Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Thank you
Wed 10 Jul 2024This morning, Greswold held a special 'Thank You' event for parents who have given up their time this year to volunteer in school.
This included parents who have attended educational visits with different year groups, parents who have volunteered to undertake 1:1 reading with children and parents who have helped staff at sporting events too.
Members of the Solihull Rotary Club also attended as a thank you for their continued charitable efforts which benefit not only the pupils here at Greswold but the local community too.
Our volunteers were also treated to a performance from our school choir which they very much enjoyed.
Without parent volunteers, we wouldn't be able to provide the children with all the opportunities they deserve and which match our ambitions and aspirations for them here at Greswold, and for that we are eternally grateful.
If parents, family or pupils would like to leave a comment about this Latest News story, please click on the link below:
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Year 6's pirate performance wows audience
Wed 10 Jul 2024Parents and staff were treated to a fantastic performance of Pirates of the Curry Bean by our Year 6 pupils. After working on the acting, singing and dancing at school, the children spent two days at the Dovehouse Theatre getting the show ready for the stage.
The story was all about twins Jack and Liza Periwinkle who ended up on a wild adventure after discovering a real life treasure map. When the infamous Redbeard and his pungent Pirates of the Curry Bean stole the map and kidnap their mother, the race was on to rescue her, reclaim the map and find the treasure! It was a fantastic show, with lots of humour, and the children did a brilliant job of learning their lines, song words and choreography. They were real stars and put on a professional show, taking their audience from London to the mysterious island of Lumbago in the sea of Sciatica (all while looking out for rats or monkeys)!
Year 6: you were amazing! A great performance showing our school values. Many thanks also to the staff from Year 6 who made the show happen with all the hard work that goes into putting on a production like this.
If parents, family or pupils would like to leave a comment about this Latest News story, please click on the link below:
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Year 5 writer has her first book published!
Mon 08 Jul 2024The commitment and dedication of our Greswold pupils always humbles and impresses us. Year 5 pupil, Paola, has written her own fiction story based around World War 2 in her own time. Paola has not only written it herself but has only gone and got it published! BriBooks, a website and platform dedicated to supporting children to write and publish their own stories has published Paola's wonderful efforts. We are all incredibly proud of Paola and many Greswold staff have already enjoyed reading Paola's first publication, and we look forward to seeing her future stories being published for the whole world to see. Well done Paola.
You can find out more about BriBooks here: https://www.bribooks.com/
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Places available on 'Being a Parent' workshop for autumn programme!
Mon 08 Jul 2024Dear Parents and Carers,
See below for details on the next round of 'Being a Parent' sessions taking place in September and October at Dicken's Heath Primary School. Please feel free to sign up.
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Year 2 place 3rd at Cheerleading Festival!
Fri 05 Jul 2024Well done to the year 2 pupils who represented Greswold at this year's Cheerleading Festival at Lode Heath school last week. They achieved Greswold's best result for a long time with a 3rd place finish.
The whole of year 2 have been receiving cheerleading lessons this half term as part of Greswold's ongoing collaboration with the Solihull Sports' Partnership.
Well done to all the children involved.
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Parent / Carer Forum minutes from 1st July 2024
Wed 03 Jul 2024Parent/Carer Forum Meeting Notes
Monday 1st July at 5pm
Staff: Mr Hornsey and Mrs Woodcock
Parents/Carers: Reception Bumblebees x2, Y1 Hedgehogs x1, Y1 Squirrels x1, Y3 Robins x1, Y4 Skylarks x2, Y5 Elms x1, Y6 Cedars x1, Y6 Maples x1
- Shared aims of parent/carer forum
- Shared school context
LOA Requests
- Follow-up from previous meeting
- Shared that LOA should be at least 2 week’s prior
- No definition of exceptional circumstances but school view it from the perspective of the child – is there an alternative?
- Concerns last time that response was impersonal but shared that it has to be a standard letter for consistency and fairness
- Right to request a meeting to discuss and look at circumstances but holidays will always be unauthorised
- Religious observance – Day is given over to an activity which can’t be moved to a different day due to religious event and not a party to celebrate on a different day.
- Shared updated statutory guidance for attendance and implications for parents – letter to be issued at the end of term
- Concerns from parents about emergencies and not being able to give notice
- Discussion about process in terms of how notifications are shared and the timelines involved
- Concerns that the system is unfair and doesn’t take account of family circumstances particularly when families are abroad
- Could conversations be had at a higher level to address this?
- Discussion around music/dance exams and whether these would be authorised. Time should only be taken for the exam rather than a whole day or session.
- Clarification around difference between sickness absence and leave of absence
Social media – photographs
- Different opinions on filming/photography and different events at school e.g. Sports Day v performances where certain performances are filmed therefore no photography is needed.
- Outdoor events, Sports’ days – before or after disclaimer – there is still an uneasy factor – will be amended slightly next year.
- Greswold Primary Poor Parking – on Instagram and Facebook
- Shared concerns about posts showing registration plates and also families (some with faces blurred and others without)
- Empathise with the motive behind it but not the way it’s been done – safeguarding issues
- Parents confirmed that the parking was inconsiderate/illegal – parking on zig zags, double yellows
- Shared what we’ve tried to do to alleviate parking issues e.g. increasing Walking Bus spaces, Park and Stride venues
- Concerns that they may contain pictures of families who are not associated with the poor parking
- Concerns that some parents don’t use social media so wouldn’t know that they are on there
- Question about whether the page holder has been directly contacted to take the posts down or to edit them to blur registration plates and faces or whether it could be reported and asked to be taken down as targeting individuals.
- Possible school referral to legal team to seek advice
- Concerns around safeguarding of pupils
- Parents aware that it seems to be a small number of parents who repeatedly park illegally
- Suggestion to refer to parking authority
- Park and stride venues The Hub and St Helens Church
- Feeling that when Mr Hornsey is outside the situation is better
- Suggestion that site managers could wear high viz to deter
- Question if we’ve ever had reports that children’s pictures/videos are on social media? Answer - no
- Photographing/filming events – is it better to just enjoy rather than filming?
- No phones allows parents to focus on their child/ren
What is Bullying?
- Term being used regularly by parent community
- Large school but with a large staff presence at lunchtime including continuity with Play Leaders + pupil play leaders. Admittedly, can’t follow children round on individual basis.
- Lots of structures in place to support children
- Covid has had an impact on social skills and children may try to form relationships in ways that may not make sense to us as adults
- Definition of bullying from Anti-Bullying Policy - Ongoing issue, deliberate, imbalance of power.
- Concern that daughter said, “I think I’m being bullied.” Parent worried by this and raised at parent teacher meeting but parent not sure what to do next.
- Explained that parents can seek assistance from SLT or back to class teacher, especially if things did get better but have deteriorated again.
- Question about whether there was any advice for parents about how to notice the signs of bullying or how to address it with children
- Shared the Anti-bullying policy including information about the above question
- Shared that it doesn’t need to be named bullying to be taken seriously: we want all pupils to feel safe and happy coming to school
- Parent feedback of example where staff supported with friendship groups and the fact it has had a positive impact
- Shared about different approaches from staff
- Shared about the pastoral team approach
- Parent shared that the door is always open approach has worked well in their setting
- Feedback that there is a lot of support and advice in the policy which would support parents about how to tackle friendship/unkindness issues and that parts could be pulled out that would be useful to parents and shared
- Would it be good to have a parent FAQ section on the website to direct parents to relevant parts of the website? E.g. what to do if you felt your child was being treated unkindly by others
Educational Visits – deferred to following meeting
AOB
- Sports' Day – Reception & KS1 – would have been helpful to know how it runs beforehand, perhaps on the invite letter. Amazing experience – children loved it!
- House Points – concerns about inconsistency – different between older and younger pupil
- Shared that SLT are aware and that has been addressed with staff
- Shared that HPs can be given for different things
- Feedback that there are lots of things that they can’t do at lunchtimes – feels too structur
- Explained lunchtime arrangements both when the field is in use and also when it isn’t. Plans to slightly amend arrangements to improve this.
- Discussion around transition and the importance of getting it right to ensure that pupils feel comfortable going into their new classes
- Confirmation that classes are not being mixed for this academic year
- Transition booklets available and being put on the website for families to access during the holiday
- Question about when would be best to speak to class teacher about medical needs
- Question about whether it would be good to share two definite topics that will be discussed prior to meeting so that parents could come if it were of interest to them
If parents, family or pupils would like to leave a comment about this Latest News story, please click on the link below:
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RE providing the challenge to deepen children' sunderstanding
Wed 03 Jul 2024This week, children in Year 5 Sycamores were using the RE subject topic of Hajj to broaden their thinking and deepen their understanding of the Islamic pilgrimage.
Like several lessons observed recently which have promoted higher order thinking, this lesson was no exception with children using clues and information to plot a flow chart of where to go, what to visit and most importantly what order and why.
The children showcased their skills in working collaboratively to draw on their collective strengths to produce an end result which would provide a visitor with the perfect pilgrimage experience. Well done children, a fascinating lesson.
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Destination Africa!
Wed 03 Jul 2024As part of Greswold's commitment to recycling and environmental issues, the Eco Team's aim to send second hand and unwanted reading books to Africa came even closer to being realised today.
If you recall, the Eco Team originally raised funds to pay for the transporting of the books by holding a Bring and Buy sale using donated toys. The funds raised will help pay for the shipping of the books, now boxed, on the last leg of their journey to pupils and schools on the continent who are in need of reading materials. There will be 13 boxes in total! Last year, Greswold's donations were sent to children in Nigeria.
Well done to everyone involved in the worthwhile project, a perfect example of how our school values help to drive the ideas and aspirations of our pupils here at Greswold.
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A fabulous day out for Year 2, full of curiosity!
Wed 03 Jul 2024To tie in with and add some context to their learning this term, year 2 visited Brandon Marsh last week. Their day was filled with lots of exploration of habitats with the children involved in pond dipping, making homes for hedgehogs and making dens for themselves.
The teamwork on show was excellent really showing off our Greswold value of belonging. Thank you to the staff for organising and supervising the children and thank you to the pupils for their enthusiasm and behaviour.
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Y5 Bikeability - pupils learning vital lifelong skills!
Wed 03 Jul 2024Last week, year 5 pupils took to the roads on their bikes for their Level 1 and Level 2 Bikeability training. The Bikeability Team from the local authority first of all assessed the confidence of the children in riding their bikes safely and proficiently on the school playground before deciding whether they were ready to venture onto the roads.
From there, children learned how to signal, manoeuvre at junctions from starting positions and ensure they were always aware of what was approaching from all directions.
As always, the children were fabulous and showed great concentration, especially when on the roads.
All children attained their Level 1 badge with most children managing to successfully achieve their Level 2 badge as well. Those children will get the chance to attain their Level 3 award in year 6.
