I firmly believe that attending school plays a crucial part in young people’s social development. It is in school that students learn their formal subjects, like maths and English. They also build friendships and learn skills around things like conversation, turn taking and social expectations.

This week our attendance for last year was evaluated, when all the national attendance information for other schools had been collected. It puts the attendance for Greenshaw students in 2024-25 in the top 25% of schools like ours (secondary, non-grammar).

I am really proud that more of our children, statistically, attend our school. This hopefully means they feel happy and safe, and hopefully that they are even enjoying their learning! Thank you to all families for your support and hard work on this – a really impressive achievement. We are not done, but we are going really well and continue to want to get better.

Year 9 sprinting ahead!

The attendance of all of our year groups this year is ahead of their peers nationally. Headteachers can get a weekly update on how, for example, Year 8 students are attending across all of England. We can then compare our attendance with each of our year groups across the country. In every year group the attendance of Greenshaw students is better than their national average. 

In Year 9 our students have the largest positive gap. Year 9 students in Greenshaw are attending better than Year 9 students in other schools by more than 4% – which is a significant margin. On three days this week over 96% of Year 9 students have been present in school. 

Building update

We had a very exciting moment during half term. The phase of demolition of the old school buildings officially ended. Now we have started the new build, with foundations being dug out this week in preparation for the footprint of the larger of the two buildings. 

We are not at the stage of seeing steels rise out of the ground just yet, but I know that you will be interested in knowing about the work. By spring next term we will definitely be seeing the shape of the building, above the white hoarding panels around the site.

Sixth Form Open Evening: 13th November – changes to the timings of the day

Next Thursday we are running our Sixth Form Open Evening. To set up for this, we do need additional set up time. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause for families, but it is unavoidable. We will be opening at the normal time on Friday, and only losing one lesson on Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, timetabled lessons will remain unchanged from our morning registration until the end of period 3. Then all students will have their period 4 lesson at the same time.

Following this, students will return to their tutor bases at 1.20pm before being dismissed by no later than 1.30pm. There will be a light offer for students to get lunch and this will be at the end of the day. We will be encouraging those students requiring a meal to do this during the morning break.

• Year 7 and 8: 1.25pm
• Year 9, 10, 11: 1.30pm

School text service – a reminder

Please do not use the school's text service for questions or replies. Messages sent to this service are not checked regularly and will not receive a response. For a prompt answer to any question, please email your child's tutor or teacher directly – staff email addresses can be found on our website under the CONTACT tab.

Reporting your child's absence

If your child is unable to attend school, please report their absence (before 8.30am) every day they are absent, either by using this form (this is our preferred method), calling the attendance line: 020 8715 1001 option 1 > option 2, or emailing the school on attendance@greenshawhigh.co.uk

Students of the week

Congratulations goes to our stars of the week listed below for maintaining their commitment, focus and sense of drive. Well done to one and all!

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	6th Form
Charlotte	Fran K	Will H	Sam B	Rea	Jakub/Saffi

Mr N House, Headteacher