Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• St George's crowned House Point trophy winners!

  Mon 19 Jul 2021

  All pupils found out the results of the Greswold House Point trophy competition today in Mr Hornsey’s virtual assembly.  It’s a competition that has technically run for two academic years with congratulations going to St George’s who managed maintain their lead.  Also, well done to Ladybirds in Reception who won a certificate for the best attendance percentage of every class in the entire school this year with 97.2%.  Special certificates were also given to Joshua (over 1,200 sessions) of year 4 and Jensen (over 700 sessions) of year 1 who have accumulated the most sessions of attendance in the whole school without an absence.  Pupils with 100% attendance this year were also recognised along with this term’s House Point/Superstar certificate winners.   

  

• The return of Greswold's Sports' Days!

  Fri 02 Jul 2021

  This week marked the return of Greswold's annual Sports' Day.  School were so pleased to see the children enjoying themselves whilst demonstrating all of our school values whilst competing with their house teams.  It was also great to see parents who came to support and spectate, a truly lovely scene and memorable experience over the three days. 

   

  Well done to St Andrew's who won the Infant Sports' Day trophy (competed for by Reception, Year 1 and The Den pupils) and St David's who won the Junior Sports' Day trophy (competed for by Y2 - Y6).   

  

• Important Sports' Day update

  Fri 18 Jun 2021

  Dear Parents and Carers, 

  
  Greswold would like to update you on the forthcoming Sports’ Days for:

   

  Nursery (Wednesday 14th July)

  Reception, Year 1 and The Den (Tuesday 29th June)

  Years' 2, 3 and 6 (Wednesday 30th June)

  Years' 4 and 5 (Thursday 1st July)

   

  After much deliberation, it has been decided that parents will still be invited to attend, if they wish to, their child’s Sports’ Day.  However, we’ve had to make several amendments to our initial plans, in light of recent changes to the easing of government restrictions, the increasing Covid rate in Solihull and the plain fact that school haven’t the personnel to marshal such an event in way reminiscent of other public and commercial events you may have attended or witnessed recently.  Please read the following instructions carefully: 

   

   

   

  •    Only one parent or carer per child participating is invited as we must keep each spectator bubble to a maximum of 30. We request that pre-school children do not attend unless there really is no alternative. Please note that toilets will not be available to any visitors during Sports’ Days.

    

  •    Parents need to arrive at school at 2:25pm to be able to access part of Sports’ Day through the KS2 pedestrian gates, by waiting on the grassed areas at the front of school, not on the actual carpark itself.  Parents must not park in the car park.  Solihull Council have been informed of the events and therefore parking restrictions around school will be eased.  However, Park & Stride venues are still available to use.  The key stage 2 pedestrian gates will then be closed, and late arrivals will not be admitted, so that other parents collecting children at the end of the day aren’t on site altogether for a prolonged period of time. 

  
  •    Parents will be expected to stay with their child’s bubble and not to mix with parents from other bubbles between arrival and departure after collecting their children.  If you have more than one sibling participating, then we need to encourage you to choose which sibling’s bubble to stay with or arrange for another family member to support the second sibling.  

   
  •    Parents will be expected to wear face masks whilst watching Sports’ Day. 

   
  •    Each individual event zone will be coned off so that parents know where to stand.  These cones will be situated two metres apart to promote social distancing.  Parents are asked to bring a blanket, cushion or towel to sit on and to sit behind a cone to keep themselves and others safe.  

   
  •    At the end of the Sports’ Day, your child(ren) will return to their classrooms for you to collect them.  Please allow the children to return to their classrooms before making your way to the picking up area.  

   
  •    As we can't congregate to find out the final scores at the end, there will instead be a virtual assembly at 4:30pm each day for the Sports’ day results to be announced to pupils and families.  Children will be able to access these from home or Greyhounds using Microsoft Teams.

   

  Timings and further details for Nursery Sports' Day will be communicated soon via the school app messaging service.  

   

  Children will be able to attend school all day in their PE kits with children being able to wear a t-shirt in the colour of their houseif they would prefer, St George's (Red), St Andrew's (Blue), St Patrick's (Green) and St David's (Yellow).  Please note this isn't compulsory though.
   
  We very much appreciate your patience and understanding with regards to these procedures and, though it would not be our choice to be so strict, we feel this is the best way of ensuring our whole school community stays safe.   

  
  Please note that we are continually reviewing school and Sports' Day procedures in light of local and national circumstances as well as confirmed or possible Covid cases in school.  We will review our position on a daily basis and make changes accordingly.   

  
  Thank you and stay safe. 
   

• Greswold nature area development

  Fri 11 Jun 2021

  Greswold staff members Mr and Mrs Cooper along with school governor, Mr Hassan and his team of volunteers, have worked tirelessly during half term to regenerate a patch of the nature area left unused for a number of years.  The area as a whole is now a magnificent learning environment for all staff and pupils to continue to enjoy and explore.  Thank you so much to everybody for their time, effort and dedication.  Enjoy the before, during and after photographs! 

  

• Greswold goes litter picking

  Thu 10 Jun 2021

  We are very proud of the children who took part in the 'Great British Spring Clean' this afternoon. The children along with Miss Sumner, Mrs Cooper and Miss Mears collected litter from our school grounds, Buryfield Road, Naseby Road and Coldlands Woods. They were all very enthusiastic about keeping our environment clean and taking pride in our local community.

  Thank you to 'Love Solihull' for loaning us the litter picking equipment. If you would like to get involved in the campaign at home then please follow the links below:

   

  https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-british-spring-clean

   

  https://www.lovesolihull.org/litter-picking

  

• Changes to hometime collection arrangements

  Tue 18 May 2021

  Dear Parents and Carers, 

   

  In response to an increasing number of requests from parents for their children to be collected by adults not in their childcare bubble, I can confirm that from tomorrow, Wednesday 19th May, the following arrangements are now deemed as acceptable at Greswold:  

   

  • Children can be collected from school by a responsible adult from outside of the household or childcare bubble. However, close supervision, following our Parental Protocol, is expected.

   

  • On each occasion, Greswold require an email to clearly inform us of your decision to allow your child to leave school with another adult, ideally before 1pm.

   

  • The adult/family collecting the child would be identified as a ‘close contact’ with the child so, in the event of a positive COVID19 test, would need to self-isolate and follow NHS isolation rules; vice versa if the child tests positive.

    

  • Greswold Greyhounds will continue to offer childcare for our school community.  

   

  May I also take this opportunity to remind parents that other aspects of our protocols remain in place, especially those in relation to Hands, Face, Space. I thank parents and carers who are continuing to wear face coverings and observe safe space between themselves and others. Parents will still be expected to keep their distances from staff at the end of the school day and utilise the office email to ensure effective communication between home and school.  

   

  It is hoped that, with the support of all members of our school community, the current protocols and the success of changing hometime arrangements will enable us to consider how to safely implement other activities this term, such as the Walking Bus along with increasing the number of parents allowed on site for events such as sports’ days.

    

  Stay safe and well.  Thank you.   

• Greswold badges

  Thu 13 May 2021

  It has been a pleasure to continue to award bronze, silver and gold badges across school. You can visit the Roll of Honour on our children's section of the website. Mrs Scott has also awarded 3 very special 'Greswold Gold' badges to three pupils in Sycamores who have achieved 20 credits this year already. Well done to Havish, Arushi and Alyssia. 

• Sharing a smile for Comic Relief

  Fri 19 Mar 2021
  Thank you to everyone who supported Comic Relief today by wearing red or bright clothes, making a donation, sharing a joke or laughing at someone else's joke. Here are some of our favourite jokes from across school. 

  

• Final Remote Learning update

  Thu 04 Mar 2021

  Dear Parents and Carers,

   

  Hopefully, this should be the final whole school remote learning update for the foreseeable future, as we look forward to welcoming all the children back on Monday 8^th March.  As a school, we would like to express our admiration and gratitude for all the efforts yourselves, your family and particularly your children have shown to remote learning over the past eight weeks.  It was a new and challenging experience for everyone and something we can collectively celebrate, as a prelude to the transitioning of pupils back into full time education.  I feel the hard work and dedication of all will enable pupils to settle back into school routines and embrace their learning more smoothly and positively than before. 

   

  However, in the event of any future bubble or pupil isolations, the remote learning provision will revert back to stages 1 and 2 of the Remote Learning Policy. 

   

  Also, thank you to everyone who took the time to review Greswold’s remote learning provision and I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of the results.  Overall, there were 127 responses and below is a summary of the feedback:

   

  • 74% of families rated the amount of weekly remote learning work as ‘About Right’ with 20% feeling it was ‘Too much’.

   

  • 90% of families described their child(ren) as being at least ‘Somewhat engaged’ in remote learning with 48% feeling their children were ‘Engaged’ or ‘Very engaged’.

   

  • 91% of families felt the audio/video recordings were ‘Helpful’ or ‘Very helpful’.

   

  • The live ‘drop-in’ sessions were rated as ‘Somewhat helpful’ or ‘Very helpful’ by 85% of families.

   

  • 95% of families felt work was acknowledged.

   

  • 85% of families felt concerns were suitably resolved.

   

  • 96% of families felt communication was ‘Fair’, ‘Good’ or ‘Very good’.

   

  • Finally, out of 5, on average Greswold families rated the provision as 3.78.

        

  Thank you so much for the constructive feedback.  The policy itself is to be reviewed this month and the results, along with the comments shared, will help to further develop the provision. 

   

  Many thanks and stay safe

   

  Mr Hornsey    

• Returning to School - 8th March 2021

  Thu 25 Feb 2021

  Dear Parent and carers,

   

  After receiving confirmation from the government earlier this week, we are so pleased to announce that all pupils will be welcomed back to school from Monday 8^th March 2021.  The whole staff community are both happy and eager to make the return as enjoyable, exciting and most importantly, as safe as possible for all pupils and their families.  We are also pleased to confirm the reopening of our Greswold Greyhounds Childcare facility for before and after school clubs and wrap around.

   

  However, it is vitally important to maintain our stance of safeguarding the school community while abiding with the strict guidance laid out by the government.  This is why the vast majority of procedures adopted from September 2020 will need to continue from the 8^th March.  These expectations will be communicated again to parents early next week. 

  Even though an updated parent protocol will be communicated to families very soon, below are some other important headlines regarding reopening:

   

  • Attendance from the 8^th March is mandatory, unless a child is in receipt of an official NHS letter stating they are clinically extremely vulnerable.  Therefore, unauthorised absence marks will be reinstated where necessary, but obviously not for pupils who are required to self-isolate as per government guidance.   
  • Hours for all Nursery pupils will revert back to their original sessions as agreed for the start of the academic year in September 2020.  Any Nursery children that accessed wraparound care prior to the January lockdown should look out for further communications from Greswold Greyhounds.  
  • Parents of children who wish them to attend Greswold Greyhounds before and after school club should look out for a survey from Abby Hall to establish need.
  • Similar start and finish times as September will be used:

   

   

  Year	Location	Drop-off	Pick-up
  Y6	KS2 pedestrian entrance	8:30am	3:10pm
  Y5	Double doors to right of main school office	8:30am	3:10pm
  Y4	KS2 pedestrian entrance	8:30am	3:10pm
  Y3	Double doors to the left of the library	8:30am	3:10pm
  Y2	Greswold Greyhounds	8:40am	3:20pm
  Y1	Double doors to the left of the library	8:40am	3:20pm
  Reception	Early Years’ entrance	8:40am	3:20pm
  Nursery	Early years’ entrance	8:30am	3:30pm

   

  Parents will again be allowed to pick up their children from outside classrooms at the end of the day.

   

  • With regards to school uniform, children are expected to wear uniform as usual.  However, results of the recent uniform review will be communicated to parents shortly.  Class teachers will notify pupils and parents through the app of PE days so that children can arrive wearing their kits for the whole day.

   

  I’m sure that parents will understand the need to continue communication with school via email to the school office in order to reduce face to face contact with staff and other adults.  All other protective measures will remain such as regular handwashing, sanitisation, increased cleaning routines, social distancing, as well as adults wearing masks in communal areas.  Thank you in advance for your co-operation.

   

  Take care and stay safe.

   

  Mrs K. Scott

  Headteacher