It was brilliant to sign off the half term this week with a huge act of kindness. The very generous contributions from so many of you to our Harvest Foodbank Collection were fantastic. We have received more donations of dried and tinned foods, drinks and toiletries than ever before, and I am very grateful for your kindness. 

On Wednesday morning, a team of our Sixth Form students loaded crates of donated items onto the school minibus. We took all the donations to the Sutton Food Bank, as well as making up a number of hampers for families. 

Above is an early picture of the first donations on Monday, taken before we had even collected the items from all year groups. You can see more photos in our news story here. One of our five core expectations for our students is ‘Be Considerate’, meaning that we help our students to think of others, and take steps to improve the lives of others. So thank you for supporting our aims to develop the socially rounded individuals that all of us aspire to have in the next generation. 

Uniform

We have noticed that a handful of students are wearing trousers that do not follow our uniform policy. As a reminder, all trousers should be purchased from the school shop, as is outlined on our website here.

If needed, please take the upcoming half-term break to ensure your child's uniform meets Greenshaw's standards. Another of our five expectations is ‘Be Ready to Learn’, and that includes all aspects of preparation for school, including wearing the correct uniform.

Ofsted inspection – an update

Some weeks have passed since the visit from the Ofsted inspection team, and the report will be shared with families and staff during November. I know many of you will be keen to see the finished report as soon as possible (and I am definitely in that group!) so I will share it with you just as soon as it is finalised.

Stars of the Term

Congratulations to our stars of the term who have demonstrated something special in their attitude to their peers, the community or their learning. Well done to each and every one of them.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
Max	Maxine	Tyler	Esther	tbc	Samini

Early closure reminder – Thursday, 14 November from 1:20pm

On the evening of 14th November we will be running our annual Sixth Form Open Evening. This is an event for Year 11 students in Sutton and beyond, that informs them about the subjects we offer and what life in our Sixth Form is like. If you wish to register to attend this event, the link is here. To prepare for this, we will need to set up a large range of subject classrooms and get the site ready so we will teach the first four lessons as normal, then complete afternoon registration and students should leave the site.

Students who are entitled to free school meals will be able to access these at morning break, or after pm registration, so no young person should miss their meal entitlement on that day. Apologies for any inconvenience, but this will allow us to give a really good impression on a day that is important for our recruitment of our next group of Sixth Form students.

Admissions into Year 7 in September 2025

Please remember that if you have a younger child currently in Year 6 at primary school, the deadline to apply for Year 7 entry in September 2025 is 31 October 2024. You must apply via your local home authority.  Any applications submitted after this date will be treated as a late application and will not be considered until after all those applications that were received on time. If you want any more information about applications to Greenshaw, please see the following link to our website for further admissions information: https://www.greenshaw.co.uk/admissions

Support while school is closed

At Greenshaw, we work closely with a variety of agencies including the London Borough of Sutton, volunteer groups and the NHS. Please be aware that our website has many signposts to support agencies in the section ‘Care & Support’ as needed.

As the parent of two secondary aged children (although with the oldest in Year 13 I won’t be able to say that for much longer!), I understand the varying joys and challenges of: supporting homework; getting uniform right; completing homework; and organising the daily school bag… to just name a few things.

This half term at Greenshaw has gone very smoothly, with high attendance, many, many brilliant lessons and more clubs and after-school activities than we have managed before.  So thank you all for your support – we will do it all again when we return on the 11th November.

Mr N House, Headteacher