Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Greswold remembers
Fri 08 Nov 2024This morning, all pupils took part in special Remembrance assemblies which culminated in a minute's silence. As Remembrance Day coincides with Kindness Week, it was a chance to reflect on people, past and present, who have demonstrated the ultimate actors of kindness to protect us and keep us safe.
Not only did we remember members of our armed forces, both past and present, but also the important part emergency services play in keeping us safe too.
As always, two Y6 representatives, Rey and Izzy, laid a wreath at the war memorial in Solihull centre on Sunday during the annual parade and service while, in school, children have remembered and reflected in other ways too, such as a Y5/6 Forest School group creating a poppy out of autumnal leaves.
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Book Fair sales help to fund new books for the children!
Fri 08 Nov 2024Thank you to all families who visited the Book Fair during Parent Consultation evenings last half term. In total, nearly £2000 were spent on books which meant that school earned £1180 commission from the sales. This money will go directly back into purchasing new books for the library.
Thank you to all our families' generosity and to the difference you've helped us to make to reading across the school.
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Winning start to league season for girls' school football team
Fri 08 Nov 2024Yesterday marked the start of this academic year's school football season and it was the girls who were in action first at Solihull Moors. Up against a very strong Monkspath team, the girls played brilliantly to secure a hard fought 1-0 win through a second half goal by Izzy.
Erin, taking on the role of goalkeeper at the last minute, made two wonderful saves to keep Greswold ahead, however the whole team played their part in a really positive start to the school season. Thank you to families who came to watch and support and many thanks to school staff who organised, supervised and refereed the event.
Their next matches take place on the same evening at Old Silhillians on Tuesday 26th November. All families are more than welcome to come and support the team. The boys' football season starts in January.
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Year 6 Active Play Heroes' Training
Tue 05 Nov 2024This morning, 15 Year 6 pupils took part in some special training at Tudor Grange Leisure Centre learning how to lead games for other children in school at lunchtime.
They worked in groups to learn the HEROES skills that are essential for leading games which include:
Honesty
Enthusiasm
Reliability
Organisation
Encouragement
Support
They learned some great games and activities that they can use with our children at Greswold. The children will now help train the other play leaders at school and start start to support games at lunchtime in due course. They represented the school amazingly.
Thank you Year 6.
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October Travel Tracker shows increased engagement! Let's keep it going Greswold!
Tue 05 Nov 2024A big thank you to all the families who have engaged with the Living Streets Travel Tracker this year so far. The results from October are in and engagement is up to 26% of the whole school population, which is getting closer to our target of 30% for this academic year.
Over 150 badges will be given out this week for those children who have earned an October badge, however those pupils who forgot to fill in their journeys for September and have gone back to do it, your September badges will be given out this week too!
Even if a child has forgotten to fill in their Travel Tracker, they can always go back and fill it in and still receive their badge.
Year 5 Oaks and Year 6 Willows won the most badges in October and we're looking for a strong improvement from Nursery and Year 4 this month too. I know we can do it!
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An important message from the Solihull Sustainable Travel Team about idling!
Mon 04 Nov 2024By switching off your car engine when stationary you’ll reduce air pollution. It really is that simple!
If everyone makes this small change, it will make a big difference to the quality of the air we all breathe. Engine idling, leaving your car engine running when stationary, is a major and totally unnecessary contributor to air pollution and can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, lung cancer and asthma.
Children are particularly at risk from the harmful chemicals emitted from cars as their lungs are still developing. The air they breathe now can affect their health for life.
Did you know?
- An idling engine emits 20 times more pollution that a car travelling at 32mph.
- On average, one car emits the equivalent of 150 balloons of pollution every minute its engine is left running.
- Air pollution tends to gather a metre off the ground, so children are particularly vulnerable.
- People inside cars are also exposed to high levels of air pollution, with children especially at risk from the harmful effects.
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Stuck for what to do this half term?
Mon 28 Oct 2024Your child should have received a Raring2go! magazine to bring home last week, but just in case families haven't got it to hand, click on the following link for the same information:
You can access lots of ideas of what do to as a family during this half term.
Enjoy.
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Punctuality reminder (and improvement!)
Fri 25 Oct 2024At the end of week 7, we communicated our concerns regarding rising cases of lateness in the mornings. Below is the table of challenges, implications and guidance that was shared with parents to highlight and hopefully improve the issue.
We're very pleased to say that the average number of lates was below 20 during the final week of term (excluding Wednesday when there were genuine traffic issues on the Warwick Road) at an average of 17 lates per day. Obviously, this is a number we want to reduce further but thank you to our parent community for working in partnership with school and we do hope this positive trend, with regards to lateness, continues next half term.
Factors affecting the punctuality of Greswold families
Challenge
Impact
Advice
On average, nearly 5% of the pupil population are currently arriving after the bell has sounded and gates have closed each morning. This number increases on rainy days.
Late pupils then have to wait while being signed in, have their lunch choice taken and escorted to classrooms, some of which are the other end of school.
Children’s lunch choice is rushed as they have to complete it at the office.
If it is raining, there will be more cars on the road meaning journeys will take longer. Therefore, leave 15 minutes earlier on rainy days.
Pupils won’t physically reach their classroom for up to ten minutes after they arrive at the office.
Check your route to school, using an app, in case there are roadworks or congestion.
Pupils can get very anxious when arriving in class late.
Use the previous evening to prepare lunches and put out uniforms and bags to save time in the morning.
Pupils arriving late will miss their learning during registration time.
If children are waking up too late in the mornings, leading to lateness, consider changing the time of bedtime to earlier in the evening.
One to one or small group learning, can’t take place if a child is late. This impacts on the time the class teacher or teaching assistant has taken to plan for it.
School may take the decision to send a reminder letter to parents of pupils who have accumulated several lates. This is to reiterate the importance of being on time to school.
At the end of the school day, families have more than one child finishing school at the same time, e.g. Reception and KS1.
Families might be worried that their children are waiting too long.
Pick up the oldest child first and then walk round to Reception or Nursery. It’s completely understandable that parents might be a couple of minutes late.
Teachers can arrange to dismiss oldest child first to save time.
At the end of the school day, pupils haven’t been collected outside classrooms on time or after 3-4 minutes.
Class teachers may have meetings or school sporting event they need to attend to straight away, or a medical appointment out of contact hours.
Please leave plenty of time to travel to school especially when it’s raining.
Y1-6 families should enter school through the KS2 gates so congestion is avoided around KS1 classrooms.
Pupil feedback from School Council in 2023 suggested they prefer to see a familiar face straight away to talk to. This prompted our Hometime Harmony campaign.
It’s understandable that being late can happen on occasion. If so, consider phoning ahead to notify the school office or even have a little jog!
Pupils from Greswold Greyhounds haven’t been collected by closing time (6pm).
This doesn’t happen very often but it delays staff travelling home, especially if they have to use public transport.
Please don’t park in the staff car park to save time, especially if you are running late. This helps to avoid potential accidents. Most schools across Solihull don’t allow parents to use staff car parks either.
The school will be adopting a new charging policy soon for lateness.
There are no parking restrictions directly outside the KS1 gates after 4pm.
Some families are using the staff car park to park while dropping off children at Greyhounds in the morning.
It isn’t fair on other families who park outside of school correctly on the road.
Please park on the road outside of school. The parking restrictions still allows vehicles to park on the road directly outside the KS1 gates until 9:30am.
As the school gates aren’t locked until 8:30am, we want to avoid any vehicle or pedestrian incidents or accidents.
Adopt our values of belonging and respect by thinking of others who are following the correct parking procedures.
Pupils attending after-school clubs are sometimes being picked up late after the session has finished, e.g. Football, Dance, Basketball, etc.
The club organisers (All external providers) may well have another club to run at a different venue and can’t be late themselves.
Please adopt Greswold’s value of respect by being aware the club providers have other commitments once the session has finished.
Parents tend to park in the staff car park if they’re running late to collect from a club, something which isn’t allowed.
Please don’t use the staff car park to pick up pupils from clubs, which take place directly after school. Additional congestion may cause a pedestrian or vehicle accident. The vast majority of schools across Solihull don’t allow parents to use staff car parks.
To provide these club opportunities, we need to work together with the providers to ensure we retain their services.
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Parent teacher consultations
Fri 25 Oct 2024This week were the first parent teacher consultations of this academic year. Greswold had a very high turn out of parents (with children in Years 4-6) to have individual appointments with the teachers or SENDCo, look through their children's books, award stickers for their family's favourite pieces of learning, order pre-loved uniform and complete the parent survey. The book fair was busy as usual; we will let you know the total money raised next half term.
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Happy KS1 lunchtimes
Thu 24 Oct 2024The KS1 lunchtime supervision team have shared some lovely photographs of lunchtime games and activities this week. As parents can see below, the activities provided are always enjoyed by the pupils. Thank you to the lunchtime supervisors and Play Leaders who are making lunchtimes such a positive experience.
