Principal’s Seesaw Messages

It’s been a busy few weeks since we returned from the Easter break.

I would firstly like to let you all know that I have taken on an additional role within the trust. First and foremost, I am still the Principal of our wonderful school ,but my new title is Executive Principal with responsibility for the Trust Designations ( the English Hub, Research School, SCITT and Medical Needs Provision for Kirklees). My priority will always be our school but this new role will bring in some extra funding for the school and professional development opportunities both for myself and the staff, which in turn will benefit our children. When I am not on site, Mrs Ashton and Miss Whiteley, as experienced Vice Principals, will always be available, supported by the wider leadership team.

Our sporting success has continued and over the weekend we took a group of gymnasts to the BSGA School Gym National Finals in Stoke. They were all simply amazing and I must give special thanks to Miss Wild for giving our children such an wonderful opportunity. Thank you also to Mrs Rylands and Mrs Bennett who have both helped out at the gymnastics events. I am so proud to say that we came away with a bronze medal in the U11 mixed pairs- third in the UK!

You may have seen on Facebook that Mrs Emmerson ran the London Marathon over the weekend for the charity VICTA. She completed this mammoth task in under 5 hours and we are all so proud of her. She has asked me to thank you all for your words of support and donations.

You may have noticed our new planters at our KS2 site along the front of the building. Our gardening club have been busy planting and they are already looking fantastic. We can’t wait to watch them flourish and grow and we are asking for any donations to help us continue to develop this area. Our plan in the future is to start an allotment at the back of school which links to the Food For Life Award that you have all received communication about. We will be growing our own vegetables and a herb garden.

On Wednesday, we took our 40 plus strong choir to the Halifax Minster to partake in the choir competition which you may remember we won last year.  The children were incredible and sang their hearts out. The competition was significantly larger this year and had to be held in several stages but we found out yesterday that we won! That’s two years in a row and I couldn’t be prouder of them all.  We have such talented children and we couldn’t do it all without the wonderful Mrs Smelt who works tirelessly to harness our children’s talents.

Next Thursday is polling day and 2A’s classroom will be in use all day. We have made alternative arrangements for them within school but please be aware that there could be more vehicles entering and exiting our carpark on that day.

And finally some more good news, I am pleased to say that work on the KS2 gym roof is due to commence in the next week or two and should take around 6 weeks in total. I will send out separate communication about this in due course including any changes to access as the works will be happening during school time.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and I’ll see you all on the gate at KS1 next week.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s message:

Well that’s the end of our second full term and hasn’t it flown by (they do say time flies when you’re having fun)!

This week was the second chance this year to meet with your child’s class teacher to discuss their progress. Thank you for all your positive comments on their report cards.

I’m sure you will have seen from Facebook that we have had a very successful term with regards to sport. From football to dance to gymnastics to cross country, we have been able to compete at a very high level and give as many children the chance to represent the school as is possible. Whilst we do celebrate winning, what has been even more impressive is what great sportsmen and women our children are: cheering on the other teams, showing respect to judges and referees and behaving impeccably at the venues. I do, however, need to invest in a larger trophy cabinet after all the success that we have been having and I’m sure this will continue next term also.

Today is the KS1 Easter Bonnet Parade. What a creative bunch you are and the catwalk parade will be simply amazing! Just before the catwalk, a special visitor will have arrived at KS1- the Easter Bunny! If it’s anything like previous years, the children and staff will hardly be able to contain themselves – pictures will be posted to Seesaw shortly.

We have been rocking out in Reception today as the children were visited by several real-life musicians! They were treated to the drums, guitar, piano, flute and tuba. The musical extravaganza ended with the children holding their own marching band parade using instruments that they have made themselves.

You will also have received a letter via email about the clubs that will be on offer next term. Separate letters will be sent out in due course to book places on these clubs.

So that just leaves me to wish you all a lovely Easter break – hopefully in the sunshine! We will see you all again on Monday 8^th April. A polite reminder that KS1 starts at 8:45 and KS2 at 9 so please make sure your child is there on time.

Happy Easter- have an eggcellent time!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

And that’s the end of another half term- a much shorter one than last term!

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your support yesterday when I had to take the difficult decision to close school early. I hope the children got to enjoy the snow before it started to disappear.

Next half term we will be performing at the Great Big Primary Dance Off at The Victoria Theatre for the fourth time. Our dance club have been working so hard on an amazing Tik-Tok themed performance, which blew me away when I watched it this week.

As you will be aware, our Trust has a SCITT ( school centred initial teacher training provider) and over the years many of our staff have trained through them. This term several of our staff, as experts in their field, were asked to deliver training to the current SCITT students. Mrs Crowther, Mrs Ashton and Miss Whiteley provided a week of training into the teaching of grammar and Mr O’Shea and Mrs Walsh delivered a session on physical education.

Last week we held our first Art Showcase at St Thomas’ Church. The display of work that was on show was truly outstanding and I know everyone that came to look was so impressed. A huge thank you and well-done to our Arts Ambassadors who helped Mrs Walker to set up the gallery- they were all superstars!

We are currently taking up the offer of using Cross Lane’s Forest School provision for our Year 5 children and they are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to develop key personal and social skills that align with our school values.

Our Trust School Improvement Team also visited us recently to look at Music and Computing across the school and were yet again full of praise for our amazing children and staff and the curriculum that they are taught.

As always, we continue to give our children the opportunity to represent the school across a wide range of sports. This half term we have taken children to , boccia, new-aged curling and the KS1 Key Steps Gymnastics competition where our boys team came away with gold and our girls with sliver! We are so proud of all of them, not only for their sporting performance and achievements, but for their impeccable sportsmanship and behaviour.

After the half term, there will be a FOGS meeting at the Sportsman on 21^st February and it would be lovely to see as many parents there as possible to plan future fundraising events.

I would like to wish you all an enjoyable half term break and we will see you on Monday 19^th February ready for the next half term, which will end in a parents’ evening to update you on your child’s progress.

Happy holidays!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Welcome Back Message

I just wanted to send out a short message to say happy new year to our Greetland family.

The children have all settled straight back into the routines of school and continue to amaze me daily.

I am really proud to share that we are the top performing school in Calderdale for our KS2 results. Our children all worked so hard to reach great heights with the support of our amazing staff and their families, and I am so proud of each and every one of them. It was such a team effort and another example of how strong our Greetland family is. These tests are just one measure of how amazing and talented our children are however. What they don’t show is how special each of our children are. They do not show our children’s talents, what amazing friends they can be or how kind, thoughtful and mature they are. The scores from these tests did tell us something, but they did not tell us everything about our children. There are many ways of being smart and there is no way to test all the amazing and awesome things that make our children unique. Having said that, we are exceptionally proud of this achievement and feel we should shout about it from the roof!

You can read more about this in the courier:
https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/education/education-18-of-the-best-performing-primary-schools-in-calderdale-according-to-latest-sat-scores-4472666

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.
Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Festive Message

I cannot believe we have already done a whole term in school, and what a term it has been!

Firstly, I would like to welcome Miss Khan to the KS1 team. She will be supporting in Year 2 as a teaching assistant and in a wonderful twist of fate, I taught her at primary school! She is going to be a real asset to the team. I’d also like to welcome back Miss Bailes and Miss Whiteley who have been greatly missed whilst they have been on maternity leave.

You should all have received your child’s first written report of the academic year on Monday as a follow up to your parents’ evening meetings in October. Please can we ask that you return a copy to us with your comments on for our records.

You will have all received a letter updating you on what clubs will be on offer next term. We really do endeavour to offer a broad range of clubs within the limitations of physical space, pupil numbers and the directed time of our staff who already do so much for our school and children. Next term you can expect to see clubs such as: Year 3/4 Choir, Year 5/6 Choir, KS1 Multi Sports, KS1 Judo, KS1 Singing Club, Year 2 Key Steps Gymnastics, KS2 Drama Club, Y3/4 Book Club, Y3/4 Computing, Y3/4 Basketball Club, Y5/6 Multi Sports, Y5/6 Key Steps Gymnastics, Year 6 Sewing Club, Year 6 Dance Club and KS2 Easter Craft Session.

We have had a very festive few weeks in school and we loved having our parents and carers attending our Christmas performances. Both Reception and Year 1 put on amazing shows for their loved ones- they are such a talented bunch. Our Year 6 children also delivered a fantastic Christmas Service at St Thomas’ Church for the rest of KS2.

Our Christmas project this year has required the children to use their problem solving skills to help Wink Wink Silverbells the elf save Christmas. You will all be glad to know that using their amazing  maths and problem solving skills, the children of The Greetland Academy did save Christmas- phew!

We were thrilled to still be able to have our Christmas Fair despite the ongoing issues with the KS2 gym.  A huge thank you to everyone at FOGS and the staff who volunteered. I know many people commented that they actually preferred the fair up at the Community Centre and it is certainly an option for us moving forwards.

I have also had the pleasure this week of joining our Year 3 Choir at Woodfield Grange where they truly did spread the Christmas spirit to all the residents and workers. We really do have such talented children in school.

On Wednesday, we had our Christmas Jumper and Christmas dinner day and what a festive day we had! The children and staff all looked amazing in their Christmas jumpers and our wonderful catering team did a fabulous job of feeding us all.

Today will be our first ‘Star of the Term’ assembly for the academic year and these are my favourite assemblies to host as the recipients are voted for by the rest of the class. Our children always make such intelligent and thoughtful decisions about who should be given the award based on who has been fulfilling our Greetland Values of being ambitious, brave, curious,  healthy, respectful and united. A huge well done to all the Stars of the Term- we are very proud of you. There will also be the School Council Awards and the lucky recipients all receive a certificate from their class School Councillors again for embodying our values.

Today is also the day when a special visitor comes to visit the children at KS1. His sleigh is already packed high with gifts for the children, and they are all very excited to catch a glimpse of him. He will be joining them in assembly to give them their special gift (which of course is the gift of reading).

As I bring my message to a close on this last day of term, I would like to wish all of our community a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Your support, as always, is very much appreciated. We will see you all on Monday 8^th January 2024.

See you in 2024!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

We are well and truly getting in the Christmas spirit here now! We cannot wait to see you all at the Christmas Fair after school. As you know, this year we have had to make alternative plans with the KS2 gym being out of use, and so the fair is at the community centre. Thank you to all of our school community for their donations and to FOGS who have put in so much work to make tonight a huge success. Please do remember that your children will need supervising at all times during the fair as we expect it to be a busy one!

Our Christmas trees are up at both sites and are looking splendid. The children have all made a decoration to hang on the tree. Nativity rehearsals are well underway and I cannot wait to see their performance at St Thomas’ Church next week. Our reception children have also been practising for their first ever live show- it’s going to be a good one!

Christmas aside, we have had lots of sporting events over the past few weeks: from cross country to ten pin bowing, dodgeball to football. We are so proud of every single child who has represented the school as they have all displayed our Greetland values in abundance and have been ambitious, brave, curious, healthy, respectful and untied. At all the events we have attended, we received comments about the wonderful behaviour of our children- I couldn’t be prouder.  I would also like to thank the staff who have made it possible to attend all these events, as many of them have given up their own time to attend.

Our choir perform at St Thomas’ Church on Sunday evening at their special children’s service and I know we are in for a real treat as Mrs Smelt has worked really hard with the children on their songs. I can’t wait to hear them!

Finally, I am thrilled to announce that Mrs Rothery had a baby boy over the weekend. Albie Elliot Rothery is absolutely beautiful, just like his mummy, and we all cannot wait to meet him. Mrs Rothery has asked me to pass on her thanks for all the well wishes, cards and gifts she received.

Have a lovely, festive weekend.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s message

We have already been back two weeks and time has flown!

This week was Anti-bullying Week, which started with our Odd Socks Day where we celebrated the wonderfulness of difference. The theme of the week this year was ‘make a noise about bullying’, and the children have had lots of discussions both in assembly and class as to how we can share concerns with people in school and at home. We have combined this week with our Children in Need fundraising and today the children all look amazing in their spotty-themed clothing. All our work from across the week will have been shared on Seesaw for you to see.

Tonight we have our Children in Need Concert at St Thomas’ Church, which the wonderful Mrs Smelt has organised. I cannot wait to see our talented children performing. If you are coming along, please bring lots of loose change for this worthy cause- you may be in for a little treat from the staff ‘band’ also!

We had a visit from one of His Majesty’s Chief Inspectors (OFSTED) last week to carry out research into the provision for children in the Early Years and Key Stage One. Many of you will remember we had a visit last year as research into a report on the provision for Religious Education in schools, and so it seems we must be a favourite of theirs to be specially chosen again! We relished the opportunity to show off what we do, as both of these visits were optional, and I am immensely proud of our school and to be the Principal. The inspector was blown away with what she saw and how wonderful and polite our children are.

On Tuesday, we held the AGM for our Friends of Greetland School PTA. Thank you so much to those who attended as the money that FOGS raise for school has helped us so much, particularly with the current cost of living crisis and budget restraints in schools. Last year they funded all the new KS2 reading books which are simply amazing and will go a long way in supporting our mission that every child is a reader. They also funded resources for our KS1 library. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Chair, Diane Taylor, for her tireless efforts to support the school. We have elected new co-chairs- Caroline Lumb and Dani Moffat- but are still in need of someone to take over as secretary at the end of the year and would also really like to encourage as many parents as possible to  join FOGS. Numbers have really dwindled and we are in danger of it not being able to run any longer, which in turn would be at the detriment of our children. If you are interested in helping out- no matter how small a contribution- please email: FOGS@greetlandacademy.org.uk. Watch out for information shortly from FOGS about the  Christmas Fair which we are holding up at the Community Centre given that the KS2 gym is out of use.

It’s that time of year again when parents of reception age children for 2024 start to select their school for their little ones. Tours of the school have already begun and will run across the next two weeks. If you do know anyone who is looking for a school, please point them in our direction no matter where they live, as there is a growing chance that our catchment area is expanding as birth rates fall. We cannot wait to welcome our new families to our Greetland family.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. Only 38 sleeps until Christmas!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message:

It’s the end of another two busy weeks and nearly the end of the first half term- time flies when you’re having fun.

Today is the two-year anniversary of the end of our Ofsted inspection. I couldn’t be prouder to lead such an amazing school full of wonderful children and staff. This wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support we get from you as parents and carers so a huge thank you to you all for your ongoing support of the school.

This month has been Black History Month. This year the theme is celebrating and recognising the amazing achievements and contributions of black women in various fields – from literature, music, science, politics, and social care to campaigners, nurses, and everyday heroes who have made a difference to our lives. The children have created some amazing pieces of work and held very mature discussions- check out Seesaw to see the work!

It was wonderful to see so many of you in school over the last couple of evenings for the first parents’ evening of the year.  We strongly value the partnership with parents and carers at home in supporting your child’s progress. Please do remember that you don’t have to wait until parents’ evenings if you want to speak to a teacher. You can always email the school office to arrange a call should you need to.

It’s that time again , always timed perfectly with the change in weather, where our KS2 children get to try out for the cross country team. We were blown away with how many children tried out and the resilience they showed in running a distance that I could not even walk never mind run! We can only take 6 boys and 6 girls from each year group but I am so proud of every child who tried out.

On Tuesday we had the first visit from our Trust School Improvement Team to both sites. They were blown away with what they saw. They watched lessons, looked in books and spoke to the children and leaders.  One comment from the team that sums up our school and makes me feel incredibly proud to be the principal was, ‘this is a very special place indeed’.

Today Year 6 had a visit from the police to deliver a workshop on anti-social behaviour. They even got to see the police van!

As you know, we are unable to hold our Halloween discos this year, but instead the children are invited to come to school in their costumes next Thursday for a donation of £1 and also bring in a pumpkin for FOGS’ decorating competition (again for a donation of £1). We cannot wait to see all those spooktacular costumes.

More Halloween news-  to support our local community, we have again made sculptures for the Greetland Halloween Ghostly Trail. If you walk the trail on the 29^th October, please do send us pictures of our sculptures in situ through Seesaw.

One final reminder, Friday 27th October and Monday 6^th November are both training days and so the school will be closed to the children. The children start back in school on Tuesday 7^th November for our favourite term of the year- the build up to Christmas where there will be so many wonderful things happening in school!

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

I can’t believe we are already 4 weeks in to the term! What a busy four weeks it has been.

Today is National TA Appreciation Day when we got the chance to thank our wonderful support staff for all that they do for our children. They were treated to a special assembly, personalised thank you videos, and tea and cakes in the staffroom as a small token of our huge thanks and appreciation for all that they do.

It was lovely to see so many of our newest parents for our Reception Curriculum Workshop on Tuesday and we look forward to welcoming them into school again in the future to see the children’s learning in action. A huge thank you to FOGS, who provided all our new families with a set of Little Wandle flashcards to support with their phonics at home.

As a school, we feel it is so important to develop leadership skills in our children and to give them a say in how the school is run. Last week, our new School Council were democratically elected for the year and what a great choice the children made! Their role will include a half termly meeting linked to our school values, supporting with charity and school events, greeting visitors to the school, giving out a School Council termly award and monitoring the class reward tokens.

Last week we welcomed our Chair of Governors, Peta Cocker, to KS2 to meet the children and staff. She was very impressed with what she saw and will be regularly visiting us over the coming year. As a retired headteacher, she brings a real strength to our governing body and will continue to provide myself with great support.

As you may already know, we have a SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) and have trained many teachers over the years, some of whom now work for us. We currently have four student teachers based with us and we welcome them to the team: Miss Campbell in Year 6, Miss Quddus in Year 5, Miss Rashad in Y2 and Miss Ahmed in Year 1. In addition to this, all the SCITT students visited our school last week to enhance their learning on the teaching of reading and many children benefitted from reading aloud to them and showing off their phonics skills.

A letter came out last week detailing the clubs we are running this term. As you will be aware, our KS2 gym is out of use for what may be quite some time and this understandably affects our ability to offer as many clubs as usual, so I do appreciate your understanding with this issue.

This week a group of twelve Y4,5 and 6 pupils ,who have been selected as our sports ambassadors , had their playleader training so that they can support the rest of the KS2 children at play and dinnertimes. Playtimes are certainly going to be even more more fun in the near future!

On Tuesday night our Y6 footballers represented the school against Holywell Green on the pitch at the Halifax Town game. The showed amazing sportsmanship and won the game which means they progress on to the quarter finals of the competition. Well done boys- you have made us all super proud.

Calling all Year 5 parents- our feeder school , Brooksbank, has advertised their open evening.  Many of you attended the talk in our own school gym last year from the new Executive Head who shared with us all the huge progress the school has made since their Ofsted inspection. If you would like to go along and see for yourself, the open evening is on Wednesday 4^th October from 6-8pm. I also believe the new Head of School, Mr Atkinson, is visiting all local primary schools in the coming weeks and so I will update you when he has visited us.

Finally, if any of you know someone looking for a place in Reception starting next September, please direct them to our Facebook page where there is information about how they can book a tour of KS1.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Mrs Crowther

Welcome back to the new school year and welcome to our Greetland family our new reception parents! Your little superstars have settled in so well to school life.

For those parents who are new to school, I send out regular Principal’s Messages through Seesaw (usually every two weeks) to celebrate successes and keep you up to date with what has been going on in school. I also put a copy on the school website which can be found here:

https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/diary-news/principals-seesaw-messages/

The children have all settled back amazingly into our school routines and it is like they have never been away. It’s been lovely to hear all the things they’ve been up to over the summer and to meet our new reception children and their families.

You should all be able to access your child’s Seesaw account so that you can keep up to date with what is going on in school and what your child is learning. Just a polite request that parents do not send teachers messages on Seesaw in the evening and at weekends. The school office email should be used for this purpose. I’m sure you’ll all agree that our staff work extremely hard and they should not be expected to receive and respond to messages outside their working hours.

On Friday, we held our first celebration assembly of the year and I know the teachers really struggled to choose their first certificate recipients as all the children have been so impressive. If your child got the certificate, this will have been shared with you on Seesaw.

Whilst the children have been at home over summer, we have been busy developing the entrance and office at our KS2 site (School Street). You may have already noticed a new hatch for Zoe and new doors. We still have some decorating and furniture to purchase and the entrance system still needs to be connected but I’m sure you will all agree, it is a huge improvement on what used to be there.

We currently have an issue with the roof of the gym at KS2 and so for the time being the gym is not in use. This may impact on the Halloween disco arrangements but we are currently looking at alternatives as we know how popular this event is.

Last week you will all have received the first Learning Launchpad of the year via Seesaw. These let you know what your child will be learning over the upcoming term and also highlight key dates.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on our clubs plan for this term. Watch out for a letter in the future about our clubs offer and the details on how to request a place for your child.

Today our Year 6 children go on their residential trip to Robinwood and we know they are going to have an amazing time. There will be some photos on Facebook of all the exciting activities they got up to. I am joining them on this trip and so I won’t be on the gate at KS1 until Thursday.

As the cost of living increases, I fully understand the pressures on everyone’s household budget. FOGS offer a pre-loved uniform service at most school events and we can also accept requests via email. You will see in our uniform policy that there is also no expectation that you purchase the jumpers and t shirts with our logo on- a plain red jumper or plain white polo shirt is absolutely fine. If you do have any issues with sourcing the correct uniform, please do let us know: we do understand that sometimes things cannot be avoided. I am aware that the YMCA also has excellent quality pre loved uniform. Please note that children should not wear any jewellery or watches (including fit bits). One pair of plain studs can be worn but the child must be able to take them out themselves for PE.

Finally, I’m happy to announce that over the summer Mrs Morgan had a little boy named Rory who is a gorgeous little brother for Arlo. I have passed on our congratulations as a school and I’m sure she will be bringing him in for cuddles soon.

I will see our KS1 families on the gate on Thursday morning.

Wishing you a great week!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

We are already two weeks in to the final half term of this academic year: time flies when you’re having fun! This half term is always packed full with event such as  transition for next year, sports day, music showcases, end of year shows, trips, parents’ showcases and end of year assessments and reports to parents. Please do keep your eye on Seesaw and your email for any letters about upcoming events.

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your support with our Summer Fair: it was such a fantastic event and the weather gods shone down on us.  I am thrilled to announce the grand total that was raised… £ 2,019. This is over a £300 increase on last year and will all be used for the benefit of our children so I cannot thank you all and FOGS enough.

I shared with you all a few months back that we have become a Champion School for Little Wandle Phonics. We were so proud to have been awarded this accreditation in recognition of our excellent phonics provision. You may have seen from Facebook or Twitter that we held our first Champion School Showcase Event for 14 leaders and teachers from other schools this week and it was a resounding success. All the delegates gave such positive feedback about what they saw. Here is just an example from the feedback : ‘ What a fantastic, welcoming school. It was absolutely inspiring to see how you have embedded the Little Wandle Programme,’ and, ‘Today was really useful. Your children were fabulous, with lovely reading and learning behaviour.’

A huge thank you to our parents and carers who completed the parent survey and for the overwhelmingly positive comments about our school. Here ‘s an example: ‘Choosing Greetland for my son was the best decision I ever made. They have the balance exactly right between high standards and expectations with a very caring, supportive and nurturing approach.’

Whilst a survey provides a snapshot of parental voice, I do want to reiterate that if you have any concerns or something you would like to discuss , my door is always open.

There were also some lovely comments about how we have done further work on bullying across the school including, ‘I am so impressed by all of the anti-bullying that Greetland Academy has in place, the children all seem to be so kind to each other. Also, my son is very accepting of other people’s thoughts and beliefs which I think the Greetland Academy have helped with: he says things like “men can marry men and women can marry women”. Thank you so much to a wonderful school for this forward thinking which will really prepare him to be a kind adult in the future. We are so grateful.’ As always, we continue to support our children with friendships and there will be a video coming out shortly from our Princess Diana Award Anti Bullying Ambassadors and Mrs Graham.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you of how we communicate with you. This can be found here: https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/parents/how-we-communicate/  Again, if you feel you are experiencing an issue with communication , please do bring it to the attention of the class teacher,  member of the leadership team or myself. The calendar on the website and the half termly launch pads, which are shared on Seesaw and on the website, should include all key dates for you to enable you to plan in advance.

Tomorrow afternoon it is the turn of our Year 4 parents to come and spend the afternoon in class- you are in for a real treat! I’m sure lots of photos will be shared on Seesaw also.

Next week we celebrate our ‘Diversity Week’ with the theme of ‘being different gives the world colour’. Alongside our anti-bullying and safeguarding policies, taking part in a School Diversity Week is an important way of actively demonstrating and supporting our commitment to an inclusive school environment where every child can thrive and be themselves. There will be a specific theme each day with a variety of activities planned. These have already been shared on Seesaw but are as follows:

Monday 26th June: Refugees

Tuesday 27th June: Disabilities with a focus on hidden disabilities

Wednesday 28th June: Religion

Thursday 29th June: RSE Day

Friday 30th June: We are inviting children to come to school in non-uniform. The theme for the day is ‘Our colourful world’.

We will share lots of photos etc of the week on Seesaw and Facebook and I can’t wait to see our school full of colour on Friday for the non-uniform day.

Wishing you all a lovely rest of the week.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s message

Firstly, a huge well done to all our Year 6 children who took their recent SATs tests in their stride. They are an AMAZING bunch of children who have made us all very proud. Our Year 2 children have also been taking their SATs tests and Mrs Emmerson and Mrs Bakes have been thrilled with how hard they have all tried. Next half term, our Year 4 children will do their national multiplication tables test and Year 1 will take their phonics tests and I know that they will all do us proud also.

To mark the end of the SATS, and to provide a stimulus for their literacy work, Year 6 visited Blackpool Zoo last week. The sun shone and lots of fun was had by all. As always, the children behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school.

This week has been ‘Health Week’ across the school. Our children got to take part in an ‘Around the World Dance Workshop’, children made healthy recipes, we had whole class workout sessions, parent and child fitness sessions and even a visit from Halifax Town. You will have seen on Seesaw that we are encouraging our children to send in healthy selfies over the half term break also.

I had the pleasure of afternoon tea recently with our crown designing competition winners. We were blown away by all the entries- you certainly are a creative bunch! To continue our Coronation celebrations, this afternoon we hold our Commonwealth Dance Performance on the KS1 field and are bringing together the whole school again like we did last year. You are all welcome to join us after school on the field for our summer fair. A huge thank you to FOGS for all their hard work in making it possible. We are all very excited to celebrate together as one big family. One polite reminder though, please walk to KS1 wherever possible and be mindful of the local residents. I believe the police will also be coming long to monitor the roads around school.

Myself and the governors have recently met with the leadership team of The Together Learning Trust, the trust who now sponsor our feeder school Brooksbank. They shared with us all the improvements they have put in place since their OFSTED inspection. They also shared that Mr Dave Hewitt is now the Executive Principal over both Ryburn and Brooksbank with a leadership team sitting across both schools also. We are pleased to invite any Key Stage Two parents to a ‘Meet the Feeder School’ session in our school hall at 6pm on 14^th June. This will be an opportunity to hear about the changes to the school since their last Ofsted and to meet those in charge.

I am thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark Guilt Award in recognition of our outstanding provision for science.

Mrs Emmerson has worked so hard on creating a portfolio of evidence to put forward to the assessors and we are all thrilled with the outcome. Here is our feedback :

‘Well done. This is a comprehensive, well planned, and superbly presented portfolio and submission. It clearly reflects on and demonstrates the impact that PSQM GILT has had on all stakeholders in The Greetland Academy. It will be exciting to follow the journey of science provision as it continues to evolve beyond this year and becomes even stronger in the future. The children at The Greetland Academy are very privileged to have such hard working and reflective, conscientious staff who are always seeking the absolute best for the pupils. A very well deserved PSQM GILT through the hard work of the whole school.’

Finally I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating Miss Robertshaw who got married over the weekend- the sun was shining down on them! She will now be known as Mrs Taylor.

Wishing you all a relaxing (hopefully sunny) half term break and I look forward to seeing you all at the summer fair after school today at KS1.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message- Coronation Special!

It’s been such a successful few weeks here with trophies a plenty.

Our amazing, 60-strong choir, took part in the first ever Halifax Rotary Choir Competition at The Halifax Minster. I am thrilled to announce that we were crowned the winners. The children were simply amazing and a huge thank you goes to Mrs Smelt for preparing them so well to perform. We have even made it into the local news:  https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/people/success-for-halifax-rotarys-first-choir-competition-held-at-halifax-minster-4126039

We took nearly 30 children to the West Yorkshire Cross Country Finals and yet again brought home a trophy to add to our ever-growing collection. Our Y5 boys’ team came first with our Y6 girls’ team also coming second. What an amazing achievement! Not only were we successful , the children behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school.

The winning hasn’t stopped there either. Our gymnastics teams competed in the Calderdale Gymnastics Competition which was held at Hipperholme Grammar School. Our girls’ team came a very respectable third place which was extra special given we had such a large team compared to other schools. Our mixed team came first with an impressive performance to ‘Revolting Children’ from the Matilda musical- but they were far from revolting!

Today we celebrate King Charles’ Coronation in style. Everyone is dressed in their finest red, white and blue and the party lunch is about to be enjoyed. The designs for our crown competition have blown me away and the judging is going to be so difficult. I can’t wait to share afternoon tea with the winners next week! I’m sure there will be lots of photos on Seesaw of our celebrations today.

As we have an additional bank holiday again this weekend we will see you all on Tuesday 9^th. Our Year 6 children will be sitting their SATS exams that week and I want to say how proud I am of each of them for the hard work they have put in. What these tests don’t show is how special each of our children are. They do not show our children’s talents, what amazing friends they can be or how kind, thoughtful and mature they are. The scores from these tests will tell us something, but they will not tell us everything about our children. There are many ways of being smart and there is no way to test all the amazing and awesome things that make our children unique. I want to wish the children all the best for next week, but they have nothing to worry about. This weekend, their homework is to ride a bike, play with the friends, eat sweets, relax and watch the coronation. If they want to do some revision, that is up to them, but it does not need to be for long. I will be up at Key Stage Two all week to help with administering the tests so I won’t be on the gate at Key Stage One.

Finally, we still have some places left for reception next year so if any of you know of anyone who is reconsidering their choice, please do point them in our direction.

Have a lovely, extra, bank holiday and see you on Tuesday- fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s message:

Well that’s the end of our second full term and hasn’t it flown by (they do say time flies when you’re having fun)!

It seems like ages ago now but for Comic Relief our children were permitted to break the rules for one day only and I was surprised to see how good they were at it! We manage to raise juts short of £500 for the charity and so thank you for your generous donations.

This term, our Year 4 children performed their own talent show for their loved ones and what talent they all have! They did two performances to a packed out crowd and blew me away with their confidence and skill. Thank you to the Year 4 team for all their hard work in getting the children performance ready.

This week was the second chance this year to meet with your child’s class teacher to discuss their progress. Thank you for all your positive comments on their report cards.

I’m sure you will have seen from Facebook that we have had a very successful term with regard to sport. From football to dance to gymnastics to cross country, we have been able to compete at a very high level and give as many children the chance to represent the school as is possible. Whilst we do celebrate winning, what has been even more impressive is what great sportsmen and women our children are: cheering on the other teams, showing respect to judges and referees and behaving impeccably at the venues. I do, however, need to invest in a larger trophy cabinet after all the success that we have been having and I’m sure this will continue next term also.

Today is the KS1 Easter Bonnet Parade. What a creative bunch you are! I know you were all looking forward to coming down to watch the outdoor catwalk this afternoon but due to the weather we have unfortunately had to change our plans. Thank you for your understanding with this- we will record it and put the video on seesaw for you to enjoy at home. Just before the catwalk, a special visitor will have arrived at KS1- the Easter Bunny! If it’s anything like previous years, the children and staff will hardly be able to contain themselves – pictures will be posted to Seesaw shortly.

A date for your diary- we will be holding a Coronation party day on 5^th May where children can come in dressed in red, white and blue. We will be having a party dinner which children who do not normally have a dinner are welcome to book and we are holding a crown making competition giving you the chance to get creative over the Easter holidays.

You will also have received a letter via email about the clubs that will be on offer next term. Separate letters will be sent out in due course to book places on these clubs.

I do need to give a polite reminder to you all about Seesaw. Please could parents and carers not message our staff outside of working hours. We have had a number of staff receiving messages on an evening or weekend. I know you’ll all agree that we have amazing staff who want you all to be involved in your child’s education, but they deserve their time away from work just like anyone else. If you need to make contact with a class teacher or other member of staff, please email the school office and they will respond within the working day.

So that just leaves me to wish you all a lovely Easter break – hopefully in the sunshine! We will see you all again on Monday 17^th April. A polite reminder that KS1 starts at 8:45 and KS2 at 9 so please make sure your child is there on time.

Happy Easter- have an eggcellent time

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

Well I didn’t expect to be sending this message from my house whilst looking out at a snow-covered garden! I hope all the children are enjoying lots of fun in the snow. Thank you all for your support this morning. The decision to close was not taken lightly and I hope you appreciate that I wanted to wait and see what this morning looked like before making any decisions.

We’ve now been back from the half term break for three weeks and as always, we have been really busy in school!

Sadly, the current snowy weather scuppered our plans to take our cross country team to the West Yorkshire finals. There is good news however, as we have three children who will automatically go through to represent West Yorkshire at the next competition. I know the children will be disappointed as they have trained so hard, but there will always be next year.

This week we welcomed our new KS2 caretaker, Tom Dowie, to his role. He has already commented on how he has been made to feel welcome by children, staff and our families. Do say hello to him when he is on the gate at the start and end of the day.

Yesterday our Chair of Governors visited school and we gave her a tour of our new nurture room (The Safe Space) where Mrs Graham is based. She was so impressed with the fact that we can offer this facility to our children to support their well-being. Thank you to those parents who donated items for the room. We will share a picture soon once it is completely finished.

As you will be aware, we give our parents and carers the opportunity to come and spend the afternoon in class with their child through our showcase events. Last week was the turn of Year 3 and family members were treated to an assembly, computing session , sports and maths activities amongst other things. It was so lovely to see so many people in class sharing in the children’s learning.

Our Year 4 residential visit to Nell Bank in Ilkley was a resounding success. The children were an absolute credit to the school and got to take part in a river walk, team building activities, obstacle course, play on the adventure playground and den building in the woodland. The staff at Nell Bank commented on how amazing our children and staff were which is all I can ask and made me feel extremely proud.

We decided to keep our World Book Day celebrations a little more low key this year as at The Greetland Academy we always value and promote the love of reading. The children looked amazing in their book-themed costumes and we also had lots of children who brought in a book for the book swap.

You will all receive a letter on the 16^th about our next parents’ evening which will be held across Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29^th March ( please note that for class 3G there are also a few appointments on the Monday). This will be your opportunity to discuss your child’s progress and behaviour with their class teacher.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and enjoy the snow! Please do share any pictures of your snowy fun on Seesaw.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

And that’s the end of another half term!

Today we say farewell to Miss Whiteley who is starting her maternity leave. We will still get to see her, and the new baby, over the next two terms as she drops of her older son off at KS2. I know you will all join me in wishing her well and I will update you all once the baby has arrived.

This week we successfully appointed a new caretaker for our Key Stage Two site. Tom Davie will begin his post in early March and I know you will all make him feel welcome when you meet him on the gate. Tom has held several caretaking roles in the past and will bring lots of experience to the role.

Next half term we will be performing at the Great Big Primary Dance Off at The Victoria Theatre for the third time. Our dance club have been working so hard on an amazing pirate-themed performance, which blew me away when I watched it this week.

Last week we had a visit from an OFSTED inspector to look at our provision for RE. The purpose of this visit was to inform their research into the teaching of RE across the country. Whilst we won’t be named in their research report and there was no official judgement given, I was so proud of our children and teachers and would like to share with you just a few of the comments that the inspector made:

This school is exceptional like it says in the first line of your OFSTED report.

There is a fluency amongst your children about how they are talking about religion. They clearly have a deep understanding about religion and why they learn about it.

You should be really proud of what you have achieved and I would happily send my own children here.

You have taken children and turned them into little diamonds.

Our CEO , Mrs Bennett, and Trust School Improvement Team also visited us this week to look at English and maths across the school and were yet again full of praise for our amazing children and staff.

This week we have marked LGBTQ+ Month with a special assembly at KS2 and some new additions to the story time libraries for KS1. It was fantastic to hear our children talking with such knowledge, compassion and understanding about how wonderful our diverse world is.

I attended a FOGS meeting on Wednesday and they are putting plans in place for our Mothers’ Day shop, World Book day pre-loved costumes and the summer fair . More information will follow in due course.

I would like to wish you all an enjoyable half term break and we will see you on Monday 20^th February ready for the next half term which will end in a parents’ evening to update you on your child’s progress.

Happy holidays!

Mrs Crowther

I cannot believe we have already been back in school for three weeks! The children came back from Christmas looking smart and ready to learn and have settled straight back into normal routines.

I know there has been lots in the press about possible strike action in schools throughout dates in February and March. As it currently stands, school will be open as normal on the intended strike days. Please note that this situation could change if other teaching unions decide to re-ballot.

Our holiday dates for 23/24, including training days, were shared with you all last week through email but they can also be found here: https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/diary-news/

The training days have been allocated slightly differently to the way we have done it in the past so please make sure you do check the dates. As you will all be aware, we also have an additional day this year where school will be closed for the Coronation. This date is Monday 8^th May, which has meant the Y6 SATs tests have all been pushed on by a day and will run from 9^th to the 12^th May.

Last week we had the team from Little Wandle, our phonics scheme, in school to assess us for Champion School Status. It was a rigorous process which involved talking to leaders and observing practice across the school. I am thrilled to announce that we were successful and this is just further confirmation that we are highly skilled in the teaching of early reading. This status will generate further income for the school which in turn can be spent on our children.

Before the holidays, I informed you all that both Miss Bailes and Miss Whiteley will be leaving us shortly to have babies. Mrs Ashton and Mrs Walker will be the class teachers for 4A from February half term.  I am pleased to inform you that we have recruited an excellent teacher to join our team to cover release time across the school. Miss Robertshaw will start with us after the half term break and will teach children across the school.  She has a wealth of experience and will be a welcome addition to the team. She will be in school on the 6^th of February for her induction and will meet all the children then.

You may have seen on Facebook that Monday was deemed the most depressing day of the year. To brighten everyone’s spirits, we had a special visitor at both sites- Martha the huskie!We also treated all of our staff to hot chocolate and brownies as a small token of our appreciation for the fantastic job that they all do.

Our Year 1 children visited Ilkley Toy Museum this week and had the most amazing time. One child even said, ‘this is just the best day ever’. The museum staff commented on how polite and articulate our children were which has made me super proud.

We’ve started the new term off with more sporting success- our Y5/6 girls football team won all their games in the Adam Heslop Cup and will progress through to the next round. Mr O’Shea and Mr Bade were blown away with the girls and their impeccable behaviour. They certainly proved that ‘this girl can’!

Finally, we are currently looking for a new KS2 caretaker after Mr Ali left us for a job closer to his home. Please do share the advert with anyone you think may be interested:

https://greatheightstrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Caretaker-01.23-Advert-1.pdf

Wishing you all a lovely weekend (let’s hope it gets a bit warmer)!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Festive Message

I cannot believe we have already done a whole term in school and what a term it has been!

Firstly, I would like to welcome Sarah Kaler to the team who is our new School Business Manager, Sarah has been in post since October half term and brings a wealth of experience to the role. She is mainly based in the KS2 office but also works at KS1 managing the admin team.

You should all have received your child’s first written report of the academic year as a follow up to your parents’ evening meetings in October. Please can we ask that you return a copy to us with your comments on for our records.

We have had a very festive few weeks in school and we loved having our parents and carers attending our Christmas performances. Both Reception and Year 1 put on amazing shows for their loved ones- they are such a talented bunch. Our Year 6 children also delivered a fantastic Christmas Service at St Thomas’ Church for the rest of KS2.

Our Christmas project this year has been around the piece of music ‘Winter’ from Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons. This afternoon, the children will be showcasing the work they have created focusing on the creative arts so watch out for it on Seesaw.

We also were able to bring back our Christmas Fair for the first time last week since the pandemic started and boy was it a good one! A huge thank you to everyone at FOGS and the staff who volunteered.

On Thursday, we took over 200 children to watch a performance of the pantomime ‘Aladdin’ at Dean Clough- and what a performance it was! The children behaved impeccably (and I would expect nothing less) and everyone had such an amazing time. We can’t wait for next year.

Today was our first ‘Star of the Term’ assembly and these are my favourite assemblies to host as the recipients are voted for by the rest of the class. Our children always make such intelligent and thoughtful decisions about who should be given the award. A huge well done to all the Stars of the Term- we are very proud of you. There was also an added addition this year- the School Council Awards and the lucky recipients all received a certificate from their class School Councillors.

Today was also the day when a special visitor came to visit the children at KS1. His sleigh was packed high with gifts for the children, and they were all very excited to catch a glimpse of him as he joined them in assembly.

Finally, I would like to congratulate both Miss Whiteley and Miss Bailes who are both expecting babies in the Spring term. A letter has been sent to the parents of children in 4A to explain the arrangements for the class when Miss Bailes starts her maternity leave.

As I bring my message to a close, I would like to wish all of our community a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Your support, as always, is very much appreciated. We will see you all on Wednesday 4^th January 2023 (the Tuesday is a training day).

See you in 2023!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

I can’t believe we have already been back for two whole weeks!

By now, KS2 children who have a signed library membership agreement will have brought home their first , brand-new library book. The choice in our new library is simply amazing and I love seeing how excited the children are to get reading. This of course would not be possible without the generous donation we received from FOGS which in turn is a result of the support of our whole school community- thank you so much!

We feel it is so important that our children contribute to the running of the school and so our student leadership roles have now been decided for the year. Across the school we have the following: School Councillors, Reading Ambassadors, Arts Ambassadors, Anti-bullying Ambassadors, Well-being Ambassadors, Tidy Classroom Champions, Eco Monitors, Computing Ambassadors, Playleaders and Friendship Ambassadors. Our Year 6 children have been given the opportunity to apply to have senior leadership roles and congratulations to the successful candidates who are now our Head of Reading, Personal Development, Computing, Art, Operations, Sport and our new Chair of the School Council.

We have had our first year group showcases of the year. Both Year 1 and Year 6 welcomed parents and other loved ones into their classrooms to take part in the learning whilst also watching a showcase assembly of previous learning. Thank you to all those who came to what was such a successful event. We can’t wait for the next one! The dates for each year group should’ve been shared with you already.

Yesterday we had an extended ‘Be Internet legends’ assembly where the KS2 children learnt all about how to stay safe online which is so important in today’s society. Our children took part in a fun, interactive learning journey where they had a set of tasks to solve a media literacy mystery. There was even teacher participation! Thank you to Mrs Morgan for arranging this for our children.

You may have seen through Facebook that Mr O’Shea managed to secure some free tickets to the England Women’s Rugby League match on Thursday and some lucky Year 6 children went along to support the Lionesses and even met some of the players! I’m also pleased and proud to announce that the Vice Principal from Marsden Juniors ,who are joining our Trust at Christmas, was at the match to receive her England cap for playing for the Lionesses in the 90s. She will be visiting our school in a couple of weeks and has promised to bring her cap in to show the children.

Next week is Anti-bullying Week which will start with Odd Socks Day on Monday where Mrs Graham will also do an assembly at both sites. On Tuesday the children will discuss the question: How can we reach out to others? Wednesday will see every child create an

‘I am unique’ hand print to show and celebrate their individuality. These will then be displayed in school. On the Thursday, there will be a special visitor to every class but I don’t want to ruin the surprise so watch out for photos on Seesaw. The week will end with our Children in Need celebrations.  This year’s theme is ‘Spotacular!’ We will be holding a ‘spot themed’ non-uniform day to support the fund-raising appeal. Suggestions for outfits could be polka dot clothing, face paints or any non-uniform outfit – even if it’s not spots! Please don’t feel like you have to buy anything new for this day.

Donations can be made to Children in Need through the following JustGiving page. We won’t be accepting cash on the day. This is not an expectation as we understand that things are hard for all at the moment.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/greetlandacademy1667906742545?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=one_page&utm_content=page/greetlandacademy1667906742545&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=d65bdae7ec1b4b8aa6474033edd07211

Before I sign off, I’d just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped out with our Halloween Disco before the holidays. Without all these volunteers, we would not be able to have such a successful event. The children and staff all loved it. FOGS have shared information through their social media about their Wreath Making Workshop so have a look out for that.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend- and don’t forget those odd socks on Monday!

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

So that’s the end to our first half term of the academic year.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the end of our Ofsted inspection- how time has flown! As it stands, we are still the only primary school in Calderdale, under this new framework, to achieve outstanding and I couldn’t be prouder to lead such an amazing school full of wonderful children and staff. This wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support we get from you as parents and carers so a huge thank you to you all for your ongoing support of the school.

Over this half term, our Year 5 children have been working with our poet and musician in residence on a project called, ‘My Voice Matters’.  We have been asked to showcase their learning at a national event in Newcastle next term which is an amazing opportunity.

We have started off our sporting success as we mean to go on with our girls’ rugby team winning their recent tournament- they even got a signed rugby ball from English player Amy Hardcastle. We also took two teams to a recent Boccia Festival where they were excellent ambassadors for our school. This week we held some of our trials for the Cross Country Competition (sadly the weather meant we couldn’t get them all done)  and we have been blown away with how many children wanted to try out. The resilience and determination they all showed alongside sportsmanship was fantastic. We know there will be children who are disappointed that they weren’t selected but sadly, we are limited as to how many children we can take. There will be lots more opportunities for our children to represent the school across the year.

Our KS2 library is now fully stocked, courtesy of FOGS, and all KS2 children have brought home a letter about their library membership. You are able to give consent to them joining the library through your Arbor account and children will be given the opportunity to choose their first book after the holiday once this consent is given. We also have plans to develop the newly built section at KS1 into a mini library.

This month has been Black History Month and across the school children have been looking back at significant figures from Black History, but also recognising contemporary role models, including those people from everyday life. Across the month we have recognise that in order to change the world for the benefit of all, we need to think about our actions and words from a broader perspective, for example how to we treat those who are different to us. The children have created some amazing pieces of work and held very mature discussions.

Over the year, we are having a focus on the creative and performing arts- it has been wonderful to see so many KS2 children having musical instrument lessons and I know they will all get a chance to perform to an audience later in the year. To support our local community, we have again made sculptures for the Greetland Halloween Ghostly Trail. If you walk the trail on the 29^th October, please do send us pictures of our sculptures in situ through Seesaw.

Tonight is our annual Halloween disco which is sure to be spooktacular! Please support the school in avoiding parking on School Street and using the Community Centre instead. I’m afraid future events may be affected if we receive more complaints about parking. There will be helpers out on the roadside to monitor the situation.

One final reminder, Monday 31^st October is a training day and so the children start back in school on Tuesday 1^st November for our favourite term of the year- the build up to Christmas where there will be so many wonderful things happening in school!

Have a lovely half term break

Mrs Crowther

I can’t believe we are already 4 weeks (or half way) in to the term! What a busy four weeks it has been.

It was lovely to see so many of our newest parents on Zoom for our Reception Curriculum Workshop on Tuesday and we look forward to welcoming them into school in the future to see the children’s learning in action.

I previously mentioned how we have had the old conservatory at Key Stage One replaced with an amazing new learning space, and now we have had the most beautiful library installed at Key Stage Two (pictures attached). Our wonderful FOGS will be substantially funding books for both these areas through their fundraising from last year and we cannot thank them enough.

As a school, we feel it is so important to develop leadership skills in our children and to give them a say in how the school is run. Last week, our new School Council were democratically elected for the year and what a great choice the children made! Their role will include a half termly meeting linked to our school values, supporting with charity and school events, greeting visitors to the school, giving out a School Council termly award and monitoring the class reward tokens. Myself, Miss Whiteley and Mrs Ashton are working on job descriptions for many other student leadership opportunities, which will be advertised before the end of the half term.

Last week we welcomed our new Chair of Governors, Peta Cocker, to both sites to meet the children and staff. She was very impressed with what she saw and will be regularly visiting us over the coming year. As a retired headteacher, she brings a real strength to our governing body and will provide myself with great support.

This year, we are focusing on understanding and celebrating disabilities and we started this work with marking International Sign Language Day. I couldn’t believe what our children had already picked up in our assembly last week. I know there are videos on Seesaw of children learning to sign greetings and their names.

As you my already know, we have a SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) and have trained many teachers over the years, some of whom now work for us. We currently have three student teachers based with us and we welcome them to the team: Mr Birro in Year 1, Miss Senior in Year 2 and Miss Woolnough in Year 3. In addition to this, all the SCITT students visited our school last week to enhance their learning on the teaching of reading and many children benefitted from reading aloud to them.

As you will have seen, members of the leadership team at KS2 are coming out onto the roads outside school at the end of the day. We have noticed that some of our children who walk home from school alone are not taking care crossing roads. Please could we ask that you all reiterate the importance of road safety with your children. This includes running down School Street and round the corner into the road.

Fogs have released the details of our annual Halloween disco which will be held on the last evening of this half term- 21^st October. They will also be running a pre-loved costume stall which is such a good idea particularly in these difficult financial times. We intend on doing something similar with World Book Day costumes at the beginning of March and don’t forget we also have an array of pre-loved school uniform to purchase for a small donation.

Finally, if any of you know someone looking for a place in Reception starting next September, please direct them to our Facebook page where there is information about how they can book a tour of KS1.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend- I’m looking forward to next week where I get to do a story time with our Reception children.

Mrs Crowther

Welcome back to the new school year!

For those parents who are new to school, I send out regular Principal’s Messages through Seesaw (usually every two weeks) to celebrate successes and keep you up to date with what has been going on in school. I also put a copy on the school website which can be found here:

https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/diary-news/principals-seesaw-messages/

The children have all settled back into our school routines and it is like they have never been away. It’s been lovely to hear all the things they’ve been up to over the summer and to meet our new reception children and their families. This afternoon will be our first celebration assembly of the year and I know the teachers have really struggled to pick just one child to receive a certificate as they have all returned so impressively.

You should all be able to access your child’s Seesaw account so that you can keep up to date with what is going on in school and what your child is learning. Just a polite request that parents do not send teachers messages on Seesaw in the evening and at weekends. The school office email should be used for this purpose. I’m sure you’ll all agree that our staff work extremely hard and they should not be expected to receive and respond to messages outside their working hours.

Today you will all receive the first Learning Launchpad of the year via Seesaw. These let you know what your child will be learning over the upcoming term and also highlight key dates.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on our clubs plan for this term. Watch out for a letter in the future about our clubs offer and the details on how to request a place for your child.

Next week our Year 6 children go on their residential trip to Edale and I know they are all really excited about this- hopefully the weather will improve! The children will leave at 11:30 from the top playground. Parents are welcome to come through the gate in the top playground from 11:15 to wave them off ( I will be there with you).

As the cost of living increases, I fully understand the pressures on everyone’s household budget. FOGS offer a pre-loved uniform service at most school events and we can also accept requests via email. You will see in our uniform policy that there is also no expectation that you purchase the jumpers and t shirts with our logo on- a plain red jumper or plain white polo shirt is absolutely fine. If you do have any issues with sourcing the correct uniform, please do let us know: we do understand that sometimes things cannot be avoided. I am aware that the YMCA also has excellent quality pre loved uniform. Please note that children should not wear any jewellery or watches (including fit bits). One pair of plain studs can be worn but the child must be able to take them out themselves for PE.

I’m happy to announce that over the summer Mrs Walsh had a little girl named Ada and she is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations also to Miss Simpson who got married over the summer and will now be known as Mrs Graham.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to remember our Queen who, as you will all know, sadly passed away yesterday at the age 96. We will always remember fondly as a school our Jubilee celebrations last term. We will of course take time to celebrate her life in school.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message:

Three weeks down, and only 4 weeks to go!

This afternoon is our Year 6 parents’ showcase and boy are they in for a treat!

On Wednesday, we took our Reception children to Swithens Farm to extend their learning. It was a beautiful, sunny day and our children behaved impeccably (the manager told me they were the best children he had ever shown round). We got to feed the animals, ride on a tractor and play on the park- the perfect day and I know the children haven’t stopped talking about it!

The results are in- our Year 1 children recently took their phonics screening check and I am so proud to reports that 92% of them passed which is inline with our pre covid figures. The children have been working so hard on their reading and it certainly paid off. A special thanks to the parents who supported the children with practising at home. This firm foundation in early reading skills will help to ensure that every Greetland child is a reader.

Last week, three external moderators from the local authority came to look at our Year 6 writing and were blown away with the quality of work in the books. It is always lovely to have our own judgment externally verified and the moderators even took away some ideas for their own schools based on what they saw on our books!

This afternoon we will be holding the grand opening of our new, KS1 play are which was funded by local business Sheard Packaging.  I shared pictures on Facebook recently of the amazing transformation. The new area will enhance play, provide opportunities to be curious about the natural world in our bug hotel,  enable our children to grow vegetables and also has it’s own outdoor library to promote that love of reading!

On Monday, I will send out our proposed staffing line-up for next year. Our transition morning will be on 4th July when most of our Y6 children will be visiting their new high school. This will give your child the chance to meet their new teacher in the classroom where they will be based. For Year 2 children, we will keep them up at the KS2 site all day with their current teachers joining them for the afternoon.

A polite reminder about our uniform policy. We have seen most children coming into school int eh correct uniform this week but we do still have some children not wearing the correct PE kit. Our uniform policy can be found here: https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Uniform-Leaflet-June-2021.pdf

Wishing you all a lovely weekend- next week is our Diversity Week with Friday being a non-uniform day where children can dress to express themselves.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message:

And that’s the end of another half term- only one left!

Firstly, a huge well done to all our Year 6 children who took their recent SATs tests in their stride and are still working so hard on their writing. They are an AMAZING bunch of children who have made us all very proud. Our Year 2 children have also been taking their SATs tests and Mrs Emmerson and Mrs Bakes have been thrilled with how hard they have all tried. Next half term, our Year 4 children will do their national multiplication tables test and Year 1 will take their phonics tests and I know that they will all do us proud also.

This week has been ‘Health Week’ across the school. Our Phunky Food Ambassadors delivered assemblies at both sites, children made healthy recipes, we had whole class workout sessions, parent and child fitness sessions and even a visit from The Halifax Panthers.

The lovely Mrs Garland (Year One TA) leaves us today to return to her original career in marketing. She will be greatly missed but I know she will keep in touch and is always welcome to visit.

This half term our KS2 children have become real life singer/songwriters and recording artists. Thanks to the wonderful Mrs Smelt, we have produced our own jubilee song for the queen- we will share it on Seesaw shortly.

This afternoon we hold our Jubilee Jamboree on the KS1 field and are bringing together the whole school for the first time in what seems like forever. You are all welcome to join us after school on the field for our summer fair. A huge thank you to FOGS for all their hard work in making it possible. We are all very excited to celebrate together as one big family. One polite reminder though, please walk to KS1 wherever possible and be mindful of the local residents. I believe the police will also be coming long to monitor the roads around school.

As you will already be aware, The Greetland Residents’ Organisation have their own jubilee celebrations at Clay House next Friday (1-5pm). Our KS2 children have created sculptures and bunting to be displayed at the event. Their work is amazing so pop along if you can to see it- it sounds like it’s going to be a fabulous event.

Wishing you all a relaxing (hopefully sunny) half term break. Remember that we come back to school on Tuesday the 7^th of June as the Monday is our day in lieu of the jubilee Bank Holiday.

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

I cannot believe we have already been back two weeks and what a busy two weeks it has been.

You will have seen from Facebook and Seesaw that our local police officers came into school to teach the children about road safety. Our School Council even went out with the speed gun and caught 6 speeding drivers (one of whom also was not wearing a seatbelt)! Unfortunately, there were also a number of parents who received tickets for parking on the yellow lines outside school. Could I politely remind you all that we have made arrangements for you to park at the community centre where there are plenty of spaces.

Our Year 5 class have started their outdoor and adventurous sports PE unit at The Boiler House run by CIA Adventures. I hear even Mrs Roper and Mr O’Shea even had a go on the zipline! I was thrilled to receive a message from The Boiler House about how well-behaved our children were- well done Year 5: what great ambassadors for our school.

Our sporting achievements have continued where we left off before Easter. On Sunday, Miss Wild, Mrs Walsh and myself took our gymnasts to the British National Gymnastics Competition in Stoke. We were the only school there representing West Yorkshire, which is quite an achievement in itself, but even better than that, our team entry came third in Britain! I saw so many positive messages of support and congratulations on our Facebook which is very much appreciated.

Our Year 4 parents were treated to a fantastic showcase afternoon in school last week where they watched an assembly about the children’s learning, looked in their children’s books and even took part in a design technology lesson! The next showcase will be for Year 5 parents on the 10^th June and information about how to book a place on this will come out in due course- I know you’ll be in for a treat!

Next week is the week that Year 6 children across the country take their national SATS tests. This is the first time these tests have been taken in three years and despite the disruptions of the past two years, all of our children have worked incredibly hard and we are ever so proud of them all.  What these tests don’t show is how special each of our children are. They do not show our children’s talents, what amazing friends they can be or how kind, thoughtful and mature they are. The scores from these tests will tell us something, but they will not tell us everything about our children. There are many ways of being smart and there is no way to test all the amazing and awesome things that make our children unique. I want to wish the children all the best for next week, but they have nothing to worry about. This weekend, their homework is to ride a bike, play with the friends, eat sweets and relax. If they want to do some revision, that is up to them, but it does not need to be for long. I will be up at Key Stage Two all week to help with administering the tests so I won’t be on the gate at Key Stage One.

The weather forecast suggests that we are soon to have some better weather (fingers crossed it remains nice for our Jubilee Celebrations on the 27^th).

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s message:

Well that’s the end of our second full term and hasn’t it flown by (they do say time flies when you’re having fun)!

Over this last term we have seen things return to ‘normal’ in lots of ways but are still reminded daily that Covid has not gone as we have seen increased infections across the school. I would like to thank you all for your support not only over the past few weeks when you have continued to get your children tested, but over the entire two years of this pandemic. One of the many positives that the OFSTED inspectors picked up is how parents, carers and school all work together for the good of the children particularly throughout the pandemic. For us as a school community, the experiences of the last two years have only served to make us stronger.

It seems like ages ago now but for Comic Relief our staff bravely ‘volunteered’ (or maybe I volunteered them) to be soaked in the name of charity. I know you’ll all agree that they were brilliant sports and that the children, and it appeared some parents too, really enjoyed the experience. I am pleased to say that we raised and whopping £485! Thank you for your kind donations.

Last week, our Year 4 children performed their own talent show for their loved ones and what talent they all have! They did two performances to a packed out crowd and blew me away with their confidence and skill. Thank you to the Year 4 team for all their hard work in getting the children performance ready.

This week was the second chance this year to meet with your child’s class teacher to discuss their progress but this time we actually managed to do it in person! It was great to see so many parents back in school again and thank you for all your positive comments on their report cards.

I’m sure you will have seen from Facebook that we have had a very successful term with regard to sport. From football to dance to gymnastics to cross country, we have been able to compete at a very high level and give as many children the chance to represent the school as is possible. Whilst we do celebrate winning, what has been even more impressive is what great sportsmen and women our children are: cheering on the other teams, showing respect to judges and referees and behaving impeccably at the venues. I do, however, need to invest in a larger trophy cabinet after all the success that we have been having and I’m sure this will continue next term also.

Now that restrictions have been lifted, we were able to bring back one of our old traditions- the KS1 Easter Bonnet Parade. What a creative bunch you are! I know you will all enjoy coming down to watch the outdoor catwalk this afternoon. Just before the catwalk, a special visitor will have arrived at KS1- the Easter Bunny! If it’s anything like previous years, the children and staff will hardly be able to contain themselves – pictures will be posted to Seesaw shortly.

A date for your diary- we will be holding a Jubilee Jamboree on the last day of next half term (27^th May) weather permitting. We are busy working on plans but we intend to bring the whole school together on the field at KS1 for the afternoon and then run our summer fair straight after with the help of FOGS. I will communicate the full plans after the holidays but hopefully it’s going to be a great event and a chance for us all to be together again.

Today we say good bye to Mrs Ewing who has worked at Key Stage One for over 2 years now. She is leaving to start a job at Huddersfield College after the Easter break and I know you will all join me in wishing her all the best for the future. She has promised to still come in from time to time to see us which I will be holding her to. I am pleased to announce that we have recruited Miss Townsend to replace Mrs Ewing and she will be starting work in 1A shortly.

I do need to give a polite reminder to you all about Seesaw. Please could parents and carers not message our staff outside of working hours. We have had a number of staff receiving messages on an evening or weekend. I know you’ll all agree that we have amazing staff who want you all to be involved in your child’s education, but they deserve their time away from work just like anyone else. If you need to make contact with a class teacher or other member of staff, please email the school office and they will respond within the working day.

So that just leaves me to wish you all a lovely Easter break – hopefully in the sunshine! We will see you all again on Monday 25^th April. A polite reminder that KS1 learning starts at 8:45 and KS2 at 9 so please make sure your child is there on time.

Happy Easter- have an eggcellent time 🙂

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message

Another busy couple of weeks have gone by.

Whilst restrictions have now been lifted, we are not yet seeing a settling down of positive cases at school. Since returning from the half term break we have had an outbreak in Year 5 and several members of staff testing positive. I will continue to inform families when there is a positive case in the same class as their child to enable everyone to be extra vigilant to symptoms and to also protect vulnerable family members. As always, if you need to inform us of a positive case, please use our special email: covid@greetlandacademy.org.uk

The lifting of restrictions has meant that we have been able to invite parents in to our school building for the first time in what has felt like an age. Last week our Year 3 parents came to spend the afternoon in class with their children and joining in with the learning. The children, staff and parents all thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity.

We will be holding face to face parents’ evenings on the 5^th and 6^th of April after school. A letter has been sent out with the link to book an appointment.

Our Year 4 children had a wonderful time on their residential to Nell Bank last Thursday. Despite the damp and dreary weather, their spirits were not dampened. It was so wonderful to see so many happy, smiling children.

On Saturday, Miss Wild, Mrs Walsh and myself attended the Yorkshire School Acrobatics Championships in Barnsley with our gymnastics team, It was such a prestigious event and our children were simply amazing. We have several children who have now qualified for the national championships later in the year.

Our sporting success continued this week with us taking 27 children to the West Yorkshire Cross Country Finals. I was so proud of every child who took part and I’m pleased to share that our Y5 girls came third in West Yorkshire as a team and our Year 4 boys came first (giving us another trophy to add to our collection)! Congratulations also to Finlay Parker (Y4) who came third out of 100 boys in his category and to Poppy Jowett (Y6), who has qualified for the Nationals later this year.

This week we have had a film crew in school! Teach First is an organisation who provided teacher training to graduates. In recognition of our English Hub status and recent Ofsted result, we were asked to provide videoed content of ‘excellent phonics teaching’ to be used on their training programme for new teachers.

On Monday 21^st March, we are taking our Year 6 dance team to the regional finals of the Great Primary Dance Off at the Victoria Theatre- good luck to all involved.

Next Friday, Comic relief day, will be the opportunity for your child to soak their teacher after school for a small contribution to the charity. All the teachers were thrilled when I suggested raising money this way as you can imagine 😊

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Crowther

Principal’s Message:

And that’s the end of another action-packed half term.

As covid restrictions have reduced, we have been able to carry out more educational visits and enter more sporting competitions which has been wonderful to see. This term our Year 5 children visited an art gallery to look at the art work of Kate Lycett, Year 2 visited the local church, Year 1 developed their map skills on a walk around the locality and Year 6 visited Chester Zoo. Next half term, our year 4 children will be visiting Nell Bank for their residential trip which I know they are already really excited about. It has been great to be able to enrich our children’s experiences further to support their learning.

We’re finally back to more competitive sport. Our KS2 football teams are now competing in a local school’s league and our Year 2 gymnastics team have qualified for the Key Steps finals next half term. Miss Wild and Mrs Walsh are busy training up our KS2 gymnasts to take part in several competitions over the next term and Miss Whiteley has been busy with our Y6 dancers preparing their entry for the Great Big Primary Dance Off.

Ever since our OFSTED inspection, we have had lots of requests for people to come and look at our amazing school. Every single person who has visited has been blown away by our children and I recently presented to the Calderdale Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Board about our recent inspection. Last week, we were visited by Principals from the other schools in our trust. They were very impressed with what they saw across both sites and commented on our children’s exemplary behaviour. They were also very impressed with the standard of work in the books across all areas of the curriculum.

You will all be aware of the devastating fire at Ash Green Community Primary School. FOGS arranged for the money raised in our valentine’s ‘guess the name’ competition to be donated to the school. I am thrilled to say that, thanks to your generosity and kindness, we have raised £218. Mr Shepherd , the head, sends his deepest thanks and has been blown away with the support they have received from schools across Calderdale.

At the Greetland Academy, we love reading and any opportunity to celebrate this! This year, we will be celebrating World Book Day on Wednesday 2nd March (this is so the whole school can join in as Year 4 are at Nell Bank on Thursday). We are inviting children to bring in their favourite book and dress up as a book character for the day (staff will of course be joining in also). We would love to see homemade costumes and do not expect parents to go to the expense of buying new costumes. The teachers have been busy planning lots of reading themed activities for the children to complete throughout the day. This year, World Book Day is celebrating 25 years therefore we have been inspired to set the children the challenge of reading 25 books throughout March. We will be launching this on Wednesday 2nd March and children will bring home their challenge sheet.

The next Learning Launch Pad will have been uploaded to your child’s Seesaw and to our website. This contains the key information about what your child will be learning over the next half term as well as key dates.

I would like to wish you all a happy half term break and we will see the children again on Monday 28^th Feb. A polite reminder that learning starts at 8:45 at KS1 and 9 at KS2.

See you all on the 28^th

Mrs Crowther

I’m sure you will all be aware that the covid situation in school at the moment is still providing challenges for us all as a community. We currently have positive cases in nearly all classes and two year groups have ongoing outbreaks and are operating as separate bubbles from the rest of the school (although I am hopeful that we can put an end to this on Monday). What has been amazing, is how supportive you have all been as parents particularly when we have had to ask for daily lateral flow testing. Interestingly, the most common symptoms we are seeing in our children are tummy aches, upset tummies and runny noses. If you are in any doubt at all, I would recommend getting a PCR test as we have had children who have not shown up as positive on a lateral flow and have subsequently tested positive with a PCR- this was also the case when I had covid.

Reading stories is our favourite time of the day at The Greetland Academy. Next week is National Storytelling Week and we will be marking this by sharing videos of the staff across our Trust schools reading popular stories. Watch out for some of these on Seesaw which would make a lovely option for a bedtime story. By the end of next week you will also receive information about our World Book Day celebrations this year which will be taking a slightly different format (the usual dressing up day will still take place but on Wednesday 2^nd of March).

Our EMHP has started her work in school this week. Here is a little introduction that she wrote for the children:

I’m Steph and I am a Trainee Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) in the Calderdale Mental Health Support Team (MHST). My team is part of the Open Minds Partnership and helps children and young people to improve their mental and emotional health.

I’m trained in a special type of intervention based on evidence of what works best for children and their parents and carers called Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

I might work with you, or your family, for a short period of time if you have been feeling very sad or worried for a while. I can also help by working with adults at your school to think about other types of support that might help you. Another part of my job is looking at ways that The Greetland Academy can help everyone at your school with their mental health.

If you feel that the Mental Health Support team could help you or your family, please speak to Miss Simpson.

I’m really looking forward to working with your lovely school and getting to know you more!

We have several school trips this term as we move ever closer to normality. In a couple of weeks’ time, I will be visiting Chester Zoo with our Year 6 children and I cannot wait! Our Year 5 children are visiting Bankfield Museum to look at the art work of Kate Lycett, who they have been studying in their art lessons and  I’ve heard a rumour that Mrs Boddis has her email address and so we may even try and write to her to ask her to pay us a visit! Year 4 have their residential to Nell Bank shortly and I know the children (and staff) are already really excited about this trip. We are also taking a large team of children to Leeds who have qualified for the West Yorkshire Cross Country finals.

Thank you to all the parents who completed Miss Whiteley’s clubs survey. We have loved reading your ideas and getting feedback on what we already provide. Miss Whiteley will have a think  about what we can do moving forward but I did want to mention one point that came up that we fully appreciate and want to address. It was raised that when the letters come out, some parents don’t get to see them until later on in the day or evening due to commitments and then by that point, the club is already booked up. From now on, when we send out a club letter, we will not open the booking straight away and will include a time when the booking will open on the letter. Hopefully, this will make the system as fair as possible although we do have limits on the capacity of clubs and will have to operate a first come first served process still.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend

Mrs Crowther

I cannot believe we have already done a whole term in school and what a term it has been! I know there are lots of different stories in the media about schools, potential lockdowns, changes to restrictions etc. As it stands, we return to school as normal on Wednesday 5th January. I am ever hopeful that nothing will change over the Christmas holidays, but rest assured, should things change we will put plans in place and communicate these with you as soon as we can. Please continue to make us aware if your child is going for a PCR test or has a positive test result on our special email: covid@greetlandacademy.org.uk

Today we say goodbye to Mr Pascall who has taken the decision to leave teaching. He has worked at our school for many years, covering release time, helping to plan residential trips and supporting with ICT. He will continue to support with ICT through a part time role within our Trust and so you may still see him around from time to time. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing him all the best for the future.

We have had a very festive few weeks in school and were so pleased to be able to have our parents and carers attending our Christmas performances. Both Reception and Year 1 put on amazing shows for their loved ones- they are such a talented bunch.

Whilst we couldn’t hold our Christmas fair, those little elves at FOGS HQ did not let this stop their fundraising efforts. The Christmas shop and raffle were both extremely popular this year and the hard work of all our FOGS members is very much appreciated.

I would also like to thank those families who have sent us in the gift of reading by choosing a book from our Amazon wish list. We opened all the presents this morning in assembly and the children cannot wait to read the books in class.

We had our annual visit from Mrs Bradley’s ukulele band on Monday, which really got us in the Christmas spirit. It has been two long years since we last were able to invite them into school. The children, and staff, all loved watching their live performance and singing along.

Off the back of our ‘outstanding’ ofsted report, we were visited by the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Services (Julie Jenkins) on Monday. I took her on a tour of the school and she was extremely impressed with what she saw.

On Tuesday, we took over 200 children to watch the pantomime at Dean Clough- and what a performance it was! The children behaved impeccably ( and I would expect nothing less) and everyone had such an amazing time.

Today was our first ‘Star of the Term’ assembly and these are my favourite assemblies to host as the recipients are voted for by the rest of the class. Our children always make such intelligent and thoughtful decisions about who should be given the award. A huge well done to all the Stars of the Term- we are very proud of you.

Today was also the day when a special visitor came to visit the children at KS1. His sleigh was packed high with gifts for the children, and they were all very excited to catch a glimpse of him as he walked around the building.

The community of Greetland is so supportive and I was blown away last weekend when I saw on social media that some very kind people have arranged for Greetland to have its own Christmas tree as a way of fundraising for our school. If you are looking for something to do tonight, please do pop to GOLDs on Rochdale Road at 6:30pm where there will be singing and festive refreshments. Children are asked to bring a bauble to put on the tree and everyone is encouraged to wear festive gear- what a lovely way to spend an evening.

As I bring my message to a close, I would like to wish all of our community a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Your support, as always, is very much appreciated.

See you in 2022!

Mrs Crowther

A lot has happened since I last sent a message, which was only a few weeks ago! I was delighted to be able to share with you the outcome of our recent OFSTED inspection. The bar has risen considerably since the last time we were inspected (14 years ago) and so far, we are the only school in Calderdale to be judged as Outstanding under this new inspection framework which came into force in 2019. I am so proud to be the principal of our school and what stood out to the inspectors was how much of community we all are who work together to give our children the absolute best. Watch out for an article in the Courier next week as we proudly share our news with the rest of Halifax. Thank you for your patience when we had to postpone school photographs due to the inspection- luckily, we were able to rearrange for this week.

A few weeks ago, we held our first parents’ curriculum showcase for our Year 1 families, which was a great success. This week we held our Year 2 showcase where parents and carers got to join in with their child’s learning and watch an assembly all about what their child has been learning. It really is so lovely to finally be able to have parents back in school once more. I have also spent this week showing round perspective parents for our reception class next year. They were all very impressed with what they saw when they visited our children in class. I would also like to thank our new members of FOGS who came along to our evening session to provide refreshments and answer any questions about their experience of our school.

Last week we marked Anti-bullying week and combined this with our Children in Need fundraising. We promoted Anti-Bullying Week with the theme, ‘One Kind Word’. Kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last year has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us. This is one of the reasons, that ‘One Kind Word’ was chosen as the theme of Anti-Bullying Week. Throughout the week, the children took part in activities celebrating who we are and why we are all unique;  discussions of what bullying is and how we can send ripples of kindness; designing anti-bullying heroes and promoting our anti-bullying ethos here in school. All our work was shared on Seesaw for you to see. Look out for our Anti-Bullying celebration videos on Facebook too!

We have also returned to sporting events over the last two weeks and boy did we make an impression! We took 40 KS2 children to compete in the Elland Cluster cross country competition and came away with 6/8 first places and 35 children qualified for the next round of the competition! What an amazing achievement and every child was a fantastic ambassador for our school- making sure they encouraged others throughout the competition. We also took a team to an orienteering competition this week and again, our children behaved impeccably.

I do need to mention that we are seeing an increase in Covid cases across the school again and have had an outbreak in one Year 6 class. This class is now operating as a bubble for the next couple of weeks until the outbreak is under control and all members of the class have been advised by Public Health to get a PCR test. I know this time of year sees the return of many bugs but if your child does display any symptoms at all (a temperature, cough or loss of taste and smell), please do keep them at home and get a PCR test NOT a lateral flow test.  Your support with this is much appreciated.

As of Wednesday next week- it’s Chriiiiiiiiiiissssssssssstttttttmaaaaaaaaas (said in the style of Noddy Holder)! We have lots of thing planned to make this special time of year even better. The trees will arrive next week, and every child will make a decoration to hang on them, Year 1 will perform their nativity at the church, Reception will perform Christmas songs to their loved ones, our KS2 children will attend a church service, FOGS are busy arranging our first Christmas Fair in two years and of course we expect to have a visit from someone special who resides in the North Pole. In the past, we have had whole school Christmas projects such as the naughty elf visit and the Christmas tree building competition. This year we will be learning about Christmas across the world and how different cultures celebrate this magical time of year. Watch out for the outcomes of this work on Seesaw.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. I will be digging out my collection of Christmas jumpers to start wearing from Wednesday 😊

Mrs Crowther

Well – this has been a week like no other! As you will be aware, we had our first OFTSED inspection for nearly 14 years on Tuesday and Wednesday. I would like to say how proud I am of all of our children and thank you for the support we received during the inspection. I am not able to share the outcome of the inspection just yet but am hoping the report will be ready within a month and I will share this with you as soon as it arrives!

It was great to hear that so many of you managed to discuss your child’s progress with their teacher at our virtual parents’ evening. If you didn’t manage to speak with anyone or you ever want to discuss your child’s progress, please do contact the office and I know our staff will make arrangements to meet with you.

It seems like ages ago now but our ‘hello yellow’ day was a roaring success. As you know, we feel it is extremely important to teach about mental health as well as physical health and being healthy in both body and mind is one of our core school values.  I would like to thank you all for your kind donations for such a worthy charity.

I’m writing this message through some rather tired eyes after spending the night at Nell Bank with our Year 5 children, but I can honestly say I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I am so glad that we were finally able to take the children as they should have gone last year when we went into the lockdown. It was such a wonderful trip and the children were all great ambassadors for our school. In fact, the instructors told us that we are their favourite school and gave all the children a free water bottle to take home with them! We will be visiting Nell Bank again with our Year 4 children later in the year where I know we will continue to make an impression on the instructors.

Tonight, we see the return of our favourite event of the year- the Halloween disco. A huge thanks needs to go to FOGS and our staff for making this event possible: we know that all the children are going to have such an amazing time.

That leaves me to wish you all a lovely half term break. Watch out for our amazing artwork and sculptures that will be placed along the ‘Greetland Ghostly Ginnel Trail’ on Saturday 30^th October. Please do post pictures to Seesaw when you spot our work.

Mrs Crowther

I would like to start this message by thanking our entire school community for their support with the rise in Covid cases within the school. As it stands, we have only had one ‘outbreak’ and with the extra measures that we put in place, this remained contained to the one class. The children of that class have been simply amazing and shown such a mature attitude. They have coped so well with all the changes – eating in class, not mixing and only having one part of the playground to play in. They have not complained once! I am pleased to say that they will be returning to ‘normal’ as of Monday as the outbreak has been contained. It was always inevitable with the removal of restrictions and subsequent increase of contacts that we would see an increase in positive cases in school and we continue with handwashing and regular cleaning to mitigate this. We have also kept our staggered lunch and break times to minimise contacts. For the time being, we will also not return to whole school assemblies in the hall.

I am pleased to say that Joanna is back in our Key Stage One office from today- we have really missed her. Many thanks for your patience whilst we operated on a limited staffing.

Watch out over the next few weeks for information about booking an appointment for our online parents’ evening on the 11th and 12th October. This will be a chance to discuss how your child has settled into school after the summer. We have decided to keep this one online given the increase in positive cases within the community. We intend on our Easter parents’ evening being in person if cases permit.

We are also busy planning the Halloween disco with FOGS. We run three separate discos (KS1 including Reception, Y3/4 and Y5/6) and have sought Public Health advice about how to make the event as covid secure as possible. This is scheduled for the last day of the half term- Friday 22nd October which is the day that Y5 return from their residential. More information will follow in due course. Should we see a huge increase in community transmission, or have another outbreak in school, it may be necessary to cancel the event. If this were to happen, we would invite the children to come into school on Wednesday 20th in their costumes and would hold in-class discos so that they don’t miss out. There is a meeting at 7pm in the Rose and Crown on Monday for anyone who would like to get involved in planning this event- it would be great to see lots of new faces there.

Last week our new School Council were democratically elected by their peers. Once 5A have also held their elections, I will hold our first School Council meeting to find out what areas they would like to focus on this year. Well done to all who stood up and gave a speech to their class- I’m certain you all made it a very difficult decision for your class. We believe in giving our children a voice and whilst the School Council is one way of doing this, we are always looking for other opportunities. You will notice on the fence around KS1 that our Year 1 children have produced some fabulous posters to remind the people of Greetland not to drop litter- well done Year 1.

We have registered to be part of Morrisons Good to Grow scheme. From September, for every £10 spent in store or online, you’ll get one Grow Token that we can then redeem for a wide range of gardening and growing equipment. Please download the MyMorrisons app to take part.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for the well-wishes I have received. I will be joining our assembly on Zoom this afternoon and the leadership team have kept me up to date with all that is going on in school. I can’t wait to get back on Wednesday.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Crowther

What a fabulous first week back! The children have been simply amazing, and it is so wonderful to see their smiling faces and sheer delight to be back at school with all their friends. We are really focusing on behaviour across the school and considering our school values of being: ambitious, brave, curious, healthy, united and respectful. I have already seen lots of class tokens being awarded and individual prizes and today we will hold our first celebration assembly of the year. Despite not having moved around the school freely for well over a year, all the children have adapted straight away to our new routines and have made myself and the rest of the staff so proud.

Some lovely news- there were two weddings over the summer for Greetland staff. A huge congratulations from all at The Greetland Academy to Mrs Rothery (Miss Austwick) and Mrs Khan (Miss Khan) who both got married over the summer. We were all so glad that they finally got their special days.

I’m sure you will all join me in welcoming our new Reception children and their families to our Greetland family. It has been lovely getting to know them all and it was equally lovely to finally be able to have parents in school and show the Reception families our classrooms. Watch out for information from our Friends of Greetland School (FOGS) soon as we would love some of our new (and not so new) parents to join the FOGS team. They do amazing things for the benefit of our children.

You should receive a letter through Seesaw about our new ‘parents’ showcase afternoons’ that we will be holding this year with the date for your child’s year group. We want to see parents back in our school once more and give the children the opportunity to share their learning and we hope you agree that this will be a great way of doing so. I have also included a few other key dates on there and we are busy updating the calendar on our website to reflect all our planned events across the year. Please do note that all events are subject to national and Public Health guidance at the time and we may have to postpone or find a virtual alternative at short notice.

The Learning Launch Pads for this half term will be shared today to inform you of what your child will be learning and of key dates. These will be on Seesaw but also can be found on our school website.

We are also busy putting together an after-school clubs offer for both sites and will send out communication shortly about this.

On Monday, our Year 6 children go to Edale for their residential. I will be joining them and so I won’t be on the gate at KS1 on Tuesday and Wednesday but will see you all again on Thursday. I’m looking forward to some adventurous activities including abseiling and raft building! Mrs Ashton (Vice Principal) and Mrs Rothery (Assistant Principal) will look after everyone at KS1 and Miss Bailes (Assistant Principal) will be doing the same at KS2.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I will be spending it sleeping as something tells me I might not get a lot of sleep once we are at Edale 🙂

Mrs Crowther

We have reached the end of what has been another strange year and I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to every one of our Greetland family—staff, children, parents, governors, FOGS – for everything you have done this year and the tremendous support you have shown towards the school. Despite being a difficult time, we have continued to thrive and grow even stronger, and we are looking forward to a return to ‘normality’ in September. I sent out a letter a few weeks ago with the arrangements for September which can be found here:
https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Arrangements-for-Sept-2021.pdf
It has not been the end to the term that any of us wanted and I appreciate the impact that bubble closures have on our families as well as our children and staff. What has really helped during this particularly difficult week is how many parents took the time to send in messages of support- this really did make such a difference.

Farewell to Year 6:
I feel so much for our Year 6 children who all missed their last week in school with us. We have still managed to see them off in style with a virtual show last week and a virtual leavers’ assembly this morning. The trip we all went on last week really was a wonderful way to end our time with the children as we had such an amazing time, and the children were fantastically behaved: hopefully this will leave them with one last memory to add to all the others that they will have of their time with us. I would like to wish our Year 6 children all the best for their start at secondary school. We will miss them very much but know that they are all destined for great things. We hope to still see them from time to time.

Here’s a little something to brighten your day – we made this video for our Year 6 leavers and wanted to share it with all our families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i85mfW1WZ_0

New Appointments:
We have appointed Miss Gravenor as a Teaching Assistant in Year 6 as of September and Mrs Ewing will be our new Year 1 Teaching Assistant. We have a number of new Learning Support Assistants starting with us also: Mrs Edwards in Year 2, Miss Filiz in Year 4 and Miss Hollingsworth in Reception. A familiar face is also returning to school- Mrs Watson, who used to be a Teaching Assistant, will be returning as our new Learning Mentor. She will be working in the afternoons under the direction of Miss Simpson. I know you will all make them feel extremely welcome when they start with us in September.
This Year’s Seesaw Work:
Great news – you should all be able to download the content of your child’s Seesaw before they move up to their next class. Instructions on how to do this can be found at the following link. If you struggle, do not worry as we will always have a copy of your child’s complete journey throughout their time at our school:
https://help.seesaw.me/hc/en-us/articles/208754866-How-do-families-and-students-download-an-archive-of-student-work-

All that is left to say is that I hope you all have a lovely summer, and we cannot wait to see you all again on Tuesday 7th September. Here is hoping next year is the best year yet! We look forward to inviting our parents back into school.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Crowther

Hasn’t it been lovely to finally have some nice weather! We have certainly been making the most of it at school with the children managing to get out onto out fields for outdoor play.

I know many people may be disappointed by the government announcement that the final stage of the road map is delayed until 19^th July. As it stands, all our protective measures remain in place at school and as the 19^th July is the start of the final week of term for us, I don’t envisage these arrangements changing before we break up in order to minimise contact across the school before the summer holidays.  We do hope to return to ‘normality’ as of September. Public Health Calderdale are very concerned about the increasing rate in our area at the moment and we have started to see a rise in more positive cases within our community. We are proud as a school of how well we have done in keeping everyone safe (with your support) and just need to make this last final push to get us through to the summer holidays.

There will be lots of communication coming out in the next couple of weeks about arrangements for next year including reviewed Breakfast Club charges, arrangements for pick up and drop off in September, transition for Y2 and the new staffing line up. We will post all these letters on Seesaw but also email them out and put them on the website so please do keep an eye out for these.

We need your help: under current arrangements, the children attend school in their PE kits on the day they have PE. Since doing this, we have found that we have far less lost property and most importantly the children are getting longer PE sessions. If we were to keep this arrangement in September, the children would have 2 PE sessions a week and would therefore come in their school PE kit for 2 days out of the 5. We have set up a very short google form to gauge how parents would feel about this arrangement. Please could I ask you to click on this link to let us know your feelings: we will then make a decision based on the feedback. Please note that the children will need to be in proper school PE kit and not football kits, coloured trainers etc. We have spoken to our uniform provider and are pleased to say that we would be able to offer a Greetland hoodie as part of our PE uniform from next year.

Link: https://forms.gle/9p39GnbXyCpUFRYB8

Some of you may have heard that we had a new arrival in Y5- 10 little chicks! The children have loved watching them hatch and caring for them and thanks to the wonders of modern technology our ‘chick-cam’ has meant that all the children across the school have had the chance to see them- they even attended celebration assembly last week!

I would like to say a huge well done to our Y4 children who all took part in the National Multiplication Tables Check this week. Whilst these results will not be published this year due to the lockdown after Christmas, we knew how hard our children had worked on this area of maths and so wanted to give them the chance to show off! They did not disappoint, and all did so well.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will have a particular PSHE focus both in assembly time and afternoon lessons covering a number of upcoming celebrations day:  RSE Day; One Britain, One Nation Day and Picture News Day. We want all our pupils to have the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, to manage their lives, now and in the future – our PSHE curriculum does just that! Look out for photos of activities shared with you via Seesaw.

Have a lovely weekend – fingers crossed that the rain stays away!

Mrs Crowther

This week we had our half termly assembly lead by St Thomas’ Church. The children always love these sessions and we are so lucky to have such strong links with our local church.

Our Key Stage Two children have been having yoga sessions to support both their physical and mental health. These have proven to be very popular, and we are pleased to say that our children down the hill at Key Stage One will also get the chance to have a go shortly.

I cannot believe that we only have a few months left with our Year 6 children! We are busy putting plans in place for them to do an end of year show and for their leavers’ gift but we also recognise that the transition to high school can increase anxiety. The children in both Y5 and 6 have had an anxiety workshop to support them with managing these feelings and of course, Mrs Simpson is always on hand to offer support and advice.

Our parental survey was overwhelmingly positive but some of you did ask us to look at lunchtimes further. This week all our support staff, including midday supervisors have received behaviour management training from our Teaching School.

Now for some really lovely news- Mr O’Shea and his girlfriend became parents for the first time on Saturday. I am sure you will all join me in offering congratulations on the birth of the beautiful Ella Esme O’Shea. Mr O’Shea has started his paternity leave and will return to school on 24^th May.

Some of you may already be aware that two of our children – Jonas and Bella- have both donated their hair in the name of charity. These wonderful acts of kindness, along with Scarlett’s during the first lockdown, have led us to start a new school award. ‘The Greetland Academy Community Spirit Award’ will be given to our children when we hear that they are going above and beyond to make a difference. Jonas, Bella and Scarlett will all have their names engraved on the trophy in school as the first recipients of this award.

Next week I will be spending some time in each of the classes and I am very much looking forward to talking to the children and seeing their fantastic learning.

Finally, I would like to wish Eid Mubarak to any members of the school community who are celebrating Eid today or yesterday.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Crowther

Well, the weather has certainly taken a turn for the worst but at school all the children are still working as hard as ever. They have returned from the Easter break looking smart and ready to learn. I am sure they all enjoyed the fact that they could meet up with others outdoors over the Easter break as we edge ever closer to some level of normality.

We have been able to start up some after school clubs over the past two weeks for year group bubbles at both sites. Whilst this is a long way from our usual breadth of offer, we are pleased that we are able to offer something to the children and have great plans for when things return to normal.

This term, our Y6 children have the opportunity to work with our Poet in Residence and our Musician in Residence (like Y4 and 5 have done previously). This has been funded by the Elland Cluster of Schools and is such a valuable experience for our children- I cannot wait to read their finished writing.

Our Y5 children are busy recording their first ever podcast! These will be available to listen to on the school website so watch out for more news on this shortly.

On Wednesday, we had a visit from the Trust School Improvement Team. They spent time with myself and the leadership team and in our Reception, Y5 and Y6 classes. They were blown away with what they saw (including the robin’s nest in our Reception entrance). Some of our children even spoke to them to tell them all about Greetland Academy and were a credit to the school.

A quick reminder to parents at KS1 that we have a polling day on Thursday and a letter has gone out and is on the website with regard to the pick-up and drop off arrangements for that day.

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday.

Mrs Crowther

And that’s the end of another term and we find ourselves two-thirds of the way through the school year! It has been so wonderful to be all together again as a school community and the birthday party certainly was the perfect way to celebrate this. It has also been wonderful to see the return of some lovely weather- the children were so excited to be able to get out on the field.

Our Trust walking challenge is complete and together we have managed to climb the world’s 100 highest mountains 10 times over which is 5037km in total- go Team Greetland! A special mention needs to go to Charlie Greenwood who managed to cover a whopping 366km!

I know I had to share a bit of sad news yesterday about the vandalism at our KS1 site. Whilst this was very disappointing for us all, what was amazing to see was how our wonderful community all rallied round to offer support. Thank you so much to those parents who contacted us to offer their help. Luckily, there was no major damage and we have informed the police.

Many thanks to those of you who completed the parental survey- there was an overwhelming amount of positive responses and it meant so much to all the staff to read all the comments that were made. As always, there are things that we can work on still and we have really valued getting your perspective in helping us to identify next steps. Our website now reflects the feedback we received and after Easter, Mrs Simpson will also be reaching out to parents to ask for their perspective on how we can support our children with friendships as this is something that has become of particular concern since the last lockdown. Children have been away from their peers for a number of months and have missed out on that vital socialising time and some may be finding it difficult to be back together in bigger groups. You will have already noticed on Seesaw that all the children have been doing PSHCE work around friendships. We were thrilled to read how many of you thought that communication between home and school was a real strength. Seesaw has certainly helped with this but please also note that whilst we share all letters on Seesaw, there will also be a copy on the school website which you can find here: https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/diary-news/letters/. I do also add a copy of my Principal’s message to the website also.

We had a fantastic turn out for our parents’ evenings last week. If you did not manage to make an appointment, please do contact the office as the teachers would be more than happy to arrange to speak to you over the phone. The partnership between parents and school is so important in supporting our children’s progress. As always, the Learning Launch Pad for next half term, which tells you what your child will be learning, is on Seesaw and can also be found on our website here: https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/academic-excellence/learning-launchpads/

Hopefully, the children will all get an uninterrupted final term before the summer where we can really focus on addressing any gaps and continuing to teach the full curriculum. A detailed end of year report will be sent out in July but, as always, if you want to discuss your child’s progress at any point, please do contact the office to arrange a phone call with the class teacher.

This morning we had our second ‘Star of the Term’ assembly of the year. These are my favourite certificate assemblies because the winners are decided by the children- and what a great decision they all made. Congratulations to all the winners!

We are pleased to say that we are starting some after school clubs again after Easter. With the current restrictions we are limited as to what we can offer and whilst it is far from our usual provision, it is a step in the right direction towards some level of normality. Letters have been sent out to those year groups where we can offer a club.

Today we will be having a covid-secure visit from our good friend ‘The Easter Bunny’. He is coming to drop off his sweet treats for all the children at KS1 and we know he is thrilled that he will manage to see the children this time as last year we only managed to capture him on video in the KS1 woodland due to the first lockdown. There is also an extra treat for all our children courtesy of FOGS who generously gifted every child and staff member with an Easter egg- a huge thank you to them.

COVID SYMPTOMS AND RESULTS REMINDER:
If your child should begin to display symptoms over the weekend, please book them a test and keep me updated using the email: covid@greetlandacademy.org.uk. I will be on call over the Easter weekend in case we do have a positive case and need to notify families of the need to isolate. As it stands, I am not awaiting any test results and am hoping this will remain the case. After the weekend, please do continue to notify us of any positive cases/ isolation periods.

On behalf of all the staff, I would like to wish you all a lovely Easter break and we will see you all on 19th April.

Happy Easter
Mrs Crowther

Birthday Event Special Message:

What a wonderful day we have had! It’s a year today since we closed our doors to most children as a result of the first lockdown and I know that at that time we could never have imagined what this year would bring. One thing we have learnt is how strong we all are as a school community. All of us will have now had a birthday under some form of restrictions and we are so pleased that we have been able to celebrate those missed birthdays in true Greetland style.

It has been a truly remarkable day. From the playground discos in the morning with bubble machines, the visit to KS1 from Twinkle the Bear, the live sing-along Disney session for KS1 and the magician’s performance all on Zoom, the Tik Tok Dance parties at KS2 and the party games enjoyed with our friends at West Vale Academy- the day has been action packed and full of fun and joy.
There are so many people to thank who made this day possible.

Firstly, our wonderful kitchen staff lead by Mrs Thompson. They made the most amazing party lunch and catered for 400 children today. There was also the added bonus of a birthday cake (with sparkler) for every class to enjoy.

To our amazing staff who planned such a fantastic day for our community and who stayed late and arrived extra early to decorate the building – thank you so much. A special mention to Mr Pascall who has been making sure the local media cover this day along with being our resident DJ for the KS2 disco and to Mrs Figura who managed to get us the magician, sing-a-long and Tik Tok parties all for free.
Thank you to our wonderful ‘Friends of Greetland School’ who funded the birthday gift that every child received. We even visited the homes of those children who were isolating to make sure that they still got their birthday gift and cake- we could not have anyone missing out!

Our friends at Baby Ballet were so generous in arranging for our KS1 children to have a surprise visit from Twinkle the Bear- the children loved it! We also received generous donations from Morrisons in Elland and Arc Recruitment and are feeling very lucky, but I must give a special mention to Magic Dan who performed a magic show over Zoom to our KS1 children this afternoon topping off what was already a magical day.

And finally, a huge thank you to the parents. Your generosity and support have really helped to make this day special. We received so many kind donations and we really do appreciate it as we know that this is a difficult time for many. We were also impressed by your dance moves in the playground this morning for our socially distanced, drop-off disco.

We have taken so many images of the fun throughout the day and we will put them all together as a video for each site- these will be shared on Facebook and Seesaw shortly.

Watch out for us on Look North tonight as they asked us to film our celebrations for their Comic Relief coverage and we also featured in the Halifax Evening Courier last night! We have managed to raise £255 through our Just Giving page for Comic Relief which is fantastic.

We really hope your little ones (and not so little ones) have had the most amazing and memorable day today. Happy birthday to all of the Greetland family – let’s hope that in the not-too-distant future, you can all join us also for a big, ‘end of the pandemic’ celebration.

Mrs Crowther

We got through it! I cannot tell you how excited we all are to be opening to all children from Monday. I sent out a letter via email on Wednesday with a reminder of our procedures and start and finish times. This is also on our website (along with an updated version of our risk assessment) so please make sure that you have read it.

Our priority, particularly over the first few days, is to allow the children the space and time to catch up with their friends and teachers, to play games, socialise, celebrate lockdown achievements, and enjoy getting back to a routine. Teachers are busy planning sessions to allow this to happen. We are also planning to hold consultation sessions for parents with their child’s teacher before the Easter break (22^nd and 24^th March for all classes other than 4G parents who will have their sessions on 29^th and 30^th March) so that families can share their child’s experience of learning remotely alongside teachers sharing how their child has settled back into school life. More details around this will follow on Monday.

I know that many parents may be concerned about this current lockdown and the impact that being taught remotely will have had on your children, but our staff are amazing and highly trained and will tailor learning expertly to support all children to progress from their starting points so please do not worry.

This week we marked World Book day in true Greetland fashion. It was wonderful to link up with the children at home to see their costumes, read them a story and see their window decoration competition entries. Congratulations to Amber Rodd, Alice Walker, 2A and 3G who were the worthy winners and well done to everyone who entered. We also hope you enjoyed our ‘Where’s Wally Hunt’ around the village.

Another piece of exciting news- we recognise that we are now pretty much a year into this pandemic and its restrictions and therefore all of us will have had a birthday either under full lockdown or under some form of limitations. For Comic Relief this year (19^th March), we will be holding ‘The Great Greetland Birthday Party’ and will spend the whole day celebrating the birthday that we have missed out on this year with our class bubble. Children and staff will be able to come to school dressed for their ideal party (a sleepover, superheroes, a disco, a football party- it’s up to them). Our staff are busy putting final plans together and a letter will come out shortly with more information including how you can donate to Comic Relief. FOGS have kindly also arranged for each child to receive a ‘birthday gift’ so I would like to say a huge thank you to them. If any of you have any contacts who could help provide decorations for this day (particularly helium balloons) then please get in touch with the school office. Budgets are limited at the moment but we do want to make this day memorable for our children.

I am pleased to announce that Mrs Bakes and Mrs Moran have both had their babies. Mrs Morgan gave birth to little Arlo about a month ago and Mrs Bakes had (not so little) Albie last week. They are all doing well and hope to be able to come into school to visit once restrictions are lifted. They would both like to thank you for the cards and gifts that they received before they left.

Thank you as always for your support over this lockdown period and the kind words of thanks recognising how hard the staff have been working: juggling the demands of teaching both in class whilst also providing remote education is no mean feat and they have all risen to the challenge fantastically. They really are an amazing bunch of people.

Finally, well done to you all- you got through this! Back in January I sent you all this message:

‘What I want to say to you all (parents of children in school and at home) is WELL DONE. Whatever your personal circumstances, we have been blown away with the fantastic job you are all doing. If your child has stayed up late, played too much on their console or not done all their school work……..THAT’S OKAY. We know how much our children are loved and cared for and how they are all kept safe and that is the most important thing at the moment’.

I meant every word of it at the time and still do to this day. We have been blown away with the efforts at home.

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all on Monday morning. 😊

Mrs Crowther

Well, we’ve made it to the end of the half term. Well done to everyone: the staff, children in school, children at home and parents and carers at home who have done such a fantastic job with supporting remote education. As a nation, we are expecting the Prime Minister to announce his plans for coming out of lockdown on Monday 22^nd February. We are all hoping for a return to normal schooling on the 8^th March but if for some reason this does not happen, please do not panic. We will continue to provide all the support we can to those families at home. If we are returning to school on the 8th, as we all hope, then I will communicate the plans with you as soon as possible after the announcement. As you all know by now, we find out what is happening at the same time as you do and so we will need a little time to make sure we have all the measures in place.

What a few weeks we have had since my last message. At school and home, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week. As a school we have always valued the importance of looking after our mental health as well as our physical health and so last week we marked Children’s Mental Health week with lots of fun activities both in school and at home and then ending in Year group zoom assemblies where we could all express ourselves through our choice of outfits.  It was wonderful to see all the children on our Zoom assemblies joining in with this theme as well as the children and staff in school and there were some amazing outfits.

This week saw the return of our popular ‘Well-being Wednesday’. I think everyone has appreciated the time to do activities that don’t involve screen time and ease the pressure of remote education- I have loved seeing what the children got up to on Seesaw.

Our fantastic Learning Mentor, Mrs Simpson, has been busy supporting our families at home and in school. Please do contact her if you feel she could help your child in any way. She has also posted a stone painting project on Seesaw for the children so please do watch out for that. If you could get a stone(s) and paint/colour some positive messages on them, then bring them to school, there will be a box in the office entrance to leave them. (The box will be there Monday 22nd February to Wednesday 24th February). Mrs Simpson will then line them up outside the school wall so that anyone passing can take a positive message who needs one. It would be nice to brighten someone’s day and know you have played a part of it. You can also take one, and then maybe add another when you see one that means something to you. Anyone can do it, so get the whole family involved!

It was so wonderful to join some of our KS1 children who are at home for a virtual cook-along on Wednesday. My son particularly enjoyed eating the banana cheesecake that we made. I will also be attending the KS2 one this afternoon where we are making spring rolls, which The Crowther family will then be having for tea. If you couldn’t make either of the sessions, the recipes are on the Phunky Foods website.

Mr Pascall has been working hard on our remote learning section of the website so that all information is in one place. On there you will find links to emotional and well-being support, links to access our remote learning platforms, advice for parents on supporting home learning and our policy.  https://greetlandacademy.org.uk/parents/remote-education/

You will have all seen the letter that Mrs Ashton put on Seesaw about World Book Day. We could not let lockdown ruin our chances of celebrating this day. The children and staff in school can come in dressed as their favourite book character and those children at home are also encouraged to dress up and will be given the chance to show their costumes on a Zoom assembly. We really are looking forward to the window decorating competition and ‘Where’s Walley Hunt’ around Greetland and don’t forget that the children at home can also opt to join a story session with any one of our teachers in the afternoon.

So it just goes to say that I hope you all have a lovely half term break before we start again on the 22^nd. I am proud every day to lead such a fantastic school with such amazing children and staff and supportive parents. Make sure you all try and take some time for yourselves as I know how challenging the last 6 weeks have been for you all. We have big plans for when we do finally get all the children back in school which I will share with you in due course.

We will get through this together.

Keep safe

Mrs Crowther

4 weeks down!

Firstly, thank you for all the messages I received after the message I sent out on Sunday. It is so important to all of us here that you know what an amazing job you are all doing and how we understand the pressures you are under. I know the news that school will not be back until at least the 8^th March will have added to parents’ worries, but as I said in my message on Sunday, we will get through this together.

This week we held our first trust-wide ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ where we all went screen free for the day. It was lovely to see all the creative things that the children got up to both at home and in school. The staff were also treated to a sweet treat from Roasty Coffee on Monday in recognition of how hard they are all working. Whilst we all still hope for a return to school soon, we now know that we will not be back straight after the holidays with Boris announcing that there will not be a return before the 8^th March.  We will hold another wellbeing Wednesday on 10^th February and we will continue to find ways to make everyone still feel connected to our school. We already have contingency plans in place for World Book Day (4th March) and will send out a letter detailing our plans before we break up.

We have now held daily Zoom meets for the past two weeks and I have managed to join every Key Stage One class for a story. It has been so wonderful to see the children smiling away, clearly so happy to be able to see and speak to us. I have also attended a Zoom assembly for each year group and have had the pleasure of playing such games as – guess the person from the baby photo, a scavenger hunt and an emoji quiz. These sessions are so important to maintain our sense of community whilst we cannot all be together.

We are pleased to announce that as an additional means of keeping everyone safe, our staff will be offered twice-weekly lateral flow tests for COVID-19 starting this Sunday. This is a voluntary scheme that aims to pick up those who are asymptomatic so that they can isolate. We will be taking these tests on a Sunday and Wednesday evening. Please note that where we have a positive test result, as with any positive result, all contacts of that person will be expected to isolate for 10 days. We will notify parents through our text messaging service and then follow this up with a letter via email. Remote learning will be provided for those expected to isolate. There may be some disruption to the remote education offer if a member of staff should subsequently become ill.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for the wonderful emails of support and thanks that we have received over the past 4 weeks. I cannot tell you how much these mean to us all and how they keep us going. We even received 4 hampers for the staffroom from Jovan’s family, which was a very generous gift for all our staff.

Stay safe

Mrs Crowther

As we have come to the end of week 3 of the lockdown and I reflect on my own experience as a parent of two children who are home-schooling at the moment, I wanted to send you all a little message of support. Times are tough at the moment whilst we try to juggle our own jobs, children’s school work and the other pressures that this pandemic brings. There are also lots of rumours in the media about when schools may reopen, which at times are not very helpful. There is enormous pressure on our own mental health and the dark, and rainy/snowy weather hasn’t helped with this. Now, more than ever, we need to support each other to get through this together.

What I want to say to you all (parents of children in school and at home) is WELL DONE. Whatever your personal circumstances, we have been blown away with the fantastic job you are all doing. If your child has stayed up late, played too much on their console or not done all their school work……..THAT’S OKAY. We know how much our children are loved and cared for and how they are all kept safe and that is the most important thing at the moment. We know that we have high expectations here and we have set a lot of work to be done at home. We have to provide this as the government have made it the law this time round. All we ask is that you as a family do your best. If you are only able to do 30 minutes of reading and maths work here and there, that is okay- just let us know. If you want to do all the work we set, that is okay. Please do not let school work put any extra pressure on you when you are also trying to hold down jobs, earn a living and keep your children safe. Everyone’s circumstances are very different and we appreciate that. It is also fine to let your child get the answers wrong. This will help us to give feedback and support where needed and even adapt the work for the next day. If your child does find something hard, they can send a message to their teacher and they will respond as soon as they can to offer some help.

On Wednesday, we will be having a special ‘screen-free day’ both in school and for those children at home and more information about this will come out tomorrow. This day will offer everyone the opportunity to take a well-deserved break from the demands of home-schooling.

Finally, whilst we may not be open to all pupils at the moment, we are still here to offer emotional support to all of our families. If you need support, a chat, a virtual cuppa or even a cry- we are here. Take care, stay safe and remember that we think you are all doing amazing. Keep adding those kilometres to our Trust mountain challenge also as it really does help to get out in the fresh air.

🙂

Mrs Crowther

Well – none of us expected that we would find ourselves in this position once again, but one thing we learnt from the first lockdown is how strong we are as a school community and so we know that we will get through this new lockdown together.
I want to reflect on the last week and what we have all manged to achieve.

With no time at all, we have all had to stop, respond, and adapt to a new way of life; an expectation that at times has felt so far out of reach.

Overnight, we have had to close the school to all pupils other than those who are eligible; prepare and provide a remote home learning package for all and organise new routines for in school and at home. What an achievement!

When I have walked round the school this week, I have been filled with pride as I saw our incredible teachers and support staff successfully adapting to new styles of teaching in and out of the classroom and using technology to its advantage for our home learners. Our fantastic office team have supported our families with any queries and our catering team have not only served hot meals across school and to the other schools we provide food for, but also packed up our own Free School Meal bags for those families most in need. Our wonderful, inspirational children have taken all of this change, yet again, in their stride – our young people, learning at home and at school, are truly a credit to you.

With that said, I can only imagine how overwhelming and stressful this situation is for our parents/carers at home! Having to suddenly alter home routines and juggle own work patterns, whilst trying to support learning for your children, with many households doing this for more than one child, is an enormous ask! My sincere respect goes out to you all: it is no easy feat I’m sure.

Know that you’re doing a fantastic job and that now the first week is over, as we make any final tweaks, things will become second nature soon enough and part of our daily life.

As ever, please do let us know if we can help you in anyway and continue to contact the school for support. Our new Senior Learning Mentor (Mrs Simpson) starts next week and will be able to offer further pastoral support to the children whilst they are at home.

A huge round of applause to you all!
Keep safe,
Mrs Crowther

I cannot believe that we have already completed an entire term! Time certainly does fly when you are having fun.

Firstly, I just want to take a few minutes to reflect on what we have achieved since September:

• We opened the school with robust COVID restrictions.
• We have continued to respond to Health and Safety information and adhered to more and more restrictions to keep ourselves and our community safe.
• We have found ways of using technology to ensure that the children don’t miss out on valuable learning.
• We have delivered exciting learning opportunities for all the children and also supported them emotionally to settle and get back to learning.
• We have found new ways of doing things so that the children don’t miss out and so we can come together as one school community- Zoom assembly, Children in Need, Halloween and Mrs Nash’s special assembly to name but a few.
• We have become published poets (although Covid ruined the chances of this happening in time for Christmas)!
• We managed to deliver a COVID CHRISTMAS that the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed.
• We have carried out online parents’ evenings to ensure that parents’ worries about the effects of the lockdown were eased.
• We have managed a successful bubble system including some hot dinners and breakfast club provision.
• We have welcomed new members of staff ( Mrs Bennett, Mrs Bridgestock, Miss Khan and Miss Cottam) who are all an asset to the team.
• Staff in every role have gone above and beyond and carried out activities that wouldn’t normally fall under their job description- all without complaining – what a team!
• And we have all (children included) been turning up every day with a smile on our faces 🙂

It certainly has been a festive few weeks here at school. Last week we had our annual Christmas Jumper day where the children and staff also got to eat a delicious Christmas dinner- it really was yummy!

That naughty elf also made an appearance again, if only by video. He had ruined Santa’s Christmas Tree in the North Pole and Santa knew that there was only one school who would be able to help him- The Greetland Academy. He sent our children the challenge of using their maths, science and design skills to build him a new tree for his home in Lapland. I am sure you all saw the photographs of the finished trees on Facebook and hope that you managed to vote for your favourite. I can reveal that the winning trees were made by  Reception and Class 4A.

This week our children completed the Reindeer Run for Overgate Hospice dressed in their new reindeer antlers! We cannot thank you enough for your generous donations to such a worthy cause- I know it will make a huge difference to Overgate.

Last week we had a virtual visit from our MAT Executive Team and they were so impressed to hear about everything that has been going on in school since we returned in September.

Today was our first ‘Star of the Term’ assembly of the school year. Unlike other Friday assemblies where the teachers select a deserved child for a certificate, this award is given by the whole class who democratically vote for their star.  Well done to all our winners for this term- I wonder who it will be next term! It was wonderful to hear some of the reasons why the children had been chosen- we really do have such fantastic children here.

A letter has been sent out separately to introduce you all to our new Senior Learning Mentor /Pastoral manager Mrs Simpson. I am sure you will all get to know her in the new year.

I cannot end this message without mentioning the special visitor who came to KS1 this afternoon -Santa himself! Luckily, all headteachers have a personal hotline to the big guy and so I was able to provide him with our full Covid risk assessment to ensure he could still visit us in a safe way. He even got his elves to drop off the children’s gifts three days earlier so that they could be quarantined before we gave them out!

It just goes to say that I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. As you know, tomorrow is a training day for staff and the children will be at home; we will all be returning to school on Monday 4^th January. I can’t wait to hear all about the children’s Christmas celebrations on our return.

Keep safe

Mrs Crowther

Another two busy weeks and we can now finally start the build up to the most magical time of year- Christmas!

Firstly, I would like to share some happy news with you all. Last week, Mrs Read gave birth to a little boy named Albert (Bertie) who will be a much-loved brother for her other two children, Florence and Stanley. I am sure you will all join me in wishing her and her family well and we hope that when things do eventually settle down, she will be able to bring him in for lots of cuddles.

We cannot thank you enough for your support on our Children in Need Day- the children certainly found some very creative ways of breaking the rules. I am pleased to say that they all returned to their normal rule abiding ways on the Monday. Through your generosity we managed to raise £595 ,which is amazing!

Our eagerly anticipated poetry book is now on sale and features the work of all our Greetland community including our parents. A letter has been shared on Seesaw with a link where orders can be placed. The book really is something that we as a school are very proud of and will make a fantastic Christmas gift or keepsake of what has been a very difficult year.

Our nativity has been cast and the Year 1 children are busy with their rehearsals and I, for one, cannot wait of the live screening of their performance. The Christmas tree also arrives in school on Monday evening and every child will have the opportunity to make a decoration to hang. We have decided to place the KS1 tree in the conservatory this year so that parents can see it when they pick up of an evening. We are also planning on doing the Reindeer Run for Overgate again this year and further information about this will follow shortly.

I know some of you may be worried about our annual visit from our special friend who lives the North this year, but worry not! We have managed to speak to Santa and his team of elves and he is fully aware of our risk assessment processes and will still be able to visit Key Stage One albeit socially distanced and he has arranged for the presents to arrive by reindeer three days before so that they can be quarantined before being given to the children.

You will have seen on Seesaw that the children have carried out work based on the NSPCC ‘Speak Out Stay Safe’ learning materials. This package aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and how to recognise signs of abuse; that abuse is never a child’s fault and that they have the right to be safe and where to get help; and the sources of help available to them, including the Childline service. Supporting our children with safeguarding is a key element of our curriculum and the resources provided by the NSPCC helped to deliver such important messages in an age-appropriate manner- even featuring Ant and Dec at one point -or as some children referred to them, ‘those two guys who are in that castle’!

Finally, the wonderful Mrs Nash leaves us today after over 20 years of service to the school. During her time with us she has made such a difference to so many children’s lives and she will be greatly missed. We held a special assembly for her this morning and she has asked me to send out a thank you to you all for your support over the years and for the lovely gifts and messages that she has received.

Have a lovely weekend

🙂 Mrs Crowther

Since we returned to school we have been determined to resume to as much normality as possible whilst keeping everyone safe. These last few weeks have shown how, with a little thought and the use of technology, we can continue to offer a broad and balanced curriculum and encourage parental involvement in school life. This week our Year 5 children took part in a poetry and music workshop lead by our Poet in Residence (Winston) and our new Musician in Residence (Paul Harding). The work they are carrying out in our school is funded by the Elland Cluster and aims to support creative writing through immersion in the arts. I know the children ,and staff, really enjoyed their sessions which were fully risk assessed to allow for them to come into school and perform in front of the children. Whilst I am growing tired of looking at my own face on Zoom, the app has proved invaluable to us as a school. When children are required to isolate, they are able to join our Friday assembly securely and this week one of our amazing teachers , who was required to isolate, taught her class remotely ensuring that their learning wasn’t disrupted. I previously shared that we had started to run two sports clubs for the Year 4 and 5 bubbles- sadly the government have asked for this provision to stop during the current lockdown but this has not stopped us! Mr Bade is going to deliver a club using Zoom- Joe Wicks eat your heart out! We are hoping in the new year to offer online keep fit sessions for all our children. The response to our ‘Mystery Reader’ project has been amazing and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing children excited to hear a story. Thank you so much to those who have already sent in a video for the children to watch. Today is Children In Need day and I’ve been amazed at the ways the children have found to break our uniform rules! It was a tough decision but the prize for the best rule break goes to Peter in 4G, Rocco in 4A and Isaac in 1A. In the interest of democracy, we opened up a vote for the children as to what the staff should do for Children in Need and the winning option was a great choice- watch out for pictures of us all in our finest sleepwear on Facebook! And finally- please do check out our new and improved website. We hope that you find it to be user friendly but if you have any feedback, please do drop me an email. I would like to thank you all for your support with our request for parents to wear face masks at pick up and drop off unless you are exempt. I am so proud of our school community and how we have continued to pull together despite the difficult situation we all find ourselves in.

Have a lovely weekend

🙂 Mrs Crowther

Another great few weeks here: I can’t believe we only have one week left until the half term holiday! Our teachers loved being able to chat to you all about how your child has settled back into school over our new online system. It’s been so great to find new ways of being able to keep the channels of communication open. We have contacted the company about having the ability for more than one parent to log into the chat and I believe they are working on this before the new year. We are thrilled that we have managed to find a way that our Year One children can still perform a nativity that their families can watch (albeit virtually). We could not have had our children (or parents) missing out on this rite of passage. More information as to how we will do this will be communicated with parents in due course. We are keen for parents to be as involved in school life as they possibly can, so watch out for a letter next week about our new, secret ‘mystery reader’ project. The children at our school never cease to amaze me and last week I was faced with yet another example of this. Two girls in Year 5 sent me letters on behalf of the whole school expressing how, whilst they understood that we couldn’t hold one, they were so disappointed that they would miss out on our now infamous Halloween disco. They went on to quote an idea that they had read about in their class text and requested that I allow the children to come to school in their costumes on the last day. I think this is a great idea and we may even been be able to have a little boogie within each classroom. Knowing our staff, I’m sure they will all make an effort with their costumes too. I did say to the girls that I would agree to their request on the understanding that they wrote the letter that went out to parents and I know that you have all recently received their note! We are very proud of them both for showing such ingenuity and I know the rest of the children are so thankful to them for making this possible.

Have a lovely weekend,

🙂 Mrs Crowther

I can’t believe we have already been back a whole month- time certainly does fly when you’re having fun! The children have shown amazing resilience since coming back and have settled in to the new routines extremely well. Our aim is to make school as ‘normal’ as possible for all our children whilst also keeping everyone safe. Whilst we cannot hold assemblies together in the hall, we are using Zoom to hold whole school assemblies both on a Friday to celebrate success and through our monthly church assemblies. The children loved seeing our friends from St Thomas’ on the big screen yesterday. We are also about to start our first couple of after school sports clubs for two year group bubbles with a view to running more (at both sites)over the coming months. We feel it is extremely important to still offer our children a full, broad and balanced curriculum despite the restrictions we have. The poetry that the children have produced over the past few weeks has been outstanding (I’m sure you’ve seen some examples on Seesaw and on our Facebook page) and we will be announcing over the coming month how you can purchase a copy of our published book! On Monday, the leadership team will be joined by several parents for a poetry writing session and the finished poems from this will also be in our final anthology. We will share the video for the parent session on Seesaw next week for anyone else who wants to create a poem and we can still fit parents in if they want to join us over Zoom on Monday (just contact the office). You will have received a letter about an additional (virtual) parents’ evening that we are holding before half term. We felt it was important to have this additional communication with our families given that we are limited to the amount of contact we can have with you all. We also recognise that the last 6 months have not been easy for any of us and that you may still have worries about your children and so this virtual meeting should go some way to help ease any worries you may have and help continue the strong partnership that we have with our parents and carers. You should be able to book your appointment from Monday morning using our usual booking system. Finally, I would like to thank you all for the amazing support you have shown for us as a school- it means a lot to all the staff. I appreciate that with all these changes and new procedures it can be a little confusing but we have found that for our Greetland family, this has not been an issue and we have all pulled together.

Have a lovely weekend (despite the weather!)

🙂 Mrs Crowther