Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Community event taking place this Friday!
Wed 15 Oct 2025St Helen's Church, the venue of our Harvest Festival on Monday, will be hosting a special craft event this coming Friday. Check out the gallery below for more details.
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Sustainability workshop for School Council and House Captains
Tue 14 Oct 2025Last week, School Councillors in Years' 4-6 along with Y6 House Captains were invited to a special Sustainability workshop delivered by some visitors from RAFT,
Retrofit Action For Tomorrow (RAFT) is a not-for-profit community interest company responding to the climate emergency by accelerating energy and emissions reductions, resource efficiency and climate resilience in schools and communities. RAFT’s mission is to help schools become healthy, zero-carbon, climate-resilient communities by combining a fun, active and educational programme with professional retrofit expertise. For the Great British Energy programme, RAFT will be delivering workshops with selected schools to engage the school community, through learning about the works being done at your school.
The session involved looking at how to save energy around our school site, a visit to the boiler room with our site manager and creating pledges about changes we can individually make to live more sustainably. The children engaged brilliantly in the workshop and were praised for their enthusiasm and existing knowledge on sustainability issues.
Please also see the attached photo for some ideas of 'quick wins' you can implement in your own homes to save energy!
The visit coincided nicely with the publishing of our Climate Action Plan, a statutory document all schools now need to provide. The feedback from the children was very positive and we thank RAFT for providing us with this very worthwhile opportunity.
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School Council's sponsored event is fast appraoching!
Tue 14 Oct 2025Last week, all the children found out about this year's sponsored event, an idea put together by the children of our very own School Council. Below is the presentation Mrs Foster shared with the children. We're very much looking forward to the event taking place this coming Monday.
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A wonderfully pitcturesque walk and setting for our annual Harvest Festival
Mon 13 Oct 2025This morning, children from years' 1-6 visited St Helen's Church, in two sittings, to take part in our annual Harvest Festival, a special assembly to celebrate the importance of harvest and the food it supplies.
Members of the church, Reverend Sue, Reverend Nick and Chris welcomed the children and staff and hosted a lovely service.
Reverend Nick spoke about the importance of not wasting food and about ways we can preserve food so we can use it for longer, a pertinent lesson for everyone.
It was even lovelier this year as we were able to walk through the lovely autumnal Coldlands Woods on the way there and back, a perfect setting for such a memorable assembly.
Well done to the children who were a credit to Greswold on the way there and back and in the church as well.
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Thank you for your generosity
Fri 10 Oct 2025As you can see below, Greswold parents have been very generous over the last couple of weeks, donating food packets and toiletries to coincide with our Harvest Festival next week.
The donations will be shared with our local community after our assembly on Monday at St Helen's Church, a lovely service which celebrates the time of year and the harvesting of crops.
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Diwali workshops add realism to RE lessons!
Fri 10 Oct 2025This week, we welcomed Mr Kailey, a former parent, into school to deliver Diwali workshops for Nursery, Reception, and Year 3 pupils. Not only did this help us to mark the Hindu Festival of Light but to also highlight how we intend to launch the updated Solihull Local Authority RE Syllabus. Throughout the year, we will be looking to arrange similar events to celebrate other religious festivals.
A member of the local community whose children previously came through Greswold, Mr Kailey has been very much part of Greswold life for years now. He helped us to motivate the children during Covid and Lockdown while also contributing to several Community Weeks. This time, he provided age-appropriate Diwali workshops which all the children enjoyed.
Yesterday, he sent a kind message to our office stating 'Thank you very much for having me provide the Diwali Festival of Lights workshops at school today. All the children appeared to have lots of fun as well as learning the cultural and educational context. As always I pitched the workshops to suit the age range and understanding of the children. It was wonderful to return back to school after such a long time. I applaud the teachers for their continued hard work.'
In terms of our updated RE Syllabus, we will be communicating how this looks as part of our curriculum offer very soon.
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Dates for the Diary - Autumn 2025
Thu 09 Oct 2025Academic Year 2025-26
Monday 13th October – Harvest Festival at St Helen’s Church (Y1-6)
Tuesday 14th & Thursday 16th October – Reception Stay & Play (2pm)
Monday 20th October – Y5 Dodgeball Festival at Lode Heath (4pm)
Tuesday 21st October - Parent Consultation Evening and Book Fair
Wednesday 22nd October - Parent Consultation Evening and Book Fair
Thursday 23rd October – Y2 Trunk Theatre
Friday 24th October – INSET Day (Non-pupil Day)
Monday 27th - Friday 31st October - Half Term (School closed)
Monday 10th – Wednesday 12th October – Y5/6 Sportshall Athletics Roadshow
Wednesday 12th October – Open Morning (2026 Intake)
Friday 14th November – Children in Need
Monday 17th November – Parent/Carer Forum
Tuesday 18th November - Flu Immunisation Day
Monday 24th November - School Photo Day
Wednesday 26th November – PTA Christmas Market (6-8pm)
Friday 28th November – Y2 Visit to St Alphege (Journey to the Stable)
Saturday 6th December – PTA Christmas Fayre (12-3pm)
Thursday 11th & Friday 12th December – EYFS Christmas Performance
Friday 19th December - Final day of autumn term
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Pupil travel survey results make interesting reading
Thu 09 Oct 2025Last week, Greswold submitted a 'Hands Up' Travel Survey to the Solihull Sustainable Travel Team. This is a survey where children vote for how they usually travel to and from school and how they would like to travel to and from school as well. This was done in all classes from Reception to Year 6.
Admittedly, some of the data may not be completely accurate due to the youngest children being new to school routines. With this in mind, during the upcoming Parent Consultation evenings, we will repeat part of the survey for parents to take part in, helping to validate the data.
The Solihull Sustainable Travel Team then use the data to lobby for additional funding to be allocated to the promotion of active travel in schools around Solihull, a really worthwhile initiative which Greswold fully supports.
How do you normally travel to school? Usual: Walk
189
Usual: Cycling
24
Usual: Car
165
Usual: Scooting
56
Usual: Public Bus
5
Usual: School Bus
N/A
Usual: Park & Stride/Walk
127
Usual: Car Share
10
How would you like to travel to school? Preferred: Walk
135
Preferred: Cycling
210
Preferred: Car
38
Preferred: Scooting
110
Preferred: Public Bus
23
Preferred: School Bus
N/A
Preferred: Park & Stride/Walk
19
Preferred: Car Share
30
Interestingly, over 200 children wanted to ride their bikes. Although school couldn't accommodate over 200 bikes, we do still have plenty of bike stands and, conveniently, next week is national Cycle to School Week!
Lots to think about for parents and school!
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Great Half Term offer for all families from West Midlands bus services
Wed 08 Oct 2025Check out the offer in our gallery below which allows families to apply for free bus passes for the October half term holiday.
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It's Cycle to School Week next week!
Tue 07 Oct 2025Next week marks National Cycle to School Week.
At Greswold, we have a number of bike stands to accommodate the possible increase of bikes next week, a set by the KS2 pedestrian entrance on the outside of the PTA shed and another set on the wall by the library just past the car park. The scooter pods could also be used as storage for smaller bikes.
Below is a link to the official website so why not ditch that car and use your bike next week, even iif it's just for one day!
https://www.bikeability.org.uk/cycletoschoolweek/
