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