils at Lode Heath to see how best Greswold can prepare children in the future.
  • All weekly Home Learning activities will be based on learning already covered in class to help children become more independent.
  • Creative project based homework tasks will be reduced in order to utilise other approaches to promoting the relationship between parents and their children’s learning. 
  • The general consensus amongst parents was that it was fair and they understood the changes.
  • From next year, children in Y1-6 will received Home Learning folders to store paper based activities with one parent suggesting that a Phonics Mat would be a good idea to give Reception and Y1 parents, and be stored in the folder. 
  • School will look into what other helpful materials can be stored in the folder to help children with their Home Learning.

   

  2) Smartphone update

  • Nearly 70 primary and secondary schools have signed up to the campaign which was originally instigated by Alderbrook School.
  • The Solihull Schools’ campaign is separate to the national campaign called the Smartphone Free Childhood.
  • A schools’ and parent liaison has been appointed as part of the Solihull Schools’ initiative to move the agenda forwards and to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
  • There is a Greswold member of staff who has also volunteered to be a school liaison to the schools’ initiative.  
  • Whatever happens, Greswold’s approach will be in line with fellow schools.

   

   

  Bullying

  • A parent had asked for clarification of feedback given to the school community following our recent parent survey.  ‘There is more work to be done in relation to understanding what bullying is and how school deal with incidents. 60 parents out of the 200 reported that their child had been bullied and less that 60% of those thought school had dealt with it effectively’ was the comment that required clarification.  
  • Admittedly, the question is somewhat generic and part of national parental surveys and didn’t include a time limit.  Next time, we will add ‘over the last 12 months’.
  • A discussion was then had about the definition of bullying and how, at times, concerned parents have used the term when the incidents in question have not been cases of bullying.
  • The Anti-Bullying Policy was explained highlighting the fact that when incidents are investigated, to be a confirmed case of bullying, there has to be an imbalance of power, actions need to be deliberate and incidents have to be deemed as an ongoing issue.  Only then can a case be confirmed as bullying.
  • The number of confirmed cases of bullying over the last 12 months at Greswold was shared with parents.  There were two cases, both resolved quickly with one being an out-of-school case of cyber bullying.

   

   

  AOB

  • Nursery start time is 8:30am in the morning.  There isn’t a ten-minute window similar to Reception and KS1 start times due to the need for Nursery aged children to access school confidently while there aren’t many other families arriving.  It’s also difficult for staff to keep coming back out to collect late pupils.  
  • If parents have accessed Nursery after 8:30am, it will have been a one-off so school would encourage all Nursery families to arrive on time to promote an ethos of punctuality and respect.  If for some reason this isn’t possible, please sign in at the main school office.
  • A concern was shared by a parent about Monkhouse uniform providers now based in Solihull centre. They seem to charge a delivery fee if they haven’t got stock in as opposed to Midland Schoolwear in Acocks Green which will order it quickly without additional charge.  This is a chance to remind all parents that Greswold uniform doesn’t have to be branded and there is an order service for ‘Nearly new / second hand’ uniform free of charge available at school.
  • Finally, some of the parents who attended shared the fact it was a shame more parents didn’t attend Parent / Carer Forum as they found it extremely useful and reassuring to find out matters relating to Greswold.  Mr Hornsey will consider other options to publicise the meetings more.

   

  Mr Hornsey

  Deputy Headteacher

   

  If you have any additional feedback on the minutes from Wednesday's meeting, please click on the link below and record them on the Form.  Thank you.

   

  https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=_8XsNkcZBUCdDFgUlropG2ez8dQYxgxMr5t9c2OLIztUNU43SlQ1NjRMNkVWU1AxSzkzSVBCRjg5Ry4u

• Sporting achievements this year at Greswold

  Thu 10 Jul 2025

  It's been another busy and successful year for inter-school sport here at Greswold. 

   

  71% of Y6 pupils represented the school in a sporting event this year, our best ever percentage.  Check out our participation below and subsequent results:

   

  • Y5/6 Cross Country - Girls came 5th in each age range
  • Y5/6 Boys' Football League - finished 5th
  • Y5/6 Girls' Football League - finished 4th 
  • Y5/6 Basketball League - finished 3rd 
  • Y5/6 Sportshall Athletics - progressed through qualifying round and finished 2nd in South Solihull Area Final
  • Y5/6 - Rowing - Boys finished 3rd in heats while Girls finished 2nd making through to County Finals
  • Y5/6 Netball - finished 3rd in group after entering competition for first time in 6 years
  • Y6 Rounders - finished 3rd 
  • Y6 Tag Rugby - finished 4th overall in Compete event and collected Silver in Develop event
  • Y5 Dodgeball - Engage event
  • Y4 Orienteering - Engage event
  • Y3/4 Girls Football - Engage event
  • Y3 Personal best - Engage Event 
  • Y6 Boys' and Girls' Football Friendly Festival - Engage event 
  • Y6 Borough Sports' - finished 3rd with gold medals won in Girls' Sprint, Girls' Triple Jump, Boys' triple Jump and Boys' Long Jump 
  • Y4 Chance to Shine cricket event - all pupils attended in Develop event 
  • Y5 Chance to Shine event - 1st in Compete event with other develop events participated in by all pupils

   

  Most of the events we enter are organised by School Games' officials and their intent is categorised as either Compete, Develop or Engage.  This is to ensure the mission and values of inter-school events are accomplished, which include:

   

  • make a positive and meaningful difference to the lives of young people
  • put physical activity and sport at the heart of schools
  • provide young people with the opportunity to enjoy and learn through competition to achieve their personal best.

   

  Greswold will continue to be very much part of the School Games programme whilst adding our own events which mirror similar values and vision.  

  

• 118 WOW badges to be given out this week!

  Thu 10 Jul 2025

  Results are in for the Travel Tracker in June with 118 badges to be given out.  This represents 20% engagement which is below previous months.  Engagement for July so far is only 11% so far so we've got just over a week to get this figure up!  Considering the weather is glorious at the moment, there are dozens of pupils who must be missing out on a badge as they haven't recorded their journeys.

   

  Let's give the children what they deserve.  By simply recording one day of active travel a week, your children can earn a badge but remember you only have a two week window for completing journeys in the past.  

  

• A look back at how Greswold has reached out to its community this year

  Wed 09 Jul 2025

  Greswold has always prided itself in promoting outreach work with its local and wider community, in order to benefit the experiences of our pupils.

   

  Such experiences include events like Community Week which helped to celebrate the uniqueness of our family community.

   

  However, we also utilise other avenues of collaboration to broaden our perspectives even more and to enable us to develop citizenship amongst pupils and adults.

   

  Collaborating with local universities like Birmingham City University, Wolverhampton and Warwick has enabled us to accommodate and develop trainee teachers which in turn helps children to experience being taught by different people.  In total, we've hosted 5 very successful placements this year. 

   

  Greswold has also hosted Y10 students from Light Hall, Alderbrook, Tudor Grange, Lode Heath, St Peter's and Arden secondary schools which has aided staff in meeting the needs of the pupils whilst giving the young people an insight into working life.

   

  Members of the Triple Crown school community have been working with us each week to provide 1:1 reading sessions for year 1 pupils.

   

  St Helen's Church and St Alphege Church once again hosted pupils for Harvest, Christmas and Easter services. 

   

  Metrobank in Solihull centre visited us during the autumn term to give advice to year 6 pupils about banking and saving.  This culminated in all year 6 pupils visiting the bank itself and even seeing the vault! 

   

  Solihull School have once again allowed us to use their fabulous theatre, Bushell Hall, for year 6 to perform their final performance of their primary careers.  They have also hosted Solihull Sings and Science workshops for our pupils in Y5.

   

  King Edward's school kindly invited our Y4 and Y5 teams to enter their annual Maths competition while we have worked with both the outgoing and incoming mayors on various projects at the Civic Suite in Solihull centre, indeed very memorable events. 

   

  Mrs Scott and two year 6 pupils represented Greswold at the Remembrance Service in Solihull centre in November while an artist mum of a year 2 pupil visited school to take a special one off art workshop with some talented artists in year 6.

   

  We've also hosted the Police and Fire Service who have met with our EYFS pupils as part of their learning. 

   

  The Dogs Trust workshops, Seven Trent assembly, Solihull Sustainable Team's Air Pollution assembly and a specially arranged Parliament assembly were just some other ways of bringing further context to our curriculum. 

   

  We will continue to source new and exciting opportunities to enhance the experiences of their learning further and if any parents know of such opportunities, please let us know. 

   

   

   

   

   

    

   

   

  

• The Tudors are back at Greswold!

  Wed 09 Jul 2025

  Recently, Year 4 pupils took part in an immersive workshop to complement their learning on the Tudor era. Funded by the PTA, the themed day consisted of: 

   

  • A battle between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists

  • Looking through Archaeology Boxes

  • Looking at the Armoury worn by the Tudors

  • Tudor Economy

  • Archery

  • Examining the different Kings and Queens 

   

  As always, the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience which helped to solidify their curriculum learning.  Thank you to the year 4 staff for organising such a memorable event. 

  

• St George's crowned House champions for 2024-25!

  Wed 09 Jul 2025

  In this morning's House Point assemblies, St George's were deservedly awarded the House trophy for this academic year.  But what a close race it was!

   

  St Andrew's rallied in the new year and were only eight points away from making a remarkable comeback with St Patrick's finishing second only four points behind the winners. 

   

  Not only did house point totals in each classroom contribute to the result but the scores from both Sports' Days and this week's Y6 House Sports' competition were added to the final totals. 

   

  Heidi and Mia, house captains for St George's proudly held the trophy aloft in assembly which followed on from a lovely speech each house captain of the four houses had given about their memories of Greswold.  

   

  These memories included  the Y6 residential visit to Condover Hall, the Y4 residential visit to Standon Bowers, memories of participation in the numerous sporting events we do here at Greswold and an early memory about reception from Mia.  Isabella even mentioned this year's SATs as being something she fondly remembered! 

   

  Y3 Sparrows were presented with a certificate for being the class with the best attendance in the school this year and Y5 Oaks, Y5 Elms, Y6 Willows, Bumblebees and Y2 Otters were given house points for their engagement in the Travel Tracker this year. 

   

  Children also received certificates for passing the module C of their BEAM programme.

   

  Well done to our whole Greswold community for making the House Point race so exciting this year!