Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Monday 4th March marks the start of Greswold's 'Punctuality Push'
Fri 01 Mar 2024Dear Parents and Carers,
Punctuality is the first step towards success
Being punctual and on time is one of life’s most important qualities, whether you’re a child, adult, teacher or parent. It shows you are reliable, dependable, can be trusted and demonstrates respect to other people and for their time.
Over the past year, it has become noticeable that incidents of lateness, both in the morning and at the end of the school day, have increased. As a senior leadership team, we feel now is the right time to highlight this growing issue and promote the lifelong benefits of being punctual.
In terms of Greswold, since January 8th 2024 up to 21st February 2024, there have been nearly 800 cases of pupil lateness and that is just in the mornings! Below is a breakdown of the reasons why pupils have been late. Medical appointments are not included.
Number of late pupils
Reason
354
Traffic
241
No reason given
78
Weather
59
Overslept
45
Unwell
Total 777 The amount of minutes of learning time lost in total due to lateness during this period is nearly 12,000!
Admittedly, modern day living can provide many challenges and, as a school community, we are aware of this. There are occasions when things can get stressful, things go wrong, or unforeseen circumstances can cause a family to be a few minutes late. However, our role as educators, in partnership with parents, is to also prepare pupils for the next step in their school careers and beyond. This means young people need to value the importance of being on time. Greswold Year 6 pupils are allowed the responsibility of travelling to and from school for this purpose.
There is an enormous amount of published material on the benefits of being punctual, especially for school, and also relating to the implications of being late.
Being on time (supported by published material):
- Helps young people to be organised;
- Helps to build children’s confidence;
- Reduces stress and anxiety;
- Maintains and improves academic achievement;
- Helps young people to maintain their routine and focus;
- Enables children and adults to start the day settled, ready and relaxed;
- Is a sign of respect (one of Greswold’s school values);
- Allows others (including school staff) to use their time wisely and efficiently.
Impact on pupils who are late
Unfortunately, but understandably, there are a number of negative consequences for pupils who arrive late to school:
- Arriving late can cause some pupils to feel very anxious, as they go into the classroom by themselves once everyone else is settled, calm and working.
- Key learning time will be missed. Class teachers or teaching assistants may have planned to work with a child in an intervention group during registration time, but who is late, meaning there is a knock on effect with respect to time being wasted.
- Lunch choice options have to be rushed. In class, the children will have more time to consider what they want while the register is being taken.
- Pupils may miss the all-important start of the first lesson. Without question, class teachers will then repeat their delivery to the late pupil which inevitably interrupts the flow of the lesson and the teacher’s aims and ambitions for other individuals.
- Below is a chart highlighting how much learning time might be missed in extreme cases:
Minutes late everyday
Total learning time lost each year
5 minutes everyday
3.4 days
10 minutes everyday
6.9 days
15 minutes everyday
10.3 days
20 minutes everyday
13.8 days
30 minutes everyday
20.7 days
Helpful tips and guidance to improve punctuality
- Be aware that on rainy days, there will be more traffic on the roads delaying journey times. Consider leaving the house 10-15 minutes earlier on these days.
- When temperatures drop below 0 degrees, remember that vehicles are probably iced up, especially windscreens. Again, leave a few minutes earlier in the morning in order to de-ice windscreens properly.
- If children are oversleeping or getting up late, try putting them to bed an hour earlier each night for a week. Reduce screen time before bedtime by up to an hour.
- In terms of the recommended hours of sleep for young children, 3-5 year olds should be getting 10-13 hours each night and 6-12 year olds should be getting 9-12 hours each night (as recommended by Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital)
- Uniforms, lunches, homework and bags could be organised the previous evening to save time in the morning.
- Establish morning routines to help children know what to do and in which order. This enables them to become more independent too. Visual prompts can help.
- Provide a motivation for leaving the house early in the mornings, e.g. scoot or cycle, walking with friends and family, etc.
- The Walking Bus provides an early morning service where children in Y1-6 can walk to school from Wharf Lane at 8am each day and return back to Wharf Lane by 3:50pm each day too. Applications through the main school office please.
Mr Hornsey will be holding a coffee morning and a separate coffee afternoon for any parents who would like to attend to chat about issues relating to punctuality before or after school. These will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 7th March at 2:15pm and Wednesday 13th March at 9:00am. Any parent is welcome to attend these informal gatherings, however if you do wish to attend, please inform the school office beforehand so Mr Hornsey can get enough biscuits for everyone!!!!!!!
There is also an opportunity for parents to share their own tips and successes for maintaining punctuality, simply by clicking on the link below and completing the very simple questionnaire:
Reach out via the school office if you would like us to signpost you to further information or external services to improve punctuality.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Hornsey
Deputy Headteacher
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Greswold awarded Bronze Modeshift accreditation for work on Sustainable Travel
Tue 20 Feb 2024Greswold have today been notified by the Solihull Sustainable Travel team that we have been awarded a Bronze accreditation for our work on Sustainable Travel and maintaining a 'Good' Travel Plan. This accreditation has been awarded by Modeshift Stars, a national organisation which promotes sustainable travel across the country.
Promoting sustainable travel to help alleviate traffic congestion around school has always been a challenge, especially in such a large school as Greswold. However, our commitment to promoting active travel, healthier lifestyles and using alternative modes of transport has now been recognised by a national organisation which is really pleasing. Thank you to staff, pupils and parents for helping to achieve this recognition.
With regards to initiatives already in place at school to promote sustainable travel, please click on the link below to access the page on the website.
https://www.greswold.solihull.sch.uk/sustainable-travel/
This is also the first Latest News story which allows parents and families to offer feedback and additional comments on an individual story. Please click on the link below to access the comments form.
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Updated lunchtime football club rota for Y5 and Y6 pupils
Mon 19 Feb 2024Below is the lunchtime football club rota for Y5 and Y6 pupils for this half term.
Attending pupils will need to wear their PE kits and provide a second pair of trainers to use, as the club takes place on the field.
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The children and staff showcasing our curriculum here at Greswold!
Mon 19 Feb 2024The children and staff were very hard at work updating their corridor curriculum display boards in readiness for Parent Consultations at the back end of last half term. I'm sure all parents were dazzled by the creative displays which showcased our curriculum here at Greswold as well as the fabulous work on show by our pupils.
In case you didn't catch some of the displays, check out a selection in the gallery below.
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Once again, Greswold pupils showcase their creativity, this time for the Schools' Football Week kit competition
Mon 19 Feb 2024It was a very difficult task for Mr Hornsey to pick a selection of winners to go through to the national kit design competition, as part of the Schools' Football Week, held at school at the start of February.
However, after much deliberating, 8 pupils were picked out for their creative and functional designs. We will wait to hear whether Piotr, Jess, Esme, Arjun, Isabella, Ava-Rose, Bobby, or Sian are picked as national winners.
In the meantime, please enjoy their wonderful designs below.
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National Schools' Football Week at Greswold. How did you fare with each fun quiz?
Sun 18 Feb 2024A very successful National Schools' Football Week culminated in the revealing of answers to the week's various fun quizzes during assembly on the last day of term.
Year 3 and year 4 pupils had previously been treated to football coaching sessions from representatives of the Football Development Scheme and over 100 children entered the kit competition which was judged during half term (winners available in next story).
We're sure there will be numerous parents who are keen to know how they fared with each of the quizzes, so see below for the answers.
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Language of the Month for February
Fri 09 Feb 2024This time, February's Language of the Month is Cantonese!
February also marks the celebrations of Lunar New Year. We would like to wish any of our families celebrating over half term, a Happy Lunar New Year. There will be a range of celebrations happening in Solihull and Birmingham to welcome in the Year of the Dragon.
We hope children enjoy trying out answering the register in Cantonese when they return to school on Monday 19th February! In the meantime, best wishes to all our families for a happy half-term.
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Celebrating a shining success!
Fri 09 Feb 2024We are keen to celebrate successes both in and out of the classroom here at Greswold. It was a pleasure to hear Poppy, in Year 4, proudly and psasionately tell us about a dance competition she recently competed in. Last weekend, Poppy performed in a dance show at the Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham. On Saturday, she rehearsed for the whole day and on Sunday she performed. What a great show of resilence and dedication, Poppy!
Thank you for bringing in your colouful costumes and shiny medal to show your classmates. We enjoyed listening to you tell us about your experiences and are very proud of you! Well done!
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A very busy and enjoyable House Point Assembly to finish the term!
Thu 08 Feb 2024There were more very busy House Point assemblies to finish this half term on Thursday. Along with Star Pupil certificates, House Point certificates were given out to the KS2 boy and girl in each class who had earned the most this half term.
Children also found out how their class and year group were doing with the Living Streets' Travel Tracker. A special well done to Y6 Cedars, Y4 Chaffinches and Y1 Squirrels who are engaging with the Travel Tracker the most, at present.
Finally, there was a change in our House Point leaderboard with St David's creeping ahead of St Patrick's in the race to be crowned 2023-24 champions. However, St George's are still in the lead but by only 2 points at the half way mark of the school year.
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Our Voice event at the Civic Centre
Fri 02 Feb 2024Jessica and Noah from Y6 represented Greswold exceptionally well at the 'Our Voice' event at the Civic Centre in Solihull. They shared what helped them to feel listened to, what made them happy in school, what helped them feel included and what we could do to make things even better. Feedback from the organisers was that they were both brilliant; they did a fantastic job of participating in the group and reading feedback to the entire audience of older children and adults. Mrs Scott is very proud of them.
