Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
This week, year 2 have been learning how to perform poetry. Not only did they attempt to recite poems from memory but they also devised actions to go with them and refined how they use expression to engage an audience.
This culminated in each child performing a poem in a small group for the rest of their class. Mr Hornsey dropped in on each class and was incredibly impressed by their attempts. Well done children, your performances were thoroughly entertaining.
Today in Sycamores, the children were introduced to their new history topic about the Vikings. They began with a very challenging true or false activity where they had to recall their previous history knowledge to decide whether the statements about the Viking were accurate or not.
The children then took on the role of Anglo-Saxon spies who attempted to interrogate a Viking shipbuilder (Mrs Howell) in order to find out more about how longboats were designed in a way to make raiding so easy.
The knowledge and application of it, by children was incredibly impressive while their questioning was of such high quality that as Anglo-Saxons, they're now much better equipped to defend themselves from Viking raiding parties!
KS2 pupils were given an extra treat this morning by a number of children showing off their wonderful musical prowess.
Not only did the audience get entertained by the year 3 recorder club but Roma in year 6 gave an absolutely wonderful rendition of 'The Entertainer' by Scott Joplin using the school piano.
We are so very lucky here at Greswold to have so many gifted musicians.
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have been sent some really helpful information and a course for parents/carers of pupils with additional needs who are moving up to secondary school.
Residents of Solihull can use the access code APPLEJACKS to access the online courses for parents. There is also a free online access checker on the website now, where if parents don’t know the code they can enter their postcode and will automatically be directed onto the Solihull access plan so they can do the courses free of charge.
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Moving up resources |
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We have partnered with Balsall Common Primary School to develop a series of video guides to help parents consider how to support their child and themselves during key transition periods during school. Our ‘moving up’ digital resources hub, hosted on www.inourplace.co.uk/moving-up includes video guides, blogs and some of our online courses available through the course library.
Our brand new course Moving up to secondary school for children with additional needs is designed to support parents and children with additional needs to make a smooth transition to secondary school. |
For the past two academic years, Greswold has been using the Picture News publication as a platform for children to explore and discuss some very pertinent modern day topics and to help them learn through the world around them.
Each newsletter is introduced to the children during a Monday assembly through the stimulus of an image and question. The children then find out more about the topic by reflecting and discussing it further using additional resources, in their allocated class assembly later that week. Resources are tailored for EYFS, primary and secondary aged children with relevant and meaningful links to British Values and supporting pupils' personal development. The subjects help to give our curriculum more context and promote the use of spoken language.
This week, Picture News has sent out a very useful guide for parents so they are familiar with the publication whilst also offering guidance on how to tackle sensitive news stories with children and young people. Please see the picture gallery for more details along with a few themes explored last half term. The following link can be used to access the Picture News website.
https://www.picture-news.co.uk/
If parents, family or pupils would like to leave a comment about this Latest News story, please click on the link below:
We are delighted to share that our attendance for the majority of last half term was some of the highest of the year so far, including a record 96.8%! Thank you so much for your support with this. We really hope this continues into the final half term of the year.
All children from Reception to Year 6 were invited to this morning's whole school assembly. Although a bit of a squeeze, all 630 children, along with all staff, were involved in an assembly which helped to reiterate some very important messages for the final term ahead.
Using some traffic warning signs, similar to those around the local area, Mrs Scott and Mr Hornsey reminded the children of how things help us to keep safe. However, in Greswold we don't have school rules but instead, we use six key values (BRICKS) which help us to demonstrate positive traits and habits.
British Values and the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of a Child were also referenced as well as our lunchtime charters for corridors, halls and outdoor spaces.
The children were also reminded of what to do if something goes wrong at lunchtime or they become upset due to a friendship issue. If a child isn't able to resolve a problem themselves or with the help of their friends, then there are both lunchtime supervisors and play leaders available to ask for help. Children were also encouraged to tell their class teacher or staff, at the start of the afternoon, if they haven't been able to speak to someone up to that point. This is to help school resolve any issues on the same day so that problems don't fester or become longer term issues.
Well done to Y1 Hedgehogs (98%) and Y6 Willows (98%) who had the best attendances for the final week of last term.
In order to maintain Greswold's Modeshift Stars Bronze Award accreditation for commitment to sustainable travel, each class in Y1-6 took part in a travel survey this week.
This involved the children communicating how they usually travelled to school each week and how they would like to travel to school in the future.
The results were very interesting as 197 pupils wanted to cycle to school compared to the 19 that currently do. Only 43 children felt they needed to use the car compared to the 180 that currently do.
Car sharing and walking to school with another family were interesting suggestions put forward by the children.
Greswold can appreciate that for some families, a considerable distance has to be travelled to get to school each day. However, if all vehicle using families could dedicate just one day a week to travelling more actively or sustainably, it would make a big difference to congestion outside school, to the safety of the children and their families and would also help children to achieve their Travel Tracker badge awards.
This morning's House Point assembly nicely rounded off our focus on Independence this half term, by exploring the Japanese proverb of 'Send the beloved child on a journey'. This alluded to a news clip viewed by the children about a 7 year old girl from Tokyo who travelled to and from school every day using two trains, all alone. Part of Japanese culture, children are encouraged to travel to school by themselves at an early age.
Although only year 6 children at Greswold are allowed to do this, in the assembly we recognised the important part school staff and families play in providing young people with the guidance they need to become responsible enough to eventually keep themselves safe when they do travel to school independently.
Well done to Y6 Cedars who had the best attendance of this half term (96.8%) while Y3 Sparrows are still out in front with the best attendance for the whole year (96.4%).
Children received certificates for Star Pupil, the most House Points attained in each class as well as Star Reader awards for children who had read one million words at Greswold.
St George's are still first place in this year's House Point Leaderboard but only by one single point from St David's.
Our final value of Curiosity was also introduced to the children.
Dear Parents and Carers,
School has recently received a number of messages and complaints from both families and residents about vehicle use and parking. In the past week alone, there have been two incidents of cars colliding with each other, moving and parked. We have also been notified that a car, usually parked on Links Drive has been blocking part of a resident’s driveway.
As a school, we would like to encourage all of our families, particularly those that use and park vehicles, to drive with the upmost care when travelling to and from school helping to demonstrate our school values.
Please be respectful of the properties on Buryfield Road, Links Drive and Ferndown Road when parking so the residents are not inconvenienced. We take great pride in working in partnership with not only our whole school community but our local area as well.
As this week coincides with Walk to School Week, it would be a perfect chance for families to ditch the car for possibly one day and try alternative modes of transport which will not only help pupils to attain badges through the Travel Tracker but also to move Greswold up the leaderboard using Street Tag. Click on the link below for more details:
https://www.greswold.solihull.sch.uk/sustainable-travel/
https://www.greswold.solihull.sch.uk/parking-guidance-for-greswold-vehicle-users/
Thank you
If parents, family or pupils would like to leave a comment about this Latest News story, please click on the link below: